The Wellbeing breakfasts, eight per year, are a huge hit with staff. Everyone gets to socialise with colleagues and improve their health and wellbeing! This year the ‘Wellbeing Champions' developed the concept of ‘mind-body link', looking at ‘the energies', raising awareness of the negative effects of stress on people's bodies, recognising that people are human-beings with different personalities, energy levels and interests. Successful new initiatives have been a visit by The Energy Doctor to re-energise lives! Establishment of a weekly yoga group. The ‘No Skills Required' staff choir, recognising positive effects on wellbeing of music and singing. Training ‘Wellbeing Champions' to deliver ‘NHS Health Chats' to motivate colleagues to make small changes to their lifestyles to benefit their long term health. Mental Health Awareness training sessions for Leaders. Following staff feedback the usual Wellbeing Day was transformed into ‘Feed Your Soul Fortnight' with taster Qui-Gong sessions, holistic therapies, wellbeing walks, health talks, ‘Mindfulness' sessions, staff lunch share, a health quiz, culminating in a morning of laughter with the Laughter Clinic! An added benefit was that all staff were allowed time out to attend two sessions during their working day and everyone was given a voucher for an extra hour in bed! Although a simple idea, but probably the most important thing bdht do, is to encourage people to have fun. Furthermore BDHT expect that this is part of the working day. The more they promote fun, the better they perform.

Everyone across the agency impacts on the success of their business, whether cost-savings, improving cash flow or creating award-winning work, so each month individuals can nominate themselves for the Impact of the Month Award. The board short-lists the best nominations, they then present their work to the rest of the company at the first Monday morning meeting of the month. Each member of staff is given a voting sheet with a list of the nominations so that they are all able to vote on a winner of each category. At the following Monday morning meeting the winners of each category are announced, and presented with retail vouchers from one of the Co-Founders. This contributes to the Star of the Month. Each month the Board vote for the Star of the Month. Star of the Month recognises employees from across the agency who have gone “above and beyond “to achieve success at work. At the end of the year, each month's winner's name is placed into the Star of the Year draw to win a chance to work in the international office of an Oriella PR network partner for two weeks. Previous winners have chosen Australia, India and San Francisco.

Brands2Life encourages an open, honest and collaborative agency culture. None of the directors, including the co-founders, have offices. The office is one open plan space which means an open door policy is in place at all times, enabling staff to feel they can approach and collaborate with the co-founders at any time. The co-founders believe that they should lead by example and from the front. They take weekly company meetings, still work on client accounts, participate in company events and always take a vested interest in everyone's careers no matter what level. They hold quarterly review meeting sessions with the Board to enable them to be kept informed about the performance of all staff. In addition to this they also run training sessions and company introductions for all new starters. Both co-founders take the Q&A session with all levels twice a year because they want to hear first-hand from people how they feel about the company. If everyone has had a tough busy month it is not unheard of for them to arrange surprise lunches to thank everyone for their hard work.

They have put together a group which comprises people at all levels within the investment team to focus on the specific development needs of their investment professionals. This group is in the process of consulting directly with all members of the investment team about what they consider to be their individual training needs and the needs of others.

The business is completely transparent in respect of business performance to turnover, margin parameters and targets. When the business has experienced good or exceptional performance, rewards and recognition are given to all staff. For example the business achieved a record month in August and everyone had the attached thank you Rapper style poem from the Directors together with a bottle of Prosecco. The thank you was headed 'Record Month Rapped Up!' in a Rapper style theme and involved a poem. Each one was signed by the Directors with 'Rapper' titles. This type of reward is common place and can vary based on Company performance or to reward individual performance. The one off individual rewards can be anything from spa days, one off bonus payments, theatre tickets and hotel breaks to more public recognition and reward for high sales performance in front of peers with a themed awards ceremony.

Ability Housing continually review how they can support their employees whilst at work. They believe by having and creating a work life balance, their employees will continue to give excellent support and service to their customers. All employees are aware of their health care cash plan as well as the support and advice which can be accessed by their Employee Assistance program. All Managers are empowered to listen and seek feedback and to take appropriate action. In addition as part of AbilityPOSITIVE+ they have set up a Wellbeing group which has enabled them to review their current practises and reward schemes. A Wellbeing group as been set up as part of AbilityPOSITIVE+ to review their current practices and benefits. Recently they enhanced their health plan to include an Employee Assistance Program as well as enhanced gym membership.

This year Updata Infrastructure introduced the Employee Assistance programme which offers a helpline where employees can speak to an experienced counsellor, legal representative or qualified nurse 24 hours per day, 365 days per year. This provides around the clock advice and counselling on matters such as, emotional issues, bereavement, relationships, health concerns, healthy living advice, alcohol/quit smoking advice, debt/money matters and landlord/tenant disputes. Employees also receive access to the Worklife Solutions website where you can gain access to help on a number of topics including: relationships, family, home, bereavement, finances, sickness, disability, retirement, change, workplace conflict, working as an expatriate, work-life balance, stress, nutrition, smoking, drinking, ill health, physical health and healthy heart. The Healthy Living website includes an online health coach, Heath Matters E-Zine and information on an extensive range of health related topics. Employees can set personal fitness goals and track their progress online. Finally, employees can take an online assessment, generating their own ‘Q' score, understanding the impact that their lifestyle is having on their health. There is also an area for line managers providing management tools and advice. In addition to this, the company have launched an income protection scheme, the policy will provide 65% of base salary until the age of 65 should an employee become medically incapable of performing their duties. This takes the stress and worry out of any long term sickness situations for the employee.

Their appraisal process is robust; it encompasses 3 elements: 360 feedback from colleagues and clients, self review and the appraisal meeting with the manager. Embedded into the appraisal process is a ‘training needs analysis' where they identify where gaps exist in employees knowledge/experience and they aim to fill those gaps with recommended training, be it external/internal training courses, mentoring, job shadowing, etc. They have approved and supported most training requests; ranging from short courses, degree courses, right through to MBAs. The appraisal process is focused on enhancing professional development by encouraging all employees to consistently deliver results, capitalise on successes, learn from failures and grow in their position.

Triodos provides a variety of ways to support co-worker well-being. They provide free organic fruit supplied by one of their customers for all co-workers to help themselves. They have a £50p.a. well-being allowance for all co-workers. This can be used towards anything to do with the co-worker's well-being and can be attuned to their interests, for example it has been used for gym membership, massages and bike equipment. They have internal clubs/societies where like minded people can get together and share a passion, such as their book club, craft club and netball club. They have begun lunchtime learning sessions where co-workers can learn a new skill in their lunch break. Their recent lunchtime learning is over an 8 week period -1 hour per week and involves 20 co-workers exploring the 8 Habits of Happiness. This is run by a positive psychologist from the Happy City Initiative. This is the first time such a course has been run at an organisation level so they are pioneering new ground with Happy City. Future planned activities involve learning languages, musical instruments, crafts, and being a DJ! These lunchtime learnings will all be run by their co-workers, who are keen to share their skills.

Throughout the year, many Rooflight staff support charitable events such as Children in Need, The Nasio Trust and Nets for Malaria by organising events that are fun and raise money for the nominated charity. The company will match any funds raised by employees and also sponsor 14 children through their school years at an orphanage in Aligarh, India which they got to know through a relationship with one of their suppliers. They have an environmental policy including movement sensors so that lights are not left on, measuring power consumption, recycling of waste materials and the sustainable sourcing of food.

The two owners are both incredibly hands on and available, even when they have a lots of their own work. They are fun, likeable, fair and encouraging and they work hard and lead by example. They get involved, whether it means getting up at 5am or partying with everyone until 2am. They do not forget their roots and strongly believe that their staff make the company what it is.