What are companies doing with regards to 'Giving Something Back'

Nix Communications offers discounted BUPA health insurance policies to staff after a period of employment of 12 months. Wellbeing is important to NIX for all its staff. Various activities including ‘Tone Up Tuesdays' take place in the office. A member of staff is also a qualified Personal Trainer so she leads the sessions. They also run Lunchtime Fit Clubs. An open and communicative approach is adopted to the mental wellbeing of their employees allowing staff members to talk and discuss any concerns or workload issues to members of the management team, without prejudice. A recent addition to the NIX office, is a Shiatsu Massage Chair, this chair is the real deal and cost several thousand pounds. It is free to use and is positioned in NIX's breakout area, along with all the movies, PS4, Pool Table, Sonos Music, and arcade games machines! They always have music in the office which everyone can change. The company have a fantastic breakout area and encourage people to use this. They also encourage people to be active, providing people with headsets so they are not tied to their desk when on calls.

Nix Communications offers discounted BUPA health insurance policies to staff after a period of employment of 12 months. Wellbeing is important to NIX for all its staff. Various activities including ‘Tone Up Tuesdays' take place in the office. A member of staff is also a qualified Personal Trainer so she leads the sessions. They also run Lunchtime Fit Clubs. An open and communicative approach is adopted to the mental wellbeing of their employees allowing staff members to talk and discuss any concerns or workload issues to members of the management team, without prejudice. A recent addition to the NIX office, is a Shiatsu Massage Chair, this chair is the real deal and cost several thousand pounds. It is free to use and is positioned in NIX's breakout area, along with all the movies, PS4, Pool Table, Sonos Music, and arcade games machines! They always have music in the office which everyone can change. The company have a fantastic breakout area and encourage people to use this. They also encourage people to be active, providing people with headsets so they are not tied to their desk when on calls.

Community forms part of NG Bailey's responsible business strategy ‘One Approach'. Last year the company launched their first charity partnership with Macmillan. Chosen by their employees via a company-wide vote, the aim was to raise £50k within 12 months. Due to the passion, enthusiasm and team spirit, NG Bailey extended the partnership by a further six months to enable employees to continue with their fundraising. By doing this, the company raised almost double its target and enabled teams to break down silos, creating new working relationships within many of their divisions. They have also continued to match funds for other charitable activities that have amounted to £9,560 so far this year. For every person NG Bailey employ they will have helped another two young people to be more successful in their future careers. They've also launched Inspire, their award-winning STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) school engagement programme that aims to engage with over 5,000 young people by 2018. This year the company have engaged with 1,511 (3,007 in total) young people to encourage them to consider a career in engineering. Earlier this year, Cal Bailey the Sustainability Director was invited to join the Business in the Community (BITC) Yorkshire and Humber advisory board. As part of the board, Cal is working with businesses across the region to forge better relationships between business and society and looking at ways UK employers can create fairer opportunities for ex-offenders, disadvantaged young people, homeless and those recovering from addiction via a number of related programmes facilitated by BITC.

NG Bailey utilise opportunities to work with external partners as part of their approach to employee development. The company's educational outreach activities are supported by employees from every level of the organisation, from apprentices to Executive Team Members. Individuals can find themselves undertaking the simplest of tasks, from organising a careers discussion with a class or year group to working as part of a team developing a day of STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) related activities for 300+ students. This challenges them to use their existing management and leadership skills in a very different and unpredictable environment, as well as offering an opportunity to take part in something extremely rewarding. NG Bailey also work with existing clients to carry out “dragons den” type workshops, were they put forward a group from one of their talent programmes to work with clients who are looking for inventive ideas to tackling the problems they are facing in their own businesses. This provides a great opportunity to apply their strategic thinking skills to unusual problems whilst working to tight deadlines in a foreign environment.

New Charter Group are committed to raising awareness of dementia within the community and have therefore adopted Dementia Friends and the Alzheimer's Society as their corporate charities. They have pledged to create as many new Dementia Friends as possible within their local communities by allowing any employee to attend a Dementia Friend awareness session during working time. This is achieved by enabling two colleagues to train as Dementia Friend Champions, allowing them to deliver awareness sessions and create new Dementia Friends. Every employee is entitled to an extra two days leave per year on top of their annual entitlement to give time back to working with charities or community initiatives of their choice. New Charter Group assist adults to help them become work ready and move them into secure paid employment or volunteering by delivering weekly work clubs. This enables New Charter to best support vulnerable individuals who are at risk of homelessness, ex-offenders and/or people who are recovering from addiction. They deliver this employment support in partnership with the local authority's Adult and Community Learning Programme and The Lifeline Project. Lifeline colleagues and volunteers accompany customers to the work club, offering one to one help and support with CV writing, job seeking and overcoming multiple barriers into employment.

New Charter Group are committed to raising awareness of dementia within the community and have therefore adopted Dementia Friends and the Alzheimer's Society as their corporate charities. They have pledged to create as many new Dementia Friends as possible within their local communities by allowing any employee to attend a Dementia Friend awareness session during working time. This is achieved by enabling two colleagues to train as Dementia Friend Champions, allowing them to deliver awareness sessions and create new Dementia Friends. Every employee is entitled to an extra two days leave per year on top of their annual entitlement to give time back to working with charities or community initiatives of their choice. New Charter Group assist adults to help them become work ready and move them into secure paid employment or volunteering by delivering weekly work clubs. This enables New Charter to best support vulnerable individuals who are at risk of homelessness, ex-offenders and/or people who are recovering from addiction. They deliver this employment support in partnership with the local authority's Adult and Community Learning Programme and The Lifeline Project. Lifeline colleagues and volunteers accompany customers to the work club, offering one to one help and support with CV writing, job seeking and overcoming multiple barriers into employment.

Network Telecom encourages cross training, where staff spend time in other departments to see how they interact with the processes in other teams. The company also operates an employee suggestion scheme called 'Motivational Marvin', where high street vouchers are rewarded for the winning ideas/suggestions.

The Senior Management Team is committed to the values of the organisation and communicate this throughout the business. They hold team meetings with staff involvement, listen to employees and hold one to one reviews for constant improvement. They also work long hours to ensure they are accessible. The team lead by example and are very hands on. The CEO engages with staff at all levels and attends both private and business functions. He leads by example, is motivating and always inspiring. He will spend time in various departments getting to know staff and how they work. He will also ensure all new staff are introduced to him personally to make them welcome into the organisation. The CEO is a people person and enjoys engaging and listening to his staff. Employee development is encouraged through personal development plans and one to one reviews. Network Telecom is also accredited Investors in People, which emphasises the company commitment to developing and investing in their staff.

My Home Move's social responsibility scheme, ‘Do the Right Thing' (DTRT), encourages its employees to raise money for the good causes supported by the My Home Move Charitable Trust. Each of the causes support people dealing with the issue of homelessness and are located in the areas in which My Home Move operates. Charity fundraising events take place at least once a month, as well as annual charity events such as the My Home Move Charity Trek, which regularly involves over 40 My Home Move employees giving up their spare time to take on hiking challenges. My Home Move's employees have donated over £43,000 since the launch of DTRT in 2011, which has been raised predominantly through employee events. The company undertake not to discriminate unfairly against any subject of a disclosure on the basis of a conviction or other information revealed, including past addictions or periods of personal uncertainty including being outside of employment or homeless.

My Home Move's social responsibility scheme, ‘Do the Right Thing' (DTRT), encourages its employees to raise money for the good causes supported by the My Home Move Charitable Trust. Each of the causes support people dealing with the issue of homelessness and are located in the areas in which My Home Move operates. Charity fundraising events take place at least once a month, as well as annual charity events such as the My Home Move Charity Trek, which regularly involves over 40 My Home Move employees giving up their spare time to take on hiking challenges. My Home Move's employees have donated over £43,000 since the launch of DTRT in 2011, which has been raised predominantly through employee events. The company undertake not to discriminate unfairly against any subject of a disclosure on the basis of a conviction or other information revealed, including past addictions or periods of personal uncertainty including being outside of employment or homeless.

The overall reward package at Moorhouse is unique because it is completely open and transparent. Salaries are set according to market rates, at the same level for everyone in a grade peer group and are published and available to all staff. Salary rises are awarded to all staff in the grade according to changes in market levels or to specific individuals on promotion to the next grade. New recruits are hired at the same salary as everyone else in their grade peer group. There are four bonus schemes. All employees are eligible for two bonus payments. The first is the Company bonus which incentivises collaboration by rewarding the business performance of Moorhouse. The second is the Personal bonus which recognises individual achievement by rewarding performance against objectives. Two further bonus schemes are in place for eligible staff. The Sales bonus which rewards contributions to business development to those involved in the sale of new client engagements. The Utilisation bonus rewards consultants for billable hours. The policies and processes around the four bonus scheme are published and distributed to all eligible employees. Potential bonus awards are clearly communicated at the start of the financial year so that everyone understands how their contribution will be linked to their reward. Individual eligibility is accessed and communicated at six month intervals through the performance review process. Bonuses are paid every six months, so reward is linked to achievement in a timely manner.

Moorhouse's people are their biggest asset. They are committed to building and nurturing talent, and harnessing their ambition to be the best they can be. They believe that this commitment stands them apart from their competitors. They have introduced a new competency framework based on the Zenger Folkman Extraordinary Leader model. This explains behaviours expected across the competencies for each grade. This complements their grade descriptions and the business metrics. The alignment and ‘common language' of competencies and expected behaviours, grade descriptions and business metrics help them to better develop people and help them understand how to realise their full potential. They offer a comprehensive structured learning and development programme. There is a Manager Development Programme and the Leadership Development Programme. These programmes are based on the Zenger Folkman Extraordinary Performer and Extraordinary Leader frameworks and are at the forefront of non-linear and strengths based development. They work with ‘RADA in Business' and have created a set of courses that take an innovative approach to developing people in areas such as powerful presentations, personal brand, impact and storytelling. The Moorhouse Academy is a programme of structured learning and broad skills development focussed on business fundamentals, managing programmes, industry insight and other consulting skills. It is essential capability development for their people.

money.co.uk offer 3 days' paid leave for team members to volunteer for a charity or organization of their choice. They value community and believe that work should not prevent those who want to, to volunteer for organisations who need help. They have a number of people on the team who are involved in organisations and charities outside of work such as the Brownies Association and Soroptimists International. This policy allows these individuals to get involved with the community and give back to organisations set up to help those most in need. This supportive policy is a sign that they support community and believe that it's important for the team to have interests outside of work. money.co.uk has allocated £2 million to donate to local and national charities this year and all employees are involved in deciding which organisations the donations go to. The team recently voted to collectively sponsor the Young Enterprise's “Learn to Earn” programme. This year Chris has empowered his team further by giving £5,000 to every member of his team to donate to a charity of their choice and so far 48 employees have embraced the opportunity to support an organisation that has special meaning for them.

money.co.uk offer 3 days' paid leave for team members to volunteer for a charity or organization of their choice. They value community and believe that work should not prevent those who want to, to volunteer for organisations who need help. They have a number of people on the team who are involved in organisations and charities outside of work such as the Brownies Association and Soroptimists International. This policy allows these individuals to get involved with the community and give back to organisations set up to help those most in need. This supportive policy is a sign that they support community and believe that it's important for the team to have interests outside of work. money.co.uk has allocated £2 million to donate to local and national charities this year and all employees are involved in deciding which organisations the donations go to. The team recently voted to collectively sponsor the Young Enterprise's “Learn to Earn” programme. This year Chris has empowered his team further by giving £5,000 to every member of his team to donate to a charity of their choice and so far 48 employees have embraced the opportunity to support an organisation that has special meaning for them.

The Møller Centre are committed to the health and wellbeing of their team and have several practices in place designed to support staff wellbeing. They offer onsite workplace massage for all staff at the end of the year. The HR and Training Manager is booked on to the Mental Health First Aid course to offer further support to those suffering with mental health issues. They offer a free counselling service as part of their health care plan and the HR and Training Manager has access to a number of other resources and Counsellor's if required. They have run and will continue to run resilience training. They have run a series of Pilates classes in house. They also include a wellbeing tip in the monthly newsletter, which is always well received. They try to link the message to something topical such as National No Smoking Day, Stress Awareness Day or Mental Health Awareness Day. As above but in addition to this they have run a mental health first aid lite course for Manager's to enable them to spot the signs of mental health issues. Each month the HR and Training Manager also offers an open 2 hour drop in session which is available to all staff to discuss any issues which are personal or work related.

The Møller Centre staff nominated Charity of the Year for 2015/2016 was East Anglian Air Ambulance, which provides Helicopter Emergency Medical Services across the county. During their year of support, they provided various ways for team members to get involved and raise much needed funds. Some of the team joined in with a collection in the local market square. They held a race night and quiz night, inviting staff to join in, have fun and raise money. They encouraged staff to donate money at Christmas for a non-uniform day and donated money in lieu of sending company Christmas cards. They asked for volunteers to take part in running the Cambridge Half Marathon, with other team members supporting on the day. They donated their time and facilities by running an afternoon tea for the EAAA volunteers and had a Euro-themed football sweepstake, again, raising much needed funds. Throughout the year they also sold various merchandise with all proceeds going to EAAA and had collection tins throughout the Centre. During the lead up to the Quiz night they sold EAAA scratchcards, offering some light hearted competition to see who could win the most! They also contributed an amount to the Charity for every Delegate Feedback Questionnaire received at the Centre during the year.

In 2016 Michael Page launched a brand new internal communications strategy, moving from a reactive to a proactive approach. An audit looked at the number of messages being distributed, the channels used and the percentage of messages that pertained to the EVP. As a result, they devised a strategy and implemented new communications channels, including SMS and a brand new Leadership Pack, which is sent monthly to managers of people. These managers are then responsible with sharing the information with their teams. They also increased the use of their creative studio and implemented a quarterly update from the UK MD, which is distributed via the Leadership Pack. Earlier in the year, they provided all employees with branded headphones, giving them the tools they need in order to listen to video and audio communications. They are also launching an internal communications radio show in November 2016, which will showcase real people and real stories from across the business. This will replace wordy communications, which were not previously engaging. They are also planning a campaign to re-introduce PageConnect (Yammer) to the business in 2017, where they will host and signpost to key content. The objective is to increase engagement around important business messages and encourage the use of the platform as a key communication platform.

Michael Page's Talent Development Directors provide phone support and face-to-face coaching to those who need additional help with applying the techniques and approaches. This, alongside the follow-up and support they receive from their directors, is the best way of providing support and embedding the learning. The management development programme extends across 9 months and the managers are encouraged to utilise peer support and share successes. Action points, from each day of training, are recorded in workbooks that the managers also use as reference guides. The company online performance management tool enables managers to record their key actions and development points at any stage in the year and these are reviewed twice yearly as below. Twice a year there is a midyear review in June/July and an annual appraisal in Dec/Jan. This includes reviewing performance against both goals and KPIs as well as behavioural ratings linked to the company's behavioural framework. They provide guidance documents and support on how to develop specific behaviours via a personal development plan.

Merlin run various team building events throughout the year, but the highlight on the Merlin Events Calendar is the annual Cricket Day hosted by the company's very own children's charity Merlin's Magic Wand (MMW) at Chessington World of Adventures Resort (CWOAR). In its 7th year, this event brings together Merlin employees from the company's attractions all over the UK for a day full of fun, food and cricket! Four cricket teams from Merlin take on four teams representing their sponsors and business partners in a titanic battle to take home the coveted trophy, fondly nicknamed ‘the Plastic Plate'. Umpires are dressed in ‘inappropriate costume' and spectators cheer on their favourite teams. The local CWOAR team also puts on an amazing spread of food and drink throughout the day to keep the teams fuelled for all the games of cricket played. As well as a great opportunity to build great team relationships both within employees own team but also with those from other attractions, it's an amazing fundraising opportunity for Merlin employees to ensure even more children will be able to enjoy magical and life-changing spaces. MMW creates hospitals and schools for those with special needs. This year they have raised a staggering £22,000 thanks to the generous contribution and excellent support from all of Merlin's teams, volunteers and suppliers.

Merlin's mission, values and vision are a way of life for everyone in the company. Delivering memorable experiences is at the heart of what they do and their values are reflective of how Merlin employees at all levels work towards delivering those experiences to their customers. Consistency of message and regular reinforcement is given to employees to ensure everyone is working to the same goals. Key points are regularly reinforced by daily team huddles for operational teams, regular team briefs and also through the global quarterly newsletter. The ‘Merlin Way Film Competition' is a great way of keeping the Merlin Way front and centre for staff, as every year they get an opportunity to make a short film that brings to life how they and their team live and breathe the ‘Merlin Way'. The company are now in their fourth year of running this competition and the response has been fabulous, with over 100 entries globally each year.