People Managers Matter

Love Baked In is how the company describe the values of their business. All of the senior leadership team attended workshops to help create and shape this value statement for the business and it is part of their JD. They are also assessed and evaluated by the CEO on the basis of this value of Love Baked In There are 5 key ingredients to Love Baked In The Taste of Devotion; This is going the extra mile. The senior managers do whatever it takes to fulfill the companies mission The Feeling Of Craft : This is about the attention to detail .An example would be that each manager creates a weekly trading report analysing key metrics around the performance of their area of the business. The Desire to Share The value here is generosity . So generous with their time ,managers hold weekly/monthly one to one's and build strong relationships with their team. The Telling Of Stories: Creativity and playfulness Senior management talk about the values at the start of their team meetings and get their team to focus on great examples. The Appetite to Return: The company want to create family members not just team members so senior managers care for their team as people not just workers !

At the beginning of all team meetings at every level, each attendee, shares what has brought them joy over the past week. Or they may choose to focus on a company value and people can share examples of where they have seen a good example of behaviour around this value . It often really transforms the atmosphere at the start of the meeting and creates a positive energy . The company have also created a monthly newsletter called The Cake that goes to all team members. This is backed up by a daily communication called The Slice which also goes out to all team members . It's printed out by managers and discussed in shop /production meetings every day . They also have a company team Facebook page for team members to communicate with each other.

All managers receive external one to one coaching on a monthly basis. They can use this time to process any issue they wish, it is entirely confidential and for their own personal and professional development. The company have delivered a year long programme of world class speakers to work closely with their senior management team. In order to support their Financial Controller the company engaged a part time Finance Director to mentor her through a period of growth and planning. Their marketing executive has been put through a CIM Certificate funded by the company and supported with paid study days. The senior management team run their own diaries and know that the company place great value on their personal and family lives. They believe that to alleviate stress at senior level it is important that they are present at children's sports days, partner's hospital appointments, school plays and all those things that being present at hopefully give one a really great work-life balance. They do not expect a 9-5 culture, they expect a high performing team who delivers on the goals and objectives of their business and their happiness is key to that. The company treat them like grown-ups and they behave like them -it is a culture of mutual respect.

By not providing a covered smoking area anywhere on or near their site and offering a financial incentive of £100 after 6 months of being cigarette free and another £100 6 months later, the company believe they do as much as possible to deter their employees from smoking and the aim is to provide a positive and supportive environment to do this in. In a similar vein Kelly's Self Storage removed all their vending machines and replaced them with free, fresh fruit deliveries and equipped a full kitchen with ovens, hobs, pans, pots, knives, aprons, chopping boards - the works! - so that staff were able to prepare fresh food from scratch should they wish. Their staff offer each other their training abilities and support when undertaking any of their Charity events. From helping someone who hadn't been on a bike since they were 12 to undertake a 45 mile to running a marathon, their employees have buddied up and supported each other all the way. A sporting theme runs through most things they do at Kelly's so even their family fun days are full of (very competitive) volleyball games, extreme rounders, tugs of war and football bulldog. The company recently brought physios and masseurs in house for all of their staff. The company encourage an active, healthy lifestyle as part of their culture and it is self-perpetuating because they then attract people who are looking to or already pursue this type of lifestyle.

The company have an Employee Forum who represent different areas of the company and who build bridges between teams. They meet bi-monthly.

The company offer Training programmes, mentoring, shadowing and workshops.

A key area of focus for the business has been the ongoing delivery of the Leadership development programme delivered through: A series of internal workshops ,residential course supported by external Leadership coach promotion of one to one coaching and mentoring ,focus during Performance Review process to drive change, demonstrate return on investment as well as identify future development needs. Weekly 'Standing room Only' and monthly senior management team meetings provide a forum for managers to discuss and resolve issues within their departments. All managers have a fortnightly 121 session with the CEO which is a combination of discussing issues, problem solving and mentoring. Management bonus scheme rewards managers for achievement of objectives. Johnson Fleming run team building events periodically, typically annually. Their 2015 event consisted of 8 teams in the company competing against each other to raise as much money as possible for their charity of the year in one day, which resulted in over £4,000 being raised for CLIC Sargant. When planning team building events, the company identify individuals who are currently receiving management training or are identified as potential leaders, to be team leaders, to give them management experience, and allow them to show senior management how they perform in that situation.

In addition to EAP, and discounted gym membership available via the company's private medical insurance, they also offer membership to all employees of the Edenred voucher scheme. This allows employees to buy discounted vouchers for shopping and leisure activities including meals and entertainment, holidays and spa activities.

The Teleworking Scheme has enhanced work life balance and welfare of staff, giving them greater flexibility in how they organise their working lives and balance the demands of their career with their domestic responsibilities and personal wellbeing. Staff take part in the annual 'Step Challenge' each year and have to achieve 10,000 steps a day. This is a lot of walking/running to do. If you don't achieve 10,000 steps each day you forfeit £1. Total forfeits are donated towards our charity.

The Teleworking Scheme has enhanced work life balance and welfare of staff, giving them greater flexibility in how they organise their working lives and balance the demands of their career with their domestic responsibilities and personal wellbeing. Staff take part in the annual 'Step Challenge' each year and have to achieve 10,000 steps a day. This is a lot of walking/running to do. If you don't achieve 10,000 steps each day you forfeit £1. Total forfeits are donated towards our charity.

Employees are allowed to work from home one day a week, which eases the stress of travelling to work. This also allows some people the option of doing the school run and taking deliveries without having to worry about taking time off work.

They have recently provided new training initiatives for managers on performance management and have invested in a training scheme called Speed of Trust. They have regular 1-1's with Managers to ensure they are supported in managing their teams.

Employees are eligible for a profit related company bonus scheme which is determined by the performance of the Division against set criteria. The criteria are set out at the beginning of each financial year and employees are regularly updated as to progress.

Employees are eligible for a profit related company bonus scheme which is determined by the performance of the Division against set criteria. The criteria are set out at the beginning of each financial year and employees are regularly updated as to progress.

Health Shield, this is a voluntary benefit which is available to all colleagues and is a good start to promoting health and wellbeing in the workplace. Health Shield is a health cash plan, which helps colleagues cover the cost of everyday healthcare needs. From just £1.20 per week colleagues can claim up to 100% cashback (up to annual limits) on health treatments such as trips to the dentist and optician, physiotherapy and many other health and wellbeing therapies including reflexology, reiki and sports massages.

Health Shield, this is a voluntary benefit which is available to all colleagues and is a good start to promoting health and wellbeing in the workplace. Health Shield is a health cash plan, which helps colleagues cover the cost of everyday healthcare needs. From just £1.20 per week colleagues can claim up to 100% cashback (up to annual limits) on health treatments such as trips to the dentist and optician, physiotherapy and many other health and wellbeing therapies including reflexology, reiki and sports massages.

Rising Stars are identified as well in a fair manner and consider for senior development programmes within the business and for future progression in terms of talent management.

Rising Stars are identified as well in a fair manner and consider for senior development programmes within the business and for future progression in terms of talent management.

The company focus on clear, open communication that is delivered through a number of methods from traditional management meetings to addressing the whole company every Monday morning and Friday afternoon. Every month and quarter they hold a detailed and fun monthly/quarterly ‘wrap up' and ‘kick off' of the next month/quarter ahead. These company-wide meetings will include awards, recognition of top performance and presentations on key aspects they need to focus on for the following month. All information is documented and presented in a pdf pack so anyone not available for the meetings has access to the details. The company is also fortunate to have our walls covered in white boards and television screens that constantly update the business on the day-to-day news, successes, rewards and our core values throughout the day.

The company use a blended approach to develop their managers, combining a group training programme with individual development plans. The best example is their Management Development Programme. This includes classroom training, peer group sessions, psychometric profiles, mentoring, on-the-job learning and reflective learning. It covers a range of topics from flexing management style to different personalities to performance management. This is a year-long programme that is based on extensive training needs analysis and combines development techniques alongside evaluation to ensure the learning is embedded in the business. Another example is that the company offer tailored training solutions to individuals. One of their managers had been struggling with retention and they saw an unusually high level of attrition in his team. In response to this they discussed a number of options with him and he opted for attending an external management training course as well as coaching. This has really helped him understand his role better so that he can improve the results.

ABCDE Recognition Scheme (Above and Beyond the Call of Duty Employee) As a not for profit organisation the Group aims to have a culture whereby effort is acknowledged, praised and communicated, by saying ‘thank-you'. It is the Group's aim to celebrate achievements at every level and at every opportunity. The ABCDE scheme recognises good performance, link rewards to positive behaviours (that reflect the organisations Values) and motivate staff.

ABCDE Recognition Scheme (Above and Beyond the Call of Duty Employee) As a not for profit organisation the Group aims to have a culture whereby effort is acknowledged, praised and communicated, by saying ‘thank-you'. It is the Group's aim to celebrate achievements at every level and at every opportunity. The ABCDE scheme recognises good performance, link rewards to positive behaviours (that reflect the organisations Values) and motivate staff.

Every team at Dale & Valley Homes receives a large basket of free fruit at the start of every month to encourage staff to have a healthier diet. This also increases the likelihood of staff achieving their '5 a day' and makes eating fruit a normal part of their working day. Their 'Workout Wednesdays' take place on the first Wednesday of every month to encourage employees to carry out some form of physical exercise. Employees receive a half hour credit to their flexi account when they have undertaken an exercise activity (usual walking, running or a visit to the gym) in their lunch hour. Employees can boost their annual leave entitlement by buying an additional five days leave. Alternatively, they can sell up to 5 days leave. Annual flu vaccinations and mini health checks are available to all staff to improve their health and reduce absenteeism. The mini health checks gives employees a picture of their current health and suggests changes to their lifestyle, if needed.

Every team at Dale & Valley Homes receives a large basket of free fruit at the start of every month to encourage staff to have a healthier diet. This also increases the likelihood of staff achieving their '5 a day' and makes eating fruit a normal part of their working day. Their 'Workout Wednesdays' take place on the first Wednesday of every month to encourage employees to carry out some form of physical exercise. Employees receive a half hour credit to their flexi account when they have undertaken an exercise activity (usual walking, running or a visit to the gym) in their lunch hour. Employees can boost their annual leave entitlement by buying an additional five days leave. Alternatively, they can sell up to 5 days leave. Annual flu vaccinations and mini health checks are available to all staff to improve their health and reduce absenteeism. The mini health checks gives employees a picture of their current health and suggests changes to their lifestyle, if needed.

A new e-learning system has been made available for employees and volunteers, which is accessible from both work and home computers, reducing potential constraints around accessibility and enabling learners to engage in learning activities at a time that suits them. The system also enables the Trust to address concerns about cross infection, which prevent people with CF meeting each other, and ensure we adopt an inclusive approach to learning. The Trust recently developed an NVQ level 3 award in Volunteer Management for our employees to better understand best practice standards of volunteer management. The programme has been so successful that it is now offered to other organisations and the take-up is encouraging.

'Introduction to Management' programme provides support to new managers on becoming more comfortable in their role as managers. Recently, the Trust invested in a year long development programme for its senior managers, to facilitate better collaborative working. Peer coaching, action learning and 360 degree feedback were integral parts of the programme, which is based on NLP (Neuro- Linguistic) techniques.

The organisation supports its Senior Managers through external coaching and mentoring schemes along with developing their own coaching skills through bespoke coaching programme. All managers are sponsored to achieve level 5 or above management qualifications. Access to peer support and external coaching if required.

The organisation supports its Senior Managers through external coaching and mentoring schemes along with developing their own coaching skills through bespoke coaching programme. All managers are sponsored to achieve level 5 or above management qualifications. Access to peer support and external coaching if required.

CHS's approach and decision making is reflective of the values of the organisation, with great emphasis on how they do things and how their customers feel about them. Respect - their Senior Management worked closely in developing and facilitating the company's behaviours based programme called 'Living our Values'. This workshop encourages participants to consider their approach and the impact it has on others. Through the workshop, the senior managers openly share their own personal and work related experiences, both positive and negative. Approach – CHS' Directors regularly go on 'Back to the Floor' visits to spend time with employees in different parts of the organisation. These are positively received by employees and the Directors. Partnership - in direct response to Best Companies feedback, they have launched an Employee Wellbeing Action Group. This is led by representatives from across CHS and jointly sponsored by two of their Directors. Directors attend operational team meetings across the organisation, building their connection to other teams and sharing knowledge. Openness - we have a truly consultative approach which runs throughout the organisation with staff, service users, customers and their wider community. Deliver - senior managers have refreshed their corporate vision, mission and logo, making them more accessible and representative of the organisation and allowing a clearer understanding of what employees need to do. They have gone back to basics and the emphasis is now on what, why and how they do it.

CHS continue to roll out 'Career Pathway Frameworks' within the organisation, these are job role specific and focus as much as on the behaviours and values of the organisation, as well as empowering the individual to demonstrate areas of high performance to increase reward potential. One of the unique elements of their competency frameworks is the focus on career progression and this has been successful in developing their team leader/supervisor talent pipeline. One of their strategic priorities is to develop their performance management processes to build upon the linkage of corporate performance to individual reward. This includes a review of how competency frameworks can be further rolled out across the organisation.

The company's learning motto is Be the Best I can. The Cheval Promise is: 30 minutes of learning - every colleague - every week.

The company's learning motto is Be the Best I can. The Cheval Promise is: 30 minutes of learning - every colleague - every week.

From staff surveys there is a clear belief by staff that the SMT are committed to CGL values. The repeated checking each year is a strong message reinforcement. The commitment to openness, honesty and integrity is perhaps best illustrated by the CGL Pulse poster placed each month in public areas in each office which allows every member of staff to see trading performance, recruitment, training key knowledge indicators. Health and Safety is clearly of paramount importance in the work and near miss/incident reporting in a weekly engineers meeting together with new joiner tool box talks and the buddy system all led by the SMT are also a clear messages. CGL invests in technology and people to give them the edge. CGL are committed to listening to one another, whether face to face in regular appraisals, at road shows and team days or via annual questionnaires where we test the feedback from all. Staff is involved with both sustainability and environmental issues and CGL SMT lead from the front in this as final arbiters of the technical consulting output and within the operation of individual offices. Finally, CGL is very aware that to bring in and retain staff it has to provide a fulfilling experience. In this SMT both lead by example and mentor colleagues to progress on the CGL Career Pathway. The 2015 successes in professional exams, the promotions that resulted, and the development of team structures that give aspiring staff a taste of business responsibility have all been crucial.

CGL implements a number of initiatives to support managers, and to provide development opportunities in the context of the CGL Career Paths. At project junior management level, implementation of formal team structures and clarity of roles and expectations have been set out, and allow the managers to operate within a common framework. They are supported by guidance from senior managers and through the company's quality management procedures. For newly chartered staff, CGL has developed a Management Training Programme, in conjunction with the Chartered Management Institute, which gives these aspiring middle managers an in-depth insight into the practice of management in a live environment. This is a cross office initiative, which has benefits in enhancing communications at this mid-level. The outcome of the programme is a Certificate in Management and Leadership. Line managers from each of the offices gather on a quarterly basis for formal competence training interventions from an external trainer. This is also a forum for peer discussion and mutual support. Senior staff similarly undergoes competence training, and are encouraged to gain accreditation of their management experience through application for Chartered Manager status. Board members participate in formal IoD training programmes for their roles. The Board has a programme of inviting senior managers to participate in meetings. All of this development is set within an environment of twice yearly appraisals, regular updates, mentoring and coaching relationships and feedback surveys which allow a culture of continuous improvement.

Our mission and vision is communicated via our Induction Process for new starters, via the Staff Update twice a year and it is displayed on notice boards. Success is measured via KPIs.

Our mission and vision is communicated via our Induction Process for new starters, via the Staff Update twice a year and it is displayed on notice boards. Success is measured via KPIs.

The Chief Executive Award is run annually, and is an opportunity for managers to nominate teams and individuals who have excelled at work. The selection criteria is linked to Aster's strategy and its values. In particular nominators need to highlight colleague's strong customer focus, positive behaviour, sustained performance and contribution to Aster's strategy. The Group Chief Executive selects a short-list and those colleagues are invited to an Executive Board lunch where the winners are announced: one individual and one team. The prize is £2,500, which the winners can spend on a memorable experience. This recognition process is widely communicated across Aster, and in 2016 they received their highest number of nominations since the award began. Research was conducted in June 2015 to gain feedback from previous winners and runners up. The positive feedback evidenced that the award, process and experience were delivering what they were set out to; to recognise and reward colleagues for their great work.

Aster's internal training offer via The Academy provides a comprehensive range of short training courses that are open to all employees. Much of the training is delivered by Internal Trainers. They have at least 40 active trainers at any one time. They support this group by providing the necessary skills training. In addition their team of internal coaches are there to provide coaching to any individual that requires it. This team went through rigorous selection and training and keep their skills up to date. This year 38 individuals have had coaching sessions. The company have run mentoring workshops and provide a mentor/mentee workbook for those that wish to pursue a mentoring relationship. Their internal L&D team are available to support team development needs across the business, and last year supported 35 team events, by either facilitating events or advising managers on options. This kind of support is critical for a business such as Aster's where there have been large-scale changes to teams and ways of working. The L&D team have access to a range of tools to support these kind of events, such as Belbins Self-Perception Inventory and Insights Colour model. Their annual apprentice programme allows them to bring up to 12 young people into the business each year. They work with managers to make sure their skills are retained by the business. This programme has been running since 2010 and is now well-embedded into what they do.

The company ran Health Week which promoted good eating habits, being healthy and encouraging health activities such as walks and spinning classes. Fruit was also provided to all locations for the week free of charge. They have also conducted Health Assured Road shows which meant they visited various sites across the various Arco locations which included drop-in sessions around health and wellbeing for staff. They also run via My Perks various discounts scheme on gym memberships.

The company ensures that a minimum of 1% of pre-tax profits are donated to charity. They are also a partner of the bloodhound land speed record and support the STEM project (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). They also support and are a partner to the Yorkshire Air Ambulance and Hull FC Foundation which gives support to Young Adults to get them ready for employment. All staff can have up to 2 paid days per year for CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) and all colleagues are encouraged to participate. They also hold an annual family fun day where they participate in an activity and actively encourage colleagues to raise money for their chosen charity, in the past they have taken part in a Dragon Boat Race and an It's a knock out challenge.

Leaders focus on delivering business results through engaging their employees. This approach is embedded within the whole culture and there are a number of different activities which drive improvements in this field. According to their internal employee engagement survey (called The Pulse), they have seen favourable responses increase year on year, along with the number of employees choosing to participate in the survey. The entire organisation is guided by Blue Box Values. These reflect who they are and what they stand for and clearly state commitment to customers, quality, people, integrity, teamwork and good citizenship. Examples of senior management commitment to their Blue Box values include a culture of ‘skip level meetings' where employees have the opportunity to meet with senior leaders and ‘townhalls' Where employees are updated with key organisational information. They can also be seen in the senior sponsorship of their Employee Networks. These bring together people with shared backgrounds and interest to engage with and learn from each other outside of their daily work lives. They give participants the opportunity to broaden their networks as well as their knowledge of the business, and in many cases, give back to the local community. A final example is the strong relationship with Albion in the Community, the charitable arm of Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club. This provides volunteering opportunities for employees as well as work experiences and programmes for key groups in the local community.

The Reward Blue programme enables all employees to recognise colleagues no matter which business unit they work in, grade or location. Employees can praise effort, reward results and celebrate loyalty. Employees can be nominated for Reward Blue points that can be redeemed through the Reward Blue catalogue to buy gifts and high street shopping vouchers. Every year March is ‘Employee Appreciation Month'. Senior Leaders encourage their employees to consider how they can celebrate everyday accomplishments at work. In addition Blue Looks Good on You was held on March 18, and employees were asked to wear their best blue clothes to show their support for recognition. Pinnacle Reward programs are uniquely designed by business unit Senior Leaders to recognise outstanding achievements and the extraordinary people who made them happen. Chairman's Award for Innovation program honours teams worldwide who have developed new or improved products, processes or services that have had a measurable impact on business results. It is the premier program for recognising employees around the world who exemplify the innovative spirit that is a core element of the heritage Customer Service Award which recognises two categories of excellence: employees who provided a single act of outstanding service over the past year and employees who demonstrate consistent excellence over five years or more. The Working Parents and Care Givers programme has been set up for employees to nominate a colleague who manages to make their career and family fit into their life and inspires them. Ten winners are chosen to receive 10,000 reward blue points.

The company's core values are uniquely communicated under the banner of "Let's Talk". This maxim is regularly referenced and clearly understood by everyone. Their values live through what they say and do and "Let's Talk" makes their values a conversation and a work in progress. They have ‘Outrageous Ambition' to double the business to £38m by 2020.

To celebrate great teamwork throughout the year they hold a Summer BBQ for everyone based at our Head Office. This involves the Operations team, some of the Marketing team, the Admin teams and the Directors and lasts most of the day. People take part in various challenges and get to compete in group events like the egg and spoon race. Overall winners receive a shield, individual winners receive trophies and prizes (gifts vouchers) are awarded at the end of the day. This has become a great Institution in the company and highly motivational.

The development and implementation of a core skills programme, integral to the development of Managers for the future of the company. An outside company is used to give their Management Team regular external residential training to focus their Management Abilities and enhance Team Performance.

The development and implementation of a core skills programme, integral to the development of Managers for the future of the company. An outside company is used to give their Management Team regular external residential training to focus their Management Abilities and enhance Team Performance.

Payroll Giving to Zurich Community Trust is on a pound for pound basis with no upper limit. Office based or individual fundraising by employees for the Zurich Community Trust is matched 100% with no upper limit. Team fundraising for nominated external charities is matched 50% and capped at £10,000 per event. Individual fundraising for nominated charities is matched 50% and capped at £500 per event. Children of staff fundraising is pound for pound and capped at £50. National charity days such as Red Nose Day or Children in Need are also matched 50% with no cap.

Payroll Giving to Zurich Community Trust is on a pound for pound basis with no upper limit. Office based or individual fundraising by employees for the Zurich Community Trust is matched 100% with no upper limit. Team fundraising for nominated external charities is matched 50% and capped at £10,000 per event. Individual fundraising for nominated charities is matched 50% and capped at £500 per event. Children of staff fundraising is pound for pound and capped at £50. National charity days such as Red Nose Day or Children in Need are also matched 50% with no cap.

We Are Social share the UK and Global vision with the whole agency and have given real understanding of what the key changes were going to be to staff to ensure they achieve this. The company ensure that the global senior management team physically meet twice a year at summits to ensure they all have an opinion and are part of the vision/strategy/how to execute it all.

We Are Social's have an annual Winter Conference and ski trip. All EU offices head to Austria for 3 days, paid for by the agency. The company has quarterly social events; Miami Vice yacht party, who wants to be a WAS-illionaire quiz night (for charity) and an annual Lovebox festival afternoon. The whole agency is provided with festival tickets and refreshments. They have a Christmas party which has a 1920's theme, with make-up artists, hairdressers, casino, agency wide secret santa, awards ceremonies, a photobooth & breakfast the following morning.

Denis Nolan is an exceptional leader with an entrepreneurial vision. He is widely recognised as a pioneer of solving complex construction challenges. Denis has ensured that the Toureen culture is led by integrity and family principles. As well as being a ‘hands on' Managing Director, he often closely supports several projects and the team. Denis is a demanding perfectionist for health and safety and this has led not only to his team's well-being but several industry awards. A true philanthropist himself, he supports many UK Charities both within and outside the industry. He is very generous in spirit and giving and ensures there is an open door policy. He is always available, listens and genuinely cares. He knows the name of everyone of his employees and remembers and takes genuine interest in them as people. He sees his team's talents and skills and supports them to achieve their successes.

Supporting school breakfasts with donations, sponsoring local sports activities, apprenticeship schemes and Toureen ensure local people in all regions their sites are based in, have the chance to work on Toureen Projects. They also supported a community outreach activity for a local school they were working on. They built a 'skip garden' for the students so they were able to grow, nurture and harvest organic produce on the school grounds. They sank the skip into the ground and built a walkway around it using recycled materials.

Personal Group has Pick A Star awards for Head Office, where employees get nominated by fellow colleagues. The company holds an awards ceremony every quarter and employees can win a 5 day break with their partners overseas.

The Chief Executive of the Personal Group operates the ‘20 Questions program' where small groups can ‘quiz' him on any topic they see fit. He attends all Quarterly Sales Meetings and events in Singapore, Paris, Edinburgh and Manchester. He has an open door policy and tries to deal with issues as much as possible in the moment. He takes an active role in the significant projects that affect the business. He hosts the quarterly comms where questions are encouraged and chairs the annual Employee Survey process to get as close as possible to how the employees are feeling and functioning. Their CEO hosts the peer to peer reward and recognition program ‘Pick a star' which is based on the company's four values. He invented and hosts the Annual Launch Meeting which includes the Annual Values Awards, where they seek to ‘catch someone doing a good job'.

Monarch is geared towards saving money on utilities for their customers. Therefore every quarter, the company calculates the monetary amount of refunds all of their teams have identified for their customers and the team which obtains the biggest refund value for that quarter, receives a 5% bonus in their salary for that month for every team member. Their customers are rewarded and their people are awarded.

Monarch is geared towards saving money on utilities for their customers. Therefore every quarter, the company calculates the monetary amount of refunds all of their teams have identified for their customers and the team which obtains the biggest refund value for that quarter, receives a 5% bonus in their salary for that month for every team member. Their customers are rewarded and their people are awarded.

Karen Forrester, TGI Fridays UK Managing Director, is much loved, valued and respected throughout the company. She is regularly seen in the stores and will always take time with the team. This is also true of the company's new open stores, where Karen and her Exec team take a day to spend with the new Fridays family members to welcome them to the brand. If a key message needs to be delivered to the team, Karen will create a video message which will then be posted onto TGI Fridays social website, and a link is sent directly to their mobile phones.

There are many team building events which run across the year at TGI Fridays. The company's team challenge begins in February, where each of their stores goes through a review process to ensure everyone in their organisation meets the behavioural and ability criteria. Each staff member is then asked to re-certify to ensure they have the knowledge to be efficient in their role, and then they are observed to ensure they display TGI Fridays brand promise to their guests. This is a store activity so that no one is left behind. The store will be visited by a Director of Operations to sign off, the opportunity is used to reward and recognise key individuals who may have stood out in the journey. A series of additional targets and competitions all count towards the aim of finding the very best store. The final event will be a Senior Leadership visit at peak, again taking the opportunity to reward, recognise & energise the teams. The scoring will then determine a regional winner and that store will receive £1K towards a team event. The overall 2nd place store, will receive £100 for every member of the team, and finally the winning store will not only be crowned store of the year, but every member of the team will receive an extra weeks' pay, which they receive the week before Christmas. This is not only a much coveted accolade, but a very welcome sum of money which is cited as giving them a Christmas to remember.

SPF Private Clients plan to arrange meetings with the company's leaders and senior management to discuss the results of the survey.

The company offers flexible working and organises various social activities during the year.

Employee development is encouraged at every level within the business within the parameters of Speedy Hire's “Career Journey” and this is evidenced tangibly in the volume of roles that are obtained by individuals already working within Speedy. 25% of vacancies within Speedy are filled internally as individuals are encouraged to complete both role based and aspiration training and development, preparing them well for their next career move. The development of the employee starts at the “Qualified” level of the Career Journey. Inductions to the business are tailored for each discipline and each team member has a career journey that highlights courses required, relevant qualifications and on the job training to support them through three levels of competency through the “Developed” level to “Expert”. At this point, the team member is in a great place to progress to their next career move. Each course is supported by their internal Training Academy to ensure each individual training log is up to date and the booking process is seamless. The leaders in the business are supported with tailor made management courses at different levels that will give each attendee a qualification from the CMI (Level 3 or 5) and there are various leadership plus modules and 360 feedback put in place to develop them further. Development is seen at every level and a number of current Directors started in the business at entry level. The internal mobility supported by the Career Journey is certainly one of the best examples of their commitment to employee development. In addition to this, Speedy Hire have a Human resources Service Charter manual that details all of the services they provide for employees to ensure managers and employees know what they have access to and what extra services they provide to support them in their development.

Speedy recognise the importance of employee involvement and feedback and has established the ‘Employee Forums' as a framework for discussion on matters affecting all employees. They believe it is imperative that they give all employees their “voice”. The employee forums were initiated throughout the business as a result of feedback from our annual employee survey. They have been introduced as a way of improving communication methods throughout Speedy. The Forums have helped the business to establish and understand our people's thoughts, opinions, views and suggestions from all different grades, within all the business areas and departments. They have been a successful method in allowing the organisation to share business information with employees and as a result of the suggestions and comments raised there have been many improvements made to the day to day running of the business. They are a two way process of communication, discussing matters that affect all employees in a positive, professional and constructive manner. The Employee Forums are being held to share business information; encourage open and honest feedback, suggestions and ideas from employees; build stronger connections between their business strategy and what their people think; supplement the existing channels of communication within the group on business matters; provide effective two way feedback to promote better understanding and good relationships with employees, managers and leaders. The fact that the organisation set these up as a result of employee feedback gives an indication that they do listen and act upon feedback from employees

Financial Planning Manager and Head Office working groups are groups that represent views of all regional teams and Head Office teams to act as a sounding board and help implement new initiatives. These groups have been responsible for the implementation of many new activities to make working life better at SFS. Every quarter briefings are run for Head Office staff by senior management to give an update to all staff on what is going on within the business. It demonstrates the values in which the business is run on and keeps everyone informed of how the business is performing and what its key priorities are.

Andrew Barker joined SFS over 22 years ago as their Technical Manager and has subsequently worked his way up to become Managing Director in 2011. Due to his experience of working in SFS, Andrew has extensive knowledge of the whole business and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by staff in each area. With this in mind, he maintains open engagement with his staff at all levels and has launched many innovative staff engagement initiatives such as License to Grill where staff can ‘grill' him in team meetings and License to Chuck. Andrew is committed to attend every Financial Planning Manager Roadshow nationwide and is a guest at department team meetings once a year. He also holds quarterly business update briefings to all HO staff and issues a monthly update email with his personal thoughts. Upon his appointment to MD, he abolished the MD's private office and remains seated with his colleagues. Andrew asked for this room to be used for study purposes to help staff who want to gain further qualifications to enhance their career. Andrew is well liked by many staff due to his ability to engage with people on all levels. Whilst he is already well respected for his knowledge of the business, he is well known for encouraging a ‘fun element' to working for SFS by organising many staff events and competitions and with his references to popular culture, which he often demonstrates in his presentations to staff. At previous conferences, Andrew has taken part in a comedy video and the outtakes often sees him at the end of a joke, and for this, amongst many other things he does, he is respected by staff for not taking himself too seriously and they see him as very approachable.

A pub bell. Someone suggested that they were not around when everyone went off to the pub so they now announce it on Yammer and have bought a ship bell, so they ring the bell when they go to the pub on a Friday!

Flu jabs are offered, return to work discussions and in one case they offered a taxi for someone to get in and back from work. They provide fresh fruit every day in the office and sustainably sourced drinks. They also have access to the health care scheme.

Shaylor volunteers support Sutton Coldfield Cancer Support Group, in putting up their Christmas decorations, in time for their Christmas Fayre on 6th December every year. The company also buy the Christmas tree. They also took part in a Christmas Tree recycling project with St Mary's Hospice Moseley. This entails collecting trees from various' residences in the south of the city and putting them on a truck and taking them to a nominated recycling centre. St Mary's Hospice gets £10 for every tree collected.

Shaylor Group's recognition and reward strategy is based around the consistent management approach of praise and thanks for good work and performance. Recognition is seen as a key motivator, hence the focus on praise and encouraging “what can we do better” rather than stifle the proactive and innovative ideas and contribution of individuals and teams. This approach was confirmed during their Investors in People assessment. Recognition is given both verbally and through personal emails and letters from the CEO and Directors. Wider recognition is given in celebrations posted on the intranet, e.g. thank you letters from clients, passing a successful audit, achieving 100% customer satisfaction, attaining a high score in the Considerate Constructors scheme, entry to the national site manager of the year award etc. Examples of press releases, client letters and cards of thanks are often shared to highlight individuals' successes.

Staff parties, team/departmental nights out, sports and social club and annual staff awards.

1 2 1's, open door policy from the top of the organisation.

RGL are committed to helping employees to achieve a balance between work and personal life. As part of RGL's health insurance scheme, all employees have access to free cinema tickets and other discounted leisure activities. Flexible working options and generous compassionate leave are also given to employees, when necessary, in order to help with this balance. RGL have an employee assistance programme; all employees are able to access free telephone counselling and information services at any time of day or night. Employees are able to speak to experts in bereavement, stress, depression, bullying, financial problems, relationship problems and other personal or work related concerns. To improve the everyday wellbeing of employees, RGL organise ergonomic workstation assessments to ensure that employees' desks are set up correctly and that their comfort and posture are not compromised in any way. In addition to this, employees can choose to have an on-site acupressure massage every month. This is a massage treatment designed to reduce stress and the build-up of tension in the neck and shoulders. It can also improve motivation and positive thinking. To encourage employees to be active, RGL run a cycle to work scheme and loans for gym memberships.

RGL are committed to helping employees to achieve a balance between work and personal life. As part of RGL's health insurance scheme, all employees have access to free cinema tickets and other discounted leisure activities. Flexible working options and generous compassionate leave are also given to employees, when necessary, in order to help with this balance. RGL have an employee assistance programme; all employees are able to access free telephone counselling and information services at any time of day or night. Employees are able to speak to experts in bereavement, stress, depression, bullying, financial problems, relationship problems and other personal or work related concerns. To improve the everyday wellbeing of employees, RGL organise ergonomic workstation assessments to ensure that employees' desks are set up correctly and that their comfort and posture are not compromised in any way. In addition to this, employees can choose to have an on-site acupressure massage every month. This is a massage treatment designed to reduce stress and the build-up of tension in the neck and shoulders. It can also improve motivation and positive thinking. To encourage employees to be active, RGL run a cycle to work scheme and loans for gym memberships.

The company have a 'Your Rewards' programme which pulls together the whole range of benefits offered by Provide. There is a website detailing over 8000 discounts and savings that staff can access on retail and leisure services, supported by a glossy A5 booklet giving discount codes. This has been helpful in engaging staff who do not have ready access to IT. The booklet is handed out at Corporate Induction where details of the scheme are communicated. The programme also details contractual benefits and explains the options staff have around the range of pension and assurance benefits they offer. It includes details of the Credit Union membership they have put in place for staff and their Employee Assistance Programme which offers legal and consumer advice as well as counselling services. The site also promotes healthy lifestyle initiatives run by their own in house teams.

All staff at Provide have an annual Performance and Development Review when a personal development plan is agreed and implemented. This applies to all their staff across all pay bands, clinical and non clinical. A 6 monthly review is held to review progress with objectives and personal development plans. A range of internal and external training opportunities are available and an annual learning prospectus is produced for staff. A strategic learning and development group is in place whose main purpose is to ensure that learning & development across Provide supports the safe and effective delivery of health care to all their customers and patients and also supports the vision and values of the organisation. A blended learning approach is in place so that staff can learn and update their training in different ways. E learning is in place and can be used for the majority of essential training updates as well as CPD and clinical updates. Monthly lunch and learn sessions are held, using in house specialists or external speakers for a range of topics and updates.

Since their last engagement survey Powertecnique have implemented a dress down Friday policy to allow staff a more casual day in the office. This has improved morale without negatively affecting productivity. A win win! They are also currently in the process of investigating improved private health & pension offerings for their staff. A company wide pay review is also due to be commenced as pay was raised as a concern from the latest survey.

Since their last engagement survey Powertecnique have implemented a dress down Friday policy to allow staff a more casual day in the office. This has improved morale without negatively affecting productivity. A win win! They are also currently in the process of investigating improved private health & pension offerings for their staff. A company wide pay review is also due to be commenced as pay was raised as a concern from the latest survey.

Junior consultants are given rewards such as tailor made suits, watches and pens when they achieve certain milestones in their career. This has proven particularly successful allowing them to feel successful and to have visible reminders of their success. These rewards are very sought after. They have also run incentives for colleagues around additional training and enhanced training personal budgets for individuals which have proven popular.

Potensis's internal coaching is very strong. New starters receive 6 months of training and development with a buddy/mentor, formal training, training assignments, weekly reviews and personal projects. This scheme has been really well received by their new starters and has allowed them to hire people with no previous recruitment experience.

In order to enhance the wellbeing of their employees, PM Group display posters from their Health & Safety Department which are displayed on all office and site notice boards and the intranet.

Line Managers often take their teams out for meals on completion of very hectic work schedules. A young lady in her mid 20's has been part of their talent management programme for the last 6 years and on completion of Part III Architect Programme the company has awarded her with a promotion as well as a bouquet of flowers and article in the Group wide company magazine. One Employee who won substantial work for the company was awarded a fully paid weekend away with his spouse.

Plastribution has recently moved into new larger open plan offices, which has provided employees with the chance to take relaxing breaks in their working environment, create meals, obtain snacks and free squash in the adjoining kitchen and enjoy a light, warm and well ventilated workplace.

Plastribution has recently moved into new larger open plan offices, which has provided employees with the chance to take relaxing breaks in their working environment, create meals, obtain snacks and free squash in the adjoining kitchen and enjoy a light, warm and well ventilated workplace.

The company have a suite of Management Development Programmes to assist their existing and aspiring managers and supervisors in developing skills and knowledge to equip them for current and future managerial roles. Two programmes are accredited with the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM), and tailored to aligned them with their managerial competencies and values. Their third programme is a bespoke modular Leadership Development Programme, coupled with 360 Degree feedback before and after with coaching and support provided. Considerable time is invested for studying, day release, and coaching over a 5 month period for each Programme. Celebrations are held at the end of each programme, with the presentation of certificates and a monetary recognition reward.

Their organisation's Primary Purpose of Opening Doors, Enhancing Lives has a variety of medium term priorities driven by Delivery Outcomes for the Community. These are categorised under 2 key themes, one of which is Enhancing Resources and Governance to ensure they deliver high quality, cost effective and efficient services. One of their key Business Plan priorities therefore focuses on Value for Money and Boosting Productivity. Examples include: Homeworking introduced for 20+ staff to allow better quality of life, saving time and mileage costs going unnecessarily to hot-desking facilities. An app was written to access their HR system to enable mobile users to request holidays and see their wage slips using a tablet and personal computers – removing the need for paper copies and needing to login from a work PC. Automated the collation of information on ‘Notices Seeking Possession' saving 1hr a week compiling stats for housing. A new process agreed with British Gas to immediately transfer gas and electricity supply to BG when a property becomes void, thereby ensuring utility supplies are working allowing work to be carried out immediately on the property by their contactors. This ensures quicker entry and turnaround of void properties, avoids time wasting chasing to get utility supplies transferred.

OrderDynamics have launched a Talent Management Programme which recognises future Leaders of the business to build on their achievements and develop the strengths of the top 5% of future Leaders in the company. Currently, the CEO hand writes anniversary cards for all employees commending them for their achievements over the past year. 5 year anniversaries are spend with the cofounders and other employees over dinner.

OrderDynamics provide Time Out Tuesday's - a complimentary massage service for all staff every Tuesday in the office. They also provide complimentary fresh fruit smoothies all year round made on site. They provide a keeping fit allowance that's not just a Gym subsidy. It's an allowance of £25 each month that employees can use towards anything they do which makes them feel healthy - taking the kids swimming, paying for Boris Bike fees, even towards their family fresh veg & fruit bill each month. We pay 50% of onsite Yoga class fees.

OpenBet supports employee development via a plethora of activities, such as, Brown Bag sessions to share knowledge across the organisation, workshops for hands on programming activities, supervised Google hangouts with subject matter experts at hand to explain specific subjects and topics, internal and external training sessions on soft skills, managerial skills as well as methodologies and technical skills. Traditional classroom training is used in conjunction with e-learning activities and remote teaching via conference systems and remote internet meetings. Training plans are developed for specific roles within the organisation to help new comers or people being promoted internally, handle their new role within OpenBet.

The company have in place a 'Spot Bonus Award Policy'. This is awarded by management on a special basis when employees have made a particularly noteworthy contribution, above and beyond the call of duty. This programme provides managers with a valuable tool to motivate, reward and recognise those employees who distinguish themselves through extra efforts. Significant short-term contributions earns a bonus of £200. A Significant medium/longer-term contribution earns the employee £300-500. A special recognition award to sustained leadership performance over a considerable timeframe, and/or the accomplishment of mission critical, company-wide projects of a major scale is awarded with £1000. To achieve maximum recognition and motivational value, managers are encouraged to provide the employee with a letter of commendation, which will be included in the employee's HR file. They also have a colleague recognition programme; colleagues can nominate an individual or team who has made a measurable contribution to the company; if successful, every quarter a nominated individual wins £1000, or if a team, £2000.

In July 2014 Olive Catering Services employed their first ever L & D Manager. Their role is to support business retention and growth by identifying and designing L & D solutions that are focused on the achievement of the business and people strategy. By investing in this new internal role they aim to further demonstrate their ongoing commitment to people development.

As a contract catering company, Olive is committed to healthy eating and offering healthy eating choices to their customers and staff. In 2012,Olive signed up to the Department of Health's Responsibility Deal pledge to reduce the salt in the food they produce. As part of this pledge they have put together communication packages to educate both their employees and their customers about the dangers of excessive salt levels in food and the benefits of reducing salt usage. Their Operations teams also periodically run Healthy Eating Awareness days at their sites which enable their customers to learn more about general nutrition and health awareness.

The company use a number of formal and informal processes to support employee development. Monthly business reviews between an employee and their manager are time off the desk and cover the monthly results in terms of activity and performance, then touch on areas of concern and areas of strength and a section left for discussion upwards and downwards and then room for manager comments and actions for the next month. Quarterly reviews are a more in depth look at how an employee is doing and cover more areas such as challenges faced across the quarter and training and development discussions which focus on what training the individual needs to succeed and quality of training is evaluated. The quarterly reviews also look at the promotion criteria and discussions are had to ensure the individual is on track for promotion. Ratings are also given to each employee on how well they demonstrated the Nicoll Curtin Attributes over the last quarter, and this rating needs to be at a minimum level in order to be considered for promotion. Annual career reviews work to ensure that an individual's goals and targets are recorded and acknowledged by the business and enables them to create a talent pipeline for the business- knowing who wants to become management or principal billers. These annual reviews do not cover billing performance but more about the individual and how they are doing in terms of their career and satisfaction..

Nicoll Curtin's leadership team knows that the best ideas can come from anywhere in the business so they are committed to learning from everyone and implementing great ideas irrespective of where they have come from. The leadership team reviews any ideas that come through and communicates them with the business. Work hard, work together. The Senior Management team understands why their business is successful and it's because of who they hire and how they develop their consultants. Their MD and Sales Director sit with the teams on a daily basis and operate an open desk policy, meaning anyone can go up to them and ask questions. They sit on the floor and hot desk throughout the teams which demonstrates how involved they really are.

2013 was Multiply's 10th anniversary and to celebrate this they took all their employees away for an overnight stay at Aberfeldy. The theme was a pagan ritual ceremony and each employee had a specially chosen, bespoke outfit waiting for them in their room on arrival. Their team from London flew up to join this too and the whole company had a fantastic evening of entertainment and celebration. This event took several months to plan and was packed with unique and personal touches. All costs were fully covered by Multiply and the event was a fantastic success. They have various other team building events including a yearly Company Update BBQ in the summer which brings the whole agency together in either London or Edinburgh. They have also recently installed their own bespoke bar in the basement, and they have ‘down time Friday' to encourage everyone to get together for a Friday refreshment.

2013 was Multiply's 10th anniversary and to celebrate this they took all their employees away for an overnight stay at Aberfeldy. The theme was a pagan ritual ceremony and each employee had a specially chosen, bespoke outfit waiting for them in their room on arrival. Their team from London flew up to join this too and the whole company had a fantastic evening of entertainment and celebration. This event took several months to plan and was packed with unique and personal touches. All costs were fully covered by Multiply and the event was a fantastic success. They have various other team building events including a yearly Company Update BBQ in the summer which brings the whole agency together in either London or Edinburgh. They have also recently installed their own bespoke bar in the basement, and they have ‘down time Friday' to encourage everyone to get together for a Friday refreshment.

Each summer the company holds a themed summer party. This year it was based around the Football World Cup finals. The company provided food, drinks and a variety of entertainments and competitions throughout the day with colleagues positively encouraged to get involved. In the weeks leading up, they also launched a fantasy world cup league competition with prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd places - nearly 60 staff took part. This year they were able to provide Segway's for colleagues to "try out" along with some more familiar "games", such as "test your strength", "hoop the ducks", and "crazy golf". On the day employees were encouraged to wear casual clothes and were welcome to sport their favourite football teams' shirts if they wanted to. The party featured a face-painting artist, table football and a penalty shootout competition. On the day a fish and chip lunch was provided and a healthy alternative, and soft drinks. The divisions of the company get fully immersed in the activities of the day, and competition between the various departments can get quite fierce. A full range of photos are provided after the event, and a general round up of the day's activities are fed back via the Buzz platforms.

Each summer the company holds a themed summer party. This year it was based around the Football World Cup finals. The company provided food, drinks and a variety of entertainments and competitions throughout the day with colleagues positively encouraged to get involved. In the weeks leading up, they also launched a fantasy world cup league competition with prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd places - nearly 60 staff took part. This year they were able to provide Segway's for colleagues to "try out" along with some more familiar "games", such as "test your strength", "hoop the ducks", and "crazy golf". On the day employees were encouraged to wear casual clothes and were welcome to sport their favourite football teams' shirts if they wanted to. The party featured a face-painting artist, table football and a penalty shootout competition. On the day a fish and chip lunch was provided and a healthy alternative, and soft drinks. The divisions of the company get fully immersed in the activities of the day, and competition between the various departments can get quite fierce. A full range of photos are provided after the event, and a general round up of the day's activities are fed back via the Buzz platforms.

Employee development is key to delivering Midas Vision and the roll out of the CLEAR programme supports their long term commitment to developing their staff. Core elements of the CLEAR programme include: Bespoke management and leadership training delivered to operational, commercial and business support staff , Performance Development Review (PDR) training, Introduction of monthly 1-2-1 meetings between staff and their line managers to discuss progress and development needs – known as CLEAR Catch Ups, Training initiatives covering customer service workshops, commercial excellence workshops and team-specific training aimed at improving team effectiveness and performance. The CLEAR programme, which, is cascaded throughout the business is also supported by the introduction of quarterly People Reviews with the senior managers of each division, ensuring that employee development is discussed on a regular basis at a high level and development themes identified in addition to the TNA conducted as part of our annual PDR (appraisal) process.

Employee development is key to delivering Midas Vision and the roll out of the CLEAR programme supports their long term commitment to developing their staff. Core elements of the CLEAR programme include: Bespoke management and leadership training delivered to operational, commercial and business support staff , Performance Development Review (PDR) training, Introduction of monthly 1-2-1 meetings between staff and their line managers to discuss progress and development needs – known as CLEAR Catch Ups, Training initiatives covering customer service workshops, commercial excellence workshops and team-specific training aimed at improving team effectiveness and performance. The CLEAR programme, which, is cascaded throughout the business is also supported by the introduction of quarterly People Reviews with the senior managers of each division, ensuring that employee development is discussed on a regular basis at a high level and development themes identified in addition to the TNA conducted as part of our annual PDR (appraisal) process.

London Square has implemented the Cycle to Work scheme and has also organised corporate membership rates at nearby Hillingdon Sports Club, to help promote a healthy lifestyle to their staff. London Square has table tennis in the garden, which staff can enjoy during breaks throughout the day, giving them a chance to unwind, catch up with colleagues or even help brainstorm new ideas over a different kind of meeting table.

Each department within London Square has a weekly team meeting in which all members of staff are encouraged to feedback their ideas and suggestions. The divisional director is then given the opportunity to present these ideas to other departments for feedback at the weekly management team. Each department also has a blackboard where they can chalk up jokes, thoughts and anecdotes, with a quote from the divisional director, giving them the opportunity to share these on a daily basis with the rest of their team. Every day, the team, including the Chief Executive, eat together if they are in the office at Wagamama-style tables in the dining room or play table tennis together outside, giving staff the opportunity to discuss their ideas with other members of the company. The open plan office has a relaxed open door policy so staff can approach any member of the company when they need to, including directors in their offices, to share ideas or seek counsel.

Installation of the water machines, The Colour run event and health and fitness Occupation Health are all part of wellbeing in Leven Energy Services Limited.

Installation of the water machines, The Colour run event and health and fitness Occupation Health are all part of wellbeing in Leven Energy Services Limited.

EAP schemes are available across the firm and include access to online portals where helpful advice is immediately available. Face to face counselling is included, in addition to the 24/7 helpline. Kinetic have annual flu jabs, organising a nurse to come into the office to administer the vaccinations to encourage as many of the team as possible to take advantage of this benefit. Anyone who cannot take advantage of the on site programme has access to a drop in clinic where they can have the jab at their own convenience. Kinetic have gym membership as one of their flexible benefits and encourage staff to use this benefit to encourage well being and exercise in the firm. They also support a charity run every year where around a quarter of the office run in a 5K fun run fully subsidised by the firm called the 'Chartered City Race'. This is a great way of building team spirit, keeping fit while supporting a good cause. They try to arrange wellness weeks annually to raise the team's awareness of what is on offer and how they can benefit.

Kinetic Partners is very good at giving employees the development they desire. People are trusted on projects that stretch them all the time and therefore learn a lot. They are coached/monitored by extremely strong leaders. Kinetic also provide more structured training through their KP Academy which focuses on online training and individual skill sets required to succeed in their industry. Training has included: sales and business development, leadership, excel, word and more industry specific training courses. Kinetic are a great company for knowledge sharing as well and regularly have ‘lunch and learn' sessions to ensure that everyone within the firm has a sound knowledge of their global service offering. Kinetic also hold regular sessions on latest legislation and developments within each service line. Kinetic expect their employees to be proactive in their development and include a PDP in their appraisal process where leaders need to ensure that their teams are stretched by setting objectives that enable both short and medium term personal development goals to be realised. Kinetic's online training portal is accessible to everyone and they encourage the team to spend 2 hours minimum each month on personal development which is linked to the achievement of their objectives as detailed above. Their planned global training matrix will map every level in their organisation and the training required to achieve job success. This will also be a great tool where employees can see how, and in what areas, they need to develop in order to progress in their careers.

The senior management team are directly contactable on a day to day basis by anyone in the organisation. They aim to live by the values which means they value everyone equally and everyone is included. Everyone has a right to express themselves and be respected for who they are and they can influence the way the organisation works. Also each Senior manager has a team who they are nominated to link with in a back to the floor style and celebrate successes or raise issues at senior level.

The senior management team are directly contactable on a day to day basis by anyone in the organisation. They aim to live by the values which means they value everyone equally and everyone is included. Everyone has a right to express themselves and be respected for who they are and they can influence the way the organisation works. Also each Senior manager has a team who they are nominated to link with in a back to the floor style and celebrate successes or raise issues at senior level.

Being very proactive in supporting company-wide events, for example the Jelf Sales Conference and Central Services Conferences. The conferences give employees the chance to meet and network with their colleagues, sharing ideas, opinions and best practice.In 2014 these events also gave employees the opportunity to put forward suggestions to improve various practices within the company through a "Dragon's Den" workshop. As a result there is a clear action plan of initiatives sponsored by the Group Executive Board, many of which have already been implemented.

Being very proactive in supporting company-wide events, for example the Jelf Sales Conference and Central Services Conferences. The conferences give employees the chance to meet and network with their colleagues, sharing ideas, opinions and best practice.In 2014 these events also gave employees the opportunity to put forward suggestions to improve various practices within the company through a "Dragon's Den" workshop. As a result there is a clear action plan of initiatives sponsored by the Group Executive Board, many of which have already been implemented.

The International Tennis Federation's Christmas Party was organised around a fun team building event instead of simply going to a restaurant or bar. They have organised a team event in the style of Masterchef where all staff have to work with people they don't usually work with and there is a competitive edge to it too. Additionally, across the Federation, a number of charity fundraising events have taken place, including entering the Corporate Challenge in July plus various other social events which are open to everyone and included representation from all Federation departments.

The International Tennis Federation's culture encourages a healthy work/life balance with flexibility offered around sickness and recovery periods, working time flexibility if needed and support from managers at all levels around physical activities, particularly taking part in lunchtime sporting activities. A daily lunch allowance is provided to all employees for use at on site restaurant facilities or a sandwich ordering service which encourages healthy eating, with a wide variety of both hot and cold food options plus other healthy options such as fruit available. Sports facilities are available onsite, some free and some subsidised, and include use of tennis courts, gym, swimming pool and fitness classes. Their location also encourages activities as they are a few minutes from Richmond Park. Employee safety and wellbeing is taken extremely seriously and a taxi is provided to transport employees to the nearest mainline station at the end of each working day, which is particularly helpful during the darker winter months. 24-hour security is provided around the office which is reassuring for those working or visiting out of standard office hours, a common occurrence within an international organisation. The International Tennis Federation also offer a free employee assistance prorgamme, full medical checks - at some levels and they have in the past paid separately for private counselling or therapy for team members.

One of the initiatives they introduced in 2012 to give something back to their staff and thank them for their ongoing hard work was their sports and social club. The club aims to provide a happy and healthy working environment, with plenty of opportunities for people to relax, enjoy something new or favoured past time in the company of colleagues, friends and family. As a company they acknowledge their duty of care as an employer to provide their staff with different ways to improve their health and well-being but, with the sports and social club, took this one step further to empower staff with ownership and an increased range of activities that staff truly enjoy. Employees are regularly asked which activities they would like to be offered by the company, which are then all employee organised. iCrossing contributes between 50% - 100% of the cost. These complimentary and subsidised activities, open to all, aim to promote a healthy and balanced working life. We've been sailing to the Isle of Wight, gone go-karting, regularly take part in football, basketball and volleyball leagues, visited the opera, comedy, plays, then music festivals, beer festivals, poker nights, gone Back to the Future at the Secret Cinema and chilled out with yoga and massages.

As one of our core values is to be human, they ensure that the way in which they live the values is done so in a human way too. All new team members attend induction sessions from departments across the agency, allowing them to meet the wider team and get a better understanding as to how the agency runs day-to-day. They run a new starters lunch that also includes a long serving team member, with their CEO and CFO so that new team members can meet the senior team members in a relaxed, yet exciting venue. They get together as a whole agency every quarter to spend time together and hold quarterly company meetings as well as regular team meetings with their direct team. One such event was their Momentum roadshow lead by their global president where teams worked on various client problems alongside team members they never usually work together day to day.

Hitachi have recently implemented visual performance boards. These help teams plan their workload, share their vision/mission, cross train and celebrate success. They have enabled workload to be levelled across team reducing pressures and enabling them to deliver a better customer experience. Other new working practices include Qbuster, refreshed Star awards, incentives, call evaluations, career progression structure and functional plan sharing.

Hitachi have recently implemented visual performance boards. These help teams plan their workload, share their vision/mission, cross train and celebrate success. They have enabled workload to be levelled across team reducing pressures and enabling them to deliver a better customer experience. Other new working practices include Qbuster, refreshed Star awards, incentives, call evaluations, career progression structure and functional plan sharing.

Groundworks West Midlands hold two staff away day events for all staff including Sessional Workers. On the 9th September 2013 they held it at Keele Hall, Staffordshire. This included presentations in the morning session from the Chair of the Board, Executive Director, Head Teacher of their school, HR Director and two project leads. After lunch, the afternoon was spent having team building fun activities ranging from building communications and listening skills by use of blindfolds to supporting each other by having to eat chocolate! In addition, staff spent an hour on a guided nature walk delivered by the Ranger across the Country Park that they manage. 21st July 2014 – The Welcome Centre, Coventry - Again, this included initial information sessions, including from the Chair of Board and the Executive Director, thanking people for their involvement in the recent awards they have won and an external presentation from a trainer on Managing Stress in the Workplace. This was followed by a riotous speed networking session. After lunch the afternoon included taster sessions on some of the projects delivered by Groundwork staff to their client groups. These included ‘The Smoothie Bike', healthy eating choices by understanding fat content in food, practical household budgeting and an Urban Wildlife Walk with staff creating head wear from flowers and leaves! GWWM provided transport from each local offices, food and refreshments and, of course, activities for the staff away days. The second event featured more hands on project activities following positive feedback from staff about this element. Also a company funded Christmas event which was in works time and involved indoor ten-pin bowling and a meal which was centrally located and well attended by the work force. In addition a company supported Cycle ride which was in works time and included a paid for halfway lunch for all riders and supporters.

All Senior Management staff have shared their own motivations for working at Groundwork as part of their “Little Green Book” guide, with some motivated by the concepts of sustainability and others by social justice.

GB Group continue to focus on core markets through Business Unit structure. They link all GB messages and propositions together around the common theme of identity, use innovation, quality and excellence in everything they do to deliver unique value proposition. They deliver all of GB Group's principle products online in every area of the business, recruit, retain and develop top quality people who instinctively deliver innovation, quality and an excellent experience to every stakeholder. GB Group deploy the necessary resources across their working environment to ensure they can meet all the above objectives.

GB Group carried out an innovation workshop as part of the business year kick off staff conference. GB staff take part in a physically gruelling challenge to raise money for charity. This is called the GB Challenge and this year it was a 26 mile hike across the Shropshire Way.

Firefish have an annual company team-building event, known as Fireflung. This year's event took place on Osea Island, a former wartime base just off the coast of Essex, which is connected to land by a causeway that disappears as the tide comes in. In the build-up they kept the location secret and created a huge amount of intrigue by giving the event a wartime / 1940's theme. On arrival they spent the morning firstly delivering an update on their progress since the last Fireflung, and then results from the staff survey. Firefish then worked together as a group on a couple of key issues for the business - maintaining growth in their client list and creating more time for people to focus on their primary tasks. This process included splitting out into smaller groups defined by different levels of the business, ensuring that ideas from more junior members of the team were given as much 'airtime' as those of more senior colleagues. Following lunch, they then ran a team-building game where 8 teams competed against each other to defuse bombs hidden all over the island! This involved much running around, pedaling down country lanes on bone-shaker bikes, a few gin and tonics and an almighty bundle to grab the last 'bomb'. The evening was then a 1940's themed dinner and party. Firefish all revelled under the stars and by campfires till the small hours and then those with most stamina kept going until dawn in one of the various cottages.

Firefish have an annual company team-building event, known as Fireflung. This year's event took place on Osea Island, a former wartime base just off the coast of Essex, which is connected to land by a causeway that disappears as the tide comes in. In the build-up they kept the location secret and created a huge amount of intrigue by giving the event a wartime / 1940's theme. On arrival they spent the morning firstly delivering an update on their progress since the last Fireflung, and then results from the staff survey. Firefish then worked together as a group on a couple of key issues for the business - maintaining growth in their client list and creating more time for people to focus on their primary tasks. This process included splitting out into smaller groups defined by different levels of the business, ensuring that ideas from more junior members of the team were given as much 'airtime' as those of more senior colleagues. Following lunch, they then ran a team-building game where 8 teams competed against each other to defuse bombs hidden all over the island! This involved much running around, pedaling down country lanes on bone-shaker bikes, a few gin and tonics and an almighty bundle to grab the last 'bomb'. The evening was then a 1940's themed dinner and party. Firefish all revelled under the stars and by campfires till the small hours and then those with most stamina kept going until dawn in one of the various cottages.

Every Christmas, Energy & Utility Skills ask their staff to donate an unwanted gift or buy a little something extra when doing their Christmas shopping so that they can donate them to Solihull Women's Refuge. The Refuge provides a range of services for women and children from six months of age to early teens who have been affected by domestic violence, rape and sexual abuse, who have to leave their homes, often with very little. Thanks to the generosity of staff over the past few years giving back to the local community, their donations have meant that many local families could have a happier Christmas. Energy & Utility Skills is a relatively small organisation with limited resources to focus on fundraising activities, but in fact, they do an incredible amount of fundraising work. As well as raising funds every year for a broad range of worthy causes, they also recycle their old IT equipment by donating it to local charities, schools and groups who need it. They're immensely proud that with the help of their staff, they've raised so much money and most importantly, made such a difference to so many good causes.

Energy & Utility Skills' staff play a vital role in contributing to the overall success of the EU Skills Group, delivering objectives as an organisation, as a team and as individuals. Their Performance and Development Review process places importance on ensuring that everyone who works at the EU Skills Group understands how the work they do contributes to the overall delivery of their Vision, their Business Plan and their business success. They want their staff to share the success of the organisation. Alongside the Annual Review Process, their Performance-related Bonus Scheme recognises and regards employees' collective contribution to the delivery of the EU Skills Group's financial and business objectives by providing the opportunity for them to earn a personal bonus.

Elmhurst holds an annual barbecue event every summer. Families of their employees are also invited and all is paid for by the organisation. They also hold fun 'race nights' every 3-4 months at the local golf club. The food and venue is all paid for by Elmhurst. Elmhurst holds quarterly employee briefings. Some are interactive and some are for giving employees information. They involve their staff during these sessions and invite and encourage them to give feedback on strategy development.

Managers at Elmhurst support the wellbeing of employees by giving paid time off for medical and dental appointments, working from home to support domestic challenges, and paid time off for funerals and bereavements. The company also offers its premises for weekly yoga classes.

Elior's Safety & Wellbeing team developed a management programme and awareness campaign helping deal with stress before it becomes an issue which can have an adverse affect. It addresses the person as a whole and also encourages them to seriously look at their lifestyle and what they can also do to help themselves. Having spoken to both the colleague and the line manager who participated in the assessment, they both felt it had been very productive and unblocked the communication between them which was partly causing the problems. Elior's Safety & Wellbeing team encourage all colleagues to think about everyday activities and provide thought provoking summaries about how they can go about things in a safer way. On Elior's internal Extranet this year they have provided guidance about safety at Christmas including Christmas tree lights, driving in adverse weather, how to keep cool in extreme summer weather. They are also trying to encourage managers to use their common sense. It's not necessarily about going by the rule book, but by being genuinely supportive.

Linked to Elior's multi-award winning eXperience programme, Training Journal and Personnel Today, the “You Made a Difference” recognition scheme was introduced in the spring of 2012. Its goal was to move the spotlight from the negative to positive and designed to reinforce and encourage positive behaviours, recognising progress being made by their colleagues by thanking them each time a job is well done. Noticing, and thanking their colleagues for doing jobs well and with a warm, friendly and genuine attitude creates job confidence and satisfaction, colleague engagement and commitment to Elior UK. This in turn drives positive results for all. When an Elior colleague is seen to be “Making a Difference”, and demonstrating something exceptional, they are immediately recognised with a ‘thank you' and issued by their Manager with a ‘You Made a Difference' thank you cheque. The Manager then records the entry on their internal extranet giving the colleague an opportunity to win one of 40 gift vouchers each month. This scheme has been so successful and well received by the business, that it has been incorporated as a distinctive category in its own right at the annual awards ceremony where those individuals who have made a unique difference are recognised. Last year's winner introduced a healthy eating ‘points mean prizes' initiative which was so successful at site, that it was replicated across other operating sites.

DCH recognises that the engagement and commitment of skilled and enthusiastic staff is absolutely essential to the achievement of their group strategy and the long term success of DCH. They want to be a high achieving employer that people aspire to join, enjoy working for and where all staff feel recognised and rewarded for their contribution. Their reward strategy outlines the core principles that will shape their pay structures, benefits, terms and conditions together with associated initiatives. To attract skilled and enthusiastic staff and to motivate everyone in the group in supporting achievement of group strategy, its aims and values.

DCH's first staff conference saw all their staff from Devon and Cornwall come together to celebrate their successes, embed their values, understand their aims and contribute to a variety of workshops. Launched by their group management team on a selection of percussion instruments, including a step ladder, drumming everyone into the auditorium, it was apparent from the start that this was a different sort of event reflecting the growth, ambition and aspiration of DCH. Their key note speaker, John Bird, founder of the Big Issue, struck a chord with many, talking about the importance of each person's contribution to an organisaiton and, of course, reflecting the social ethos of their own company.

Company information and success is shared with all in the organisation, so as to enable decision making processes and also show the bigger picture of working towards a common goal. Creditcall's CEO runs entire staff updates on average 3 to 4 times per year, where free lunch is provided, and various people in the company present what is going on in their part of the organisation. Their CEO also has regular monthly meetings with all the other various managers and this information is then disseminated to other team members. In addition, the company has an open door policy and all staff are encouraged to ask questions on anything they don't understand. There is also a ‘no blame culture' at the company. All colleagues are treated as equal, no matter of any other factors and encouraged to come up with new innovative and efficient ways of dealing with any work challenges they face.

Regular, and whenever necessary, daily meetings are held to discuss objectives, progress and obstacles. Underlying these meetings is the philosophy that it is the managers' responsibility to ensure that their reports have the best possible environment in which to succeed. Notice is also taken of individual working preferences and where possible these are accommodated. The current flexi time policy was a direct result of manager feedback and a desire by the company to accommodate individual preferences. The company ethos is to demonstrate how they are all working towards a common goal and how all the various working parts are vital to the overall success. Informally, managers are encouraged to hold informal sessions with their team or individuals within the team if they see any signs of under performance or symptoms of any kind of problems and difficulty.

All staff are offered the option to enrole in PruHealth Vitality scheme as part of their private medical offering. This scheme provides members with a wealth of wellbeing information and offers them rewards in the form of cash bonuses and discounts for engaging with it. It also subsidises gym membership and schemes such as 'Fitbug' to promote exercise. They have also turned a currently empty office space into a relaxation lounge where people can rest, read, eat, or just chat. It is basically made up of bean bags and second hand couches that people can nest into for times when they need to be out of a strict office environment.

Employees are rewarded for their efforts through their release and end of project parties which are used to celebrate achievements as well as thank the entire groups who have committed huge time and effort into getting a job done and done right for their clients and partners.

As an organisation Cooper Lomaz have a very strong commitment to employee development, encouraging promotion from within, taking risks to give staff new opportunities and investing generously in training. One of the clearest indicators of this is the Sales Director and the Operations Director both of whom started their careers at Cooper Lomaz as consultants and have achieved director status in as little as 5 years. Progression is based on merit rather than length of service and Cooper Lomaz are constantly reviewing their staff to see what their next step could be. Last year 38% of their staff received a promotion. Much of this progression is achieved by mentoring and whenever they identify a rising star they will buddy them up with someone already in the role they are aspiring to. Cooper Lomaz run internal training on sales, recruitment and management topics, and have training boards in both offices where anyone can sign up to offer training on a given topic or to request it. They also invest in external training, and currently have staff working through their CIPD and taking Prince 2.

As an organisation Cooper Lomaz have a very strong commitment to employee development, encouraging promotion from within, taking risks to give staff new opportunities and investing generously in training. One of the clearest indicators of this is the Sales Director and the Operations Director both of whom started their careers at Cooper Lomaz as consultants and have achieved director status in as little as 5 years. Progression is based on merit rather than length of service and Cooper Lomaz are constantly reviewing their staff to see what their next step could be. Last year 38% of their staff received a promotion. Much of this progression is achieved by mentoring and whenever they identify a rising star they will buddy them up with someone already in the role they are aspiring to. Cooper Lomaz run internal training on sales, recruitment and management topics, and have training boards in both offices where anyone can sign up to offer training on a given topic or to request it. They also invest in external training, and currently have staff working through their CIPD and taking Prince 2.

Clearswift seeks to reward employees for their efforts in a variety of ways. They offer total rewards statements, pay reviews, pay benchmarking and recognition awards. One example which has been particularly effective is Hero of the Month and Presidents Club.

The organisation seeks to enhance the wellbeing of employees through access to a number of events such as fitness clubs, shopping events etc. on the business park. They also have an employee assistance programme, a bike to work scheme and an internal coach.

CIPD are passionate about developing their people and highly committed to the learning and development of all their staff. They have an annual cycle of performance and development reviews and action implementation to address any areas of need. Their internal mentoring scheme exists for five years, received very positive feedback and has now been extended to include external mentors. They make available approximately 15 different training programmes to meet the tailored needs of their employees according to their personal development programmes. They have also recently launched an online training tool accessible for all staff which contains all their mandatory programmes in addition to approximately 250 additional online tutorials, case studies and self-assessment tools. They believe the best example of employee development and encouragement to take ownership for personal development is their annual Personal Development Allowance available for all employees. They can spend money on development related to their role or a future aspiration in addition to access to programmes.

At CIPD they firmly believe in the correlation between employee engagement and employee wellbeing. They hold health and wellbeing events twice yearly where they engage with the community and invite local businesses offering complimentary taster sessions for their products and services. This ensures staff have the opportunity to focus on their personal well-being both inside and outside of the workplace. These days are well attended by a cross section of staff as they work hard to provide something for everyone. Alongside this, they also arrange free of charge influenza vaccinations for all staff who wish to have them on site and offer staff eye care vouchers. Another aspect of how they try to enhance the wellbeing of their employees is by offering all staff every day a free lunch. These are freshly made on site and very balanced and varied.

The CEO, owner holds quarterly breakfast meetings with pre-selected staff which change for each event, so they can share ideas, be recognised etc. The CEO has an open door policy and all senior management work in their respective areas in an open plan office amongst their teams which creates an environment of sharing and invaluable discussion. The COO asks for feedback, news and ideas for the monthly company update which goes out electronically to all staff.

The CEO, owner holds quarterly breakfast meetings with pre-selected staff which change for each event, so they can share ideas, be recognised etc. The CEO has an open door policy and all senior management work in their respective areas in an open plan office amongst their teams which creates an environment of sharing and invaluable discussion. The COO asks for feedback, news and ideas for the monthly company update which goes out electronically to all staff.

Calyx have a strong apprentice scheme in place offering work opportunities to school leavers in the local area. Their HR assistant and finance assistant came through the scheme three years ago. They have a service desk analyst who finished her training before the year and now has a permanent role and a few others coming through the ranks. In addition, their chosen corporate charity, Francis House, is a local charity and was chosen by the staff because of this reason – the team wanted to support a local charity.

Accessibility to the executive and senior management is seen as essential to the culture within Calyx. As such, none of the executive or senior management have their own office. Everyone works together in one open plan environment. All senior management are expected to attend social events with staff. Staff are actively encouraged by the CEO to seek out and question management about decisions or issues that they want better to understand. The reward scheme, which is agreed by the executive team, is based on which member of staff has best demonstrated the values of the company.

BrightHouse hold an Annual Management Conference each summer, bringing together representatives from every store and engineering and distribution centre from around the country as well as managers and the leadership team to build relationships and learn from each other and to understand the vision and priorities for the year ahead. This is not a single event but the start of a series of regional and local meetings at which all colleagues become involved. Each year within this event a significant amount of time is given over to team building activity. For example in 2013 Brighthouse built 50 children's bikes from scratch and these were donated through the NSPCC to deserving children around the country. As a geographically diverse organisation they fund a range of local team building events. For example, this summer in their Supply Chain Division, the Customer Service Centre based in Manchester put on a BBQ and charity raffle for all colleagues and their families.

At BrightHouse, they recognise that the talent and diversity of their people is the foundation of their success, so they are committed to helping all colleagues develop their personal and professional skills in order to bring out their strengths. With their vision to be an employer of choice, it goes without saying that their people are the masters of their own destiny. Supported by us, they can drive their own learning, their own development and their own career. From day one, BrightHouse treat all colleagues as individuals. They ensure that their induction programme offers a comprehensive introduction to their role and how they fit within their business as a whole. To equip colleagues with the right learning and development at the right time, BrightHouse offer a range of learning opportunities.

Any member of staff at Botanix can nominate anyone who they work with for a spot payment. Nominations may be made for a whole team if is believed that it has performed exceptionally as a whole and it would be unfair to pick out individuals for special praise. The nominations will then be reviewed at the Business Team in that month and will decide who will receive a spot payment, taking into account all the reasons put forward, while at the same time being aware that there is a limit to the amount of money available in the bonus pot. Reasons why an employee/team might receive a bonus include but are not limited to: showing an unusually accelerated personal development; completing a particularly onerous or demanding task or project; displaying a high degree of professionalism during the year; doing a large amount of extra work, for example because of a staff shortage or the need to complete an important project; coming up with something particularly innovative within the job; exceeding a sales target by an amount to be decided by individual managers and notified to employees in advance of the bonus period and acting in a way that has led to particular success for Botanix, in terms of both financial gain and enhanced reputation, for example the winning of an industry award.

Demonstrably, the senior management team are seen to work well with one another, treating all individuals with respect, whether they are members of the company, suppliers or customers, striving to achieve high levels of customer service. They recognise that they are part of a larger business organisation through their willingness to engage and share information with other managers in the group, being seen to be flexible and adaptable to changing business priorities and pressures.

Biogen undertook a community project this summer to refurbish a former local pub in order for it to be used as a tea room and training centre for a charity that supports adults with learning difficulties - Beds Garden Carers. Employees from across the business were able to take part, giving up their time both inside and outside of working hours. Biogen also supports the local Bedford Christmas Food Bank where staff are encouraged to donate food that goes to the homeless at Christmas.

Biogen undertook a community project this summer to refurbish a former local pub in order for it to be used as a tea room and training centre for a charity that supports adults with learning difficulties - Beds Garden Carers. Employees from across the business were able to take part, giving up their time both inside and outside of working hours. Biogen also supports the local Bedford Christmas Food Bank where staff are encouraged to donate food that goes to the homeless at Christmas.

8 out 11 of Bazaarvoice's managers in the UK have been promoted internally into their roles - they did not join Bazaarvoice as managers. This means there is a great understanding within the management team of the needs of the team members and their clients in line with their core values as a business. Also each manager is held accountable on each of their values and they should demonstrate qualities in their work aligned to these. This also applies to recruitment and the people they hire. Each candidate should be left with a very clear impression of the values of Bazaarvoice and how they implement that into day to day work. Candidates are all assessed based closely on their values as well as their core competencies.

Each year at Bazaarvoice's annual ‘All Hands' meeting employees that have gone above and beyond within their roles or by contributing to company culture are recognised with a reward of equity within the company. Additionally within quota carrying teams there is the opportunity for over achievers to attend ‘Winners Club' with the CEO and other senior executives. This year five of the team flew to Mexico for a five day 5 star break. These are both examples of significant rewards but throughout the year Bazaarvoice will look to reward and recognise individuals who display and represent their values through spot bonuses and adhoc announcements to the team.

Arrows Group's values rely on total company commitment to being United, Open, and Bespoke. All Arrows Group managers, including Directors, work on the floor of the refurbished open plan offices, making themselves available at any time for their teams. This physically displays their intentions to ensure Arrow Group is completely open internally. Their employees benefit from such accessibility to managers by tapping into their knowledge when they need it, so they can deal with any challenges they face, personally or professionally. Management also lead from the front, in terms of commitment and timekeeping, ensuring they set the tone at the top that their teams can incorporate into their daily habits. Managers are also managed by behaviour and productivity to ensure they are leading by example. They achieve this through daily ‘stand ups' each morning with their teams. The stand ups are short meetings, typically 15 minutes, for teams to update each other on their key priorities, any issues they might face, and sharing any expertise that helps others overcome challenges.

Arrows Group held its inaugural Arrows Group Sales Conference in October, bringing together the current and future leaders from all offices. The overall aim of this conference was to revisit the group strategy, explore best practices across the business and gain some in depth feedback from each division around how they are doing and how Arrow Group can improve. The event focussed on representing everyone within the company and the majority of the work done on the day was designed to take away practice improvements that were shared with everyone, so all colleagues can participate in building a world-class company. One of many reasons for appointing Greg Searle as Board Advisor for Coaching and Development, was to ensure Arrow Group could use his expertise in eliciting maximum engagement from employees to achieve the company's vision. One method involved offsite sessions for two days with team leaders, spending time with them to share the company's vision and performance goals, and encouraging participants to commit to actions and processes that contribute to these goals. These were then fed back for review against ongoing initiatives. The company's Personal Development Plans provide the primary route for a tailored approach to developing Arrow Group's employees' careers. Feedback is a critical component to the PDPs, ensuring the employee has a voice in their career path, and how their career contributes to the company's success. Feedback is gathered by each manager, and implementation is assessed in terms of practicality, relevance, and scope.

The senior management team in Academy Insurance Services are empowered to make decisions and lead the company with the support but minimum guidance from the directors, so decisions are made quickly cutting out a lot of red tape.

Academy's directors operate a door always open policy and ideas and suggestions are encouraged from the teams.

The organisation has a number of processes in place that allows colleagues to feedback their ideas and suggestions. Firstly, the organisation makes use of the intranet, Sharepoint and social media, Yammer, as tools for knowledge and idea sharing. All employees have access to these sites. A suggestion facility allows employees to share and feedback any ideas and suggestions they may have on any area of the business. This is a straightforward and effective process to allow all employees to be heard. The organisation also holds regular ‘town hall' meetings, which all employees can attend. In these meetings, a brief executive report is made about the current status of the business. Employees will then have the opportunity to ask any questions they have, discuss any emerging issues, voice their concerns and feedback on any ideas and suggestions they may have. The meeting is usually fairly informal, allowing the employees to take the lead and discuss the topics they feel are necessary. Abellio also aims to gain feedback from employees by conducting yearly engagement surveys. A gap analysis is used to understand areas for development and the feasible measures necessary to close the gap.

One of the many ways Abellio seeks to reward employees is through the Abellio Annual Achievement Awards. The awards evening is for all of the Abellio Group, including the operating companies. This special ceremony which is a formal black tie event, is a time for Abellio to award their employees for their efforts in a number of areas such as Excellence, Values, Innovation, Leadership, Teamwork, Employee of the Year. The awards have been established to celebrate the amazing job that their people do everyday for Abellio and for their customers. A particularly unique feature of the Abellio Awards, is the extra mile that the organisation goes to show how much they appreciate the efforts of the employees. As well as receiving an award for their efforts and a special evening out, Abellio also supply the winners with a gift experience voucher of their choice to the value of £350 per person and to a maximum of £1,750 for the team entry. Finalists who attend the Awards Ceremony also have all their expenses paid for to attend this, including travel, subsistence and overnight accommodation. If required, formal attire costs are also repaid.

For the past 2 years 1st Credit have been visiting Oakwood School in Horley to provide financial awareness training as part of the educational curriculum. Nine sessions were delivered this year by employees who volunteered their time to provide lectures on Credit and Debt awareness, Credit Scoring and Credit Histories, as well as how to be aware of managing Credit as a young adult. In addition to this they also support a work experience programme as well as a kick start your career programme where they offer support and careers advice. Oakwood School is an important project for 1st Credit as it's not just a community initiative, but an opportunity to contribute to the future of their local community by providing sound career advice, debt management awareness and an opportunity for the students to experience a real working environment. 1st Credit hope the partnership that has developed with Oakwood School, will continue for many years to come.

For the past 2 years 1st Credit have been visiting Oakwood School in Horley to provide financial awareness training as part of the educational curriculum. Nine sessions were delivered this year by employees who volunteered their time to provide lectures on Credit and Debt awareness, Credit Scoring and Credit Histories, as well as how to be aware of managing Credit as a young adult. In addition to this they also support a work experience programme as well as a kick start your career programme where they offer support and careers advice. Oakwood School is an important project for 1st Credit as it's not just a community initiative, but an opportunity to contribute to the future of their local community by providing sound career advice, debt management awareness and an opportunity for the students to experience a real working environment. 1st Credit hope the partnership that has developed with Oakwood School, will continue for many years to come.

In the the first Wulvern Staff survey in 2011 only 47% of staff felt that they were paid fairly so Wulvern Housing have worked to improve this and in the 2013 survey they have improved this response to 67% of staff now feeling they are paid fairly in comparison to the external market. They have made this shift over two years by firstly in 2012 providing all staff with an information leaflet explaining how they benchmark salaries with the external market and how their budget is used across the business for pay awards. Feedback on this leaflet was that it was useful but staff would have preferred to have discussed it face to face and ask any additional questions there. Wulvern Housing accepted this and this year they held a series of drop-in pay workshops for staff. At these sessions they explained the process for benchmarking and calculating pay rises and then gave staff the opportunity to act as the leadership team and using a set of money make their own pay decisions for the business. The workshop concluded with a questions and answer session where staff could ask any questions or they could stay behind to ask specific questions about their own pay.

Managers hold informal one to ones with their staff and formal quarterly reviews and both of these are used as methods to thank staff for a job well done. Some Managers also choose to use team meetings as a way of thanking staff in front of their colleagues so everyone is aware of what they have done. One Manager has her own set of thank you cards and she takes the time to write a personal message to the staff member thanking them or praising them for the action they have taken. All of their Managers use the mantra that they would not ask any of their team to do something they would not do themselves.

He listens and acts! He is also very accessible to every employee at every level, and insists on meeting every new starter.

The organisation celebrate Thanks giving, Christmas, Eid and Divali.

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

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

Managers at Unruly will arrange for international secondments for employees who wish to develop their skills and see how the company works in other territories. This generates job enrichment, engagement and is a form of reward. Their managers have a management style that is a product of their company culture and as such, talking to people as individuals and demonstrating care for their needs comes naturally, rather than this being a process or requiring a formal intervention.

Unruly offer spot ‘superhero' bonuses to team members who have gone above and beyond the call of duty. These £1000 bonuses are given each quarter to nominated employees. Managers globally are given the opportunity to nominate Unrulies for a superhero bonus, and these nominations are reviewed by the executive team to ensure senior Unrulies are aware of special contributions team members have made. In addition to monetary rewards, Unruly provide a mentoring programme which partners team members based on skills, this is not about hierarchy, it's about subject matter experts providing support to team members seeking development in this area. If someone has delivered wow in a spectacular fashion they are given a pair of tickets to an exclusive film preview, hosted by the NSPCC in Mayfair. This helps the company to reward Unrulies who have delivered wow and to share the love with the NSPCC. They always try to make sure their most dedicated Unrulies are given lots of high profile networking and speaking opportunities, which have included lunches at #10 Downing Street, appearing on stage at the Barbican theatre, industry leadership dinners and invitations to the opening of the market at the London Stock Exchange.

Everyone within the Ultimate Finance Group contributes to their success. There are flexible working patterns with employees being able to flex their working hours subject to availability during core hours. The company find it difficult to explain the level of passion to deliver by every person within the organisation however, it is a truly united effort.

What works really well at the Ultimate Finance Group is the fact that there appears to be no political agenda by any member of staff. If people identify an opportunity the management will review and regularly support employees allowing them to deliver and drive their own personal development. The company seeks to promote from within allowing personnel to develop without leaving to a competitor or third party.

UKAR is committed to the development of their colleagues. Staff well-being is one of four elements which make up their corporate social responsibility charter, alongside their customers, their communities and the environment. They run numerous health and lifestyle initiatives including a comprehensive employee assistance programme; free financial planning advice; slimming groups; gym discounts; Zumba classes; Boxercise classes; and one aspect of colleague wellbeing they are particularly proud of is their close relationship with Heart Research UK. As a result of their focus upon healthy lifestyles , they were delighted when they were awarded Heart Research UK's bronze and silver award as part of the Healthy Heart Mark Employer programme, which was launched via Health Awareness days and almost 500 colleagues had lifestyle checks. They are proud to have received Gold Award accreditation from Heart Research UK following a recent assessment of their healthy lifestyle policies and initiatives. UKAR colleagues have also chosen Heart Research UK as their corporate charity of the year for 2013.

UKAR utilise the expertise of their colleagues by working with the Young Enterprise organisation to have a positive impact on young people in the local communities by sharing financial knowledge and experience through the delivery of the Young Enterprise Programme in local schools. UKAR are working with Young Enterprise to deliver the Personal Economics Programme which aims to inspire young people with the confidence, ability and ambition to succeed in a challenging and changing economy. At each stage, pupils and students work directly with UKAR people and through 'life map living' students are asked to consider money management, employment and their own financial futures.

All teams have an annual budget for smaller team events which have been used for a whole host of activities that range from karting to chocolate making. In addition, Trustmark hold an annual team building weekend called “Kick-Off”. This involves strategy presentations, motivational speakers, workshops, a team building activity (this year, a GPS treasure hunt), dinner, dancing and awards. The organisation find this to be a very effective way of setting their direction for the new financial year, thanking employees for contribution in the previous year, and developing cross-team relationships. For example this year the organisation chose to launch a “living the values” session at the annual Company Kick-Off event. Employees from all departments across the business were divided into groups and, for each value, asked to work in their teams to select an appropriate quote; a benefit to the organisation; a benefit to the individual; and a group commitment to live that value. Trustmark felt that it was important to involve employees to work together and across departments, outside of their usual working teams, to define what the values meant for them, and to truly bring these ideas to life within their workplace environment.

Trustmarque structure their annual appraisals to ensure that development and support needs are identified, and these are followed up by the Learning & Development team. Guidance on the completion of appraisals and the format of one-to-one is provided. The organisation have rolled out 360 feedback for their sales team this year to support them in understanding where they are doing well, and where they need more development. Managers do not ask employees to do anything they are not prepared to do themselves; this gives a good understanding of the pressures faced by employees.
Managers assist employees in identifying individual development plans, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach. They adapt their approach according to personal circumstances.

The managers are the people who manage the performance management process for their teams and they are instrumental in keeping this process alive and effective. They have regular catch-ups with their teams outside of performance reviews – this allows them to have an in-depth understanding of what support their team members require. They have absolute discretion in working with their teams to develop their own team culture based on what works for them as individuals and meeting operational requirements of the business. As an organisation, they have a strong culture of personal communication, they have no one manager managing more than 10 people, therefore the personal touch and knowing what is going on their teams is very strong at Trayport. Their office environment has been designed to encourage open communication throughout all teams with space for break-outs, scrums, stand-ups. They are empowered to reward by giving ad hoc thank yous to their team in the form of team dinners, drinks and Amazon vouchers etc.

A memorable event is the annual weekend away, where in the past have visited Malta, Portugal, Jersey and Spain. In September last year they took the whole company away for the weekend to Chewton Glenn hotel in Hampshire. This is of course optional and they had an attendance of 120 people last year. The hotel is a beautiful 5 star hotel set in the New Forest where they hired the whole complex for 2 nights. The weekend included transport to the venue from London, a team building treasure hunt on Friday afternoon, a BBQ in the evening, a company meeting on Saturday morning followed by more team building events, personal time where people had options to do activities such as falconry, golf buggy racing, massages, swimming, archery followed by an evening three course meal and disco. It was a fabulous weekend enjoyed by all and they have received great feedback. They allocate £100 to this event on an annual basis and are very proud to be able to provide this for their employees.

The company has created a new operational management team (OMT) that now runs the business on a day to day basis. The OMT has been created from staff promoted within the business. Any quality issues that arise from people, processes and systems are handled by the team. The major benefit to all staff is faster and more accurate decision making; this has increased both employee engagement and satisfaction. Charles Davis leads by example. He is passionate and committed to the company and its employees; employees respect him and his 'open door' policy ensures they also find it easy to approach him both professionally and socially.

The organisation seeks to reward employees for their efforts. They reward employees for business ideas they contribute that are implemented in the company. The reward is twofold; a financial reward and a public acknowledgement in the company newsletter.

The clinical team have recently been given the opportunity to take part in a facilitated event which enabled them to explore what affect their actions and behaviours had on each other in a safe environment. It was agreed what sort of team they wanted to be and they created a list of actions and behaviours that would enable them to achieve this.

Managers monitor the hours that employees work and ensure that workloads are manageable. Managers accommodate requests to work flexibly where possible. Managers participate in preparing the business plan. A job evaluation scheme has been introduced.

TBG Digital's 6 monthly Staff Happiness Surveys, which are totally anonymous, have been particularly effective. They always receive constructive comments and suggestions and many beneficial suggestions to improve life at TBG have been received and implemented.

TBG Digital's 6 monthly Staff Happiness Surveys, which are totally anonymous, have been particularly effective. They always receive constructive comments and suggestions and many beneficial suggestions to improve life at TBG have been received and implemented.

The company has both a football and netball team and provides sponsorship to these teams for kit etc. They provide the ability through their IT systems to work from home to facilitate flexibility for employees to take home deliveries or who have travel difficulties. Last winter, employees worked from home during the snowfall rather than risk travelling to the office and those stranded at the office were taxied home by the MD in his 4x4.

They have a fully funded study support package available to people in accounting, taxation, marketing and HR functions. They strongly support CPD and ensure their people are developing professionally as well as acquiring knowledge. They also operate an internal management development program for selected employees every two years. This is a bespoke program developed for taylorcocks by an external provider who has worked closely with the company for over ten years.

A large proportion of Swanswell's executive team have previously worked in front line roles so they are clear about the expectations and pressures on front line team members. The organisation encourages team members to shadow others, especially at induction stage, to ensure a shared understanding of what everyone does, this is especially used for support and head office team members who may not have worked in this arena before. In addition, the corporate induction day is a really important opportunity for team members to learn about what others do and for the senior team and organisation as a whole to learn. All new team members attend these events. Swanswell offers a number of routes for support to understand the pressures and workloads team members have. Flexi time is offered for team members to work when pre-arranged with an executive team member. Occupational health and wellbeing support is available for all team members with a regular occupational health service and a confidential employee assistance programme. Access to a specialist stress management consultant for confidential support is also available within the organisation and Swanswell's give monthly clinical supervision for front line team members and regular performance reviews with line managers for all team members.

Swanswell believe that investing in team members and their continual professional development is essential to retaining talented team members in present and in future. That's why they have a talent development policy and framework, with a full-time talent development manager and a talent development team dedicated to ensuring our team members continue to grow in their roles. Their team managers, skills audits, appraisals and performance reviews help to recognise team members' potential to develop. Where they spot potential to develop, Swanswell provide the necessary support to help. Their talent development team includes two full time senior practitioner trainers who provide ongoing specialist training to their team members. They offer an annual open course programme so that team members can access both essential training for their role and training which supports their career progression. Crucially, their training is specifically created to be interactive and engaging, working for all learning styles and providing an absorbing learning experience which delegates won't forget.

Sutton Housing Partnership offers all staff and their family members the ability to access a free employee assistance service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This is a confidential service offering advice, counselling and support to staff and/or their family members. SHP has recently introduced a healthcare cash plan whereby staff can reclaim costs of a range of health care activities from optical and dental appointments/treatment to physiotherapy, health screening and scans. Staff membership of the plan is fully funded by SHP.

The senior management team at Sutton Housing Partnership has taken on board feedback that they are not sufficiently visible to staff and have made a conscious effort to become more visibly involved in the business through spending a day working in a particular area of the business. Their chief executive recently spent a day answering phones in their customer care team. They are also working more closely with the heads of function to enable them to become more involved in the strategic planning process, which in turn supports succession planning.

The Supply Group offers various incentives/rewards to employees. They understand that each employee has different ways that they are motivated by and they adapt their rewards to each individual.

The Supply Group offers various incentives/rewards to employees. They understand that each employee has different ways that they are motivated by and they adapt their rewards to each individual.

Stride Treglown offers university placements for those conducting environment/sustainable research projects and continue to work closely with schools, offering work experience for pupils whilst telling them about architecture, design and environmental issues within the built environment. A number of their senior staff also lecture at local universities and all staff are given time off to undertake voluntary work and/or trustee duties.

Stride Treglown offers university placements for those conducting environment/sustainable research projects and continue to work closely with schools, offering work experience for pupils whilst telling them about architecture, design and environmental issues within the built environment. A number of their senior staff also lecture at local universities and all staff are given time off to undertake voluntary work and/or trustee duties.