Pride Powers Performance

Anchor's Leadership Development Programme is well embedded. The organisation also offers tailored leadership solutions consisting of bespoke training. Based on training needs analysis this includes a review of the people profiler, performance management data and conversations with Senior Leadership Team members and business partners. Performance management is based on formal reviews twice a year which are supported with monthly updates. Anchor have also developed simple and fit for purpose tools and processes for Care, Housing and Support Services. Talent review is currently focused in the Leadership Team and Support Service roles including district, home and care Managers. Calibration activity in functional teams has been led by HR to help increase consistency in performance rating application and to identify potential stars and/or successors for the future.

Anchor's Leadership Development Programme is well embedded. The organisation also offers tailored leadership solutions consisting of bespoke training. Based on training needs analysis this includes a review of the people profiler, performance management data and conversations with Senior Leadership Team members and business partners. Performance management is based on formal reviews twice a year which are supported with monthly updates. Anchor have also developed simple and fit for purpose tools and processes for Care, Housing and Support Services. Talent review is currently focused in the Leadership Team and Support Service roles including district, home and care Managers. Calibration activity in functional teams has been led by HR to help increase consistency in performance rating application and to identify potential stars and/or successors for the future.

All employees are financially linked to their department's Return on Sales. This provides a pool of cash for each individual that can then be increased based on other factors, such as Customer Service and Health and Safety. These elements are broken down into smaller measurements, which are then reported to the employees so they can see areas for improvement as a group or individually. There is also comparative information between depots and departments. The scheme actively encourages development of individuals and teams, as well as interdepartmental discussions on developing improvement strategies. Acting safely and responsibly is an integral element of the AFI philosophy and the company will continually seek to improve and revise their processes in order to deliver a safe working environment. They want the families of their employees to know that their family member is safe at work and will arrive home that evening. As a result of this AFI have been accredited with the ROSPA Gold Award for commitment to the health and safety of team members and customers.

AFI invest approximately £200,000 per year into training to ensure that their employees work safely and can develop their careers. The company are averaging over four training days per employee each year and have also introduced a series of e-learning modules so that employees can learn at a time, a place and a pace that suits their needs. AFI have also developed a comprehensive induction programme to prepare new members of staff for working in the industry. Health and safety is a key part of AFI's induction process, so they have added the IOSH Managing Safely programme into their induction as a mandatory requirement for all Senior Managers. This has played a major role in significantly reducing AFI's Accident Frequency Rate, as their accident frequency rate is currently 1.57 per 10,000 working hours, which is industry leading for a "blue collar" industry. The jewel in AFI's crown for employee development is their Training Plus scheme, which supports employees for non-job related training. The focus is on personal development, for example football coaching, foreign languages, skiing, clay pigeon shooting lessons and bible studies. The most common request is driving lessons and the company support about five employees per year with financial assistance for these.

Adviza are currently fundraising for Help for Harry, who is the son of an employee who has Duchene's Muscular Dystrophy. The family need adaptations made to the home to help Harry live there comfortably, so the company have undertaken a number of activities to support this fundraising. Towards the end of 2015 Adviza also set up 'Against the Grain', a furniture upcycling social enterprise to support young people who are NEET. These young people have very limited opportunities for progression and due to low academic achievement and limited basic skills are unable to find work. The organisation's social enterprise employs them on a traineeship where they learn carpentry, upholstery, painting and sewing skills in order to produce beautifully restored furniture. Furthermore, Adviza have recently recruited two prisoners to join their staff team. Whilst finishing their sentence they are working with the organisation on providing support to their fellow prisoners on opportunities for training within the prison, as well as employment and training post release.

The CEO delivers a session on the Adviza Vision and Values at all inductions for new staff. She also telephones five staff each week to find out how they are getting on in their job and listens to any feedback about the organisation. She even sends emails, cards and notes to thank staff for excellent work that demonstrates the organisational values. The CEO and Chair did a roadshow for staff to launch the Adviza five Year Strategic Plan. Other senior staff ensure that they are visible and accessible to all staff. They are very approachable and staff feel able to contact them directly at any time. The CEO and Senior Managers also have a positive relationship with the relevant Trades Union, working with them informally to identify particular issues and consulting through the appropriate committee structure when appropriate.

Having recognised that due to their roles within the business 200 remote workers didn't have access to the company intranet, which contains employee news stories, events, interesting articles and topics, Adactus's marketing team developed a Newsletter which is now emailed to remote employees on a monthly basis. The company's Equality Street Team also meets regularly and is designed to champion equality and diversity within the business. They meet to agree events and to come up with innovative ideas to ensure people are aware of their responsibilities. The events mentioned have included a transgender person coming into the group to discuss their experiences of the process and how friends and colleagues can support them, holding a Cake Stall at the Guide Dogs Open Day, visits to a local Mosque, Coin Counting at Trafford Centre and tenants from projects making Aids Awareness ribbons to sell within the workforce Education packs for a school in Sowetto. To help promote their Equality Street Group and show their support of the LGBT community everyone took part in the Manchester Pride event this year. Adactus had a walking entry made up of 40 employees and their friends and family from across the organisation. To promote the event afterwards a video from the day was play at the CEO briefing sessions, which everyone within the company attends twice a year. Along with this Adactus have the CEO monthly newsletter, voice meetings, Senior Management lunches and employee lunches with the Senior Team. The Asset Management department has a lot of lone workers who the company likes to bring together as much as possible in the form of awaydays, so they can meet with their colleagues, share their experiences and receive communication and updates. The last one was fun based to try and ensure interaction between different trade groups. It even had a sports day theme, with people competing against one another in a range of events.

Adactus has been awarded the Workplace Wellbeing Charter, which was carried out independently by Health@Work and is endorsed by Public Health England. The company holds an annual Health and Wellbeing week, where employees are given the opportunity to attend events such as an Alcohol Awareness Bar, where each employee receives a free ‘mocktail' and is able to sample a selection of non-alcoholic beers and wines, all whilst learning about alcohol consumption. 14% of employees attended the last round of sessions. Developing Resilience Training is recommended for all employees, stress awareness is available for Managers to ensure they appreciate what the triggers and signs of stress might be and even Mental Health awareness training. Yoga courses have been arranged at main offices for all employees to attend, along with Chair Yoga sessions being promoted within work time. Gyms have been installed in the three main offices for all employees to use. Adactus have also introduced a Healthy Living Fund, which gives people the opportunity to apply for funding towards healthy living activities up to a maximum of £100 per annum. These activities might include things like a fishing licence, tennis lessons, gym membership, diet club subscription fees etc. In addition, an Annual Personal Performance Review process and one to one meetings are held regularly so employees can speak to their manager about any areas of concern and also eliminate stress where possible, further emphasising Adactus's commitment to employee wellbeing.

4Com plc's Senior Management Team have been part of the organisation for many years and still like to promote a family feel, despite a continuous increase in its staff base. There is a constant commitment to engagement at all levels and rewarding staff for the contribution towards the success of the business. The business has a culture of 'Excellence at Everything' and there is always the investment of funding or other resource-support for training, research and development, as well as any infrastructure required to do the very best they can. The Best Companies survey acts as a benchmark regarding engagement and wellbeing of staff is at the forefront of everything 4com do. The monthly 'Free Food Friday', company update and staff awards engage staff at all levels and the lunch that follows gives them exposure to senior management. The Chairman and MD Daron Hutt was present at Tough Mudder South West to witness 41 members of his staff tackle the gruelling course for charity, seeing first-hand the camaraderie and all-round effort required to be successful. Every three months a video card is produced and posted to employees and their families detailing the company's achievements over the last quarter, what the next quarter holds and any charity/community updates. This is particularly useful for those remote workers who rarely get the opportunity to attend the 'Free Food Fridays'.

Last year saw the introduction of a free healthy breakfast bar three days a week, where staff can consume juices, smoothies, fruit and even healthy breakfasts. Throughout the year on the remaining two days 4com offer a salad and noodle bar in the Summer and a soup bar in the colder months. These are free of charge to employees and all healthy options. The company also have had a masseur in the office to relieve back and neck problems and improve posture, as well as free flu jabs for office staff and flu jab vouchers for remote workers. More recently, as part of their annual '4Com's Biggest Loser' campaign, they have linked voluntary staff weight loss with money donated to the Foundation. They regularly invite a nutrition and weight loss coach to provide dietary advice to staff members. The latest initiative they have at 4Com is the introduction of a 'Chill Out' area away from the hustle and bustle of the business, where staff can relax in a quiet environment away from the canteen or pool table areas. They are flexible with break times and maintain an open-door management policy to promote communication at all levels. The staff healthcare package includes confidential counselling as required. As a first this year, the telesales staff have received emotional intelligence training from an external specialist to enable them to control their own mind set and resilience more effectively.

The regular All Hands meetings encourage adoption and alignment of the company's mission, vision, values and purpose. Together with teams working on these areas specifically relating to the work they do.

Staff have access to fresh fruit and healthy snacks in both kitchen areas. They also offer ergonomic office furniture and IT equipment to ensure everyone is comfortable in their working space. Yoga and Pilates classes are offered onsite to all staff 3 times a week. The company also has a football team.

All staff use TimeZone, the proprietary timesheeting and project management tool, to record the projects they are working on. This gives the company a real-time overview of everyone's workload, giving managers and the leadership team a good overview of any challenges to work/ life balance. TimeZone is also used to generate all of our project estimates and resource implications, which gives good forward visibility about resource requirements. They use this data to inform freelance and permanent recruitment strategies, and where unusually heavy demands are unavoidable, they offer time off in lieu. Also offered wellbeing benefits such as healthcare, bike-to-work scheme, on-site massage, early finish every pay day and winter flu jab which is taken up by over 70% of staff. They provide fruit, toast and a coffee machine in the kitchens, alongside FairTrade coffee, organic milk and herbal teas.

Annual salary review is linked to individual performance as assessed by appraisal process. The have introduced a comprehensive industry-leading benefits package, and give managers considerable flexibility to celebrate success and recognise staff efforts. They have Payday Friday – a simple but highly effective monthly initiative. On the last Friday of each month, they close the office two hours early, gather the whole company in the meeting space and crack open the beers (and wine) for an informal round-up of agency news. They welcome new starters, toast product launches and bid farewell to people who are moving on. Staff are then free to start the weekend early or to socialise together – which often means over 100 people descending on a local bar or outside space.

YourCash provides all staff with the opportunity to be rewarded and recognised on a monthly basis. The unique approach awards 100% attendance for staff. This reward consists of entering all employees with 100% attendance within that month into a prize draw for a ‘Recognition Award'. An employee is randomly picked to have an additional paid half day holiday in addition to their normal standard holiday entitlement. This reward is announced through an email to the winning employee and to the rest of the company.

The second Wellbeing Event organised by YourCash was held in October 2014 for all employees. The company invited a number of guest speakers from various companies to talk to staff about their wellbeing needs. The event ran over three days with different topics and guests attending each day. The topics included; blood pressure checks, general lifestyle advice, stress management and counselling, nutrition advice, health coaching, holistic health coaching, Confidence with colours advice and belly dancing sessions. Healthy breakfast snacks were available throughout the three day event to all staff. The feedback received from employees regarding this event was very positive. Following on from our Wellbeing Event held in October 2014 the employee feedback gathered was that staff would like to have a series of sessions. Therefore, we engaged the services of a Life and Fitness Coach for a 12 week period earlier this year to provide weekly talks twice a week, on site, on a range of life and fitness issues. The topics covered included: Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner ideas, Goal setting, Desk Exercises, The importance of Protein, Natural Living, Office Nutrition, Stress Management, Positive Thinking, To do Lists, Top Apps, Gadets and Tools, Why Core is important, Why it is important to move while at work, The importance of sleep, The Importance of calories and How to deal with things when they are not going well. Overall feedback received from those employees who attended the sessions was very positive with a number of people deciding to sign up with the coach to continue their fitness and lifestyle programme in their own time.

In June this year YCH took part in a #ChallengeYCH scheme. In support of the charity, Mencap, a 5 day challenge of soil clearing, wall mending, tree cutting, fence erecting and flagstone laying commenced to create a new area for the children and adults who use the centre. Over 30 staff were involved at some stage of the project often working way beyond their contracted hours to ensure the challenge was successfully completed. Mencap have congratulated YCH on having improved the lives of those who attend the centre. The YCH Sports Bursary Scheme has been launched this year to provide funding support for people within our communities who may be excluded from sporting activities for reasons of cost. Potential beneficiaries may include individuals who are wishing to engage in a sporting activity for the first time, or those who are already established within their sport but are hoping to progress to a higher level. The objective of the Bursary Scheme is to provide support to those who are prevented from achieving these objectives, due to their personal financial limitations. Most recently a member of staff has asked members of YCH to support the charity, Young Epilepsy. The staff member has a personal connection to the charity and his request has been fully embraced by the CEO who is personally promoting the work of the charity and selling the charities goods to raise funds. The CEO has selected this this charity for his next marathon.

YCH' commitment to employee development is reflected in the amount of budget allocated to a variety of learning and development activities. Over £280,000 is allocated to professional training, ad hoc training, management development and conferences. Some 707 days were invested in training for the last financial year ranging from ad hoc one day events to degree and master level studies. YCH is in the middle of a 3 year leadership and management training programme which on completion will have seen 48 senior officers and managers attend. The programme modules support the manager's competency framework which aims to align the performance of managers across the company. HR take responsibility for arranging and promoting learning events on a corporate level (i.e. Health and Safety, Equality, Diversity & Inclusion). All training events are evaluated and reported to HR Committee on an annual basis. YCH try to employ a variety of learning methods to be able to engage as many people as possible. The most popular has been the delivery of EDI training by a theatre company.

As a Christian organisation, World Vision UK encourages everyone to live their faith in the workplace and this helps to reflect the values of the organisation. People are free to speak their mind and give clear and accurate feedback. There are 17 senior leaders in the organisation, including The Executive Leadership Team (ELT), and they meet regularly to ensure alignment. All leaders are encouraged to lead an All Staff Devotions at least once a year and the ELT meets together on a weekly basis for a time of prayer and devotion. Directors attend drop-in meetings, along with the CEO, during which staff are invited to ask questions of the Senior Leadership. This encourages transparency in the way the organisation is run and how decisions are made. Each senior leader holds regular team meetings and one-to-ones with their direct reports; operating an open door policy and offering pastoral support for those in their teams. Leaders at World Vision do not ask of others things they are not prepared to do themselves and although some people have more authority and responsibility than others, the culture is not hierarchical.

World Vision UK have a dedicated development programme for new and experienced managers and leaders, that aims to develop and support them in carrying out their roles within the organisation. The programme includes The Leadership Development Programme, which is designed to provide World Vision UK with a cadre of leaders who are aligned, equipped and enthused to deliver their organisational priorities, by consistently living out the company's values and Christian identity against a set of core behaviours. The Motivational Manager is a modular programme developed to support managers, at all levels, to become highly effective people managers and enable them to manage and lead their teams well. People Management Skills Workshop - a number of workshops are provided throughout the year that up-skill new managers in the use of the company's people management systems, and the way we do things, e.g. recruitment and performance management. Coaching: all senior managers are given the opportunity to receive coaching with a qualified external coach. In addition, internal mentoring and/or coaching is available for people managers at all levels. HR Business Partner Meetings: HR Business Partners provide support to all people managers through monthly one-to-one meetings. These meetings provide managers with the opportunity to seek advice, discuss development within their teams and raise any concerns they may have regarding people management. Acting Up & Secondments: when opportunities arise, managers are encouraged to act up into more senior positions and/or take up secondments into roles, which will enable and encourage their personal and professional development.

Workplace Systems Ltd believe the key to communicating the vision is firstly to involve the entire company in the development of the vision in the first instance and secondly to regularly re-enforce the vision with both new starters and existing employees. Consistent with the company culture, Workplace Systems Ltd engaged the entire company in the development of their vision statement and values. They revisit the vision annually to evaluate whether they need to pivot in certain areas; again, feedback from the entire Company is considered when making changes. Workplace Systems Ltd believe the key to communicating the vision is to discuss it regularly and to make it available in multiple media formats. The company communicate it in a number of ways: Face-to-face: the vision statement and values are communicated at offsite company events, at CEO ‘All Hands Briefings' and as a core part of the induction process, on the company intranet: the vision, business plan and values are all available on the intranet (called ‘The Bridge'). Workplace Systems Ltd use other tools, such as TribeHR, to bring the values to life using a recognition/ feedback tool called ‘Kudos', which provides an ongoing opportunity for colleagues to publicly recognise each other's efforts and identify which of the company values those efforts align with by awarding Kudos badges. During the last quarter of 2014 Workplace Systems Ltd held a ‘Values in Action' initiative to promote and recognise the colleagues who had embodied/ delivered the values in the business. These were then promoted via an on-line ‘Values in action' advent calendar.

Workplace Systems Ltd believe the key to communicating the vision is firstly to involve the entire company in the development of the vision in the first instance and secondly to regularly re-enforce the vision with both new starters and existing employees. Consistent with the company culture, Workplace Systems Ltd engaged the entire company in the development of their vision statement and values. They revisit the vision annually to evaluate whether they need to pivot in certain areas; again, feedback from the entire Company is considered when making changes. Workplace Systems Ltd believe the key to communicating the vision is to discuss it regularly and to make it available in multiple media formats. The company communicate it in a number of ways: Face-to-face: the vision statement and values are communicated at offsite company events, at CEO ‘All Hands Briefings' and as a core part of the induction process, on the company intranet: the vision, business plan and values are all available on the intranet (called ‘The Bridge'). Workplace Systems Ltd use other tools, such as TribeHR, to bring the values to life using a recognition/ feedback tool called ‘Kudos', which provides an ongoing opportunity for colleagues to publicly recognise each other's efforts and identify which of the company values those efforts align with by awarding Kudos badges. During the last quarter of 2014 Workplace Systems Ltd held a ‘Values in Action' initiative to promote and recognise the colleagues who had embodied/ delivered the values in the business. These were then promoted via an on-line ‘Values in action' advent calendar.

The senior leadership have increased their visibility through top down communications. Their Chief Executive and the leader of the council deliver regular listening sessions throughout the year. This provides staff with an opportunity to share their views and hear directly from the senior leadership team. In addition each director holds similar sessions and shares key messages with staff based in their directorate.

As the company aren't able to give local pay rises they have implemented an online benefits platform named my rewards. The platform is home to all of their local and national discounts and it helps to make their employees money go further. They reward staff that achieve 100% attendance through their attendance reward scheme. The rewards that are available include quarterly and accumulative cash prize draws, recognition letters and an additional paid leave. In addition the council runs an annual staff recognition award scheme named the 'Confident Council Awards' All nominees for the awards are made by other colleagues within the organisation. They have nine award categories this year that support their core behaviours. The awards are: - Apprentice of the Year - Customer Excellence - Giving Something Back - Innovation and Improvement - Manager of the Year - One Team, One Council - Positive Partnership - Staff Deal Ambassador of the Year – Wellbeing.

Since 2014, every existing and new Whitespacer is given a copy of the ‘You Rule Book'. Written and designed by Whitespacers, it covers the company's mission, vision, aims and values and it received a commendation at the Scottish Design Awards. Topics at the bi-monthly agency wide meeting are regularly linked back to the mission, vision and values and all briefs for any internal project or proposal must evidence how they relate to these three things. The values are embedded in the appraisal and 360-degree feedback process. It's not enough for colleagues just to succeed. It's how they succeed that is collated in feedback. Whitespace share their values with potential new clients upfront, and prior to pitches and tenders, they aim to arrange chemistry meetings to assess potential cultural fit. If Whitespace think a client will require them to work against their core values, regardless of potential financial value, they won't proceed, and they have a poster in the bar meaning even on Friday nights, everyone is reminded they need to ‘work hard and be nice to people'!

Since 2014, every existing and new Whitespacer is given a copy of the ‘You Rule Book'. Written and designed by Whitespacers, it covers the company's mission, vision, aims and values and it received a commendation at the Scottish Design Awards. Topics at the bi-monthly agency wide meeting are regularly linked back to the mission, vision and values and all briefs for any internal project or proposal must evidence how they relate to these three things. The values are embedded in the appraisal and 360-degree feedback process. It's not enough for colleagues just to succeed. It's how they succeed that is collated in feedback. Whitespace share their values with potential new clients upfront, and prior to pitches and tenders, they aim to arrange chemistry meetings to assess potential cultural fit. If Whitespace think a client will require them to work against their core values, regardless of potential financial value, they won't proceed, and they have a poster in the bar meaning even on Friday nights, everyone is reminded they need to ‘work hard and be nice to people'!

The management team at Wessanen UK recognise their responsibility to lead by example, aligning their behaviours and way of working with the company values. Trust is a ‘given'. The management team speak openly, honestly and directly even when the message is difficult; sharing ideas and information at the earliest opportunity; being inclusive and entrusting people with confidentiality. Wessanen UK aim to create an environment for break-through thinking, where people restlessly look for innovative thinking and approaches, seeking out new things; building on ideas; encouraging individuals to put forward new concepts and viewpoints. The company ask direct, challenging questions: encourage curiosity; inspire active participation and they like everyone to question the status quo. Everyone is treated as a unique person. Wessanen UK remember key events (birthday, anniversaries, holidays); people's families and holidays are considerate and the company are flexible about unique needs or circumstances, they provide help and support and listen to and respect what is said. Wessanen UK ensure they give timely recognition from a sincere ‘thank you' to public recognition and awards. The company feel their role is to inspire and motivate everyone to meet challenges head on and to succeed – to be the best they can. Whatever their role, they develop an in-depth knowledge of their internal and external customers so that they can speak with sincerity. The company treat their suppliers as trusted business partners working in mutual collaboration; setting and meeting high expectations, while being swift to respond to questions. Every day Wessanen UK talk proudly about their products, their quality, as well their company's sustainability credentials.

Wessanen UK encourage everyone at their Beaminster and Camberley sites to take part in our local community. At both locations the company have developed strong links with local schools. With Hawley Primary School, (Camberley), Wessanen UK link in with the school curriculum to run a variety of interactive classes for up to 90 children, teaching them about the importance of nutrition and where different foods come from and what they look like. The class where they learnt and tasted the difference between cow, soya, rice and almond milk was hugely successful! At Beaminster, the company regularly visit local schools and colleges to excite pupils about the world of food manufacturing, talking to them about what we do, the roles and types of careers available. Wessanen UK also take part in IGD's (a food and consumer goods-focused research and training charity) annual “Feeding Britain's Future” initiative, helping 16-24 year olds to find careers in food production. Other community initiatives include supporting local farmers by buying fruit for the offices, and taking part in local fairs. Wessanen UK respond to a wide range of requests and fund-raising activities, including the Bridport First Responder Unit, Scouts, and Cancer Research UK - our Company Charity 2015. The company's community reach extends beyond the UK. As a Fairtrade company they support charities work across the world; in particular on tea estates from where the company's raw materials are sourced. Wessanen UK are RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil) accredited and they support three CarbonNeutral projects in Madagascar, India and Brazil, sharing regular updates with employees.

Wellingborough Homes hold Annual Star Awards. At the annual staff away day, there is the Star Awards ceremony. Which is where staff can nominate their colleagues for awards that are chosen by Senior Managers. Some examples of the awards are: Rookie of The Year, Best Team Player and First Responder. All nominees receive a certificate and a congratulations from the leadership team, and the employee with the most nominations within each category, receives a prize at the ceremony during the away day and a photo with the Chief Executive, just like real award ceremonies! This is particularly effective because team member employees as well as managers, can nominate anyone within the Organisation. Plus, having the Executive Management Team presenting the awards at the away day, then shows the most recognition in front of all staff.

Wellingborough Homes hold Annual Star Awards. At the annual staff away day, there is the Star Awards ceremony. Which is where staff can nominate their colleagues for awards that are chosen by Senior Managers. Some examples of the awards are: Rookie of The Year, Best Team Player and First Responder. All nominees receive a certificate and a congratulations from the leadership team, and the employee with the most nominations within each category, receives a prize at the ceremony during the away day and a photo with the Chief Executive, just like real award ceremonies! This is particularly effective because team member employees as well as managers, can nominate anyone within the Organisation. Plus, having the Executive Management Team presenting the awards at the away day, then shows the most recognition in front of all staff.

All new joiners at Weber Shandwick are invited to attend a bi-monthly CEO breakfast which provides a full overview on the company including its history, details on the vision, mission and values, the company future goals, leadership team, clients and global network. The CEO gives all attendees the opportunity to ask any questions they wish. There is a company induction too, where HR take all new joiners through the company's approach to people encompassing Weber Shandwick's learning and development ethos and programmes, appraisals, career paths and how to get career support.

The staff at Weber Shandwick held an off-site panel discussion with all staff, which involved Senior Management attending the event to do a live Q & A and showcase their favorite campaigns. This allowed the Senior Management team to transfer their knowledge and speak to all employees across all the different practices as to why they believed the campaign of their choice was their favorite. With Digital being one of our transformational pillars within the organisation, the company launched the Digital University which all employees are encouraged to attend, allowing employees to stay up to date with current and up and coming digital trends and skills that they can apply to their roles.

WaterAid do a number of different activities as part of Giving Something Back and are currently considering a 'volunteering' day for their staff to get further involved with the local community. The company have a collection annually for the local food bank (this is usually close to Christmas) and many people use their office space to raise funds for their own charities and WaterAid allow the use of their communication channels. They are also part of the Business Improvement District for Vauxhall; this is a group of local businesses who support initiatives to improve the area. The company have recently had a payroll giving day, where they became the first charity to win a platinum award for their management sign up of employees on the scheme. They had 33 of their staff sign up to this on one day. This is a way for staff to contribute to a charity via their salary, under a salary sacrifice scheme, which is tax free. This can be any charity, not just WaterAid.

WaterAid do a number of different activities as part of Giving Something Back and are currently considering a 'volunteering' day for their staff to get further involved with the local community. The company have a collection annually for the local food bank (this is usually close to Christmas) and many people use their office space to raise funds for their own charities and WaterAid allow the use of their communication channels. They are also part of the Business Improvement District for Vauxhall; this is a group of local businesses who support initiatives to improve the area. The company have recently had a payroll giving day, where they became the first charity to win a platinum award for their management sign up of employees on the scheme. They had 33 of their staff sign up to this on one day. This is a way for staff to contribute to a charity via their salary, under a salary sacrifice scheme, which is tax free. This can be any charity, not just WaterAid.

All company staff has free access outside of office hours to the onsite gymnasium, with cardiac, weights and strength machines. Ok, other companies have a gym - but the real innovation at Checkatrade is that they also employ two full time Personal Trainers and every member of staff can have a free Wellness Session in work time every 2 weeks. The take up on gym and nutrition initiative is significant - anecdotal evidence suggests around 80%. Members of staff can chose their own activity at Wellness sessions which include: Personal Training sessions Individual eating plans and nutritional advice Shopping for the right food, Yes the trainer will take staff shopping! Fitness planning and home workout plans Sports injury and general massage Sea swimming sessions .Bike rides Circuits training and regular running sessions. There are Company cricket and football teams, spin classes and self-defence classes. The company have entered running teams into the Chichester Corporate Challenge and regularly organise staff sport challenges. A recent initiative was to open a Common room for employees, free PC and print access, table football, snooker, play station. People use the ‘Hub' for weekly therapeutic craft project evenings and just to relax. It brings people together, and many friendship groups have formed through the gym and the Hub. Mutual support is very strong in the company and doubtless underpins people's wellbeing.

All company staff has free access outside of office hours to the onsite gymnasium, with cardiac, weights and strength machines. Ok, other companies have a gym - but the real innovation at Checkatrade is that they also employ two full time Personal Trainers and every member of staff can have a free Wellness Session in work time every 2 weeks. The take up on gym and nutrition initiative is significant - anecdotal evidence suggests around 80%. Members of staff can chose their own activity at Wellness sessions which include: Personal Training sessions Individual eating plans and nutritional advice Shopping for the right food, Yes the trainer will take staff shopping! Fitness planning and home workout plans Sports injury and general massage Sea swimming sessions .Bike rides Circuits training and regular running sessions. There are Company cricket and football teams, spin classes and self-defence classes. The company have entered running teams into the Chichester Corporate Challenge and regularly organise staff sport challenges. A recent initiative was to open a Common room for employees, free PC and print access, table football, snooker, play station. People use the ‘Hub' for weekly therapeutic craft project evenings and just to relax. It brings people together, and many friendship groups have formed through the gym and the Hub. Mutual support is very strong in the company and doubtless underpins people's wellbeing.

Continual training throughout the year. Regular 1:1 meetings with feedback from MD. Team lunches prior to monthly management meetings. HR support to manage consistency and help managers with employee issues. Development Action Plan in place linked to succession planning including all key position in the Vetoquinol Group . Individual coaching as and when required.

Values are communicated from first interview through to continuous employment. The Achieve More Together quarterly award is a constant reminder of the importance placed on the values. The values are appraised as part of the annual appraisal process. Posters displaying the values are present in all offices and meeting rooms. The company strategy is not only communicated to all employees, but employees are reminded at regular Communication Meetings of progress, updates and reminders.

The company has participation in the Global Corporate Challenge with www.gettheworldmoving.com. Teams of seven from companies globally participate in the 16-week programme. GCC focuses on encouraging people to increase their daily step count from 3,000 steps a day to 10,000 steps per day. There was a marked increase in lunch time walks, weekend hikes and cycling to work over the summer. They have implemented a technology suite which enables extremely easy home working. Employees have a full range of telephony and video conferencing tools (UCOffice, Skype for Business) and webinar facilities (GoToMeeting) to enable them to work together remotely. Their remote access facilities are second to none, with no tokens/cards required, laptops simply link to employees' broadband with a direct link through to Version 1. Microsoft OneDrive and SharePoint tools allow them to share and work together on documents and proposals seamlessly. All of these tools mean that whether an employee is working from home, from a different office or from a hotel, they have the same easy Version 1 technology experience. This considerably reduces stress and time overheads.

The company has participation in the Global Corporate Challenge with www.gettheworldmoving.com. Teams of seven from companies globally participate in the 16-week programme. GCC focuses on encouraging people to increase their daily step count from 3,000 steps a day to 10,000 steps per day. There was a marked increase in lunch time walks, weekend hikes and cycling to work over the summer. They have implemented a technology suite which enables extremely easy home working. Employees have a full range of telephony and video conferencing tools (UCOffice, Skype for Business) and webinar facilities (GoToMeeting) to enable them to work together remotely. Their remote access facilities are second to none, with no tokens/cards required, laptops simply link to employees' broadband with a direct link through to Version 1. Microsoft OneDrive and SharePoint tools allow them to share and work together on documents and proposals seamlessly. All of these tools mean that whether an employee is working from home, from a different office or from a hotel, they have the same easy Version 1 technology experience. This considerably reduces stress and time overheads.

The company are proud to say that over 60% of Senior Management team have been with them for 5 years or more! This is a true testament to belief in retaining and developing their own talent. Manager development begins with an introduction to the company; within their first year they are invited to join one of the bi-annual events with One Thought, this builds on the culture of making sure people are happy and helping them maintain a great state of mind. If they create an environment in which our team feel content and free of stress, everything else slots into place; that's when the magic happens! They hold quarterly succession planning meetings with the General Managers to ensure continuous identification where they need to develop Managers. They offer a library of training courses both internally and externally. In the last year, they have run Master classes to help build the skills and confidence ofmanagers, these have included a Fourth Master Class, Show me the Tools, A day in the Life (2 days training programme).

The company are approached on a regular basis for overnight stays/dinners for charity raffles & prizes. In the past year, they have supported Hospitality Action, Action Against Hunger, Amar International, NSPCC, CRY, Great Ormond Street, UNICEF and The Royal Hospital for Neuro Disability to name but a few. They currently work with Street Smart at Grain Store and Sleep Smart at the hotels; they add £1 to every bill, which in turns goes to the charity. A MacMillan Cancer Day was held at one of the local hairdressers, they happily provided the cocktails and team to serve them! They work with Global Generation at Grain Store and purchase all the edible plants & herbs through them, this is in line with their sustainability policy.

The company's 'Bank of Me' programme started to rollout this year. This one day session is a highly experiential day and is all about reflecting on how much they invest in themselves and what they do that actually withdraws from the ‘Bank of Me'. UKTV has made an ongoing commitment to investing in people as part of their drive towards ensuring they have exceptional people in a brilliant workplace succeeding through incredible relationships. During the session, the facilitators explore how colleagues are managing their emotions when they might find themselves in challenging situations, and this builds on previous Building Incredible Relationships sessions. It's a unique opportunity to be part of a day that draws on the experiences of high performers, including those of Steve Williams OBE and twice Olympic Gold medallist. Colleagues explore what it takes to sustain high performance in business and ensure they're investing enough in themselves on a day-to-day basis to perform at their best and manage their own positive wellbeing. The holistic approach of the day involves elements which help support wellbeing, including tips on diet, sleep and physical exercise.

Earlier this year, every team in the company took part in a team building training session called 'Building Incredible Relationships'. The sessions explored team members preferred styles through Myers Briggs profiles in order to help them better understand themselves, others in their teams and how they worked. With a view to helping people better manage their stress levels and maintain optimal personal performance, the sessions also explored which behaviours, situations or interactions might provoke positive and negative responses in people. It encouraged people to share these with colleagues and helped them identify strategies for maintaining positive personal performance. The sessions also introduced a common language for people to use to help colleagues understand and support colleagues when they responded negatively to behaviour, situations or interactions with others.

Monthly and quarterly financial awards to specific employees for specific achievements (best deal, greatest case study, highest rated deal, best team work etc.).

Monthly and quarterly financial awards to specific employees for specific achievements (best deal, greatest case study, highest rated deal, best team work etc.).

All of the staff at Town and Country Housing Group are familiar with the vision and values of the group, there are posters all around the building and all new starters receive a copy of the vision and values in their induction pack. The values are replicated on mouse mats, calendars and even sweets! that are given to new starters. The values were central to the development of competencies for managers and staff and to the development of the customer experience programme. Living the values is a key theme and links into the company's customer service goals; responding to queries promptly, respecting others, being responsive and taking ownership. The values are also held on the website and are part of the golden thread that links what Town and Country Housing Group do in terms of service delivery to their values. Pride is the first value and the one most people identify with. The Buddies, who mentor new staff, go through the values with them at a face to face meeting. New managers have a delivery plan that stems from the company vision and values and is monitored through the leadership group on a monthly basis. The company's internal training programmes will also be aligned more closely to their values from next year.

All of the staff at Town and Country Housing Group are familiar with the vision and values of the group, there are posters all around the building and all new starters receive a copy of the vision and values in their induction pack. The values are replicated on mouse mats, calendars and even sweets! that are given to new starters. The values were central to the development of competencies for managers and staff and to the development of the customer experience programme. Living the values is a key theme and links into the company's customer service goals; responding to queries promptly, respecting others, being responsive and taking ownership. The values are also held on the website and are part of the golden thread that links what Town and Country Housing Group do in terms of service delivery to their values. Pride is the first value and the one most people identify with. The Buddies, who mentor new staff, go through the values with them at a face to face meeting. New managers have a delivery plan that stems from the company vision and values and is monitored through the leadership group on a monthly basis. The company's internal training programmes will also be aligned more closely to their values from next year.

Senior management are required to adhere to TotalMobile's core 'People Values'. These are 6 behaviours that were identified as being core to the success of the business. The company recognise that while skills are important to the organisation, so too are the behaviours and attitudes that their people exhibit, in every position. The company refer to these as the ‘HOW' in terms of how they achieve their objectives, not just ‘WHAT' they achieve. The 6 values include how: They need smart people with the right attitude, they are all committed to continuous learning and improvement, and they support their people through the performance culture. Reward people for excellence and are socially responsible To reinforce the importance of the values, the Top Team of senior managers took part in a video which promoted the values and explained their importance. Senior managers and staff are measured against adherence to these through the performance review process. Where there are not being exhibited, then an action plan is agreed to address the shortcoming. In addition to this all managers must exhibit separate 'management and leadership values which include: I support staff and manage their performance, I make decisions effectively, I empower staff to come up with solutions to problems, I behave with integrity and treat people fairly and consistently, I treat people with respect and with empathy, I am approachable. Again, these are reviewed during performance reviews and remedial action taken where necessary.

Senior management are required to adhere to TotalMobile's core 'People Values'. These are 6 behaviours that were identified as being core to the success of the business. The company recognise that while skills are important to the organisation, so too are the behaviours and attitudes that their people exhibit, in every position. The company refer to these as the ‘HOW' in terms of how they achieve their objectives, not just ‘WHAT' they achieve. The 6 values include how: They need smart people with the right attitude, they are all committed to continuous learning and improvement, and they support their people through the performance culture. Reward people for excellence and are socially responsible To reinforce the importance of the values, the Top Team of senior managers took part in a video which promoted the values and explained their importance. Senior managers and staff are measured against adherence to these through the performance review process. Where there are not being exhibited, then an action plan is agreed to address the shortcoming. In addition to this all managers must exhibit separate 'management and leadership values which include: I support staff and manage their performance, I make decisions effectively, I empower staff to come up with solutions to problems, I behave with integrity and treat people fairly and consistently, I treat people with respect and with empathy, I am approachable. Again, these are reviewed during performance reviews and remedial action taken where necessary.

In addition to a discretionary annual staff bonus and an additional bonus once an engineer completes their Chartership, the Directors rewarded staff with a unique event to celebrate their 40th Anniversary. All UK staff were taken to the Wyboston Lakes Hotel in Bedfordshire on Thursday and the celebration started with a gala dinner on that night. The next day there were a number of team building exercises followed by a barbeque before the staff headed home for the weekend. This inevitably adds to the high level of engagement within Tony Gee and, in turn, a lower than average staff turnover rate. In a feedback survey after the event, the company received many positive comments including the example below: “Just a little note to thank you for a brilliant get together for the 40th Anniversary celebration. As well as having a lot of fun, I especially enjoyed meeting up with colleagues I deal with on a daily basis, it really has enhanced the working relationship. It's good to be a part of Tony Gee.”

In addition to a discretionary annual staff bonus and an additional bonus once an engineer completes their Chartership, the Directors rewarded staff with a unique event to celebrate their 40th Anniversary. All UK staff were taken to the Wyboston Lakes Hotel in Bedfordshire on Thursday and the celebration started with a gala dinner on that night. The next day there were a number of team building exercises followed by a barbeque before the staff headed home for the weekend. This inevitably adds to the high level of engagement within Tony Gee and, in turn, a lower than average staff turnover rate. In a feedback survey after the event, the company received many positive comments including the example below: “Just a little note to thank you for a brilliant get together for the 40th Anniversary celebration. As well as having a lot of fun, I especially enjoyed meeting up with colleagues I deal with on a daily basis, it really has enhanced the working relationship. It's good to be a part of Tony Gee.”

The company offer site massages for staff and more flexible working options including more home working when needed.

The company have moved to open plan, cross departmental project teams, Friday office bar, flexible working hours.

The company values were created through an exercise at the company-wide conference at the beginning of 2014. The company elicited from staff personal values that were common to the majority of employees and used those as a basis for re-writing their company values. Through inclusion and clear communication, our staff are now able to live the Thomas values through their work. These values formed the basis of the company awards categories, and have been introduced to all performance review templates. The company recently held a 2 day strategy meeting to plan their strategy moving forwards. They have significantly increased their ambitions for the future, changing their target from £50 million to £250 million.

Communication is top of the agenda at Thomas, and they have invested a lot of time and effort in ensuring it is of the highest quality. The monthly forums from the CEO and a guest speaker ensure that every employee is fully aware of what is going on across the business, and offers the opportunity for them to respond to the message. The company encourages cross-functional working as regularly as possible at Thomas. Projects usually involve employees from a variety of departments, ensuring that they are working as one team towards a collective goal, and creating an environment of collaboration. Groups such as the product lifecycle group, a committee focusing on the development of new products, bring representatives from across the business together to encourage innovation and dynamism. The company also hold monthly social events, which recently have included an evening at Windsor race course, paintballing, bowling, and a quiz night. These socials are chosen by employees, and help the company to further foster the team environment.

The company work with their Senior Associates each year who are the talent for the future and each year they decide upon and run a project within the firm which is linked to strategic objectives. It is a great way to develop their leadership and project skills whilst delivering on important employee engagement initiatives. For example in 2013/2014 they ran a campaign called your voice where they held lunch time sessions with the staff without management present and gathered feedback and ideas for improving recognition. These results were presented to the leadership team and many of those ideas have been implemented in 2014/2015.

The company work with their Senior Associates each year who are the talent for the future and each year they decide upon and run a project within the firm which is linked to strategic objectives. It is a great way to develop their leadership and project skills whilst delivering on important employee engagement initiatives. For example in 2013/2014 they ran a campaign called your voice where they held lunch time sessions with the staff without management present and gathered feedback and ideas for improving recognition. These results were presented to the leadership team and many of those ideas have been implemented in 2014/2015.

For many years Think Money Group has been a Platinum payroll giving provider. However, this year the company decided to move away from Charities Aid Foundation to a new scheme administrator, Give All. There are three main advantages: Give All doesn't charge a fee so all donations make it to the charities; Give All operates entirely online and staff can administer their own accounts and, finally, Give All distributes money to charity with 48 hours rather than weeks. To make the move the company have to get staff to sign up to Give All. The company automatically set up their accounts with Give All - all they needed to do is to login, confirm their charities and confirm their donation amounts. 82% of staff did just that - matching the number that donated on the old system. In fact the company asked staff to increase their donations and many did - so they now give more than ever each month. After many years of supporting Seashell Trust in Manchester staff voted for a new local charity this year - Cash For Kids. Through Cash For Kids the company can support deprived children across Greater Manchester.

The company run regular "off sites" for teams in the business. For example, once a quarter the Internal Comms team organises an IT team offsite. This will involve all 100+ members of staff from IT. The event usually takes place in the purpose built auditorium and in the staff restaurant and takes a full afternoon. Typically it includes: Information share - members of various team or project groups will present short updates on their project and share learnings. The company survey staff before the event and ask them to put forward topics that they would like to know more about. They also have non IT speakers, such as the MDs of the business units, who will come and talk about their plans for their business. Ideas generation - the teams will split into groups to brainstorm a particular topic and will then present back Team building - usually some sort of game-based team. The company deliberately engineer the teams to bring together people who don't work together day-to-day. Social, each event ends with beer / wine and pizza being served in the staff restaurant. At the end there is a follow up with another survey to assess the event.

The company encourages employees to participate in charitable events and have a policy for matching employee donations which is well utilised. Staff initiatives have included cycle rides, coffee and cake events, marathon running, movember participation etc. The company have also developed a volunteering policy that encourages staff to take two days paid leave to volunteer in the local community. The CEO is a trustee for the Stevenage Community Trust, a voluntary organisation who raises funds and promotes charitable giving in order to enhance the quality of life of people living in the Stevenage area.

The company encourages employees to participate in charitable events and have a policy for matching employee donations which is well utilised. Staff initiatives have included cycle rides, coffee and cake events, marathon running, movember participation etc. The company have also developed a volunteering policy that encourages staff to take two days paid leave to volunteer in the local community. The CEO is a trustee for the Stevenage Community Trust, a voluntary organisation who raises funds and promotes charitable giving in order to enhance the quality of life of people living in the Stevenage area.

It is one of their annual objectives and it is a standard agenda item at the board meetings. They listen to the feedback from employees on what matters to them. This has resulted in key policies being improved and enhanced working conditions.

Managers hold monthly 1-2-1 meetings with their employees where learning and development is discussed. Employees are able to request financial support for training which will enhance their knowledge and skill set for their role. The company also offer in house training such as the company induction, email management and training specific to roles and divisions in which attendance is mandatory for all employees.

Location swapping between the Leeds, York and Harrogate offices is a very effective practice that the company undertake with their staff. Each month a selection of members from each sales team swap seats with a colleague in a different location for between a day and a week. This system of locations swapping has multiple benefits including; spreading best practice; increasing interaction between teams; challenging the ‘norms' that are created at each location by showing a different way to do something and creating meaningful relationships with colleagues that otherwise would only ever happen on email or at team gatherings. This practice also removes barriers of communication, because staff have worked alongside the people they are talking to, enabling a smoother flow of information. This practice also applies to managers, with members of the account management team working from each of the locations for at least one day per month. This allows the sales team to see/feel/hear what happens with the new customers that they bring on, as well as increasing the flow of feedback to and from the sales team and the account management team.

Location swapping between the Leeds, York and Harrogate offices is a very effective practice that the company undertake with their staff. Each month a selection of members from each sales team swap seats with a colleague in a different location for between a day and a week. This system of locations swapping has multiple benefits including; spreading best practice; increasing interaction between teams; challenging the ‘norms' that are created at each location by showing a different way to do something and creating meaningful relationships with colleagues that otherwise would only ever happen on email or at team gatherings. This practice also removes barriers of communication, because staff have worked alongside the people they are talking to, enabling a smoother flow of information. This practice also applies to managers, with members of the account management team working from each of the locations for at least one day per month. This allows the sales team to see/feel/hear what happens with the new customers that they bring on, as well as increasing the flow of feedback to and from the sales team and the account management team.

As well as the initiative details in section 5.5 the Company offers free fruit in logistics and head office, there are health checks available through local council gyms and we provide prostate and breast screening to employees in their 40s who would not qualify for NHS screening. Company walks are an opportunity for people to exercise in work time. The onsite restaurant cooks healthy meals every day with calorie count and fat content published so that people can make informed choices.

As well as the initiative details in section 5.5 the Company offers free fruit in logistics and head office, there are health checks available through local council gyms and we provide prostate and breast screening to employees in their 40s who would not qualify for NHS screening. Company walks are an opportunity for people to exercise in work time. The onsite restaurant cooks healthy meals every day with calorie count and fat content published so that people can make informed choices.

From a senior management perspective the company works as a leadership team with an external coach to focus the team on key objectives and outcomes, as well as personal development in the role. Having an external professional coach assists in keeping the leadership team objectively driven and focused. Practically, it provides necessary tools, resources and techniques to enhance communication among senior managers and train managers in how to be continuously development and get the best out of their team. Senior managers also have the opportunity to work one to one with a business development and personal development coach to enhance their own personal development and leadership roles.

Team ‘Speed Dating' is a regular activity taking place once a quarter. Each team member gets involved and is randomly given a number and matched with someone they would not usually work with day to day. The company then takes a team of 5 ‘couple's and then each couple are given topics to discuss. Sharing insights about their; favourite places to visit in the world, aspirations, big idea, big dream and one fact that no one would know about them. Friday 4.30 Fun: On Fridays the company officially close the office an hour earlier to have some team fun. It's not about leaving early on a Friday but rather about team building. Each week one department is responsible for ensuring the whole team get together to interact, engage and get to know one another. The fun activity can be anything, as long as it brings teams together. Activities covered show the range of fun: The Egg Challenge, Salt & Pepper, where people have to blindly find their perfect pairing to find their team, Silly ‘It's a Knockout' type office activities, a quiz and softball in the park. The company buys beers / wine / nibbles for these events. Tuesday Team Lunch: Each Tuesday one department is responsible for organising lunch for the whole team. The entire team then dines together it's a great way of bringing people together and a great way for teams to do something nice for fellow colleagues.

The whole reward and recognition package at Havebury includes a wide range of benefits. These are written up in an A-Z guide so that everyone is clear on what is provided. In addition to flexitime, these included: above average holiday allowance (26 days excluding Bank Holidays, with an additional 4 days for 5 years of service); the facility to buy or sell days holiday (up to 5 days per year) to enable more flexible management of time off work; cashback scheme through Havebury Saver within a wide range of stores, enabling staff to make savings of up to £1,000 per year and to maximise their income/salary; Simplyhealth health insurance scheme (which includes an employee assistance scheme, access to face to face counselling sessions and health screening); flu vaccinations available on a voluntary basis to all staff to reduce the risk/exposure to flu related absence; reduced membership to local gyms to encourage wellbeing and healthier living; lone worker scheme (through a pendant that dials a support number for employees while they're at work or carrying out work related duties); occupational health reviews as needed; social events fund; and 3-6 month sabbaticals after 5 years of service enabling staff to take a sabbatical.

The whole reward and recognition package at Havebury includes a wide range of benefits. These are written up in an A-Z guide so that everyone is clear on what is provided. In addition to flexitime, these included: above average holiday allowance (26 days excluding Bank Holidays, with an additional 4 days for 5 years of service); the facility to buy or sell days holiday (up to 5 days per year) to enable more flexible management of time off work; cashback scheme through Havebury Saver within a wide range of stores, enabling staff to make savings of up to £1,000 per year and to maximise their income/salary; Simplyhealth health insurance scheme (which includes an employee assistance scheme, access to face to face counselling sessions and health screening); flu vaccinations available on a voluntary basis to all staff to reduce the risk/exposure to flu related absence; reduced membership to local gyms to encourage wellbeing and healthier living; lone worker scheme (through a pendant that dials a support number for employees while they're at work or carrying out work related duties); occupational health reviews as needed; social events fund; and 3-6 month sabbaticals after 5 years of service enabling staff to take a sabbatical.

The Company actively tries to work on promoting the idea of the company as a family. They look to build a strong sense of belonging to their family within their employees. This is evidenced by a wide number and variety of social events and parties they arrange for employees, and they take significant groups of employees to prestigious restaurants and bars. Small early gifts at the outset of employment also enhance this. For example, they often treat a manager to dinner, or buy them a bottle of champagne once they have completed an early milestone like the successful management of a client event.

The organisation work with a company called Lifetime Training, to offer their employees NVQ equivalent training in management and catering roles. This is available to anyone without prior higher education qualifications, and who has lived in the European Union for the last three years. There are strong opportunities for employees to grow and develop with The Good Eating Company. When recruiting they look for general assistants with the potential to become supervisors, supervisors with the potential to become managers and managers with the potential to become operations managers. Many of their most successful employees started work with them at a junior level. Their Head of Operations, and the three Operations Managers all started working for the company as general café assistants.

The organisation has an exceptional achievement award programme. Employees who are nominated for this receive a personal letter from the Chief Executive, and awarded either a bonus, vouchers or a weekend away. There is no limit how many times an individual can be nominated.

Their Community & Charity Committee sponsor a nominated charity which is voted for by employees. In 2015 they supported Rainbow Living which is a charity which supports adults with disabilities, mainly learning disability and their families by providing accommodation so that young and older adults with disabilities can live with peers, often moving out of the family home and into supported living. There are currently 2 houses, 1 in Exeter and 1 in Torquay, and they are helping to raise funds for a 3rd house in Exeter. They've supported Rainbow Living by attending a fashion show at John Lewis, baking cakes for sale, dress down days, a charity cycle ride of 72 miles, running a tuck shop, helping shoppers with their grocery packing in Sainsbury's and a car boot sale.

The BIO Agency has an office dog called Philip. Research has shown that having a dog in the workplace reduces stress and this is certainly the case at The BIO Agency. Philip is a well-loved member of the team and provides an opportunity to de-stress during times of pressure. They offer some really nice perks, like a gourmet breakfast delivery once a week for the whole agency and personalised Hummingbird Bakery cakes on birthdays. After work the breakout space turns into a cocktail bar with one of the employees mixing a menu of freshly made cocktails. This boosts interaction and is a positive and rewarding way to end the working week.

The BIO Agency have regular offsite company meetings which involve breakout groups, feedback sessions and presenting back great and inspiring work to the company. They recently launched BIO DIVERSITY – an initiative to increase internal sharing and collaboration through lunchtime sessions putting a spotlight on different areas of the business. All of their employees have been trained in the last six months in Agile and Scrum methodologies, which ensures everyone at The BIO Agency is aligned and working in the most collaborative way.

At Bernicia they really value staff and created the Bernicia Staff Awards to recognise some of the brilliant work they know goes on every day, reflecting the determination, dedication and professionalism of the staff with over 40 staff nominated from across the business: Going the extra mile – someone who doesn't just do what's required and is willing to go the extra mile; someone who is proactive and takes things to the next level without being asked. Inspirational Colleague –regularly inspires others with their positive and enthusiastic attitude in the workplace. Best Team/Campaign – delivering something innovative that has improved quality, performance, efficiency, services or the work environment. Rising Star – recognising potential - someone showing promise and talent, an inspirational leader of the future.

At Bernicia they really value staff and created the Bernicia Staff Awards to recognise some of the brilliant work they know goes on every day, reflecting the determination, dedication and professionalism of the staff with over 40 staff nominated from across the business: Going the extra mile – someone who doesn't just do what's required and is willing to go the extra mile; someone who is proactive and takes things to the next level without being asked. Inspirational Colleague –regularly inspires others with their positive and enthusiastic attitude in the workplace. Best Team/Campaign – delivering something innovative that has improved quality, performance, efficiency, services or the work environment. Rising Star – recognising potential - someone showing promise and talent, an inspirational leader of the future.

Last year the company engaged an external consultant to work with the Senior Management team, alongside the rest of the company, to participate in various workshops. This allowed the company to take a step back and re-evaluate the previous values of the company, reworking them into 7 new TAB Principles which can be applied to daily life at TAB. Since then, the Senior Management team has embedded these core TAB Principles into the following processes; -Interview assessment to ensure all potential hires can demonstrate their adherence to company values; -On-boarding sessions focused solely on TAB Principles from one of the Founders within the first 3 months at the business; -To help articulate feedback at the end of probation periods, and use this as a guidance for highlighting improvement needs; -Guidance for ways of working in the daily work of Senior Management team members; -During retrospective sessions with clients to ensure the team builds on delivery and continuous improvements; -In the weekly Senior Management meetings to steer decision-making and problem solving; -End of year annual reviews where salary reviews are based upon fulfilling these principles.

Last year the company engaged an external consultant to work with the Senior Management team, alongside the rest of the company, to participate in various workshops. This allowed the company to take a step back and re-evaluate the previous values of the company, reworking them into 7 new TAB Principles which can be applied to daily life at TAB. Since then, the Senior Management team has embedded these core TAB Principles into the following processes; -Interview assessment to ensure all potential hires can demonstrate their adherence to company values; -On-boarding sessions focused solely on TAB Principles from one of the Founders within the first 3 months at the business; -To help articulate feedback at the end of probation periods, and use this as a guidance for highlighting improvement needs; -Guidance for ways of working in the daily work of Senior Management team members; -During retrospective sessions with clients to ensure the team builds on delivery and continuous improvements; -In the weekly Senior Management meetings to steer decision-making and problem solving; -End of year annual reviews where salary reviews are based upon fulfilling these principles.

At Texthelp they believe it is desirable to have rounded individuals who have an active and interesting life outside work. The personal development policy feeds into that by encouraging the development of new non-work related skills and talents. The company have two kitchens which are stocked with fresh healthy food twice per week. This is provided free of charge by Texthelp and is available to all staff. Staff are encouraged to eat healthily and live an active life. Additionally each year Texthelp works with a pharmacy to provide free health checks for all staff along with an option to receive the flu vaccination.

At Texthelp they believe it is desirable to have rounded individuals who have an active and interesting life outside work. The personal development policy feeds into that by encouraging the development of new non-work related skills and talents. The company have two kitchens which are stocked with fresh healthy food twice per week. This is provided free of charge by Texthelp and is available to all staff. Staff are encouraged to eat healthily and live an active life. Additionally each year Texthelp works with a pharmacy to provide free health checks for all staff along with an option to receive the flu vaccination.

The company is happy to try new work patterns to accommodate people's requests, which helps enormously with the stresses of the work/life balance. The company ensures employees have the necessary IT infrastructure and support to allow them to work remotely. They are as flexible as they possibly can be without compromising the quality of their service or work. To encourage people to choose healthier alternatives to the cakes and sweets which usually feature in the kitchen several times throughout the week, Tectrade has a weekly fruit delivery which everyone is invited to enjoy as well as jars of nuts as an alternative to the sweet options.

The company is happy to try new work patterns to accommodate people's requests, which helps enormously with the stresses of the work/life balance. The company ensures employees have the necessary IT infrastructure and support to allow them to work remotely. They are as flexible as they possibly can be without compromising the quality of their service or work. To encourage people to choose healthier alternatives to the cakes and sweets which usually feature in the kitchen several times throughout the week, Tectrade has a weekly fruit delivery which everyone is invited to enjoy as well as jars of nuts as an alternative to the sweet options.

Technetix host work experience pupils from schools in the local area. Pupils spend a week within a department of their choice, learning about careers in the industry and gaining insight into real-world environments.

The company offer the opportunity to grow and develop within the Company. Further learning is supported financially and with paid study time off.

At Teach First they have a community of past participants who have been on the Teach First Leadership programme. They organise and stay constantly in touch with the past participants who become ambassadors for Teach First in the community raising awareness of the company's mission and values. Many ambassadors go on to start entrepreneurial charities and initiatives which outreach in to local communities and across the Teach First network.

Teach First has an Agile Working culture whereby employees can be flexible about their working environment and the hours that they work whilst prioritising the delivery of their objectives. The policy boosts interaction and communication between teams as employees essentially 'hot desk' around the building. Teach First organises regular socials and check-ins which allow employees to communicate, interact and socialise within their division.They also operate an org-wide intranet, community Website and various newsletters to keep employees up to date.

Regular individual Manager/Director meetings. Review of Business unit performance. Analysis of relative strengths and weaknesses, review of additional resource and training needs identified to enhance management skills. Ongoing review of Managers immediate and long term aspirations and identification of a pathway to ensure that these are attainable within the business model.

10% of all gross profit growth is awarded to branch teams at the end of the year in the form of a cash bonus (this is in addition to the mainstream monthly bonus awards).

It is not necessarily innovative but the company's CEO lives and breathes the core values and leads by example in his interactions with all employees. There is a giant poster in their office displaying the values and the company send a postcard of the same design to all new starters before they join.

The company take time to recruit employees who they feel will thrive in their fast-paced business and gain many benefits from it. In return, they devolve responsibility very quickly and support employee's development as they grow in their roles and take on new tasks. The company have taken a decision as a business not to follow a formal development process. Instead they coach employees day-to-day and allow them to move around the business taking on different roles to expand their skillsets and flourish in areas they enjoy. There is an internship programme through which the company found some of their most long-standing employees, including the very first! The company also run an entrepreneur programme for employees who want to go on to develop an area of the business. Examples include an employee who has created and launched their very first made-to-order sofa business; another who is in the process of launching a mattress offering in partnership with boutique hotel brand Mr and Mrs Smith; and an employee who joined to set up a Designer Platform which allows the company to support up and coming designers. There is also a Training and Development budget available for employee-directed learning. Examples of where this has been used include language lessons for employees working abroad and support enabling the CEO and CFO to join the LSE's Elite Programme.

The company provide English language classes for the Housekeeping department.

The company provide English language classes for the Housekeeping department.

In addition to pay reviews, bonus and commission schemes there is a staff reward system called Sky High. Sky High is a scheme that enables individuals to nominate colleagues for making an over and above contribution. One of their core values is Collaborate to Comp(l)ete and this scheme supports this value by enabling employees to nominate colleagues for recognition as a result of an over-and-above contribution, rewarded by vouchers in their local currency. On top of this, every quarter one of those individuals nominated for a SkyHigh award is chosen as the overall winner of the “SkyHigh Quarterly Award” and receives a cash prize.

In addition to pay reviews, bonus and commission schemes there is a staff reward system called Sky High. Sky High is a scheme that enables individuals to nominate colleagues for making an over and above contribution. One of their core values is Collaborate to Comp(l)ete and this scheme supports this value by enabling employees to nominate colleagues for recognition as a result of an over-and-above contribution, rewarded by vouchers in their local currency. On top of this, every quarter one of those individuals nominated for a SkyHigh award is chosen as the overall winner of the “SkyHigh Quarterly Award” and receives a cash prize.

The company hold regular charity events that get everyone at SilverDoor involved. One of which, their annual sports day, is held at a local cricket club and, this year, was attended by more than 80% of employees. The day included a mixture of team games, relay races and other classic sports day events. They even rented a 115ft inflatable obstacle course and put on a BBQ that encouraged higher donations. The annual boys vs. girls netball game is another date in the SilverDoor calendar that everyone looks forward to each summer. The company also host quarterly SilverDoor Parties for all staff at the office in Chiswick. The company supplies food and drink for the evening and members of the SilverDoor Academy organise pool, darts and table football tournaments. The company's Marketing department put together quarterly internal mail outs ‘Inside SilverDoor' which contain all the latest goings-on in the company, industry gossip and highlights from the previous three months. There's also a section, ‘SilverDoor Recognised', which allows managers to acknowledge employees with exceptional performance.

The company have two 5-a-side football teams and a netball team that are free for all staff to join. They also offer discounted memberships at Virgin Active and Fitness First Gyms which is available to all staff. SilverDoor provides on-site shower facilities that staff are able to use after attending the gym or cycling into work. Employees can join the cycle to work scheme which allows them to purchase a bike using a company interest free loan which they are then able to pay back monthly over the following year.

The company recently created a new breakout area for all staff to use. ‘Our House' incorporating ‘The Lounge' is a space for everyone to relax and unwind during their lunch break. It is a relaxed and inviting area, with the opportunity to catch up on some daytime TV or to share a game of pool or table tennis with their colleagues. This room can also be used as an informal relaxed meeting room. This is something that the company have introduced to help enhance the wellbeing of their employees. They have also installed subsidised vending machines containing healthy snacks along with better coffee machines. The company offer subsidised eye tests for all staff and free hearing tests for those employees who are exposed to a noisy working environment. They try to accommodate flexible working hours where possible and have offered for some office based employees the option to work from home. The company offer a fully expensed company car for the sales executives, which includes funding fuel for both work and personal use.

Instead of sending Christmas cards the company usually donate money to a local charity or supply a gift to a local women's refuge. They also have a Christmas raffle and any money raised from this goes to a local charity which is chosen by the staff. The company is a major contributor to Whizz Kidz and they are now in the process of setting up their own charity, "The Arnold Haase Charitable Trust", to help the local community. They are also a major sponsor of our local radio station Red Shift Radio and are patrons of the South Cheshire Chamber of Commerce.

The Sentinel Housing trades team (around 30 people) take part in an incentive scheme which is paid out quarterly. It looks at a number of different areas but is linked to the company values and also what is important to their customers. It is important to Sentinel Housing that they put the customer at the heart of what they do and as their trades team are working with our customer's day in and day out. Feedback and compliments are taken very seriously and the team are rewarded for receiving compliments. This also is linked to the ACE customer service model which looks at an Awesome Customer Experience. Sentinel Housing boast a competitive salary, excellent annual leave entitlement, flexible working opportunities, childcare vouchers, a personal development allowance for staff, free car parking on site, an employee assistance programme giving access to professional advice and counselling, free eye tests and a contribution towards glasses, life insurance for employees and reduced health insurance rates for family members, amongst other benefits.

Sentinel Housing support all of their people to grow and develop personally and professionally. The company offer a blended approach to L&D, recognising that everyone has a preferred learning style and if they can tap into that the L&D will be more effective. One great example of how the company have supported employee development is a restructure of their front line operations to create a tier of team leaders and to appoint all posts from internal candidates. This came about from staff consultation. Many comments were made that the company's hierarchical structure was too flat so there were limited opportunities for upward career development. Sentinel Housing took this feedback seriously and subsequently restructured their neighbourhood and customer services teams to create 7 team leader roles. The company appointed all posts internally and set up a L&D programme for all to attend. They also developed team leader competencies and a reward structure that gave incremental salary increases as competencies were reached. This has had a hugely motivational effect on the organisation. Firstly it demonstrated that Sentinel Housing do take feedback seriously and it showed that they value their staff and are prepared to invest in them. So the heightened morale extended beyond the individuals who directly benefitted from the restructure. And now some of those people feature in the company's succession plans to be future managers of their business.

The company believe that their shift flexibility is a key benefit. Employees have to work a number of pre-agreed core hours, but are then free to select hours that give them a good work/life balance. This means that they have predictability of working hours, but also flexibility if they need to have a special day out with the children or simply make a doctor's appointment. The company's technology also supports shift ‘swapping' which means that employees can reach out to colleagues to swap shifts, giving even more flexibility to achieve the best work/life balance.

The company believe that their shift flexibility is a key benefit. Employees have to work a number of pre-agreed core hours, but are then free to select hours that give them a good work/life balance. This means that they have predictability of working hours, but also flexibility if they need to have a special day out with the children or simply make a doctor's appointment. The company's technology also supports shift ‘swapping' which means that employees can reach out to colleagues to swap shifts, giving even more flexibility to achieve the best work/life balance.

Their vision as a business is to become a global provider of investment property brands, renown in each market they serve for their ability to successfully align investor returns with brands that exceed end users' expectations. Their values centre around their team members being committed to excellence, always demonstrating integrity and showing respect and being passionate, active and take pride in everything they do. Their esteemed management team do this from leading from the front and demonstrating superior conduct and professionalism. The management team acknowledge the success and talents of individuals but also realise that true excellence is delivered through the combined efforts of team members so rewards tend to be team based, such as department trips to Dubai. This also enables global teams to meet and interact which cultivates a positive working relationship.

Their vision as a business is to become a global provider of investment property brands, renown in each market they serve for their ability to successfully align investor returns with brands that exceed end users' expectations. Their values centre around their team members being committed to excellence, always demonstrating integrity and showing respect and being passionate, active and take pride in everything they do. Their esteemed management team do this from leading from the front and demonstrating superior conduct and professionalism. The management team acknowledge the success and talents of individuals but also realise that true excellence is delivered through the combined efforts of team members so rewards tend to be team based, such as department trips to Dubai. This also enables global teams to meet and interact which cultivates a positive working relationship.

Impact Awards - A global award programme celebrating the positive impact on clients, each other, and the world. Core Value awards, Buddy Awards, Bonus

Impact Awards - A global award programme celebrating the positive impact on clients, each other, and the world. Core Value awards, Buddy Awards, Bonus

The company's brilliant office space plays a big part in promoting collaboration. Double height ceilings and multiuse furniture solutions make it an extremely flexible place to work. All employees are provided with a MAC laptop on arrival, so everyone has freedom to hot-desk. They offer plenty of desk space, sofas and amazing break-out areas for people to have informal meetings and brainstorm. They also have a dedicated canteen/lunch area in the basement where staff can gather over lunch, or break off to one of the snug areas fitted with sofas and soft lighting for more relaxed chats. Rufus knows the importance of taking time out together. Each team has an allocated budget that they can use for social activities. In addition, the events team Freshly Squeezed puts together a bespoke programme of monthly classes and events to help motivate and inspire. These include everything from shoe design, sushi making and movie nights – this means many opportunities to work together with colleagues in smaller groups. They also run regular clubs, including Wine club and Book club. Their Party Animals team also organise lots of opportunities for teams to bond outside of work. Every month, they run an initiative called “Life Lessons With…” These are a fortnightly team challenge where staff nominate a topic, then get together and present their understanding of the topics to each other. In addition they run monthly ‘Masterclasses' - show-and-tell sessions designed to share with each other the work in their respective areas.

The company's brilliant office space plays a big part in promoting collaboration. Double height ceilings and multiuse furniture solutions make it an extremely flexible place to work. All employees are provided with a MAC laptop on arrival, so everyone has freedom to hot-desk. They offer plenty of desk space, sofas and amazing break-out areas for people to have informal meetings and brainstorm. They also have a dedicated canteen/lunch area in the basement where staff can gather over lunch, or break off to one of the snug areas fitted with sofas and soft lighting for more relaxed chats. Rufus knows the importance of taking time out together. Each team has an allocated budget that they can use for social activities. In addition, the events team Freshly Squeezed puts together a bespoke programme of monthly classes and events to help motivate and inspire. These include everything from shoe design, sushi making and movie nights – this means many opportunities to work together with colleagues in smaller groups. They also run regular clubs, including Wine club and Book club. Their Party Animals team also organise lots of opportunities for teams to bond outside of work. Every month, they run an initiative called “Life Lessons With…” These are a fortnightly team challenge where staff nominate a topic, then get together and present their understanding of the topics to each other. In addition they run monthly ‘Masterclasses' - show-and-tell sessions designed to share with each other the work in their respective areas.

Rocket Fuel HR team provides one to one coaching for people managers and offer fortnightly people focused coaching meetings for new managers recently promoted. They have a management mentoring programme of junior staff members on industry knowledge and technical which gives them experience to learn and coach junior team member. In Rocket Fuels Marvels Training programme they offer management courses to up skill managers with management tools, The following training is provided to all managers. Accelerated Feedback training, The versatile manager, Challenging conversations along with accelerated leaders programme to up skill their talented employees in the business to develop in their careers. HR also work with people managers to set out quarterly objectives for their team members, to support them in providing challenging and measurable objectives that are non revenue focused. Rocket Fuel also carry out a twice a year performance review of all employees allowing managers to fill in a self evaluation form along with feedback provided to them directly by their managers in a formal performance meeting. The strong culture in Rocket Fuel is team work and everyone working together to achieve the business success.

Every Monday morning Rocket Fuel hold an All Hands Europe Meeting, where they use a teleconferencing visual system to connect all their Europe offices together for a Europe Team meeting that is led by SVP and General Manager EMEA . During the 1 hour meeting it give the entire team a commercial update and to share communication in a collaborative interactive way. Each office has an opportunity to share their weekly successes and challenges. Rocket Fuel hold Quarterly Business Review meetings with the whole team and discuss the performance of the past quarter, along with a variety of presentations on new products, new incentives and client and agency feedback. The UK Managing Director runs the meeting and acknowledges the top performers of the quarter in each department, presenting each individual with gifts. The meeting lasts for 3 hours in a collaborative way, offering each department time to present. After the meeting the team have team drinks in the bar to encourage open communication and cross departmental interaction in a relaxed social environment. Rocket Fuel also hold social events in the office every quarter such as Halloween parties, Hawaiian BBQ's, celebrations of birthdays, births and engagements which also creates a good social platform for teams to celebrate and have fun together during work.

Robert Woodhead Ltd value their employees and their supply chain immensely and the ‘Good to Gold' programme is a pathway through which they offer them the support they need. In whatever area support is required, from health and safety, project and work management, recruitment and human resources, business compliance to best practice, the ‘Good to Gold' programme is designed to help them learn, improve and grow. They are putting their core values, their knowledge and expertise into helping them go from 'good' to 'gold' standard. The program consisted of workshops aimed at increasing the employees' knowledge and understanding and so growing their business and their supply chain.

Robert Woodhead Ltd value their employees and their supply chain immensely and the ‘Good to Gold' programme is a pathway through which they offer them the support they need. In whatever area support is required, from health and safety, project and work management, recruitment and human resources, business compliance to best practice, the ‘Good to Gold' programme is designed to help them learn, improve and grow. They are putting their core values, their knowledge and expertise into helping them go from 'good' to 'gold' standard. The program consisted of workshops aimed at increasing the employees' knowledge and understanding and so growing their business and their supply chain.

Riverside has an in-house, bespoke, modular manager development programme called ‘Cornerstone'. This ILM accredited programme is mandatory for our over 400 managers and provides them with workshop based modules. Each module is highly participative and creative – with an onus on reflective review between modules to embed the learning through application of the learning back in the workplace. Cornerstone has won the 2015 Investors in People Leadership Development Programme of the Year. Feedback to the programme is consistently excellent and the theme of the programme is engagement through how to ‘inspire and challenge' by developing behaviours that will engage to drive performance and consistency in the business. The cost per delegate for the entire programme is £900 – an indication of the commitment to the managers who they know from previous Best Companies data to be the conduit to employee engagement at Riverside. The company utilise ‘Yammer' to build a network of delegates for Cornerstone – to share good practice, experience and challenges.

The One Riverside Annual Training Plan & the launch of ‘Learning to Lead.' 100% of employees have an annual performance appraisal, containing a two-way discussion between employee and manager to evidence competencies and objectives. Training needs are identified and agreed. This forms the basis of Riverside's annual training plan. Each employee reviews development through a regular 1-2-1 meeting with their own manager. This training plan guarantees employees a range of elearning, workshop-based training, non-work related personal development opportunities, and the opportunity to apply for funded professional development – often with time off to study. All business areas have provision for learning adaptations, staff events and conferences and a continuous professional development. As part of this commitment and to provide the business with a bench strength of ‘ready talent to entry level line manager roles, the company launched a new talent programme called ‘Learning to Lead' – with applications open to those wishing to become ‘job ready.' This talentpool of 40 employees completed an assessment centre, 360 feedback, a series of skills, knowledge and behaviour workshops, heard from guest leadership speakers, and had unlimited access to a line manager elearning suite of modules. Each employee had a mentor throughout the 6-month programme. One year after the launch, 70% of employees in the programme had successfully been recruited into line manager roles, reducing our cost and time per hire and raising engagement with this talentpool and retaining their skills rather than lose them to other organisations.

All Ridgeons employees are encouraged to work towards appropriate workplace qualifications including NVQ's at levels 2, 3, 5 & 7. There is no restriction in terms of an employees grade or job role. There are currently over 60 people studying for an external qualification fully paid for by the company. In addition to paying course fees, the company also offers an exam award payment for successful completion, £300 at level 2, £500 at level 3, £750 at level 5 and £900 at level 7. The company has also recently launched a coaching framework and has trained over 30 managers to level 3 and 5, with the L & D Manager trained to L 7. All of the level 5 trainees have been allocated a trainee from the internal management skills development programme to coach

Ridgeons have a range of activities throughout the year as fundraising events for charity. All branches recently took part in the Macmillan coffee morning. Branches have also organised dress down days, sponsored cycle rides, dragon boat racing etc. A number of the branches will also respond to requests from local organisations for free building materials. Each branch has a separate community budget that they control. As a company they are also members of Business in the Community and take part in their Business Class initiative where they partner a local school. Ridgeons partner North Cambridge Academy and facilitate a range of events including mentoring students to learn about the world of work, providing pre-employment skills to students, offering work experience and have just introduced an annual competition for 13 year olds to design a display stand to be used in one of their branches.

Managing Excellence is RICS' internal training programme, which is designed to encourage Managers to talk about their performance with their line manager, to identify strengths and gaps in performance, to create and own their own development plan and build capability as a people manager. The process has been designed to be flexible, so that workshops and other development solutions can be added and updated according to the company's organisational needs. This approach has also allowed RICS to package workshops into 3-4 day modules to be delivered globally, according to the needs of the management teams outside of the UK. They also have Elevate, a leadership development programme that is delivered over three, three-day modules designed for managers to take the next step from managing people to leading teams. It is based on three areas: Leading Self (self-awareness, emotional intelligence), Leading Others (transformational leadership) and Leading the Business (culture, vision and strategy).

With a dispersed workplace across many time zones, digital collaboration is becoming a major part of RICS's regular working day. They are pursuing a ‘Digital Workplace' approach throughout the business. Skype for Business has been installed across all computers and is accessible via company mobiles. Video calls - Skype has transformed the support that colleagues receive through screen-sharing and allowing shorter catch ups to happen on demand. Facetime via screens is a great way for RICS to build stronger links across teams, with putting faces to (often very remote) names. Direct messaging – Skype DM capability allows immediate answers within meetings from absent colleagues, and has been used effectively to solicit questions during presentations and online training, allowing more voices to be heard and presentations to run more efficiently. VideoConferencing: VC facilities are in all the company's major offices and all staff can Skype into VC meetings using the BlueJeans bridge. This is great for large meetings with dispersed participants, and is allowing wider participation on big projects. Meetings can also be recorded and replayed later – this approach was used to support a big IT rollout this month with short ‘how-to' videos shared online. Sharepoint is increasingly used to enable project and teams to share information and work collaboratively on single-source documents. In-house ‘TED talks' are available to all teams and projects to host, before colleagues in their London office. They promote greater awareness and understanding of major initiatives. Selected talks now are filmed and will be shared via RICS' new intranet.

Teams are encouraged to use communal areas to boost communication and creativity. Activities such as pool and table tennis are available as well as computer consoles. Benches outside are available for meetings.

Teams are encouraged to use communal areas to boost communication and creativity. Activities such as pool and table tennis are available as well as computer consoles. Benches outside are available for meetings.

The senior management teams are always out and about in the business on a daily basis engaging with the frontline teams and managers. Bound by the 'manager promises', these are promises that frontline teams wanted the senior team to make as they felt it would improve their relationships and working environment. The executive team keep the company values alive through reviewing progress of their managers on a regular basis and creating development plans and objectives that work towards our overall goal.

The company's impressions star cards are used throughout the business on the frontline, each associate is given a business card on one side are the principles and behaviours and the other a 'loyalty' style stamp space. All senior managers within the business carry a stamp so that when they see brilliant service being delivered it can be recognised instantly on the spot. Completing a star card entitles the associate to a personalised reward. The company also use their annual service awards where we recognise the achievements of our teams.

A high percentage of the company's managers are home grown and the company therefore ensure they have the opportunity to receive training prior to promotion, to enable them to take on new responsibilities and tasks. The company have two training courses that are aimed at supervisors and assistant managers specifically, Ambassadors in Management (AIM) 1 & 2. They cover subjects such as, workplace communication, motivating a team to perform, induction and coaching, dealing with change, time management, problem solving skills, influencing and negotiating amongst others. Once managers, there is a range of foundation management courses they must attend, such as Health & Safety for Managers, Appraisal skills, Recruitment & Selection, and how to manage people and their performance. We call this AIM 3. For Heads of Department, senior managers and general managers there is a course called “Championing our Elite” which covers project management, managing a budget, leadership and management skills. The company has mentors for junior managers and for our graduate programme participants which helps support, nurture and challenge the managers of the future. All those on the graduate management programme have quarterly meetings with our Managing Director which is both a great development opportunity and support for individuals as they progress through their programme.

A high percentage of the company's managers are home grown and the company therefore ensure they have the opportunity to receive training prior to promotion, to enable them to take on new responsibilities and tasks. The company have two training courses that are aimed at supervisors and assistant managers specifically, Ambassadors in Management (AIM) 1 & 2. They cover subjects such as, workplace communication, motivating a team to perform, induction and coaching, dealing with change, time management, problem solving skills, influencing and negotiating amongst others. Once managers, there is a range of foundation management courses they must attend, such as Health & Safety for Managers, Appraisal skills, Recruitment & Selection, and how to manage people and their performance. We call this AIM 3. For Heads of Department, senior managers and general managers there is a course called “Championing our Elite” which covers project management, managing a budget, leadership and management skills. The company has mentors for junior managers and for our graduate programme participants which helps support, nurture and challenge the managers of the future. All those on the graduate management programme have quarterly meetings with our Managing Director which is both a great development opportunity and support for individuals as they progress through their programme.

In 1995, Tom Watson, Vice Chairman of Omnicom Group Inc., with Harvard Business School professor Len Schlesinger, created a global leadership development program, Omnicom University Senior Management Program (SMP). Today, the program is regarded as one of the pre-eminent executive education experiences and one of the major sources of “cultural glue” for the Omnicom network. RAPP sends the Leadership team to SMP. SMP is a two-year commitment which includes action learning and peer problem-solving dialogues. Students attend a six-day Undergraduate Program, followed by a four-day Graduate Program a year later. Students are required to identify and implement a Personal Strategic Change Initiative between the Undergraduate and Graduate programs that will have significant impact within their organisation. The Senior Management team also attend the Advanced Management Program, AMP. AMP introduces future leaders and “rising stars” throughout Omnicom to the core principles of managing a professional service firm and the Service Profit Chain, the core management framework we use at SMP. In addition to affording participants a world-class development experience, AMP provides a new form of recognition and retention for key managers, an opportunity for these managers to forge relationships with other talented individuals within Omnicom, and an additional source of support for returning “apostle” SMP graduates as they endeavour to affect change within their organisations. As with SMP, these three-day sessions use the case study method to stimulate discussions of issues and trends that challenge our industry.

The company have Friday drinks each week and end of the month drinks on a Thursday to encourage socialising outside of individual teams. The company as a whole also receive a newsletter from the UK President each week with the latest news and new business wins along with new joiner emails each week from HR. All internal training courses are open to all employees and are delivered on a weekly basis. The company also have work experience initiatives for more junior employees from the regional offices to spend a week in London and East Grinstead to learn more about RAPP and the wider business. The company moved offices in December 2015. The new office covers one floor in an Omnicom building, encouraging more internal interaction but also engagement with sibling agencies. The company also provide free yoga classes and the option to join Bootcamp during lunch or after work. .

In addition to recognising a 'team player' as voted for by the entire company and a 'top performer' as voted for by the senior management team, each quarter, the compamy also hold regular team building days and company wide celebrations for employees and families, so the entire organisation can celebrate achievements and success together.

The SMT demonstrate their commitment to open, collaborative communication by actively contributing to Town Hall Updates - everyone gets a section, managing and responding to the weekly ask the SMT emails and actively encouraging the flat structure the company try to encourage whereby everyone is approachable and everyone's voice gets heard - regardless of their role.

Qubit runs a monthly bonus scheme named the Voice it, Own it, Do it Award. The purpose of this is to reward employees for work that goes above and beyond their day to day job role and improves organisational efficiency. This aims to reward those that embody the company values- Voice it, Own it, Do it. There are monthly open nominations, where peers nominate their team mates and detail the reasons for nomination. The winner is decided by senior management and announced company wide in the weekly kick off meeting. The company also share why everyone was nominated to all Qubit offices. The winner is also entitled to a monetary bonus of £1000.

Qubit runs a monthly bonus scheme named the Voice it, Own it, Do it Award. The purpose of this is to reward employees for work that goes above and beyond their day to day job role and improves organisational efficiency. This aims to reward those that embody the company values- Voice it, Own it, Do it. There are monthly open nominations, where peers nominate their team mates and detail the reasons for nomination. The winner is decided by senior management and announced company wide in the weekly kick off meeting. The company also share why everyone was nominated to all Qubit offices. The winner is also entitled to a monetary bonus of £1000.

The company has a very clear set of values that provide the foundation of their culture and behaviour. They have been written down and communicated since the company was founded. The values are reinforced from the top by company founder, Ian Hellens, who leads by example and demonstrates them in action at every opportunity, illustrating the difference the values make to their team and their clients. The senior management team spend time with recruitment partners and with candidates during their three stage interview process to ensure every recruit has the right DNA, in other words, that they naturally live the company values with integrity. The senior management team also bring the values to life at the start and end of the four day induction for new joiners, ensuring that the values are at the heart of the organisation from day 1. During the quarterly regional events, the senior management team present awards to members of the team who have demonstrated the values in action. They hold people to account for living the values and encourage the whole team to embed the values in our day to day business.

The company has a very clear set of values that provide the foundation of their culture and behaviour. They have been written down and communicated since the company was founded. The values are reinforced from the top by company founder, Ian Hellens, who leads by example and demonstrates them in action at every opportunity, illustrating the difference the values make to their team and their clients. The senior management team spend time with recruitment partners and with candidates during their three stage interview process to ensure every recruit has the right DNA, in other words, that they naturally live the company values with integrity. The senior management team also bring the values to life at the start and end of the four day induction for new joiners, ensuring that the values are at the heart of the organisation from day 1. During the quarterly regional events, the senior management team present awards to members of the team who have demonstrated the values in action. They hold people to account for living the values and encourage the whole team to embed the values in our day to day business.

The company are committed to the training and development of their workforce and to this end they have achieved Gold status with investors in people. Some examples of their employee development include: structured induction and probation process comprehensive training plan for all new employees bespoke training to meeting additional needs of young people. All care staff expected and supported to achieve QCT level 3 in care. All managers expected and supported to achieve QCF level 5 in management. The development of a bespoke performance management supervision tool which addresses the Focus, Skills and engagement of staff and helps managers give constructive evidence based feedback across all areas thereby enhancing performance and engagement in the work place. Supervision policy ensuring regular supervision and support is provided to staff Mentoring and coaching to support new staff and existing staff develop skills Development of life skills through our company wide IT skills development program enabling all staff to achieve NVQ level 2 in IT. Giving opportunities for staff to champion areas of work in the organisation such as Health and Safety, Environment thereby developing additional skills such as chairing meetings.

The company are committed to the training and development of their workforce and to this end they have achieved Gold status with investors in people. Some examples of their employee development include: structured induction and probation process comprehensive training plan for all new employees bespoke training to meeting additional needs of young people. All care staff expected and supported to achieve QCT level 3 in care. All managers expected and supported to achieve QCF level 5 in management. The development of a bespoke performance management supervision tool which addresses the Focus, Skills and engagement of staff and helps managers give constructive evidence based feedback across all areas thereby enhancing performance and engagement in the work place. Supervision policy ensuring regular supervision and support is provided to staff Mentoring and coaching to support new staff and existing staff develop skills Development of life skills through our company wide IT skills development program enabling all staff to achieve NVQ level 2 in IT. Giving opportunities for staff to champion areas of work in the organisation such as Health and Safety, Environment thereby developing additional skills such as chairing meetings.

Actions speak louder than words and the senior managers believe in the importance of following up on commitments. Treat each other with respect and understanding: Everyone is treated equitably and fairly and Dignity at Work policy is taken very seriously. Recognise value in people: We have regular meetings at which the senior management team gives updates on the company's business plan and forthcoming objectives, and information is also communicated via email. Business and team plans are available for all staff to view on our IT network. Employees are encouraged to challenge and not be afraid to speak up. Performance in all areas of the organisation is analysed through regular reporting on key performance indicators, and from the Customer Service Excellence accreditation. The senior team ensures that where areas for improvement are identified, the appropriate action is taken to address any issues. Strive for excellence:

Extra Care scheme (for very elderly and vulnerable residents) was recently renovated, including the creation of sensory gardens. In addition to the south garden, which also includes a BBQ area for summer parties, a ‘wildlife walk' has been created with elevated views of Poole Harbour, and a courtyard with beautifully scented evergreen pine, rosemary and euphorbia. Residents are thrilled with the results. This has had the desired impact of encouraging elderly residents to leave their flats and enjoy the gardens and socialise with other residents; with important health benefits. There are now successful community gardens in areas that no-one believed they could work, and local youngsters are getting to understand where their food comes from, and learn about healthy eating. They support the local credit union (Coastal Community Savings and Loans) and offer the time of their staff to support the running and good governance of this organisation.

Pinnacle's core value is all about supporting their people, and as they are a UK wide organisation, getting teams together is very important to them. Therefore the company organisers departmental conferences eg. Support department conference (held this year in Newcastle), Consultant's conference (held this year in Warwickshire). At these conferences they have the opportunity to discuss opportunities/challenges specific their department and meet up with colleagues who are working in a different geographical area. Another way the company demonstrates this core value is by allowing many of their staff the flexibility to work from home, this helps significantly with their "work life balance".

Pinnacle's core value is all about supporting their people, and as they are a UK wide organisation, getting teams together is very important to them. Therefore the company organisers departmental conferences eg. Support department conference (held this year in Newcastle), Consultant's conference (held this year in Warwickshire). At these conferences they have the opportunity to discuss opportunities/challenges specific their department and meet up with colleagues who are working in a different geographical area. Another way the company demonstrates this core value is by allowing many of their staff the flexibility to work from home, this helps significantly with their "work life balance".

Commitment, dedication, passion and organisation are some of the values senior management possess, so as to have the required influence for others to follow and be part of the common goal for all to share in the continuous success of the Company. Their knowledge of the Industry coupled with their decisiveness creates confidence and security.

The company has understanding and approachable management. They also have attainable targets/ workloads.

Throughout the company's portfolio of brands ability, character and loyalty underpin and drive their performance. In order to maintain this culture and ethos the company regularly communicates these values to employees, at all stages of their careers via various media. Prior to and starting employment prospective hires receive “Phaidon at a Glance” Brochure and new hires receive a pack which outlines information about working at Phaidon, including information about the company's mission, vision and values. On induction, new employees are also shown the Phaidon Story video. This enables employees to be well versed on their purpose, ambition, core principles, culture and ethos even before they start work. During Monthly Business Reviews and assessment for promotions, employees are asked to explain how they regularly demonstrate ability, loyalty and character. Monthly newsletter and quarterly round pp meetings awards and mentions for ability, loyalty, character are announced within the monthly newsletter and quarterly round up meetings held by the CEO. Those who are mentioned are invited to attend lunch club rewards. Senior Management Away Days and AGM to further launch a new Mission statement.

The company strategy is aligned to one of their core values - ability, and their primary guiding principle; superior financial performance. The desired outcomes are to drive superior sustainable financial performance and enhance the retention. Promotion and development of high performing staff who live the company values. The company has a progressive pay scheme benchmarked to ensure they pay median basic salaries for the appropriate grades they offer. From the outset they make it clear that talented sales staffs who are successful will obtain superior earnings, however they will never seek to drive a culture of high basic salary low value performance incentives.

On day 2 of the Company's Induction all new colleagues attend a Giving Back day at the Salvation Army, here they volunteer with community action tasks such as gardening, litter picking, painting/decorating houses, working in schools and help to arrange other community based activities to improve the environmental area and transform lives. Every year the company support's Children in Need and all dealerships have fun in raising up to £40,000! All new colleagues are also given £100 to donate to a charity of their choice when the join the Company. This year the company also donated 600 school bags filled with all the essentials such as pens, pencils, paper, rubbers, calculator and rulers for both primary and secondary children. This has a huge impact on some of the most vulnerable children who are often teased and bullied, therefore often go truant or at the very best don't have the basics needed to do their homework or school stuff, meaning they fall further behind. Each dealership works closely with a Charity Partner of their choice, throughout the year colleagues fundraise, volunteer and raise awareness to help these charities to continue doing the wonderful work they are.

The senior management team live, breathe and assess company values regularly, they show their commitment to this through promoting the values daily at team meetings where the values are brought to life. The senior management are also measured on behaviours which encompass all of the Company values, as are all of their colleagues. The senior management team are also very visible on site, once again displaying values such as team work and recognition.

Pension Protection Fund have completed a series of health and wellbeing workshops for the last year to positively engage with employees and help enhance their health and wellbeing. The topics have been varied to encourage employees to attend. The company have run workshops of mindfulness, sleep deprivation, nutrition, fitness, impact on the immune system, dealing with difficult people, resilience, work/life balance, people skills, how to deal with lack of energy, how to take control and sharpen your focus. The sessions are normally led by external provider: ‘Feelgood'. The company have had nutritionists, clinical psychologists, mindfulness practitioners and sports consultants in to lead and engage with their employees. The sessions tend to be held in a boardroom with the speakers guiding the attendees through slides, enabling discussion and on occasion group work. Sometimes the session can be interactive such as the fitness session. The slides and handouts are then posted to the intranet for download. The handouts that accompany the slides have soundbites and top tips around health and wellbeing, and all have been positively welcomed. Pension Protection Fund also run monthly free fruit drops for employees, they provide enough fruit for an am and pm drop in both market squares and signpost reminders each month that the fruit drop is available.

In 2014, all teams across the PPF took part in creating a highly visual ‘rich art' journey picture to engage everyone in the company's desire to be a high-performing Customer Focused Financial Institution (CFFI) to deliver their vision and mission through their values. Launched at an all-staff event in July 2014, the final picture is a tool to prompt ongoing conversations, in teams and between colleagues, driving a shared sense of purpose. The picture is used in different ways to effectively communicate the company's CFFI messages on an ongoing basis including: ‘Welcome to the PPF' session for new joiners – teams explain their part in enabling the PPF to achieve objectives by sharing their ‘story' within the framework of the picture, large 3D ‘cut-outs' from the picture were created as visual aids to support messages at our the company staff event in June 2015 (eg putting the customer at the heart of they we do and the importance of embracing a commercial mind-set), giant posters have been placed around the company's building in breakout areas to promote peer to peer discussions and images from the picture illustrate relevant messages/case studies in the company's recently launched employee magazine ‘Connect'.

The company have recently been through a rebranding exercise and brought all employees into the process. The team was invited to contribute ideas towards the vision of the practice, some of which are being implemented. The company communicate through monthly breakfast presentations, design presentations and charettes and the company intranet.

The company have a huge amount of initiatives aimed at supporting development, from lunchtime CPD sessions, the annual £250 budget per person for spending on (if desired non-work related) training, regular training courses and a full programme for supporting trainee architects through their Part 3 qualification. Support for the Part 3 qualification includes a £1,000 contribution towards course fees, placing them on projects which are suitable case studies for their Part 3, running an internal lecture series, formal study groups, and mentoring and examination preparation run by those Partners who are also external examiners.

Employee Business Forum Values are used in all employee communications and featured in all internal training materials.

Employee Business Forum Values are used in all employee communications and featured in all internal training materials.

The company send HR staff to schools to prepare them for interviews. Trainee Solicitors are sent to Testwood College to speak to students who may wish to pursue a career in law. The company run a work experience scheme each year for students. The Paris Smith Choir help raise money at Christmas for charity by singing at shopping Malls. The company take part in donating Christmas presents for disadvantaged children each year.

The Firm makes a Christmas gift to secretaries and support staff, of John Lewis vouchers, a fully paid for Christmas Party is thrown for all staff each year. Those who have worked tremendously hard are also rewarded with an extra bonus.

Every month a group of our employees go to Rainbows Hospice for Children and Young People to volunteer as a team. This can involve speaking to supporters on the phones, doing fundraising admin or even packing orders from Rainbows' Christmas catalogue! As part of the local community recruitment initiative, the company work with Northampton College to source and develop apprentices for their apprenticeship scheme, they take on between 5 and 10 apprentices per year on permanent contracts. The company's HR and Resourcing teams were recently involved in a pilot run by the Northamptonshire Enterprise Partnership aimed at improving career guidance, employability and aspiration within the county. The teams spent time in local schools with students and teachers helping them to improve their skills and business understanding. The pilot has now been signed off and is in the process of being introduced across the country. The company have also supported nationwide initiatives such as Women in Engineering week, where employees visited a local Oxford school, and Small Business Advice week, where some of our internal business area experts contributed articles to our website that offers free advice for small and medium enterprises.

Last year the company took the decision to provide all our employees, regardless of service length or job seniority with private medical insurance. After a full market review, the company selected Vitality because of its heavy focus on wellness, not just on looking after employees when they're not well. As part of our PMI cover, the employees can take advantage of heavily-discounted spa days and breaks, and gym memberships which promote relaxation and lower levels of stress. They are also rewarded for having a healthier, more active lifestyle, with free cinema tickets, iTunes credits and Starbucks drink incentives, as well as receiving discounts with a variety of retailers. Employees can also select heavily discounted private medical insurance for their families as part of the flexible benefits package, subsidised by their flexible benefits allowance. The company also has an employee wellbeing programme called “Opus Energise” through which they promote physical activity, healthy eating, good mental health and stress management, all of which contribute to general wellbeing and therefore lower levels of stress.

The company offer support for all staff in all roles to undertake qualifications relevant to their role. They also provide soft skills training for all staff, needs identified by way of reviews three times a year with all staff. The company like to encourage people to take on as much responsibility as possible as they believe people learn from experience. One E Group give people autonomy in exchange for accountability and find this is the best way for people to develop. They are not afraid of people making mistakes as this is how they learn.

The company use the Salesforce Chatter to encourage employees to communicate; there are separate groups for different teams. The company circulate a staff update each month which has an area for each department to provide information on their own area and what it has been up to over the course of the month. The Company also cover costs of one team event per quarter for all teams, on top of group-wide events that take place twice a year. They also hold management meetings every month after each directors meeting and each team then has follow on meetings thereafter to encourage regular communication between directors and the wider team.

As an open and transparent business, Omni utilises an array of working practices to boost team interaction - including weekly and monthly meetings across all business units. The most notable example of this is the weekly Account Manager meetings which are dedicated to providing employees the opportunity to raise operational and workplace challenges they're currently experiencing within a supportive forum. Once an issue has been raised, and a round of questions posed, each Account Manager is given an opportunity to suggest a solution in a bid to reach a successful outcome. Omni believes that inclusive initiatives such as this not only create new two-way channels of communication within a team, but also builds trust among employees and ultimately enhances employee engagement and productivity.

As an open and transparent business, Omni utilises an array of working practices to boost team interaction - including weekly and monthly meetings across all business units. The most notable example of this is the weekly Account Manager meetings which are dedicated to providing employees the opportunity to raise operational and workplace challenges they're currently experiencing within a supportive forum. Once an issue has been raised, and a round of questions posed, each Account Manager is given an opportunity to suggest a solution in a bid to reach a successful outcome. Omni believes that inclusive initiatives such as this not only create new two-way channels of communication within a team, but also builds trust among employees and ultimately enhances employee engagement and productivity.

Omega is committed to making a difference to their employees by celebrating ownership that inspires them to build their legacy. Omega want to be the company everyone wants to join and no one wants to leave. This year the company developed an organisational development strategy that drove 3 key areas; Insight into self, understanding others, and delivering results. The company created an innovative pilot leadership development program aligned to these 3 areas; that is a blend of classroom, experimental, learning circle learning and supported with coaching. Each delegate was nominated for their personal skills and attributes as well as their alignment to the company's values. The company is currently working with the Institute leadership and Management development to have this program accredited and as it is a pilot program we are working with the delegates to code sign and evolve for cohort 2 in 2016- further demonstrating our commitment to working as one team to drive perfection.

Omega is committed to making a difference to their employees by celebrating ownership that inspires them to build their legacy. Omega want to be the company everyone wants to join and no one wants to leave. This year the company developed an organisational development strategy that drove 3 key areas; Insight into self, understanding others, and delivering results. The company created an innovative pilot leadership development program aligned to these 3 areas; that is a blend of classroom, experimental, learning circle learning and supported with coaching. Each delegate was nominated for their personal skills and attributes as well as their alignment to the company's values. The company is currently working with the Institute leadership and Management development to have this program accredited and as it is a pilot program we are working with the delegates to code sign and evolve for cohort 2 in 2016- further demonstrating our commitment to working as one team to drive perfection.

Octink strives to work in close partnership with the local community and directors and employees alike are actively involved in our community activities. Our CEO, Will Tyler is Chairman of Spark, a charity that creates links between local schools and businesses to improve the employability of young people. While our MD, Mike Freely is a Director of Cultivate London, an innovative urban farm and social enterprise based across multiple derelict sites in West London. These partnerships with Spark and Cultivate London reflect our wider community commitment. To helping improve the employability of young people in the community by giving them opportunities to gain work experience and develop new skills. In the last 12 months the company has invested a combination of employee volunteering time, cash donations and work in kind donations to the value of over £15,000.

Octink strives to work in close partnership with the local community and directors and employees alike are actively involved in our community activities. Our CEO, Will Tyler is Chairman of Spark, a charity that creates links between local schools and businesses to improve the employability of young people. While our MD, Mike Freely is a Director of Cultivate London, an innovative urban farm and social enterprise based across multiple derelict sites in West London. These partnerships with Spark and Cultivate London reflect our wider community commitment. To helping improve the employability of young people in the community by giving them opportunities to gain work experience and develop new skills. In the last 12 months the company has invested a combination of employee volunteering time, cash donations and work in kind donations to the value of over £15,000.

They work with all managers to improve their business performance through a combination of understanding themselves and understanding how to achieve improved staff performance. The business employs a number of approaches to supporting and developing the management team. An appraisal process which focuses on providing constructive feedback on individual and team performance and setting the development objectives for the forthcoming half year. A 360 degree feedback tool which gives employees an opportunity to ‘score' their managers. An exit interview process which gives constructive feedback on how they could improve in employee engagement efforts, and particularly how managers could maximise the value they get from their employees. A mentoring programme for all employees, including management, which gives the leaders in the organisation an additional support network outside the work environment. A regular weekly team meeting for all management is held to provide a forum for discussing business challenges and gleaning advice and feedback on work in progress. Frequent feedback and coaching is available to all managers on a regular basis- this performance feedback should identify skill gaps, leading to training and future improvement.

All employees have a good understanding of EVP as they actively particpated in its construction. It is through EVP that they communicate their primary purpose, values and ambitions in a succinct way. The annual sales conference seeks to provide clarity and reinforcement of values, mission, strategic objectives and ambitions for the forthcoming year and beyond. It also recognises outstanding performance and celebrates successes - all are aligned to the mission, values and vision. Integral to how they live the mission, values and vision is to ensure they are always at the forefront of their minds when operating day to day, leading their people, making decisions, engaging with candidates and clients and interacting with others through social media and other media. Through annual employee engagement survey they gain a better understanding of what is important to the people and where we may have become 'out of touch' . This allows the company to address key areas and focus on driving a high performance culture focused on a single vision.

North Devon Homes believe that “culture” and “business objectives” require equal investment to enable them to deliver their vision. They invest a great deal of their leadership time on getting the culture right and have developed “Team ndh” as their culture. Team ndh drives the values, leadership, training and is “the way they do things ”. The company overlay this with their business objectives. They use Great Game of Business principles to help them embed this approach, Principles are based on the belief that to achieve success every employee should: understand the numbers enough to know what business success looks like, be expected and enabled to act on their knowledge to improve performance and have a direct stake in the company's success and risk of failure.

Their homes represent one in every 10 households in North Devon, a picturesque holiday destination masking the real levels of significant deprivation in the area. As a community landlord much of their social responsibility is delivered through their community development activities. This work focuses around young people with estate-based youth clubs acting as a platform for interventions aimed at increasing educational aspirations, building resilience and assisting in the transition from school to work. The company can proudly state that 100% of the young people within the project have found paid employment and/or college places when leaving school. Their work is well documented within the independent evaluation undertaken by St Mark & St John University (December 2014). Dr Cooper remarked “The developing young communities approach is clearly influenced at leadership level by NDH's commitment to ‘create communities where people want to live'.” Within the evaluation links are also made with their family work in the wider community where they tackle debt, fuel and food poverty and social exclusion. Partners recognise their commitment to their social responsibility, acknowledging they deliver evidenced impact and value for money.

Company Show and Tell + Beer & Lightening sessions take place fortnightly on a Friday afternoon. The sessions promote a culture of shared learning and enhance internal communication across departments whilst enjoying a cold beer and snacks. Development and Operations teams present news around completed features, product updates and roadmap progress as well as new ideas, technologies and learning from conferences and personal self development. Sales and Marketing teams share emerging industry trends, competitor analysis and customer case-studies. HR , Finance and other support functions hold regular slots to provide insight on new-initiatives and processes. A monthly podcast was introduced to pull together interesting stories, interviews and the latest news and updates from across the business - essentially something to bridge the gap between the quarterly company meeting and day to day communications. The most popular podcast to date included an interview with NewVoiceMedia's founder and CTO Ashley Unitt who shared why he started the company and his visions for the future.

Company Show and Tell + Beer & Lightening sessions take place fortnightly on a Friday afternoon. The sessions promote a culture of shared learning and enhance internal communication across departments whilst enjoying a cold beer and snacks. Development and Operations teams present news around completed features, product updates and roadmap progress as well as new ideas, technologies and learning from conferences and personal self development. Sales and Marketing teams share emerging industry trends, competitor analysis and customer case-studies. HR , Finance and other support functions hold regular slots to provide insight on new-initiatives and processes. A monthly podcast was introduced to pull together interesting stories, interviews and the latest news and updates from across the business - essentially something to bridge the gap between the quarterly company meeting and day to day communications. The most popular podcast to date included an interview with NewVoiceMedia's founder and CTO Ashley Unitt who shared why he started the company and his visions for the future.

Networks First believe strongly in giving back, and they currently have a number of initiatives in place to help raise money for their local chosen charity, Birmingham's Children's Hospital. These include: Tuck Shop - a variety of items are on sale to employees via Networks First's own 'tuck shop' including items such as; chocolate, sweets, crisps, popcorn, cans of pop, flavored water etc. Suggested donations are provided, and there is an honesty box for people to make their donation for an item. All profits go to the company's chosen charity BCH. Bake-Off - Throughout the the Entertainments Committee set dates for a bake off between employees in the office. Employees then donate a cake(s) on the day, which get entered into a competition for the chance to win vouchers for the Tuck Shop and a certificate that Mary Berry would be proud of! Employees then make a donation for a slice of cake. Employees can chose to bring in shop cakes, but these are not entered in the competition.

Networks First believe strongly in giving back, and they currently have a number of initiatives in place to help raise money for their local chosen charity, Birmingham's Children's Hospital. These include: Tuck Shop - a variety of items are on sale to employees via Networks First's own 'tuck shop' including items such as; chocolate, sweets, crisps, popcorn, cans of pop, flavored water etc. Suggested donations are provided, and there is an honesty box for people to make their donation for an item. All profits go to the company's chosen charity BCH. Bake-Off - Throughout the the Entertainments Committee set dates for a bake off between employees in the office. Employees then donate a cake(s) on the day, which get entered into a competition for the chance to win vouchers for the Tuck Shop and a certificate that Mary Berry would be proud of! Employees then make a donation for a slice of cake. Employees can chose to bring in shop cakes, but these are not entered in the competition.

They have run internal comms campaigns and postcard desk drops to reiterate the mission, vision and company values. They also feature in appraisal forms to ensure that employees are living and breathing our shared goals.

The company have invested in a bespoke leadership development programme "Talent Unlimited", in order to develop the skills of senior leadership team. The programme focuses on authenticity and both technical and behavioural skills to enhance individual capability. All managers are provided with appraisal training, focusing on the appraisal process but more importantly, how to deliver an effective appraisal so that individuals leave the meeting feeling motivated regardless of the topics covered. In addition to this, they have also recently invested in line - management training, this is for current line manager and those likely to be promoted in the near future into a managerial role. This is to ensure they have the required capabilities before taking on the responsibility. The course covers recognising everyone as an individual whilst highlighting the importance of treating everyone fairly, delegation, motivation and how and when to have difficult conversations.

Employee Connect Nationwide has a group of 1,000+ employees called Employee Connect. The virtual group influence business decisions by being consulted on ongoing issues including product design, service improvements, marketing and employee campaigns. The company creates bespoke employee apps to foster greater interaction. For the Annual Awards 2015, the event app had 96% of employee finalists logged in, 796 photos posted, 969 comments, 1,232 status updates, 4,274 likes and over 55,000 visits. The retail division comprises 9,000 employees across 700+ branches and sites. To connect those employees the company have created a Virtual Retail Expo, which enables people to have a better understanding of what other Retail teams do, key contacts, latest news and product information. Corporate cascade Nationwide's five year Corporate Plan is announced internally in April each year. Following a leadership conference for the top 800 leaders, the corporate plan is then cascaded through every division, department and team within the business over a 6 week period. So every one of our 17,000 employees receives a face to face presentation on our latest business strategy.

Employee Connect Nationwide has a group of 1,000+ employees called Employee Connect. The virtual group influence business decisions by being consulted on ongoing issues including product design, service improvements, marketing and employee campaigns. The company creates bespoke employee apps to foster greater interaction. For the Annual Awards 2015, the event app had 96% of employee finalists logged in, 796 photos posted, 969 comments, 1,232 status updates, 4,274 likes and over 55,000 visits. The retail division comprises 9,000 employees across 700+ branches and sites. To connect those employees the company have created a Virtual Retail Expo, which enables people to have a better understanding of what other Retail teams do, key contacts, latest news and product information. Corporate cascade Nationwide's five year Corporate Plan is announced internally in April each year. Following a leadership conference for the top 800 leaders, the corporate plan is then cascaded through every division, department and team within the business over a 6 week period. So every one of our 17,000 employees receives a face to face presentation on our latest business strategy.

The senior management team at DLKW Lowe demonstrate the company's values through their behaviour and always use the company's terminology in all staff meetings. They also award staff who continually demonstrate the company's values in their day to day working lives.

The senior management team at DLKW Lowe demonstrate the company's values through their behaviour and always use the company's terminology in all staff meetings. They also award staff who continually demonstrate the company's values in their day to day working lives.

Following the appointment of their new Head of Talent, the company began with a major overhaul of the entirety of the learning and development offering. A new company-wide appraisal process and associated documentation was rolled out, in line with the commencement of the new fiscal year. This allowed their L&D team to conduct a full training needs analysis across the company. Their training partner, with Head of Talent, launched a “new starter training programme” for onboarding all new employees. Their mid-level / Senior Consultants were offered a newly designed “advanced sales training course” to enhance and develop their skills, and maximise their potential. Having previously had all management training delivered by external partners, they were able to bring this offering in house and are in the process of delivering a new “Leadership Development Programme” to the entirety of their Management team. They have also assessed and redesigned their promotional process to guarantee transparency and parity at all levels. Their existing competency documents were reviewed and redesigned to ensure complete clarity of expectations for all staff for the level they are currently operating at, but also to convey to them what needs to be done in order to achieve promotion. With this increased investment they are able to create and execute a full L&D strategy, whilst simultaneously being able to create bespoke training packages in house.

The company's Head of Talent post was specifically appointed this year to focus on developing their management team. Given the growth of the company over the past 12 months, they recognised there was an increasing requirement to be able to offer their own bespoke training in house, in order to be flexible to be able to respond to the manager's individual development needs as and when required. A full leadership development programme has been designed and is currently being delivered to the entirety of their management team, including those working towards a managerial promotion. The course offers a blend of leadership development to include effective coaching in leadership, developing emotional intelligence and also core management skills i.e. conducting effective appraisals and competency development. They have the capacity to follow up with managers, and their line managers, outside of the training programme to offer any extra support or one to one feedback/coaching sessions required. They are currently in the process of reviewing and redesigning their mentorship programme, to ensure both the mentor and the mentee are empowered to maximise the opportunity of external support. Their Directors and Senior Managers have recently undergone a Colorworks psychometric profiling in order to understand and improve their own personal performance but also to inform how they work best as a group.

BUPA health screening is available to all Senior Managers and Directors which gives an overview of their current state of health and wellbeing. The assessment of current health and future risks includes: A medical history and lifestyle questionnaire; a physical examination; a consultation with a doctor or health adviser; the opportunity to ask questions and discuss concerns. Many test results are available on the day and a personalised health report and action plan with practical advice to help minimise health risks is produced. BUPA has been extended to a wider number of colleagues (benefit grade C1 and above) and offers private medical insurance which aims to fund medical treatment required. The company offers a discount Gym Membership at one of the leading leisure clubs in the UK, David Lloyd. This is to try and encourage colleagues to keep fit and maintain a healthy lifestyle. They also have a walking club set up where colleagues get together and walk into town at lunchtime. This is encouraged internally to ensure colleagues are taking a sufficient lunch hour and interacting outside the workplace. In every regional office they have a Sports & Social Committee set up. It is the responsibility of the committee members to plan and organise a range of sport and social activities. They also have a Wellbeing Section on their Intranet – this includes workout advice, healthy recipes, tips to alleviate stress.

BUPA health screening is available to all Senior Managers and Directors which gives an overview of their current state of health and wellbeing. The assessment of current health and future risks includes: A medical history and lifestyle questionnaire; a physical examination; a consultation with a doctor or health adviser; the opportunity to ask questions and discuss concerns. Many test results are available on the day and a personalised health report and action plan with practical advice to help minimise health risks is produced. BUPA has been extended to a wider number of colleagues (benefit grade C1 and above) and offers private medical insurance which aims to fund medical treatment required. The company offers a discount Gym Membership at one of the leading leisure clubs in the UK, David Lloyd. This is to try and encourage colleagues to keep fit and maintain a healthy lifestyle. They also have a walking club set up where colleagues get together and walk into town at lunchtime. This is encouraged internally to ensure colleagues are taking a sufficient lunch hour and interacting outside the workplace. In every regional office they have a Sports & Social Committee set up. It is the responsibility of the committee members to plan and organise a range of sport and social activities. They also have a Wellbeing Section on their Intranet – this includes workout advice, healthy recipes, tips to alleviate stress.

At Metapack they are very keen on raising the leadership and people management capability and aligning the MetaPack leadership framework to the new vision and growth strategy. They have set up a programme called the ‘MetaPack Leadership Academy' where the focus is on: strategy, managing change, values and behaviour, influence and communication, planning and organising, structure and process, teamwork and motivation, metrics, results and awards.

Within their Software Development and Product Management practices, they engage with Agile work stream structures, managing work on a team basis, using sprints, work planning and retrospective reviews – which help them manage the constant flow of demand coming into these teams, and helps them turn that work around more quickly and efficiently vs. a linear Waterfall approach.

Medigold has always attempted to pay annual bonuses to all staff as it is believed that all staff contribute to the success of the organisation. They also undertake regular reviews of salaries to ensure not only that they are exceeding benchmarks but that they are attracting the best people in the organisation.

Medigold provide their staff with many wellbeing initiatives including wellness days, smoking cessation, flu jabs, mini medicals, on-site clinician access, a dedicated wellness website, regular health promotion (on noticeboards and walkways), stress awareness, counselling and physio.

The hours of work are 8:45 - 16:45 which enables them to miss a lot of rush hour traffic to get valuable time at home. They also provide hot drinks, cold drinks, biscuits, fruit, occasional lunches, salad dressings, and small things to offer a home from home environment. They have recently had a large office refurbishment which has enabled them to create an environment which allows people a better work environment. There are several areas for privacy, relaxing and thinking to encourage people time away from their desks.

The company communicates the organisation's Primary Purpose (Mission), Core Principles (Values) and Outrageous Ambition (Vision) to employees at inductions and display it on internal boards, and at training academies.