What are companies doing with regards to 'Leadership'

The organisation does a lot to enhance the welfare of their colleagues. They offer many traditional benefits such as a pension, free life assurance, private medical insurance, dental care, optical care, an employee assistance programme, child care voucher scheme, an enhanced service day and unpaid leave package. Ellis Whittam has their own apple trees, colleagues pick their own apples and their committee arranges for those apples to be pressed and bottled. Their home grown organic Ellis Whittam apple juice is then available free of charge for colleagues to drink throughout the winter months. In addition, they have a vegetable patch and produce from it is offered to colleagues with an honesty box. Any funds raised go towards their annual chosen charity. They also organise regular sports competitions including cycle challenges, 'It's a Knockout' and an annual sports day. Taking time out in the fresh air to play and compete together has proven to be hugely successful in enhancing the feeling of wellbeing and morale amongst their colleagues.

The organisation does a lot to enhance the welfare of their colleagues. They offer many traditional benefits such as a pension, free life assurance, private medical insurance, dental care, optical care, an employee assistance programme, child care voucher scheme, an enhanced service day and unpaid leave package. Ellis Whittam has their own apple trees, colleagues pick their own apples and their committee arranges for those apples to be pressed and bottled. Their home grown organic Ellis Whittam apple juice is then available free of charge for colleagues to drink throughout the winter months. In addition, they have a vegetable patch and produce from it is offered to colleagues with an honesty box. Any funds raised go towards their annual chosen charity. They also organise regular sports competitions including cycle challenges, 'It's a Knockout' and an annual sports day. Taking time out in the fresh air to play and compete together has proven to be hugely successful in enhancing the feeling of wellbeing and morale amongst their colleagues.

Being ISO 14001 certified means that Eland have identified elements of their business that impact the environment. They have produced a policy that ensures they meet stringent objectives according to environmental legislation. The management and adherence to this policy is an ongoing process.

Being ISO 14001 certified means that Eland have identified elements of their business that impact the environment. They have produced a policy that ensures they meet stringent objectives according to environmental legislation. The management and adherence to this policy is an ongoing process.

Quarterly company meetings are interspersed with a "department focus" - a particular team or department present back to the business what they do. The most recent was a presentation given by the product team - who talked the business through the process. These regular meetings allow departments to see how they fit together and prompted suggestions in how they could work better with each other. It encouraged thinking about how the company could do things differently. Areas that need attention are discussed, strategies are agreed and they also celebrate their successes.

For the second year in a row, Disruptive had their company boat trip. The whole company went to Henley on Thames where they boarded a boat for a cruise down the river. Food, drink and entertainment was provided - on their return for those who wanted the party to continue (it was only 5pm after all) they were dropped off in Marlow for fish and chips and a pub or too. Great night out and a few sore heads the next day.

Cubic Transportation Systems contribute more than £60,000 to charities including Winston's Wish, Headway, Heavenly Stars, Railway Children and Horley Lions. But they also see our contribution in a different light: they build systems that make living in cities safer and more enjoyable by making public transport easier and more attractive to use. They are the people who devised the Oyster card system. In interviews following the roll-out of the system, one Londoner said that he felt, “..with my Oyster card, I own London...”. Oyster is now a London icon, one of the reasons why so many people love the city. And they do the same in Chicago, New York, LA, San Diego, Brisbane and Miami. Few products or services can be said to have made such a positive difference in peoples' lives.

Cubic Transportation Systems contribute more than £60,000 to charities including Winston's Wish, Headway, Heavenly Stars, Railway Children and Horley Lions. But they also see our contribution in a different light: they build systems that make living in cities safer and more enjoyable by making public transport easier and more attractive to use. They are the people who devised the Oyster card system. In interviews following the roll-out of the system, one Londoner said that he felt, “..with my Oyster card, I own London...”. Oyster is now a London icon, one of the reasons why so many people love the city. And they do the same in Chicago, New York, LA, San Diego, Brisbane and Miami. Few products or services can be said to have made such a positive difference in peoples' lives.

Commercial has run a successful environmental programme for a number of years. It is the first company in its sector to become CarbonNeutral and was declared a Beacon Company for sustainability in 2008. It has successfully reduced waste to landfill by over 90% and normalised carbon emissions by over 70% since 2006. They also have Green Angels, which are a small group of staff from different parts of the business with different levels of seniority who work together for a short time on a project. They are tasked to deliver two things; communication and business transformation. Each Green Angels group selects one commitment as the focus for their activity. One team focused on Eliminate Waste and revamped the internal signage, introduced new recycling bins and added two new recycling streams. They also held a “What a Load of Rubbish Day” which included all staff in seminars, tours and a game to encourage recycling. Following their activity, not only did the level of contamination in recycling bins decrease, but staff also reported much better recycling rates at home.

Commercial has run a successful environmental programme for a number of years. It is the first company in its sector to become CarbonNeutral and was declared a Beacon Company for sustainability in 2008. It has successfully reduced waste to landfill by over 90% and normalised carbon emissions by over 70% since 2006. They also have Green Angels, which are a small group of staff from different parts of the business with different levels of seniority who work together for a short time on a project. They are tasked to deliver two things; communication and business transformation. Each Green Angels group selects one commitment as the focus for their activity. One team focused on Eliminate Waste and revamped the internal signage, introduced new recycling bins and added two new recycling streams. They also held a “What a Load of Rubbish Day” which included all staff in seminars, tours and a game to encourage recycling. Following their activity, not only did the level of contamination in recycling bins decrease, but staff also reported much better recycling rates at home.

The company offers all employees a diverse range of social activities throughout the year including an annual subsidized ski trip, annual charity walk weekend and an international rugby match. They have found that spending time with staff members outside the work place is an excellent opportunity to find out what interests them both socially and professionally and in these relaxed settings they have received very valuable input into how the company, Senior Management Team and individual managers are perceived and the staff are very willing and open to provide feedback on any new company proposals and offer their own ideas for the company to consider. They always value the input of ideas from employees, one particular example was a suggestion to help the company increase its environmental recycling where they implemented a process to recycle all cardboard packing materials received in the Warehouse and Support Office and are now looking to extend this process to all their branches.

In response to feedback received from Managers' during their annual reviews in March 2011 requesting presentations from external speakers; the company engaged with Philip Hesketh, a world renowned motivation speaker to conduct training seminars for all staff. The seminars aimed to energise and motivate staff, build their confidence and enhance their customer service abilities. These were well received by all staff members and feedback was very positive. The leader of the organisation leads the organisation with real passion and drive, believes in quick decision-making and does not shy from making hard choices. His open door policy extends to emails and telephone calls and staff do not shy away from contacting him as they know he will listen and offer fair and direct feedback or advice. He is a people's person and makes each member of staff feel valued and appreciated. He values his good relationship with staff and will always ensure they receive the appreciation of the company for their hard work. At the core of his business style is a non-judgemental broad-minded attitude which is evidenced by his positive focus on and interaction with staff.

Citywire has an open plan office for all staff including senior management, this helps keep communication lines open at all levels of the business and direct feedback is welcomed by the Senior Management Team. The Chairman and CEO hold quarterly "town hall" meetings, where everyone in the company is invited; this keeps the staff up to date on company progress and actively encourages questions from staff. Citywire Improvement Group selects twelve individuals each year and gives them the opportunity to present their ideas to help improve the company. The Citywire Improvement groups have been continued with a further two offsite meetings taking place this year. The people invited are asked to come up with ideas to improve life at Citywire.

Citywire Holdings believe their holistic approach to promoting socially responsible behaviours towards the environment, social justice or local community relations is the most effective thing they do in ‘giving something back'. They have a dedicated ‘in the Community' team formed of employee and senior management representatives who help identify, develop, communicate and support employee participation in a breadth of ‘giving back' opportunities and initiatives. They include schools careers fairs, tea party concerts for the elderly and operating a food bank donation facility. Beneficiaries include local, national and global representatives including the young, the elderly, people in poverty or facing other social and educational challenges, people with disability and victims of natural disaster. They also sponsor every employee who undertakes a charitable fund raising initiative or challenge and actively encourage them to pursue internal promotion and awareness of their cause.

Managers ensure that individuals undergo a company induction which provides a context for an employees' role and impact on the wider organisation. They consider the level of support individuals will need to achieve their tasks and review this regularly asking for feedback on how they feel things are going. Regular informal conversations are held to ensure staff are happy and feeling supported alongside the formal bi-annual performance review process. They also respect employees' life outside of work and encourage home-working where the business can support this. They also consider requests for part-time roles and support these where they can in terms of business need.

As an organisation they undertake staff surveys twice a year as part of their biannual performance review process. At one of their sites an annual staff survey clearly stated that better internal communication was needed. A Comms Group was subsequently created consisting of a diverse range of volunteers from across the site and they have been successfully creating a quarterly newsletter for all of their staff at Nottingham. This is a great way of communicating upcoming events, charity information, recommendations and other areas which might be of interest to staff. It also regularly profiles different partners at the Treatment Centre and has received great feedback from all staff. They also operate an open-door policy for all management including the CEO. Despite being split across a number of sites, they come together every Monday for a video-conference call run by the CEO with contributions invited from all Partners.

All Head Office staff and their partners and children were invited by the company to a day at the Bournemouth Air Show in the Summer of 2011. This included their own viewing area at a top hotel on the West Cliff above Bournemouth seafront, a barbeque and bar/refreshments throughout the day.

Ceuta spread the 'green word' outside by way of communicating and encouraging their people and all their suppliers to be thoughtful about the environment at home as well as at work.

ByBox gives everybody the chance to prove to themselves how good they really could be. It helps them to find and unlock the unique energy that is in all of us but that so many other companies work so hard to stamp-out. At ByBox, it doesn't matter a jot where you came from, how old you are, how you were educated or what you do in your spare time. All that matters is that you have the true desire to be part of something memorable.

ByBox gives everybody the chance to prove to themselves how good they really could be. It helps them to find and unlock the unique energy that is in all of us but that so many other companies work so hard to stamp-out. At ByBox, it doesn't matter a jot where you came from, how old you are, how you were educated or what you do in your spare time. All that matters is that you have the true desire to be part of something memorable.