Agrovista's chairman knows everyone's name and is happy to make time to see or call any member of staff if they wish to discuss something with him. He interacts well at all levels and always makes time for anyone who wishes to see him. An example of his involvement is that he always makes a point of contacting every employee on their birthday to wish them 'Happy Birthday'.

Agrovista's chairman knows everyone's name and is happy to make time to see or call any member of staff if they wish to discuss something with him. He interacts well at all levels and always makes time for anyone who wishes to see him. An example of his involvement is that he always makes a point of contacting every employee on their birthday to wish them 'Happy Birthday'.

Addleshaw Goddard's Managers provide clear vision and direction to their team members to enable their team to understand their role and their value to their team. One of their core values is that the Firm is open and honest, and they expect their line managers to listen to their employees and ensure that they are open to considering any queries or concerns that they may have. Their managers explain their decisions and actions and give people an opportunity to respond. Their Managers devote time to coaching their team members and are objective and fair in the way they assess and reward performance. They expect their Managers to provide timely feedback on an open, honest and constructive basis. Feedback sessions are important as it helps an individual understand how they are doing and what is required of them. Importantly, this acts as important upward communication tool so managers can receive feedback and ensure that what they are asking is realistic but also provides stretch and development for the individual.

A current example of how they support their lawyers is their Lawyer of 2014 programme. This is about equipping each of their fee earners to have the skills and expertise to be able to make a positive contribution to their business in a way that is aligned with their 2014 objectives. They have identified a number of key stages of an Associate's career, namely: New Associate, Associate Level 1, and Associate Level 2 and moving on to Managing Associate promotion stage. Their development programme has been built around each of these stages. They were one of the first law firms in the UK to introduce the MA level our programmes mark a stage in an associate's career; all have been specifically tailored to Addleshaw Goddard, and are very practical and delivered by a combination of internal and external experts. The programmes have been, and will continue to be, benchmarked against what is offered by other leading professional services providers.

Giving back to the wider community is very important to Abel & Cole. Every week they give food to local hospices and charities. Every week, through their Farmer's Choice not-for-profit scheme, they sell wholesale organic fruit and veg to schools, so they can sell them to parents and teachers, keeping the profit for school equipment and other fundraising projects. Every month Abel & Cole donate approximately 15 free boxes of fruit and vegetable to small charities, for auctions, raffles and other fundraising activities. Since June 2010 they have collected hundreds of unwanted bicycles from their customers, repaired them and shipped them to community projects in Ghana.

Keith Abel and Ted Bell, the leaders of the organisation, make regular ‘pilgrimages' to every sight in the company and meet with every single employee either as an individual or in small groups for a Q&A session. Managers are not present at the employees' meetings. This sometimes involves visits to the drivers' depots at 3.00 am and a lot of travelling around. These meetings have a huge impact on employee engagement as they cut out the middle-man and allow employees from all levels to sit down with those at the top of the company. Employees are invited to ask questions and give feedback and often the sessions can be quite intense and challenging from the directors. Afterwards, lists of actions are produced for each department and all employees are regularly updated on the progress of these actions.

The company allocate an experienced senior manager to mentor and coach each individual employee throughout the employee's entire employment life-cycle.

4C Associates regularly work with charitable organisations that encourages youth from deprived backgrounds and ethnic origins, including people with disability to find work and do something worthwhile in order to keep people off the streets and help the environment we live in. The organisation also provides training and information regarding "going back to work" for everyone. They give up their time to assist in their project by assisting people in interviewing skills and providing office space for meetings and training.

Both Managing partners of the business are as a result of internal promotion and success. Both are hugely respected individuals in the business. 1HQ has supported them through their growth.

1HQ consider the level of support individuals will need to achieve their tasks. They review this regularly asking for feedback on how they feel things are going and set up shadow opportunities.They work with individuals on clearly explaining what is required, measuring where they are achieving and what needs to be done next. The company shows an interest in people as individuals and care for their needs. The company seeks to understand their ambitions and encourages their potential. Managers know their team inside out through team building events.

Zeus have quarterly CEO awards, one to an individual in each team in the business, in recognition of outstanding achievement or efforts. The most recent awards in one department were i-Pads.

Zeus have quarterly CEO awards, one to an individual in each team in the business, in recognition of outstanding achievement or efforts. The most recent awards in one department were i-Pads.

QC Supplies have a nominated charity which receives their organisation's support and employees are actively involved in choosing which charity to support. They support the Send a Cow Charity, to which they donate a percentage of their Own Brand turnover towards provision of cows in Africa. In addition they also sponsor events held by local schools and charities.

At QC Supplies a selection of fruit is available to all staff, free of charge to encourage healthy eating and Employees are given paid leave, when required for mental health issues. QC Supplies encourage staff to get more exercise and regularly have Inter-departmental team sports events. They also offer a Debt Counselling service and provide interest-free loans upon request.

Their leader actively encourages team members to get involved and has weekly meetings with department heads to ensure he is constantly aware of all areas of the business. He sets high personal standards, leads by example and is always approachable.

They have been very selective when moving offices, despite wanting the most suitable accommodation they have taken into consideration the location for team members, for example close to town for public transport and lunch hours. The cycle to work scheme and they also encourage participation in sports teams, including football, cricket, badminton and unihoc and arrange and fund the games.

They have an annual company conference, which not only gives the opportunity for employees to be updated regarding business performance and future strategy and developments, but also involves team building events, on a company wide scale. These are held in September of each year and this year, the employees worked in 4 teams (in line with our 'House system') and took part in 'it's a Knockout.' The budget has been utilised for their annual Christmas party, team based Christmas meals and a 12 days of Christmas campaign in the office, in which there is a different treat or competition for the 12 days of Christmas. There are also social events incorporated into the incentives for the sales team on an adhoc basis outside of this budget.

They have an annual employee of the year award, voted for by staff and have a 5 and 10 year service award which amounts to a £500 bonus after 5 years and currently an Omega watch at the 10 year mark. These are awarded by their MD at company events such as the annual conference or Christmas party