What are companies doing with regards to 'Leadership'

J N Bentley invests over 1% of annual turnover in employee training and development. In 2014 this totalled over £1.4m. As a company they recognise the importance of building and maintaining a happy and skilled workforce to ensure they are able to readily resource schemes with talented people who can deliver works of a high quality. They work to ensure employees realise their potential and support them in their efforts to achieve their goals. They run their own Apprenticeship Scheme for young people entering the industry, working in partnership with Craven College, Skipton. In 2014, they welcomed 7 new apprentices who have been utilising their new training facilities in Shifnal, learning essential site skills. They have their own in-house development schemes for Civil Engineering, Mechanical & Electricial Engineering and Quantity Surveying for employees that want to learn new skills and responsibilities whilst working towards a professional qualification. Support employees through HE and Professional Qualification. 20 employees are currently working towards a variety of qualifications, including HNC in Civil Engineering, BSc in Civil Engineering/Construction Management/Quantity Surveying, BEng in Electrical and Electronic Engineering and MSc in Geotechnical Engineering. They also support employees who are earmarked to take the next step up or who J N Bentley wants to give additional skills to enable them to fulfil their role to the best of their abilities. This is done through courses like Integral Leadership and ensuring succession plans and suitable talent pools are in place.

J N Bentley invests over 1% of annual turnover in employee training and development. In 2014 this totalled over £1.4m. As a company they recognise the importance of building and maintaining a happy and skilled workforce to ensure they are able to readily resource schemes with talented people who can deliver works of a high quality. They work to ensure employees realise their potential and support them in their efforts to achieve their goals. They run their own Apprenticeship Scheme for young people entering the industry, working in partnership with Craven College, Skipton. In 2014, they welcomed 7 new apprentices who have been utilising their new training facilities in Shifnal, learning essential site skills. They have their own in-house development schemes for Civil Engineering, Mechanical & Electricial Engineering and Quantity Surveying for employees that want to learn new skills and responsibilities whilst working towards a professional qualification. Support employees through HE and Professional Qualification. 20 employees are currently working towards a variety of qualifications, including HNC in Civil Engineering, BSc in Civil Engineering/Construction Management/Quantity Surveying, BEng in Electrical and Electronic Engineering and MSc in Geotechnical Engineering. They also support employees who are earmarked to take the next step up or who J N Bentley wants to give additional skills to enable them to fulfil their role to the best of their abilities. This is done through courses like Integral Leadership and ensuring succession plans and suitable talent pools are in place.

Each year ITC hold a staff party at the end of their financial year and as this year they were celebrating their 40th year, they celebrated in style. ITC paid to transport all their staff to a sailing club on the beach and hosted a Caribbean themed beach party with a live steel band, hog roast, surfboard simulator, authentic rum punch, volleyball and limbo dancing. All food and drink were paid for. As a result of the success of this year's sailing party they have, as a company, committed to next year hosting 'dash for a splash' as a thank you to all of their staff which will be held abroad.

Raving Fans is the most effective and significant process in place for engaging staff in giving and receiving feedback and implementing changes that they would like. The process itself has been changed and adapted based on direct feedback from staff using it to now be a fun, creative, easy and effective feedback and action too. The achievements from Raving Fans are numerous, invaluable and include increased inter-departmental communication, praise and thanks for support, constructive feedback to each other and action taken to improve working practices and processes. Raving Fans has given everyone across the business a voice, the opportunity to listen and to take pro-active action based on feedback from their colleagues, in return to give constructive feedback and praise, creating a win/win for everyone in the company and a much greater sense of team spirit. In addition, there is a bright ideas email address with several managers as recipients. Staff members can email ideas and suggestions at any time, which is reviewed monthly by the senior management team where financial support is required. Where there is no financial approval required managers empower and encourage the ideas and suggestions to be actioned.

Hunter Adams social committee put together a wide range of events with several of them focused solely on the wellbeing of their team. They have entered teams into several 10k races. Their main charity event was a kayaking expedition with a total combined distance of 96 miles. Managers have set their teams pedometer challenges and have organised local hill walking trips. The team also take on personal challenges such as the London Marathon and two of the team have successfully completed the trek up Kilimanjaro. Hunter Adams encourages their team to be fit and active and live healthy lifestyles.

Hunter Adams social committee put together a wide range of events with several of them focused solely on the wellbeing of their team. They have entered teams into several 10k races. Their main charity event was a kayaking expedition with a total combined distance of 96 miles. Managers have set their teams pedometer challenges and have organised local hill walking trips. The team also take on personal challenges such as the London Marathon and two of the team have successfully completed the trek up Kilimanjaro. Hunter Adams encourages their team to be fit and active and live healthy lifestyles.

Griffiths & Armour have always taken a view to not only fund raise for local and national charities but help in the form of volunteering. Their local charity KIND has a Christmas campaign each year to raise funds for Christmas hampers and toys for families in the local community and a number of staff volunteer to help pack those hampers and deliver them to the families in need. Staff members have also taken part in bag packing events in local supermarkets.

Griffiths & Armour have always taken a view to not only fund raise for local and national charities but help in the form of volunteering. Their local charity KIND has a Christmas campaign each year to raise funds for Christmas hampers and toys for families in the local community and a number of staff volunteer to help pack those hampers and deliver them to the families in need. Staff members have also taken part in bag packing events in local supermarkets.

GLH are more than happy to make any necessary adjustment to employees' working hours, conditions and arrangements, including installing a BT line, providing a laptop and network access to support employees with working from home. Again their Second Eleven meetings are important component of this work – employees are invited twice a year to give feedback directly to the Directors. They provide subsidised memberships to sports clubs and have company wide tennis and football teams.

GLH Ltd have two major community investment partners, who they work closely with to develop and run initiatives. At the Archer Academy they provide them with more strategic level support and assist in embedding sustainability into their three year Development Plan. They are also co-creating and delivering a series of thematic learning sessions based on sustainability and stakeholder engagement with this academy. This involved their lead for sustainability sharing her experience of addressing sustainability. Within the last three months they have fully funded the new library and ran an employee engagement campaign to secure hundreds of donated books. GLH are now in the process of establishing a Literature Buddies Scheme. At Totteridge Academy GLH support the on-going development of the John Scott Nature Reserve. This challenging project has seen students, teachers and their employees convert an untamed and unused wilderness area of the school grounds into a thriving eco-system and outdoor learning space, that is accessible to around 3000 students locally. Activities include undertaking a thorough litter pick, mapping and sampling the biodiversity across the seasons, clearing lots of brambles, creating habitats, a pond area and small vegetable growing site, as well as installing benches and tables for learning. Alongside this they run workshops to build students understanding of biodiversity and eco-systems. This project is part of the wider Eco-Mission sustainability education programme, this enables young people to secure the knowledge, experience and skills to become leaders in the emerging sustainable economy, as well as providing employee volunteering opportunities.

Gentoo's Group Chief Executive Peter is a very conceptual thinker and uses this to challenge and inspire those people around him. He regularly asks both his direct team and those in the wider organisation to re-imagine how they work or the services that they offer. He is very good at spotting talent and taking people out of their day job to work on projects or activities. Peter was central to the development of Genie, their product that is neither a mortgage or rental but a brand new way of owning a home without the need for a mortgage or deposit. This has resulted in 86 people to date choosing this as their way of owning their own home in Sunderland. This product was developed by Peter locking a team away for 6 weeks to come up with a solution to the current housing crisis. He has recently been asked to be an ambassador for HRH the Prince of Wales as a reflection of the work that Gentoo have done as a ‘responsible business' and he is focused on making an impact in the next two years that he will have this role.

Gentoo believe in celebrating all of their successes as well as the hard work and dedication of their staff. Each year their Chief Executive hosts their annual Grafta's black tie dinner. This year's event saw 190 of their staff attend and some receive awards from one of nine categories which include the Phoenix Award, the Bright Spark award, the Facilitator Award, the award for Collaboration, an award for Blue Sky Thinking, the Acrobat award, outstanding leadership and the One to Watch award for their up and coming stars. The awards have been designed to inspire the right behaviour in their employees. At the event they also celebrate the academic achievements of colleagues and the long service of colleagues. The Housing sector has faced a very challenging year and like many organisations both within their sector and across the UK in general, Gentoo has had a tough year but they've survived. In fact they've grown, and continue to make a huge difference to the lives of the people who live in their properties. In order to do this Gentoo's staff have given all they've got to deliver their challenging goals. In recognition for this hard work the Groups Chief Executive has given all staff an extra days holiday which is not only to recognise their hard work and commitment but also to improve their art of living by enabling them to spend more time away form work with their family and friends.

The Association holds an annual dinner and all staff are invited to this. It is paid for by the Association and during the evening staff are rewarded with a certificate and financial reward for the five different categories relating to the Association's values. During the evening a special award 'Learner of the Year Award' is presented to an employee who has demonstrated a willingness to learn whether this be through their job, education or training.

Christine Allen, the CEO is a truly inspiring leader who takes the time to get to know all her staff team on a personal level. It is true to say that staff know she genuinely cares and has an interest in what is happening in their families. Chris operates with an open door policy and staff know they can access her should they need to. Chris is very keen for all staff to develop their learning and encourages staff to develop their talents and expand their knowledge. Staff have confidence in the leadership skills of Chris and acknowledge that she steers the 'Forum Ship' allowing them to give their best everyday. In May 2013 Chris received a British Empire Medal in recognition of her tireless work across a wide range of communities.

The most high-profile initiative for fostering their values is their annual team–building and strategy Expo: In 2014, all 235 staff from across Flamingo's 7 offices came together for their global Expo, themed around Intersections (in Istanbul, the City of Intersections). This is by far the most unique and innovative way to reward and recognize employees and the most anticipated event in the Flamingo company calendar. It brings together their global team to share knowledge and achievements, foster relationships between offices and strengthen their distinctive culture. It strongly reflects their company values of connecting culturally providing a common sense of purpose, community and inspiration. Flamingo's key to success in reward and recognition also lies in their focus on the career paths of team members and the creation of a sense of community. Flamingo continue to achieve staff retention rates of 90%+. Employees value the reward of learning including time off to attend inspiring internal talks, overseas learning exchanges as well as budgets to pursue language and learning goals which tie into commercial aims. Flamingo's secondments programme include overseas exchanges as well as to client organisations, marketing communication agencies and charities. A recent innovation has been a quarterly Promotions Board which brings the senior team together to ensure that promotions are timely, fair and well considered . There is a new quarterly Salary Board which ensures consistent and equitable decision making. In September 2014, they launched Total Reward Statements which have had very positive feedback across the whole company.

This summer Flamingo embarked on their annual Expo; following last year's three-day trip to Lake Como in Italy, this year's chosen location was Istanbul. Expos act as a ‘thank you' to their employees for the work they carry out throughout the year, bringing everyone together in a cultural setting far away from the office to socialise and unwind. These meetings communicate the company vision, and the values that help maintain Flamingo's success, both in terms of the work they do for clients, and the company culture they work so hard to nurture and develop. The trips allow employees from across their offices to develop team spirit and lasting business relationships and brings people together as one united group. Their Co-CEOs deliver many of the sessions personally, and this has had a significant impact in enshrining excellence in their daily business, and making this available to all employees at all times.

EMac encourages wellbeing by the Support for Stop Smoking, Free flu jabs a Clean, fresh, light environment which is decorated /painted twice a year and they have Bright furniture.

EMaC is a hands-on highly personal business. The experience delivered to customers is consciously personal. This ethos is reflected by the SMT. The SMT walk the floors and walk the talk. ‘Catching people doing things right' is an approach designed to reaffirm confidence and empowerment. Having grown from 2 to almost 100 people in ten years, the Values are very much part of the business DNA. Deeply embedded into business processes and procedures under the banner of ‘doing the right thing' team members are empowered to act in a way that supports the values and the needs of EMaC's multiple customer layers.

The H&S Forum meets every 6 weeks and includes wellbeing as part of its agenda. Actions that have arisen are improving the environment so that employees can make the most of their break times, sharing information on mental health and well-being as well as promoting seasonal flu jabs which are funded by the organisation.

The H&S Forum meets every 6 weeks and includes wellbeing as part of its agenda. Actions that have arisen are improving the environment so that employees can make the most of their break times, sharing information on mental health and well-being as well as promoting seasonal flu jabs which are funded by the organisation.