Team Cohesion = Performance

Stephensons Solicitors produce a full CSR review document twice a year, which sets out all the community initiatives in place at the firm. During 2016 the firm donated £1,600 to Mustard Tree, a Greater Manchester based charity which provides support to homeless and marginalised people. For over 20 years, Mustard Tree has helped support communities challenged by poverty, disadvantage or unemployment. The charity provides a number of initiatives to provide much needed life support, promoting mental and physical wellbeing and providing avenues into training and employment. Janine Turner, head of HR and an associate at the firm, joined staff and volunteers from Mustard Tree in Manchester to learn more about the charity and witness its work first-hand.

Stephensons were one of the founding firms taking part in the innovative Employer Ownership of skills initiative run by the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce. Not only did Stephensons help to set the agenda for legal apprenticeships, but together with other leading North West law firms, committed to taking on 80 legal apprentices between them. Since this time, Stephensons have retained their commitment to apprenticeships and offered opportunities in a number of areas, including IT, PR and Marketing, as well as within the fee earning departments.

St. Dominic's Sixth Form College fundraise through charity walks and runs. The organisation also has a Fairworld Week, where staff and students volunteer at local charitable institutions. On top of this they also have links through some of the subjects that they offer, for example Design and Technology, in which students design products to help community based charities. In the past their staff have regularly raised money for a local Hospice by a Sponsored Walk and teams enter the Race for Life. Their Head of Art and DT together with her students takes on work from local social support services, such as web design, leaflet and logo design as live commissions.

St Dominic's is a Roman Catholic Sixth Form College committed to the personal and spiritual growth of all its members based on Christian values, academic excellence and high quality pastoral care. They all have a responsibility to themselves and to others. Education concerns the whole person - body, mind and spirit - and enables each person's God-given talents and skills to be used for the benefit of all creation. They have a responsibility to build relationships within their community and reach out to the disadvantaged in the wider world. By worshipping and praying together they can all acknowledge their need of God and each other, as well as promote the self-esteem of all the members of their community. Their common nature enables them to respect the diversity of faith and culture in their College.

In addition to the support that Southdown provide to thousands of local vulnerable people, they also make additional and discretionary contributions. The organisation are accredited as a Disability Confident Employer and provide advice to other employers in promoting opportunities and providing support for employees who have a disability or other long-term health conditions. 21% of employees have a declared disability or a long-term health condition. Each year staff choose a charity to support together. In 2015 staff raised over £2,400 through a range of activities, including a live music event to support ‘Caring (therapeutic) Pets'. They have also been providing a food bank staff donation point for three years. For 2016 staff chose The Centrepoint Charity Relief Fund and have already donated over £1,000 from their fundraising. In East Sussex Southdown are providing free training to help local people who use mental health services and their carers so they can have their say and actively influence the services being provided. They are passionate about helping vulnerable people to overcome barriers that can prevent them from accessing work opportunities. As a specialist provider of supported employment and vocational advice they support over 1,200 people with mental health challenges each year to secure or retain paid work. Southdown are recognised as one of 14 ‘Centres of Excellence' in the UK by the Centre for Mental Health for delivering Individual Placement and Support employment services. They also provide a dedicated vocational support service for carers. Called Ambitions, the service works with carers to support them to identify and pursue their vocational aspirations.

In addition to the support that Southdown provide to thousands of local vulnerable people, they also make additional and discretionary contributions. The organisation are accredited as a Disability Confident Employer and provide advice to other employers in promoting opportunities and providing support for employees who have a disability or other long-term health conditions. 21% of employees have a declared disability or a long-term health condition. Each year staff choose a charity to support together. In 2015 staff raised over £2,400 through a range of activities, including a live music event to support ‘Caring (therapeutic) Pets'. They have also been providing a food bank staff donation point for three years. For 2016 staff chose The Centrepoint Charity Relief Fund and have already donated over £1,000 from their fundraising. In East Sussex Southdown are providing free training to help local people who use mental health services and their carers so they can have their say and actively influence the services being provided. They are passionate about helping vulnerable people to overcome barriers that can prevent them from accessing work opportunities. As a specialist provider of supported employment and vocational advice they support over 1,200 people with mental health challenges each year to secure or retain paid work. Southdown are recognised as one of 14 ‘Centres of Excellence' in the UK by the Centre for Mental Health for delivering Individual Placement and Support employment services. They also provide a dedicated vocational support service for carers. Called Ambitions, the service works with carers to support them to identify and pursue their vocational aspirations.

South Oxon have an annualised hours scheme for the majority of their employees. This gives them greater flexibility to manage their workloads and to balance work and domestic responsibilities. They can start work earlier or finish later than in a traditional working pattern and potentially vary their hours each week. Both the organisation and the employee can benefit from individuals being able to increase their hours during busy periods and lower them during quieter times. The organisation have a budget per member of staff for each service area to facilitate team activities, such as away day visits to The Shard or The Houses of Parliament. Sport activities include archery, punting and team cricket matches, whilst the annual quiz night raises money for charity as well as improving team working across service areas in a fun way.

South Oxon have an annualised hours scheme for the majority of their employees. This gives them greater flexibility to manage their workloads and to balance work and domestic responsibilities. They can start work earlier or finish later than in a traditional working pattern and potentially vary their hours each week. Both the organisation and the employee can benefit from individuals being able to increase their hours during busy periods and lower them during quieter times. The organisation have a budget per member of staff for each service area to facilitate team activities, such as away day visits to The Shard or The Houses of Parliament. Sport activities include archery, punting and team cricket matches, whilst the annual quiz night raises money for charity as well as improving team working across service areas in a fun way.

SLH Group's ‘Accelerate Talent Management' programme is designed to meet the specific needs of the organisation, specifically a strong commitment to business excellence with an ambitious and passionate commitment to talent management. The company are seeking to develop a culture where all colleagues can fulfil their potential within the organisation. Indeed, it is envisaged that these points of focus will create a powerful dynamic, with increases in efficiency freeing up capacity for organisational development. The Accelerate programme takes participants through a structured journey that provides opportunities for them to engage in critically reflective learning within an organisational peer group. As the programme progresses the participants form teams and then identify an opportunity to either develop a new service, work with new customers or to improve the effectiveness and efficiency with which an existing service is being provided. This experience allows staff to reflect on and further develop their knowledge and skills and the teams then present their projects to the Senior Management Team, who in the end decide which projects will be integrated into the business.

The SLH Group believe that wellbeing is personal to each individual, so every colleague receives a £200 wellbeing allowance to be put towards things like sports memberships, equipment and sports clothing. This is the second year the company have run the wellbeing allowance scheme, with 97% receiving full allowance in 2016. Once a year the business closes and all colleagues are invited to attend a Wellbeing Day, which is held at a local leisure centre. At this event SLH Group provide a number of initiatives to support physical and mental wellbeing, as well as nutritional advice and resilience workshops. Colleagues are offered the opportunity to meet with a life coach individually to discuss their concerns and to help them adopt a healthier attitude to life and work. The Living Room at the office is divided into different zones, including relaxation, craft and activities. The relaxation zone has massage chairs and bean bags, as well as a television with some comfy coaches. The craft zone has mindfulness colouring in books, as well as the facility to make your own Christmas and birthday cards, very thrifty! The activities zone has a pool, fuzz ball and ping pong tables, as well as a dartboard, all of which have led to a league of activities being set up!

SVHS have 11 trained facilitators across the organisation available to help focus and drive meetings/training sessions to improve communication flow. The company have a number of break-out spaces available to staff who can use the areas to chat to colleagues and have informal meetings. The Creative Room, with bright furniture including a sofa and bean bags, encourages staff to use the space to brain storm, share ideas and be creative in problem solving. SVHS also have large screens in meeting rooms with Apple TV's to allow easy use of video conferencing software, including staff who are unable to physically attend the meeting with team discussions. Earlier in the year SVHS hosted an all staff event called Future Focus. One of the main objectives of the event was to focus staff on understanding the future direction of the organisation; however the event also aimed to ensure staff were aware and understood the new ways of working and also focused on collaboration. The benefits of the event were highlighting the progress of the organisation to date, re-confirming leadership aims and goals for the organisation. The event allowed SVHS to run a number of activities aimed at encouraging cross-organisational collaboration and team building. These included asking each team to produce a ‘team board' in advance, being creative to display team success over the past 12 months and also areas which they felt could be improved.

SVHS have 11 trained facilitators across the organisation available to help focus and drive meetings/training sessions to improve communication flow. The company have a number of break-out spaces available to staff who can use the areas to chat to colleagues and have informal meetings. The Creative Room, with bright furniture including a sofa and bean bags, encourages staff to use the space to brain storm, share ideas and be creative in problem solving. SVHS also have large screens in meeting rooms with Apple TV's to allow easy use of video conferencing software, including staff who are unable to physically attend the meeting with team discussions. Earlier in the year SVHS hosted an all staff event called Future Focus. One of the main objectives of the event was to focus staff on understanding the future direction of the organisation; however the event also aimed to ensure staff were aware and understood the new ways of working and also focused on collaboration. The benefits of the event were highlighting the progress of the organisation to date, re-confirming leadership aims and goals for the organisation. The event allowed SVHS to run a number of activities aimed at encouraging cross-organisational collaboration and team building. These included asking each team to produce a ‘team board' in advance, being creative to display team success over the past 12 months and also areas which they felt could be improved.

The Senior Management Team is absolutely dedicated to the organisations values and go out of their way to ensure there is a continual focus on them in their actions and in the way they communicate across the organisation. The Chief Executive is the first to ask to be involved and is pictured holding a "no blame culture". It's what matters most to him. Things may not go well but the focus is always on how it can be done better next time. The Senior Team make themselves available and have an open door policy. Nobody will be turned away if they have something they need to ask. The Chief Executive meets regularly with all staff and is always available to attend team meetings. Success is always celebrated informally by a quick thank you or a letter to staff. Investors in People made Sevenoaks the first public sector organisation worldwide to reach their new Platinum Standard. Whenever there is news that needs to be shared with the whole organisation there is no hesitation in sending a communication, often by email, that gives an honest assessment of the situation and clarity about what steps the organisation are taking. The Chief Executive ensures that each of the Chief Officers in his team operate in the same way and if he cannot be available there is always someone in the Leadership Team available to engage with staff. Staff Briefings are exceptionally popular with staff. Attendance exceeds 80% and they provide not just an opportunity for the Chief Executive to talk directly to staff but an opportunity for them to give their feedback and seek answers to any questions they may have. A simple but effective post-it session at each briefing means staff can give their opinions anonymously if they choose and it has seen engagement levels improve dramatically.

The Senior Management Team is absolutely dedicated to the organisations values and go out of their way to ensure there is a continual focus on them in their actions and in the way they communicate across the organisation. The Chief Executive is the first to ask to be involved and is pictured holding a "no blame culture". It's what matters most to him. Things may not go well but the focus is always on how it can be done better next time. The Senior Team make themselves available and have an open door policy. Nobody will be turned away if they have something they need to ask. The Chief Executive meets regularly with all staff and is always available to attend team meetings. Success is always celebrated informally by a quick thank you or a letter to staff. Investors in People made Sevenoaks the first public sector organisation worldwide to reach their new Platinum Standard. Whenever there is news that needs to be shared with the whole organisation there is no hesitation in sending a communication, often by email, that gives an honest assessment of the situation and clarity about what steps the organisation are taking. The Chief Executive ensures that each of the Chief Officers in his team operate in the same way and if he cannot be available there is always someone in the Leadership Team available to engage with staff. Staff Briefings are exceptionally popular with staff. Attendance exceeds 80% and they provide not just an opportunity for the Chief Executive to talk directly to staff but an opportunity for them to give their feedback and seek answers to any questions they may have. A simple but effective post-it session at each briefing means staff can give their opinions anonymously if they choose and it has seen engagement levels improve dramatically.

At Seven Technologies Group they have created an environment of Empowerment and Innovation. As an employer within the engineering sector, one of their best attributes as an organisation is that employees have the opportunity to not only be part of an innovation culture, but are also empowered to make decisions and ultimately make a difference. The most commonly used phrase in Seven Technologies Group is 'crack on', as empowerment of the individual is an ingrained value in their business. The company see continual development as one of the key elements within our Performance Management System. Through technical, functional and management training they hope to give their people the skills and knowledge they need to be the best they can be, creating and delivering market leading products and service alongside formal training. Informal mentoring 'buddy systems' have also been a great way to share past experiences on what staff have learned and encourage those taking on new challenges to handle whatever's thrown at them in the best possible way.

At Seven Technologies Group they have created an environment of Empowerment and Innovation. As an employer within the engineering sector, one of their best attributes as an organisation is that employees have the opportunity to not only be part of an innovation culture, but are also empowered to make decisions and ultimately make a difference. The most commonly used phrase in Seven Technologies Group is 'crack on', as empowerment of the individual is an ingrained value in their business. The company see continual development as one of the key elements within our Performance Management System. Through technical, functional and management training they hope to give their people the skills and knowledge they need to be the best they can be, creating and delivering market leading products and service alongside formal training. Informal mentoring 'buddy systems' have also been a great way to share past experiences on what staff have learned and encourage those taking on new challenges to handle whatever's thrown at them in the best possible way.

Selwood Housing Group support dual roles to encourage job enrichment, strengthen skills and experience and as a consequence benefit from a more multi-skilled and engaged workforce, as well as enabling a direct impact on the lives of their beneficiaries. The success of the organisation's apprenticeship scheme has recently been recognised as one of their apprentices won a national award of 'Apprentice of the Year' and another was 'Highly Commended' at a national awards ceremony earlier this year.

Selwood Housing Group support dual roles to encourage job enrichment, strengthen skills and experience and as a consequence benefit from a more multi-skilled and engaged workforce, as well as enabling a direct impact on the lives of their beneficiaries. The success of the organisation's apprenticeship scheme has recently been recognised as one of their apprentices won a national award of 'Apprentice of the Year' and another was 'Highly Commended' at a national awards ceremony earlier this year.

Salix Homes offer a robust induction process for all new starters that includes training on safeguarding, manual handling, IOSH, equality and diversity and ICT systems, combined with job specific training. They are committed to an intake of apprentices each year who are paid the minimum wage for their age and not an apprentice rate in areas of their business and they currently have two graduate roles in place who receive an enhanced salary above Living Wage, as well as their full study fees. Salix Homes offer a number of NVQ opportunities to staff within the organisation to support their development. They run “Manager Academies” on a monthly basis for all employees with people responsibilities to focus on themes impacting on the Manager. The responsibilities include delivering effective appraisals, recruitment and selection, training and more.

Salix Homes uses a performance management system, which manages all service action plans under the Corporate Plan. Managers are responsible for reporting on their service areas within the system and are required to attend quarterly performance clinics to report their performance to the Executive Team. On an annual basis each service area/team has an externally led audit carried out and the outcome is then reported to the internal audit committee. Once the actions have been agreed at the committee, the Manager is responsible for providing bi-monthly update reports to the committee. Managers are subject to monthly one to one and annual appraisals with their Managers, where both their performance against objectives and the competency framework are measured.

RD encourages all employees to take qualified training to a level that exceeds the regulatory minimum standard. They also offer colleagues in unregulated roles the opportunities to take professional qualifications at entry level to further their own development. A good example of this is the company receptionists, who have completed the Level 3 qualifications in Wealth Management.

RD actively encourages and supports a wide range of activities under its "Sport and Social Committee", which includes organising regular social activities and also backing the participation in a range of sports including football, cricket, hockey and running. In addition, the company have introduced a "random acts of kindness" budget that allows for Managers to do small things like buy snacks, lunches, flowers and so on to recognise the contributions of their team or lift spirits at times of unusual stress. Staff throughout the group are managed closely and due to the company's size staff related problems and issues can be quickly identified and addressed. RD is always extremely supportive and flexible in its approach to assisting staff. As well as this, Management Development specifically includes time spent looking at staff wellbeing.

Ricoh has raised money for BBC Children In Need for more than 10 years through numerous fundraisers, culminating in heavy involvement on the night of BBC CiN's appeal in November. Ricoh's National Call-Centre formed part of BBC CiN's ‘virtual call-centre', with Ricoh volunteers receiving and processing donations from the UK public via telephone. Throughout the night on Friday 13th November 2015, 165 Ricoh Call-Centre volunteers processed £110,700 of public donations. Throughout 2015 Ricoh employees also raised £17,818 for BBC CiN through a range of events, including a coast-to-coast team cycle ride from Belfast to Dublin, ‘custard pie the boss', cake sales and raffles. Ricoh addresses ‘Youth Employability' to attract, develop and retain young talent, all to assist young people into the world of work. The company also support The Prince's Trust TEAM programme, which is aimed at young people not in Education, Employment or Training. Ricoh volunteers lead TEAM employability workshops around Interview Skills and CV Writing etc to provide Work Experience opportunities. In 2015, 188 Ricoh employees volunteered for The Prince's Trust, providing 685 working hours of time and raising £67.5k. Ricoh is also a standard bearer of BITC's Ban The Box initiative.

Ricoh has raised money for BBC Children In Need for more than 10 years through numerous fundraisers, culminating in heavy involvement on the night of BBC CiN's appeal in November. Ricoh's National Call-Centre formed part of BBC CiN's ‘virtual call-centre', with Ricoh volunteers receiving and processing donations from the UK public via telephone. Throughout the night on Friday 13th November 2015, 165 Ricoh Call-Centre volunteers processed £110,700 of public donations. Throughout 2015 Ricoh employees also raised £17,818 for BBC CiN through a range of events, including a coast-to-coast team cycle ride from Belfast to Dublin, ‘custard pie the boss', cake sales and raffles. Ricoh addresses ‘Youth Employability' to attract, develop and retain young talent, all to assist young people into the world of work. The company also support The Prince's Trust TEAM programme, which is aimed at young people not in Education, Employment or Training. Ricoh volunteers lead TEAM employability workshops around Interview Skills and CV Writing etc to provide Work Experience opportunities. In 2015, 188 Ricoh employees volunteered for The Prince's Trust, providing 685 working hours of time and raising £67.5k. Ricoh is also a standard bearer of BITC's Ban The Box initiative.

Managers have support from their learning platform RG University as well as support from their own line managers (whether that be Heads of Department of members of the Leadership Team). They also run an ‘Insights for Managers' course where managers can share experiences and develop their abilities to adapt and communicate better with their teams. They have an overall culture of ongoing and flexible manager feedback through regular 121s. They don't believe in annual performance reviews because for Reward Gateway, they're outdated and don't suit the pace of their organisation. They monitor performance through 121s and have a Performance Recovery Programme that they use to highlight issues that have dropped below what's needed.

Managers have support from their learning platform RG University as well as support from their own line managers (whether that be Heads of Department of members of the Leadership Team). They also run an ‘Insights for Managers' course where managers can share experiences and develop their abilities to adapt and communicate better with their teams. They have an overall culture of ongoing and flexible manager feedback through regular 121s. They don't believe in annual performance reviews because for Reward Gateway, they're outdated and don't suit the pace of their organisation. They monitor performance through 121s and have a Performance Recovery Programme that they use to highlight issues that have dropped below what's needed.

RBG are very proud of their blended learning approach. Their employees, staff and management alike receive training through a number of channels, including workshops, on the job training, e-learning, role specific workbooks, conferences, bespoke development plans, apprenticeship schemes and more formal modular training programmes. Many of the teams have little or no work experience when they join RBG, so with this in mind the company have developed the ACE (Amazing Customer Experience) training programme, which helps them with the skills and knowledge they need to be successful. It offers interactive e-learning modules that cover a range of topics, from Health and Safety and Cocktail Spec tests to Hospitality training. One of the most exciting developments over the last 12 months has been the launch of role specific modular training programmes. Every management role in the company is now eligible to attend a 4-6 months modular training programme that supports the development of their management skills. The learning objectives of these programmes are not bar related and help Managers develop personal skills in coaching, time management, communication methods, effective feedback tools and even delegation.

RBG are very proud of their blended learning approach. Their employees, staff and management alike receive training through a number of channels, including workshops, on the job training, e-learning, role specific workbooks, conferences, bespoke development plans, apprenticeship schemes and more formal modular training programmes. Many of the teams have little or no work experience when they join RBG, so with this in mind the company have developed the ACE (Amazing Customer Experience) training programme, which helps them with the skills and knowledge they need to be successful. It offers interactive e-learning modules that cover a range of topics, from Health and Safety and Cocktail Spec tests to Hospitality training. One of the most exciting developments over the last 12 months has been the launch of role specific modular training programmes. Every management role in the company is now eligible to attend a 4-6 months modular training programme that supports the development of their management skills. The learning objectives of these programmes are not bar related and help Managers develop personal skills in coaching, time management, communication methods, effective feedback tools and even delegation.

Communication has been a big focus this year for Retail Marketing. They listened to their employees and noted that they need to be more connected whilst working remotely. Their most innovative step-forward in communication has been the creation of RMG Loop, the company's app based tool to engage their colleagues globally. Loop has taken two years to develop and an investment of over £250,000, and is available on iOS, Android and web. Two key communication favourites of Loop are the 'What's On' and the social feed. Both allow everyone to see and share what's happening in their world. This has proved to be a simple and highly interactive way to see what's going on in real-time, and it also enables employees to work collaboratively together. Also, every Tuesday, anyone in the head office meets in a 'Huddle' to communicate what's happening that week. This is live streamed to the whole business for those who can't physically attend. After each Huddle they share the highlights via Loop. They also listened to their employees about Leadership communication and what more they wanted to see and hear from the leaders. It was clear that Directors could be more visible within the business. As a result of this the CEO now hosts a Q&A session on a quarterly basis. This allows everyone a chance to ask him or any of the Directors any questions about the business, and again this is live streamed to everyone and shared on Loop.

All full-time employees can volunteer for 30 hours a year during working hours. This is usually taken as four days throughout the year during which RMG still pays the employee. Everyone is encouraged to be as personal as possible with their volunteering days, and spend the time with charities or initiatives that matter to them. Ultimately employees can volunteer for any charity they would like to support. Some examples of charities our employees have supported this year include: Alzheimer's UK, Dogs Trust, Mind, Daisy's Dream, Sport Relief, The National Trust, West Berkshire Food Bank and Young Enterprise Scheme. Within their head office they also run a variety of fundraising initiatives throughout the year including climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, sweepstakes, bingo, Fantasy Football, Movember, Three Peaks, Sport Relief run, marathons, triathlons, donations for completing surveys, bake sales, tuck shop (20% of proceeds go to charity), car boot sales, raffles and games. They have also donated books and clothes collected from employee, friends and families for the Mind charity store in Reading and food donations for Wokingham Foodbank. In September 2016 RMG employees were in the top 3% of fundraisers on JustGiving.

Some of Redweb's charitable contributions and community initiatives over the past 12 months include a two-minute beach clean, where employees headed to Bournemouth beach and held a beach clean to see how much rubbish they could collect in just two minutes. They also took part in a YMCA raffle and sponsored run, where they raised over £500.00 through an office raffle and a sponsored 10k run. Local companies donated a range of prizes for the raffle and also held a bake sale. Some staff took part in a sponsored Foodbank Challenge, where they lived off of food parcels for a number of days. Some star bakers contributed to producing baked goods to raise money for Alzheimer's. Redweb's biggest contribution to the community is the annual conference Digital Wave. This is a free one-day event for 14 – 19-year-old students to attend and gain insights into careers within digital. They have guest speakers from big name companies including Microsoft, the RNLI and IBM, as well as a host of local companies exhibiting. The conference comes off the back of the company's Digital Days in conjunction with BIMA. Redweb's mission is to encourage the next generation to pursue a career in digital, particularly at local companies. In collaboration with Bournemouth & Poole College they invite apprentices to join each year with a view to employing them at the end of their apprenticeships.

Ensuring employees wellbeing is a primary objective for Redweb, as without them and their personas the company does not exist. To ensure that they are a happy workforce Redweb offer the benefits including pensions and match pension contributions up to 6% for all staff. They also offer eye care vouchers for free eye tests, chiropractor discounts, childcare vouchers, healthcare scheme with Bupa, free fresh fruit, tea, coffee and other refreshments. In addition, there is a Christmas shutdown to minimise workplace stress. They have an open plan, relaxed office environment with breakout areas and areas for fun. There are “Ask Us Anything” boxes for an open atmosphere, where employees can ask senior managers whatever they want in the knowledge that it is anonymous. Employees can enjoy discounts at various local establishments, an internal Tuck Shop filled with goodies selected by employees at discounted prices, a Cycle to work scheme and an employee helpline, which staff can call to speak confidentially to someone about money advice, bereavement, stress, work, family and relationships. Redweb also allow flexible working hours and the ability for everyone to work from home. The company feel that combined these lead to a happy workplace that is founded on honesty, collaboration, a flat culture and employee welfare. They have a relaxed working environment and are not strict with people's time. Working hours are flexible so staff can start and finish when it suits them. They also plan events throughout the year to break up the day. These include a Netflix club during the winter months, the Redweb Olympics and Golf Open, a Christmas party and an awards show called Redweb Stars. They also celebrate smaller things like National Chocolate Day with free chocolates for the office and even have a monthly Bake Off.

As part of PTM Group's Healthcare package all staff are offered the use of a Virtual GP with their health care provider which means that they schedule appointments in work time, without having to leave the office. The Health Cover also offers access to a free counselling service which can be especially beneficial to people needing support through difficult times. Their subscription to Perkbox means that gifts turn up to work regularly for staff and packages can include stress balls, vouchers, money off restaurants and cinema tickets. It is important for PTM Group staff to know that they appreciate that they have a life outside work and they want to help them enjoy it!

Each Manager conducts an Annual Self-Assessment with their team which gives them the change to plan for the future with their team but also to reflect upon areas where improvements could be made. PTM Group is committed to being the leader within the sector and this annual review is a key factor in continual growth within the company and for the management to set long term goals for their departments. As leader, Jamie Paterson, has an open door policy and he will make time to see staff and address any concerns, queries or ideas they may have. Jamie regularly visits all PTM Group sites, makes a point of meeting all new staff face to face as well as engaging with staff regularly to obtain feedback about the progression of the company. All staff have access to Jamie's mobile number so they can contact him directly, for any reason. PTM Group keeps CPD logs for all staff, which are reviewed regularly. As a training provider, most training is done in-house.

Positive Steps Leaders always consult and involve colleagues, clients and partners in all that they do. They are always thinking things through and reflect upon learning using their knowledge and experience to create and develop new ways of working; Everyone is collectively and individually accountable for Positive Steps targets and work together to achieve them. The Leaders also innovate and develop ways of working that make a difference to the people with whom they work alongside. The Senior Management Team are highly visible in the organisation and know all staff by their first name. They frequently have structured team meetings, the Chief Executive attends the quarterly Staff Forums and also provides regular full staff briefings. Bright Ideas are considered at each Senior Management meeting and ‘you said – we did' feedback is later provided by meeting minutes. These minutes are always disseminated throughout the organisation and staff then have the opportunity to comment or question at their team meetings.

Positive Steps Leaders always consult and involve colleagues, clients and partners in all that they do. They are always thinking things through and reflect upon learning using their knowledge and experience to create and develop new ways of working; Everyone is collectively and individually accountable for Positive Steps targets and work together to achieve them. The Leaders also innovate and develop ways of working that make a difference to the people with whom they work alongside. The Senior Management Team are highly visible in the organisation and know all staff by their first name. They frequently have structured team meetings, the Chief Executive attends the quarterly Staff Forums and also provides regular full staff briefings. Bright Ideas are considered at each Senior Management meeting and ‘you said – we did' feedback is later provided by meeting minutes. These minutes are always disseminated throughout the organisation and staff then have the opportunity to comment or question at their team meetings.

Each employee has access to two paid learning days. PHD realise that finding the time to learn can sometimes be challenging, so employees can use two dedicated days to study at home allowing them more freedom over when and how to fit learning around work. They also offer a learning bursary which gives employees money and the opportunity to learn something non-work related, whether this be street dancing, Arabic lessons, beer brewing or a basic DIY course.

In line with PHD's culture and ethos of the ‘Human Touch', working collaboratively and face to face interaction between teams is strongly encouraged. Every department holds weekly status meetings so everyone is made aware of important updates. These meetings are vital in ensuring news is communicated quickly and is an opportunity for team members to interact away from their desks. Line managers hold regular catch ups with their people to boost communication. The large majority of their people are very sociable and are often at lunch or drinks together. PHD encourage this as it aids good working relationships across the various departments. They also hold weekly 15-minute update meetings that rotate around the building. These meetings are intended to give everyone brief updates that are relevant to the way they work for clients, provide useful insights and showcase interesting research. After restructuring the teams late last year, PHD had to rethink their internal workstreams leading to revamped briefing and planning processes within PHD. Key speakers explained the new way of work during a dedicated offsite session. Everyone received a pack with printed collateral to re-enforce the learning. As part of their planning process they hold Action Planning sessions, these encourage people to work collaboratively and to be creative by working together as a group. People are selected from different teams to gain a range of insights and experience and it is an opportunity for them to network with people from outside of their normal day to day team.

Perkbox have free drinks every Friday in the office at 5pm. The way they are distributed is quite unique - given that they have new starters on a regular basis, they push a beer trolley which affords them the opportunity to meet a lot of new faces in a more relaxed setting than the induction tour they are given on their first day. The trolley is also pushed by someone who might have blundered in some way that week, and is accompanied by an irreverent, tongue in cheek email outlining their plight sent by the HR Manager. It's a fun end to the week and nominations come thick and fast and are always hotly contested. Perkbox have a dedicated break out area which has arcade machines, table tennis, table football and a Playstation 4, people eat lunch there and socialize in the evening. The company also has fortnightly yoga and football matches which give everyone something to talk about! Culture is very important to Perkbox. They made a Culture Book with stories of those who joined the team and give it to all new starters. They also made a video for Seedrs recently, a crowd funding company, and have raised £1.4m in a week, becoming the fastest funded company on their platform in history.

Perkbox University, the in-house training program, encompasses management training courses. They ask senior managers to present to managers along the lines of how to motivate staff, how to generate the best results, conflict resolution, empathy, workload management, reward and recognition etc. These happen every couple of months. Every manager is mentored by a senior manager. They always try to promote from within and so new managers will be well versed in Perkbox's management training, having been on the receiving end themselves. A good example is the sales team, those demonstrating aptitude for increased responsibilities are eased into a management role by making them senior managers, who are still doing front line selling but have mentoring responsibilities. Senior Managers will shadow team leaders to prepare them for the more analytical aspects of the role and are afforded the opportunity to learn on the job. Regularly there are weekly, monthly and quarterly reviews. The weekly and monthly reviews are held between the manager and their line manager and are used to discuss how the managers team have responded to the established KPI's and address any incumbent issues. Quarterly reviews are held with the HR Manager present and minutes are taken for the managers to refer to at any time subsequently.

Senior management present very clear monthly business updates closely aligned to the values of the company. They take a hands on approach to the business and clearly demonstrate company values in their working practices and in their approach to day to day tasks. Managers are honest, open and straightforward in all their dealings with staff and clients and focus on delivering a first class service, they set the gold standard. Managers make sure they attend the sports and social events in order to have down time and fun with their colleagues. Spending time with each other away from the workplace is key to establishing a strong working relationship. Paul Clark, Penta's CEO and founder of the company, has an open door policy and is very approachable. He had always had a very clear vision for the company that he set up 18 years ago. Two of his keys strategies have been to surround himself with high calibre individuals who have complimentary and different skill sets as well as putting his staff, clients and candidates at the very heart of the business. Paul was always determined that any one employed by him would actively enjoy coming to work as well as offering a first class service to all customers. He sets clear performance expectations, goals and objectives for others, treats mistakes as learning opportunities, demonstrates an ability to make decisions and take responsibility for them, encourages feedback from everyone in the business, seeks to fine more efficient ways of operating and actively encourages ideas form others.

Senior management present very clear monthly business updates closely aligned to the values of the company. They take a hands on approach to the business and clearly demonstrate company values in their working practices and in their approach to day to day tasks. Managers are honest, open and straightforward in all their dealings with staff and clients and focus on delivering a first class service, they set the gold standard. Managers make sure they attend the sports and social events in order to have down time and fun with their colleagues. Spending time with each other away from the workplace is key to establishing a strong working relationship. Paul Clark, Penta's CEO and founder of the company, has an open door policy and is very approachable. He had always had a very clear vision for the company that he set up 18 years ago. Two of his keys strategies have been to surround himself with high calibre individuals who have complimentary and different skill sets as well as putting his staff, clients and candidates at the very heart of the business. Paul was always determined that any one employed by him would actively enjoy coming to work as well as offering a first class service to all customers. He sets clear performance expectations, goals and objectives for others, treats mistakes as learning opportunities, demonstrates an ability to make decisions and take responsibility for them, encourages feedback from everyone in the business, seeks to fine more efficient ways of operating and actively encourages ideas form others.

All employees have access to professional coaching and are assigned a mentor from within the business. Penna's People Manager Group meets quarterly and is led by the MD. This group works together to support people management in the business and to support one another with their people management role and responsibilities. Good leadership is a core tenet of the overall brand, along with the client experience and colleague experience; therefore the company believe it is essential that they maintain the standards of the leadership behaviours they have established. Each Penna Leader is asked to gather personal feedback on how they are performing. They do this by consulting their direct reports and anyone else whom they have led as part of projects they have undertaken in the last 12 months. Managers are then required to attend a one-hour training session where they learn how to give and receive feedback in the best and most respectful way. Managers then attend a feedback session with their own Line Manager, who shares and walks through the feedback to identify and maximise on strengths and also build upon any development areas.

All employees have access to professional coaching and are assigned a mentor from within the business. Penna's People Manager Group meets quarterly and is led by the MD. This group works together to support people management in the business and to support one another with their people management role and responsibilities. Good leadership is a core tenet of the overall brand, along with the client experience and colleague experience; therefore the company believe it is essential that they maintain the standards of the leadership behaviours they have established. Each Penna Leader is asked to gather personal feedback on how they are performing. They do this by consulting their direct reports and anyone else whom they have led as part of projects they have undertaken in the last 12 months. Managers are then required to attend a one-hour training session where they learn how to give and receive feedback in the best and most respectful way. Managers then attend a feedback session with their own Line Manager, who shares and walks through the feedback to identify and maximise on strengths and also build upon any development areas.

PegasusLife was created to do things differently and to do things better. Their mission, to fundamentally change retirement homes in the UK is not an easy task. Leaving profits to one side, to be successful requires an engaged workforce and a company culture that supports their mission. To that end, all new members of staff get a handbook that explains in detail all of their core values and how everyone at PegasusLife has a part to play in its success. Inspirational quotes that embody their values, from eminent people as diverse as Shakespeare and Jonathan Ive, have been designed into the office environment and can be seen on many of the office walls. PegasusLife's Google+ page has a group called Living the Values, which is an active forum for exchanging ideas, where anyone can post articles or other thinking pieces that support company values. The competencies/values are also part of the appraisal process so everyone is assessed against them at least twice a year. Furthermore, every team day and company gathering is used as an opportunity for the CEO and other key personnel to reconfirm their focus on always having the mission at the forefront of all of all employees minds on a day-to-day basis.

PegasusLife was created to do things differently and to do things better. Their mission, to fundamentally change retirement homes in the UK is not an easy task. Leaving profits to one side, to be successful requires an engaged workforce and a company culture that supports their mission. To that end, all new members of staff get a handbook that explains in detail all of their core values and how everyone at PegasusLife has a part to play in its success. Inspirational quotes that embody their values, from eminent people as diverse as Shakespeare and Jonathan Ive, have been designed into the office environment and can be seen on many of the office walls. PegasusLife's Google+ page has a group called Living the Values, which is an active forum for exchanging ideas, where anyone can post articles or other thinking pieces that support company values. The competencies/values are also part of the appraisal process so everyone is assessed against them at least twice a year. Furthermore, every team day and company gathering is used as an opportunity for the CEO and other key personnel to reconfirm their focus on always having the mission at the forefront of all of all employees minds on a day-to-day basis.

After a period of huge growth and success in the last two years, Pegasus held a Vision Day in July this year. This day began with staff entering work to find an office filled with balloons and a gift of a new branded Moleskine notebook for each employee. Pegasus then decamped from the office to a local venue near the seafront for a half-day session, the purpose of which was to recommunicate the company's shared purpose, values and vision. Whilst there staff were asked to contribute ideas and suggestions to the new company value ‘Take Pride'. The day ended with a champagne address from the Managing Director, followed by an enjoyable evening out!

Two-way dialogue and transparent interaction is openly encouraged at Pegasus. In fact, some of their pivotal changes in recent years have been the result of staff feedback, such as the creation of the five Pegasus behaviours and the company's move to Brighton. The company have established countless regular channels for people to feed in their suggestions, from contributing at internal peer group meetings, being invited to provide formal feedback on new initiatives or simply meeting Simon the MD for lunch and a chat. To strengthen staff insights further, Pegasus have recently invested in a formal online engagement tool called ‘HIVE'. HIVE sends bi-weekly micro surveys to all staff, providing real-time data and acting as a barometer for the overall engagement of people on a range of workplace matters. The company also run an internal group called Culture Club, which acts as a working group focusing on staff wellbeing, social and charity events.

Parkdean Resorts host multiple conferences each year to allow networking between employees across the business in order to encourage integration and a sense of community. The company Intranet page allows employees to communicate consistently and share company news and information. Posters are displayed around the business to advertise and implement the company values.

Parkdean are extremely fortunate to have some amazing people in their business so they show their appreciation for all their hard work during the 'Recognition Cafés', which provide an opportunity for them to reward people who have demonstrated the right behaviours in line with the company values to make a positive difference to the business. Recognition Cafés celebrate success in a fun and creative way. Personal Impact Reviews also help support and focus Parkdean Resorts employees on the business objectives and these take place three times a year. Within the PI Reviews Managers are empowered to identify successors through their talent matrix.

By using animals to represent the PANDORA values, the company provide employees with something tangible to help demonstrate them. They have a figurine called Winnpier who is an amalgamation of all three values: the strong legs and tail from the lion, the large heart and long neck from the giraffe and the wings from the bumble bee. Winniper represents PANDORA's values and the behaviours that they require all their employees to demonstrate. The company launched their values called ‘PANDORA Life' in 2011 through large events within each region of PANDORA. Employees were taken out of the office to a beautiful location where the history of the company and the relevance and importance of its values were explained. PANDORA award prizes to employees for demonstrating the PANDORA Life values in their daily work and also at company events and parties. The values also have been incorporated into the company's Personal Development Reviews and employees must think about how they relate to their particular position. Objectives are then set incorporating the values.

By using animals to represent the PANDORA values, the company provide employees with something tangible to help demonstrate them. They have a figurine called Winnpier who is an amalgamation of all three values: the strong legs and tail from the lion, the large heart and long neck from the giraffe and the wings from the bumble bee. Winniper represents PANDORA's values and the behaviours that they require all their employees to demonstrate. The company launched their values called ‘PANDORA Life' in 2011 through large events within each region of PANDORA. Employees were taken out of the office to a beautiful location where the history of the company and the relevance and importance of its values were explained. PANDORA award prizes to employees for demonstrating the PANDORA Life values in their daily work and also at company events and parties. The values also have been incorporated into the company's Personal Development Reviews and employees must think about how they relate to their particular position. Objectives are then set incorporating the values.

Oxford City Council offer Partnership Payments, which are paid based on Appraisal rating and Sickness absence during the year. As a result of organisational negotiations in 2013 a ‘Pay Deal' was agreed through Unions which encompassed several key employee benefits. One of these was to introduce a bonus scheme where, providing Council financial performance was met, any employee who attained certain annual performance criteria would receive a bonus payment. The amount depended on the level of performance and an additional amount was provided for staff who had a level attendance below a set figure.

Oxford City Council is very conscious of its corporate social responsibility and recognises that there is a significant level of deprivation in the city. Many initiatives have and are being taken to tackle this, such as additional funding for education and support/mentoring for certain age groups in city schools. The has also been the redevelopment of community centres, a new swimming pool at Blackbirdleys, the Barton housing development and the new Westgate shopping centre. A team was also set up specifically to respond to the implications of welfare reform that impacted on several areas of the city. The Welfare Reform Team was specifically set up to respond to the implications of Welfare Reform on certain groups which included the homeless. The Council also works closely with charities such as Crisis to support homelessness and similar issues. Oxford City Council's apprenticeship scheme has been running for five years and has had a significant impact on ensuring vulnerable young people have a chance of employment and becoming ‘work ready'. One part of the organisation's Community Team has worked with a group of young people who were having difficulties at school and through various initiatives have changed lives for the better. One example of this has been the city garden, where these young people are responsible for managing and growing crops.

OVO invested over £600,000 in their Customer Service department with their new reward initiative, OVO Reward Steps. OVO Reward Steps is a way of rewarding great performance and recognising people's commitment to OVO within the Customer Service and back office teams. OVO Reward Steps has introduced significant salary milestones alongside clearly defined knowledge and experience criteria, giving people clear career progression in this crucial part of the business. Addressing attrition, sickness and a perception that people were not getting a ‘fair deal', OVO Reward Steps resulted in a 4% decrease in sickness, 52% decrease in attrition and 39.8% increase in the company's eNPS score for ‘Reward'. The success of this project in its first four months represents savings to the business of £409,762.

OVO invested over £600,000 in their Customer Service department with their new reward initiative, OVO Reward Steps. OVO Reward Steps is a way of rewarding great performance and recognising people's commitment to OVO within the Customer Service and back office teams. OVO Reward Steps has introduced significant salary milestones alongside clearly defined knowledge and experience criteria, giving people clear career progression in this crucial part of the business. Addressing attrition, sickness and a perception that people were not getting a ‘fair deal', OVO Reward Steps resulted in a 4% decrease in sickness, 52% decrease in attrition and 39.8% increase in the company's eNPS score for ‘Reward'. The success of this project in its first four months represents savings to the business of £409,762.

One Way is a respected and rapidly growing recruitment company for the construction industry, with specialist expertise in the built environment, rail, civil engineering and heavy plant. They place top quality construction professionals, technical and management staff, and trades and labour roles right across the UK. They are building an enviable reputation for uncompromising professionalism and integrity, setting new standards for the industry. Their strength is their ability to match the right people to the right jobs. They take the time to understand thoroughly what they are looking for, and then use the extensive database and industry knowledge to find exactly the right combination of skills, experience and accreditations. They are known in the construction industry for being thorough, well prepared and professional. Every candidate is carefully vetted for their eligibility to work and compliance with required standards. Each Team Member is given a Welcome Folder when they join the One Way Team which includes details of the company's Unique Selling Points, Core Values and Cultural Values.

One Way have an induction training programme, progressive career path, regular one to ones, annual appraisals, internal training workshops and external training which are organised as appropriate relevant to role, an online HR system with logbook detailing training and development for each team member.

A local charity of the year is chosen by the Ombudsman Services employees. The local charity the organisation is supporting this year is the Shannon Bradshaw Trust. Events in aid of the charity that have taken place in 2016 include a football fun day, a walking challenge and dress down days. Ombudsman Services also encourage staff to take individual leadership roles in the community, such as being a school governor. Teams have supported local charities such as a RSPCA site that needed some outside maintenance and decorating. Ombudsman Services is also committed to fair treatment of its employees, potential employees and service users. They actively promote equal opportunity for all with the right mix of skills, knowledge and talent and welcomes applications from a wide range of candidates, including those with criminal records.

Ombudsman Services employees are invited annually to vote for a local charity and have the opportunity to volunteer to be part of the charity crew with all areas of the business represented. One of the activities for the crew in 2016 was to organise a group to take part in the Yorkshire Three Peaks challenge. Later in the year the crew organised a Christmas fair. Throughout the year they encourage friendly team competition by running desk decorating challenges, with prizes including a meal out for the whole team. Also, Ombudsman Services foster team spirit through initiatives like ‘Women in the Workplace', taking part in Pride and running informal ‘Meet the Exec' sessions. Their employee voice group Novus works across the organisation with business leaders to support the cascade of information and gain consensus on key topics. The group played a pivotal role in the engagement of colleagues with the 2014/15 office move and are now working on consultation about supporting better attendance management and a wellbeing programme. Finally, there is the sports and social team who coordinate activities, including regular football sessions and an annual Halloween quiz.

Out of Old Mill's total head count of 243, over 70 are currently training to be Accountants, Tax Advisers or Financial Planners. This represents a huge investment in the future of Old Mill and is all supported by the company's Coaching and Mentoring programme. Trainees are also rotated around Old Mill so that they can appreciate the different parts of the business when advising clients in the future. The Leadership Programme covers all employees from Trainee through to Partner level and increases self-awareness of how they impact on others. This programme has been designed in conjunction with the Centre for Leadership Studies at the University of Exeter.

Old Mill's Leadership Programme has made a big difference with the Managers. It focuses on how people impact on others and has been specifically designed to align with Old Mill's values and goals. The company have also had specific developmental issues with one or two Managers. The company culture encourages Managers and employees alike to want to change and develop. Old Mill have had some great results through individual coaching, all by using a mixture of both internal and external Coaches. The performance of the Managers is measured in financial terms on a month by month basis. The company's appraisal system also measures performance against specific objectives and organisational values. Finally, a very comprehensive psychometric and 360 evaluation of the Managers is repeatedly completed.

In addition to NNT Data offering occupational health and the Employee Assistance Programme, the company promotes the sabbatical and flexible working policy and also encourages employees to utilise these benefits. The business also encourages employees to take all annual leave throughout the holiday calendar year. The company recognises that in unfortunate circumstances an employee may need to take up to five days paid leave, which is another benefit used to assist employees with wellness and their return back to work.

NTT Data's Reward and Recognition Programme is designed to recognise and celebrate the valuable contributions of all the company's employees across the UK. This recognition can be for anything, from daily achievements that deliver greater value to clients to the implementation of ground-breaking innovation. To be selected for a Recognition Award, employees must demonstrate outstanding commitment and achievement. For a bronze Award staff receive £250, for silver Award's £500 and for the Gold Award it is £1,000. In addition there is the Team Award Team event, where rewarded individuals and teams are recognised in Town Hall meetings and presented with a glass trophy.

No1 Lounges reward their operational staff with a ‘Performance Bonus' of up to 15% of gross salary each month. The bonus is awarded in two parts, one of 5% and one of 10%. Performance is linked directly to guests' experiences, which they receive in the lounge each day with a feedback questionnaire. 5% is attributed to each team achieving the target Net Promoter Score within the lounge and 10% is awarded based on how guests score certain aspects of their experience which are relevant to each role. The Performance Bonus scheme is free of any management bias and is not connected to the company's financial performance, which No1 Lounges believe to be unique in the world of hospitality. In addition to the Performance Bonus scheme the company also operate ‘on-the-spot' rewards for extra-special service moments, all in recognition of people going above and beyond in the delivery of the lounge experiences. These include tickets to the cinema and theatre, spa days, extra holiday time and high street vouchers.

It's integral to the successful running of No1 Lounges that every employee has a comprehensive understanding of the broader workings and objectives of the business. That's why ‘Tray Days' and ‘Desk Days' take place regularly and are open to all employees, from Heads of Department to housekeepers. Desk Days allow operational employees to spend time with each department in Head Office (referred to as the London Office to avoid hierarchy) and Tray Days give the London Office valuable exposure to the workings of lounges. The CEO Phil Cameron is extremely hands on. Phil, Joe (Head of Operations and Jamie (Head of People) spend at least two days a week in the operations, supporting the Managers, Supervisors and Team Members. They also have a weekly call with each lounge Manager, which takes place every Monday morning. The running of the operations is complex and Phil believes high pressured situations need to be handled calmly, while keeping the businesses objectives front of mind. He aims to inspire his teams by ensuring he's personable, passionate and present. One distinctive initiative that demonstrates the way the Phil engages colleagues in the organisation is ‘Grill Phil'. These take place every six weeks at each airport and allow him to communicate any business updates and new ideas directly. Staff can then ‘grill' him on any topics and raise any issues, which the company believe is key to engagement. The majority of actions to come out of a Grill Phil are implemented or responded to within a month of the meeting to ensure employees feel listened to, supported and an integral part of No1 Lounges development.

NIX offer the following support to their Managers: Job Shadowing Internal Coaching / Mentoring. Specifically, a managers' forum takes place at the board meeting in which all managers are invited to discuss any concerns they have and to run ideas past each other and also seek the experience and expertise of other management team members. Board meetings take place once a quarter. Training in specific areas is offered by the management team as a whole to one another. Reviews are set Annually for all staff members regardless of grade. All staff are encouraged to discuss any concerns, or provide praise for any member of staff regardless of where they sit on the hierarchy.

Nix Communications offers discounted BUPA health insurance policies to staff after a period of employment of 12 months. Wellbeing is important to NIX for all its staff. Various activities including ‘Tone Up Tuesdays' take place in the office. A member of staff is also a qualified Personal Trainer so she leads the sessions. They also run Lunchtime Fit Clubs. An open and communicative approach is adopted to the mental wellbeing of their employees allowing staff members to talk and discuss any concerns or workload issues to members of the management team, without prejudice. A recent addition to the NIX office, is a Shiatsu Massage Chair, this chair is the real deal and cost several thousand pounds. It is free to use and is positioned in NIX's breakout area, along with all the movies, PS4, Pool Table, Sonos Music, and arcade games machines! They always have music in the office which everyone can change. The company have a fantastic breakout area and encourage people to use this. They also encourage people to be active, providing people with headsets so they are not tied to their desk when on calls.

In designing the NHBC's bonus structure the organisation have recognised that whilst all employees can influence business performance, those at lower grades have considerably less influence than Senior Managers on corporate objectives. As a result of this, to drive and recognise employee performance NHBC have weighted the bonus calculations for lower graded employees, allowing them to have greater influence over their bonus achievement. For most employees the bonus is based on 75% individual performance and 25% Company performance, whilst the CEO is 85% Company performance. This means that lower graded employees will receive a substantial proportion of bonus if they perform well but the Company does not over achieve.

NHBC six core principles or behaviours are integral to an organisational wide recognition scheme called Star Awards, a scheme that is open to all employees. Staff can nominate colleagues for work or actions that embody one or more of the NHBC behaviours. The nominees receive notification of the nomination and their names are posted on the organisation's intranet. At the end of the year the nominations go forward to a cross sectional judging panel, with winners and runners up of each category being invited to attend a gala event.

NG Bailey utilise opportunities to work with external partners as part of their approach to employee development. The company's educational outreach activities are supported by employees from every level of the organisation, from apprentices to Executive Team Members. Individuals can find themselves undertaking the simplest of tasks, from organising a careers discussion with a class or year group to working as part of a team developing a day of STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) related activities for 300+ students. This challenges them to use their existing management and leadership skills in a very different and unpredictable environment, as well as offering an opportunity to take part in something extremely rewarding. NG Bailey also work with existing clients to carry out “dragons den” type workshops, were they put forward a group from one of their talent programmes to work with clients who are looking for inventive ideas to tackling the problems they are facing in their own businesses. This provides a great opportunity to apply their strategic thinking skills to unusual problems whilst working to tight deadlines in a foreign environment.

Community forms part of NG Bailey's responsible business strategy ‘One Approach'. Last year the company launched their first charity partnership with Macmillan. Chosen by their employees via a company-wide vote, the aim was to raise £50k within 12 months. Due to the passion, enthusiasm and team spirit, NG Bailey extended the partnership by a further six months to enable employees to continue with their fundraising. By doing this, the company raised almost double its target and enabled teams to break down silos, creating new working relationships within many of their divisions. They have also continued to match funds for other charitable activities that have amounted to £9,560 so far this year. For every person NG Bailey employ they will have helped another two young people to be more successful in their future careers. They've also launched Inspire, their award-winning STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) school engagement programme that aims to engage with over 5,000 young people by 2018. This year the company have engaged with 1,511 (3,007 in total) young people to encourage them to consider a career in engineering. Earlier this year, Cal Bailey the Sustainability Director was invited to join the Business in the Community (BITC) Yorkshire and Humber advisory board. As part of the board, Cal is working with businesses across the region to forge better relationships between business and society and looking at ways UK employers can create fairer opportunities for ex-offenders, disadvantaged young people, homeless and those recovering from addiction via a number of related programmes facilitated by BITC.

New Charter Group are committed to raising awareness of dementia within the community and have therefore adopted Dementia Friends and the Alzheimer's Society as their corporate charities. They have pledged to create as many new Dementia Friends as possible within their local communities by allowing any employee to attend a Dementia Friend awareness session during working time. This is achieved by enabling two colleagues to train as Dementia Friend Champions, allowing them to deliver awareness sessions and create new Dementia Friends. Every employee is entitled to an extra two days leave per year on top of their annual entitlement to give time back to working with charities or community initiatives of their choice. New Charter Group assist adults to help them become work ready and move them into secure paid employment or volunteering by delivering weekly work clubs. This enables New Charter to best support vulnerable individuals who are at risk of homelessness, ex-offenders and/or people who are recovering from addiction. They deliver this employment support in partnership with the local authority's Adult and Community Learning Programme and The Lifeline Project. Lifeline colleagues and volunteers accompany customers to the work club, offering one to one help and support with CV writing, job seeking and overcoming multiple barriers into employment.

New Charter Group are committed to raising awareness of dementia within the community and have therefore adopted Dementia Friends and the Alzheimer's Society as their corporate charities. They have pledged to create as many new Dementia Friends as possible within their local communities by allowing any employee to attend a Dementia Friend awareness session during working time. This is achieved by enabling two colleagues to train as Dementia Friend Champions, allowing them to deliver awareness sessions and create new Dementia Friends. Every employee is entitled to an extra two days leave per year on top of their annual entitlement to give time back to working with charities or community initiatives of their choice. New Charter Group assist adults to help them become work ready and move them into secure paid employment or volunteering by delivering weekly work clubs. This enables New Charter to best support vulnerable individuals who are at risk of homelessness, ex-offenders and/or people who are recovering from addiction. They deliver this employment support in partnership with the local authority's Adult and Community Learning Programme and The Lifeline Project. Lifeline colleagues and volunteers accompany customers to the work club, offering one to one help and support with CV writing, job seeking and overcoming multiple barriers into employment.

The Senior Management Team is committed to the values of the organisation and communicate this throughout the business. They hold team meetings with staff involvement, listen to employees and hold one to one reviews for constant improvement. They also work long hours to ensure they are accessible. The team lead by example and are very hands on. The CEO engages with staff at all levels and attends both private and business functions. He leads by example, is motivating and always inspiring. He will spend time in various departments getting to know staff and how they work. He will also ensure all new staff are introduced to him personally to make them welcome into the organisation. The CEO is a people person and enjoys engaging and listening to his staff. Employee development is encouraged through personal development plans and one to one reviews. Network Telecom is also accredited Investors in People, which emphasises the company commitment to developing and investing in their staff.

Network Telecom encourages cross training, where staff spend time in other departments to see how they interact with the processes in other teams. The company also operates an employee suggestion scheme called 'Motivational Marvin', where high street vouchers are rewarded for the winning ideas/suggestions.

Collectively Needlers respect and treat everyone fairly; they hold team meetings which encourages working together and provide opportunities for people to put forward their ideas. In these sessions they also provide performance feedback, recognise individual efforts and those who are ‘going the extra mile', for example, they will send congratulatory emails highlighting which value the individual has demonstrated. They invest in people by providing training courses, such as NVQ's, excel courses etc. They also like to check-in on each team, just spending time just asking how they are, what they've been up to etc. so that it creates an open and approachable culture. Alistair has a very visible presence within the organisation and is central to the positive culture, plus the organisation is small enough that he is able to speak to each member of staff on a daily basis.

Collectively Needlers respect and treat everyone fairly; they hold team meetings which encourages working together and provide opportunities for people to put forward their ideas. In these sessions they also provide performance feedback, recognise individual efforts and those who are ‘going the extra mile', for example, they will send congratulatory emails highlighting which value the individual has demonstrated. They invest in people by providing training courses, such as NVQ's, excel courses etc. They also like to check-in on each team, just spending time just asking how they are, what they've been up to etc. so that it creates an open and approachable culture. Alistair has a very visible presence within the organisation and is central to the positive culture, plus the organisation is small enough that he is able to speak to each member of staff on a daily basis.

My Vet Ltd monitor all cases referred to specialists and then encourage staff to develop areas of expertise in-house to ensure that pets can be treated within the hospital. More experienced vets arrange a regular informal meeting to discuss cases and learn from them to help the more recently qualified vets. Vets and nurses attend regular in-house meetings with suppliers and specialists to learn about new products and treatments.

The company runs a branch Quality of Service award every quarter based on scores from client feedback forms, a mystery caller and spot checks for cleanliness and tidiness. The winning branches in each region are recognised with awards which are closely followed and create healthy competition between branches in each region.

MHM's Leadership and Management Development Programme is an on-going strategy for developing key people across the business. It is continuous and focuses on specific individual needs during the year. The initial programme consists of sessions delivered as a Bite-Size programme, all endorsed by the ILM. Sessions are delivered by internal experts from across all business areas to increase exposure to all functions. Ongoing development and continuous improvement after the programme has been provided through an in-house mentoring programme with Senior Leaders. This is a vital component of the leadership development and is an effective way of sharing knowledge and experience. There are also positive psychology sessions delivered to all members of the Senior Leadership Team to enhance leadership styles and encourage positive outcomes both in work and at home. Managers also receive monthly one-to-one feedback and performance assessment, in addition to regular coaching from the Board Directors and Heads of Site.

My Home Move's social responsibility scheme, ‘Do the Right Thing' (DTRT), encourages its employees to raise money for the good causes supported by the My Home Move Charitable Trust. Each of the causes support people dealing with the issue of homelessness and are located in the areas in which My Home Move operates. Charity fundraising events take place at least once a month, as well as annual charity events such as the My Home Move Charity Trek, which regularly involves over 40 My Home Move employees giving up their spare time to take on hiking challenges. My Home Move's employees have donated over £43,000 since the launch of DTRT in 2011, which has been raised predominantly through employee events. The company undertake not to discriminate unfairly against any subject of a disclosure on the basis of a conviction or other information revealed, including past addictions or periods of personal uncertainty including being outside of employment or homeless.

The Møller Centre are committed to the health and wellbeing of their team and have several practices in place designed to support staff wellbeing. They offer onsite workplace massage for all staff at the end of the year. The HR and Training Manager is booked on to the Mental Health First Aid course to offer further support to those suffering with mental health issues. They offer a free counselling service as part of their health care plan and the HR and Training Manager has access to a number of other resources and Counsellor's if required. They have run and will continue to run resilience training. They have run a series of Pilates classes in house. They also include a wellbeing tip in the monthly newsletter, which is always well received. They try to link the message to something topical such as National No Smoking Day, Stress Awareness Day or Mental Health Awareness Day. As above but in addition to this they have run a mental health first aid lite course for Manager's to enable them to spot the signs of mental health issues. Each month the HR and Training Manager also offers an open 2 hour drop in session which is available to all staff to discuss any issues which are personal or work related.

The Møller Centre are committed to the health and wellbeing of their team and have several practices in place designed to support staff wellbeing. They offer onsite workplace massage for all staff at the end of the year. The HR and Training Manager is booked on to the Mental Health First Aid course to offer further support to those suffering with mental health issues. They offer a free counselling service as part of their health care plan and the HR and Training Manager has access to a number of other resources and Counsellor's if required. They have run and will continue to run resilience training. They have run a series of Pilates classes in house. They also include a wellbeing tip in the monthly newsletter, which is always well received. They try to link the message to something topical such as National No Smoking Day, Stress Awareness Day or Mental Health Awareness Day. As above but in addition to this they have run a mental health first aid lite course for Manager's to enable them to spot the signs of mental health issues. Each month the HR and Training Manager also offers an open 2 hour drop in session which is available to all staff to discuss any issues which are personal or work related.

In 2016 Michael Page launched a brand new internal communications strategy, moving from a reactive to a proactive approach. An audit looked at the number of messages being distributed, the channels used and the percentage of messages that pertained to the EVP. As a result, they devised a strategy and implemented new communications channels, including SMS and a brand new Leadership Pack, which is sent monthly to managers of people. These managers are then responsible with sharing the information with their teams. They also increased the use of their creative studio and implemented a quarterly update from the UK MD, which is distributed via the Leadership Pack. Earlier in the year, they provided all employees with branded headphones, giving them the tools they need in order to listen to video and audio communications. They are also launching an internal communications radio show in November 2016, which will showcase real people and real stories from across the business. This will replace wordy communications, which were not previously engaging. They are also planning a campaign to re-introduce PageConnect (Yammer) to the business in 2017, where they will host and signpost to key content. The objective is to increase engagement around important business messages and encourage the use of the platform as a key communication platform.

Michael Page employ a blended learning approach in line with the 70/20/10 principle. They utilise new technologies such as online business simulations, videos and Phone Coach. At-desk coaching, mentoring and shadowing are ingrained in the way they on-board and develop people to maximise the efficacy of their classroom training. Michael Page's online performance management system incorporates behavioural review and development, in line with their behavioural framework, as well as the normal goal and KPI metrics. They utilise the Myers Briggs Type Indicator for personal development purposes and increasing self-awareness. The manager and leadership training reflects current trends such as the importance of trust, authentic leadership, unconscious bias and engagement. They have also developed an in-house diagnostic tool which enables the Talent Development team to help managers and directors identify training needs and motivational challenges. This process then results in advice and guidance on providing additional training or support or an at-desk coaching session with a member of the TD team. Michael Page have always utilised e-learning as part of their training and development offering and this year they have scoped, researched and invested in a new digital learning platform which gives employees the opportunity to learn in a way that suits them. The platform is agile and dynamic with social learning, gamification, video and mobile device capability. They are currently designing and creating learning pathways and digital content for their launch in early 2017.

Merlin run various team building events throughout the year, but the highlight on the Merlin Events Calendar is the annual Cricket Day hosted by the company's very own children's charity Merlin's Magic Wand (MMW) at Chessington World of Adventures Resort (CWOAR). In its 7th year, this event brings together Merlin employees from the company's attractions all over the UK for a day full of fun, food and cricket! Four cricket teams from Merlin take on four teams representing their sponsors and business partners in a titanic battle to take home the coveted trophy, fondly nicknamed ‘the Plastic Plate'. Umpires are dressed in ‘inappropriate costume' and spectators cheer on their favourite teams. The local CWOAR team also puts on an amazing spread of food and drink throughout the day to keep the teams fuelled for all the games of cricket played. As well as a great opportunity to build great team relationships both within employees own team but also with those from other attractions, it's an amazing fundraising opportunity for Merlin employees to ensure even more children will be able to enjoy magical and life-changing spaces. MMW creates hospitals and schools for those with special needs. This year they have raised a staggering £22,000 thanks to the generous contribution and excellent support from all of Merlin's teams, volunteers and suppliers.

Merlin's mission, values and vision are a way of life for everyone in the company. Delivering memorable experiences is at the heart of what they do and their values are reflective of how Merlin employees at all levels work towards delivering those experiences to their customers. Consistency of message and regular reinforcement is given to employees to ensure everyone is working to the same goals. Key points are regularly reinforced by daily team huddles for operational teams, regular team briefs and also through the global quarterly newsletter. The ‘Merlin Way Film Competition' is a great way of keeping the Merlin Way front and centre for staff, as every year they get an opportunity to make a short film that brings to life how they and their team live and breathe the ‘Merlin Way'. The company are now in their fourth year of running this competition and the response has been fabulous, with over 100 entries globally each year.

They actively encourage staff to makes friends within the office as this is where they spend a great majority of their time. To aid this process, they have a Social Committee who are responsible for planning internal events which take place every month including a Summer Weekend away and a Christmas Party, as well as Dodgeball, Bowling, Rounders and more. In addition to these out of working hours' activities, Merkle Periscopix have a snooker table and table tennis table in the games room in the office with a league table set up to encourage communication and friendly competition between employees. Monthly 'Food Fridays' and weekly 'Four Thirsty Fridays' provide the perfect opportunity for employees to catch up with one another and wind down from their busy week. The success is proven in the fact that so many employees socialise together outside of work.

They actively encourage staff to makes friends within the office as this is where they spend a great majority of their time. To aid this process, they have a Social Committee who are responsible for planning internal events which take place every month including a Summer Weekend away and a Christmas Party, as well as Dodgeball, Bowling, Rounders and more. In addition to these out of working hours' activities, Merkle Periscopix have a snooker table and table tennis table in the games room in the office with a league table set up to encourage communication and friendly competition between employees. Monthly 'Food Fridays' and weekly 'Four Thirsty Fridays' provide the perfect opportunity for employees to catch up with one another and wind down from their busy week. The success is proven in the fact that so many employees socialise together outside of work.

This year MEC introduced ‘Town Hall' sessions to boost team interaction and communication. As part of the staff survey feedback employees provided the company with, it was clear that they get a great deal of value and enjoyment from the all staff ‘MEC in Motion' company meeting sessions. However, they asked for more regular company updates as the MEC in Motion meetings are 3 months apart and things move quickly around here. The Management Board thought quite hard about the best way to do this, not wanting to resort to email communication as the obvious route. As a result, they introduced Town Hall. This is a new update session held in the open office space covering off any pressing agency, industry, client and people news. No slides or fanfare, just senior people from the management team updating people on important and interesting news, real time. They also introduced Collaboration Coffees as part of their initiative to embed behaviours and improve perceptions of approachability of the Management Board, again responding to staff survey feedback. This is an opportunity for anyone at any level to sit down for a coffee and informally talk about the agency, obtain career advice, tips on leadership or anything else they wish to discuss. MEC ask people to share their Collaboration Coffee time with everyone on the MEC social media channels.

This year MEC introduced ‘Town Hall' sessions to boost team interaction and communication. As part of the staff survey feedback employees provided the company with, it was clear that they get a great deal of value and enjoyment from the all staff ‘MEC in Motion' company meeting sessions. However, they asked for more regular company updates as the MEC in Motion meetings are 3 months apart and things move quickly around here. The Management Board thought quite hard about the best way to do this, not wanting to resort to email communication as the obvious route. As a result, they introduced Town Hall. This is a new update session held in the open office space covering off any pressing agency, industry, client and people news. No slides or fanfare, just senior people from the management team updating people on important and interesting news, real time. They also introduced Collaboration Coffees as part of their initiative to embed behaviours and improve perceptions of approachability of the Management Board, again responding to staff survey feedback. This is an opportunity for anyone at any level to sit down for a coffee and informally talk about the agency, obtain career advice, tips on leadership or anything else they wish to discuss. MEC ask people to share their Collaboration Coffee time with everyone on the MEC social media channels.

The Wellbeing programme offers McDonalds employees a variety of support and helpful information to enhance their wellbeing both at work and at home. A dedicated Wellbeing Hub on ourlounge contains handy articles and information about what employees can do to maintain a healthy and balanced lifestyle. It has advice and support on topics like staying active, eating well, work/life balance and mental health. As part of the Wellbeing Programme, the team research and feature apps of the month, which have included apps like HeadSpace. Every employee receives a ‘How's it Going Chat' with their direct reporting Manager on a regular basis. This provides an ideal opportunity for the employee to have an open and frank discussion with their direct reporting Manager. Employees have the opportunity to discuss any issues that could be causing workplace stress and discuss what support or changes are needed. In recent Senior Leadership Engagement Drop In sessions, workload and workplace stress were some of the discussion topics to enable employees to openly discuss concerns and solutions with Senior Leadership.

The Wellbeing programme offers McDonalds employees a variety of support and helpful information to enhance their wellbeing both at work and at home. A dedicated Wellbeing Hub on ourlounge contains handy articles and information about what employees can do to maintain a healthy and balanced lifestyle. It has advice and support on topics like staying active, eating well, work/life balance and mental health. As part of the Wellbeing Programme, the team research and feature apps of the month, which have included apps like HeadSpace. Every employee receives a ‘How's it Going Chat' with their direct reporting Manager on a regular basis. This provides an ideal opportunity for the employee to have an open and frank discussion with their direct reporting Manager. Employees have the opportunity to discuss any issues that could be causing workplace stress and discuss what support or changes are needed. In recent Senior Leadership Engagement Drop In sessions, workload and workplace stress were some of the discussion topics to enable employees to openly discuss concerns and solutions with Senior Leadership.

Maxus know that communication and interacting are fundamental to their success. At Maxus they celebrate collaborative working. Their Agile Working policy drives collaboration in their day-to-day operations, encouraging people to move frequently around the office, working with different people. When they designed their new office, they built a Tannoy system into walls of the building. It's so fundamental to their culture that much of the interior design is envisioned around the pipes that power it. Whenever they have an all-staff announcement, rather than sending an impersonal email that clogs up everyone's inbox, they use the tannoy. It ensures that announcements are heard, and immediately triggers a series of conversations about the news, because everyone hears at the same time. To surface to the whole agency all the valuable stuff being talked about daily amongst Maxus' teams, they launched their weekly ‘Maxus Mind' bulletin. Every week they crowd-source from staff all their topics of conversation, and then publish them as a bulletin that is re-circulated to the entire agency. It ensures that no-one misses out on a topic of conversation, and provides an ongoing source of important industry news. And they supplement all of this with their Monthly Agency Meetings, followed by drinks. They find that these forums, compulsory for all staff, are essential for sharing news and creating a sense of community and togetherness. Plus, socialising together afterwards gives everyone a chance to catch up and build strong friendships outside the office.

Maxus believes strongly in professional and personal growth for employees. Their Never Stand Still programme offers a suite of initiatives for their staff under three core pillars; “For Work, For Life and For Growth". As part of the “For Growth” activity, they introduced an annual pot of money called the Growth Fund. The Growth Fund is their commitment to supporting employees in their own professional and personal development, offering sponsorship up to £250. The fund could be used flexibly for personal development and subsidise or pay for anything from a professional qualification to driving lessons or a wine tasting course. In 2016, to help inspire people to take advantage of the fund, Maxus facilitated a number of sessions including hosting language classes and a coding course in their offices. The fund is available on an annual basis for all employees with 12 months' service. Whilst Maxus ensure that the growth fund is ultimately supporting personal or professional growth, it is completely up to the employee to decide how they want to spend it. Maxus also offers professional coaching to all employees - coaching can be used for both personal and professional growth. From a professional development perspective, Maxus offer a suite of learning opportunities. In 2016, the focus has been on creativity and they hosted a number of sessions and events focused on creative excellence. Culminating in a week of activities across the agency, from internal subject matter experts giving talks to external companies showcasing their inspiring stories.

The “Health angels” group is Marketing Sciences Unlimited's health and wellbeing team, who run health assessments several times a year to encourage staff to do a self-assessment and log with the company's EAP online programme. This provides hints and tips about lifestyle, exercise and diet that will impact on people's wellbeing. The team also organises lunchtime walks and tours to get people away from their desk in a social environment. Recently they organised guided tours of Winchester Cathedral and Winchester College. The company have shower facilities that enable staff to cycle to work and exercise at lunch time, with a large number of staff taking advantage of the cycle to work salary sacrifice scheme. They are involved in an annual Creston Cycle Tour and always have volunteers join for all or part of the weekend, supporting or cycling with colleagues from other agencies. They have run mindfulness training, which was well received, and put on weekly yoga or Pilates classes that anyone can join. Marketing Sciences have a large breakout room with kitchen facilities and seating. This leads out to a balcony area and staff are encouraged to have lunch away from their desk and use the communal area to take time out on a daily basis. They have access to training for managing workloads that staff can choose to attend and the company have previously organised an external consultant to talk about mindfulness with staff.

Marketing Sciences Unlimited have an annual local charity that they raise money for, normally through team events and social evenings. People propose a new charity each year and everyone votes for this. In 2015 it was Muffin's Dream, a charity dedicated to helping families who have a child or young adult with a disability or illness. In 2016 it was Simon Says, a child bereavement support service. They are a sponsor of the Theatre Royal in Winchester and have been for many years. Jane, Marketing Science's MD, is an Honorary Fellow of The University of Winchester and they have an on-going relationship with the Business School. Jane recently sat as an external member of the validation panel, scrutinising two new degree programmes and sponsoring two apprenticeships for each of the programmes starting this year. Furthermore Marketing Sciences are involved in Southampton University's mentoring scheme and offer work experience placements from local secondary schools.

Motiv8 is Markerstudy's central point for charitable activity, coordinating events like Markerstudy Day, the annual group wide activity fun day where staff raise money for local causes. Staff are also able to apply to Motiv8 for a donation towards their personal charity achievements and fundraising targets, offering up to £1,000 per quarter to good causes. Group charity initiatives from the last six months have included but are in no way limited to ‘Margo the Mini', a £16,000 restoration project which will see the 1969 Mini auctioned at the Classic Motor Show in November with all proceeds going to Prostate Cancer UK. There is also National Pet Month, where employees collected hundreds of tins of animal food and donated it to their local pet charities. Staff are encouraged to take a paid working day to support a charitable cause once a year. They are also able to volunteer for a charity for a week without the need to use their holiday entitlement. Markerstudy have developed two free road safety awareness programmes supported by Kent County Council that prepare children for life as a driver. Delivered to more than 24,000 young people, the programme is being delivered to an average of 500 children per week in Kent, which the company are keen to expand. Markerstudy also take care of their staff, for example they have supported some medium term absences while the employees seek drug and alcohol rehabilitation services and have also provided welfare support as and when needed. In one particular case they've also supported an employee to get off the homeless list.

Motiv8 is Markerstudy's central point for charitable activity, coordinating events like Markerstudy Day, the annual group wide activity fun day where staff raise money for local causes. Staff are also able to apply to Motiv8 for a donation towards their personal charity achievements and fundraising targets, offering up to £1,000 per quarter to good causes. Group charity initiatives from the last six months have included but are in no way limited to ‘Margo the Mini', a £16,000 restoration project which will see the 1969 Mini auctioned at the Classic Motor Show in November with all proceeds going to Prostate Cancer UK. There is also National Pet Month, where employees collected hundreds of tins of animal food and donated it to their local pet charities. Staff are encouraged to take a paid working day to support a charitable cause once a year. They are also able to volunteer for a charity for a week without the need to use their holiday entitlement. Markerstudy have developed two free road safety awareness programmes supported by Kent County Council that prepare children for life as a driver. Delivered to more than 24,000 young people, the programme is being delivered to an average of 500 children per week in Kent, which the company are keen to expand. Markerstudy also take care of their staff, for example they have supported some medium term absences while the employees seek drug and alcohol rehabilitation services and have also provided welfare support as and when needed. In one particular case they've also supported an employee to get off the homeless list.

Maris have a monthly beauty treatment day, where a meeting room is taken over and staff can sign up for a free massage, a haircut or a manicure, it has proved to be a great way for staff to take 20 minutes out of their busy day to unwind. When the sign up list is put up staff always react excitedly and the list is full very quickly. They also provide a monthly lunch to employees. A local restaurant or food stall is selected, vouchers are printed and handed to staff to go and collect their free lunch. They give staff their birthday as a day's holiday, or a day within their birthday month. In addition, they close down between Christmas and New Year which is free time off for employees. The in house coffee shop, FOAM, provides fresh fruit, cereals, a daily snack and teas and coffees and is a unique and relaxing environment where staff can take a break at any time during the day. The office environment is also very comfortable with AC, plenty of natural light, comfortable seating and showers and lockers. Once a year employees are taken on holiday and gifted the time off. Any employee in a time of need is fully supported, Maris have paid for medical bills for four employees this year who have faced challenges. This year they decided to offer free health checks to employees where they brought in a doctor for a few days to examine vitals and discuss any issues with employees.

Maris base their business process around a Four Stage Plan. The Four Stage Plan takes the four different areas of the business; Finding it, Winning it, Adjudicating it, Delivering it, and sets out the ideal process and golden rules within each. Team leaders and department heads are responsible for communicating the process, ensuring the staff understand and employ it. At Maris, they are committed to continuous improvement, increased performance and quality standards and a desire to keep improving on their place in the Top 100 year on year. Their achievement of ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 18001 has allowed them to engage the whole business, involving them in the setting up of new systems, training them in the operation of the systems and asking for input and suggestions for improvement. The prime objectives have been communicated company-wide and have really focused the entire company, as can be seen by the fantastic quarterly results that they have seen this year. It really affirms the commitment to the philosophy, CANI – Continuous and Never-ending Improvement, Maris' focus to be the best they can.

m/SIX understand that to attract and retain talent their people need to come first. By ensuring their people are happy, motivated and challenged they come to work inspired to create better work for their clients. The company put a lot of thought into developing a benefits package that promotes a collaborative work culture and strikes the right work life balance. Just some of the other benefits, processes and fun things that everyone working at m/SIX enjoys include Running Club, Monday Night Football, 3pm finish on a Friday during the Summer months, Childcare vouchers, an Employee Assistance, Life Assurance, Health Insurance, Private Medical Insurance, Season ticket loans, Free eye tests and Partner Discounts with companies like Apple and Majestic Wines. There are also Personal Finance Clinics, Film and Food nights and even a Book Club.

m/SIX understand that to attract and retain talent their people need to come first. By ensuring their people are happy, motivated and challenged they come to work inspired to create better work for their clients. The company put a lot of thought into developing a benefits package that promotes a collaborative work culture and strikes the right work life balance. Just some of the other benefits, processes and fun things that everyone working at m/SIX enjoys include Running Club, Monday Night Football, 3pm finish on a Friday during the Summer months, Childcare vouchers, an Employee Assistance, Life Assurance, Health Insurance, Private Medical Insurance, Season ticket loans, Free eye tests and Partner Discounts with companies like Apple and Majestic Wines. There are also Personal Finance Clinics, Film and Food nights and even a Book Club.

Lush works on a flat structure, which allows all employees to access Leaders in the company. Board members look to their teams for leadership and encourage them to take the lead where possible. All support and Senior Management staff are visible and available at any time to discuss ideas or concerns staff may have. Mark is heavily involved in the day to day running of the company, helping to develop the teams whilst also inventing fragrance and products. Mark always attends the European Communication Meetings, as well as travelling to other Communication meetings around the world so staff are able to see and talk to him on a regular basis. He visits and works on the shop floor from time to time, which really gives the staff a buzz, as well as openly telling employees that they can contact him via his personal Facebook page.

Lush donate products good for multisensory purposes to a local charity that cares for the elderly suffering with dementia and Alzheimers. The company also have a staff member whose son has to attend a local special needs school. The children there love Lush products, so the company regularly donate products to them and their families to use. Products are also sent to Women's prisons to help build their self-esteem before coming out to the real world in hope that this kick-starts a new life for them. Regular donations are made to small local charities, campaigns and organisations working in the areas of environment, animal protection and human rights, with funds raised from Lush's Charity Pot hand and body lotion. During the last financial year in the UK, the company donated over £1.6 million. Lush's Green Team also volunteered at Livability in Holton Lee and helped to set up a composting bin made from recycled bottles. Livability is a charity that supports people with special needs or disabilities and at Holton Lee they have the opportunity to learn about gardening and to be immersed in nature. Last year Lush also fixed a solar dehydrator for them and will be helping to repair it this month for another year of service! The charity can use it to dry herbs.

Lorica consider themselves to be a very baby friendly company. They have a very effective and accommodating system in place for all expecting parents. Once they are made aware of a pregnancy for a staff member they hold meetings to discuss their plans and run a risk assessment of their work station, providing back and feet supports where needed and generally making it as comfortable and suitable as possible. They also allow time to be taken for anti-natal appointments, which are fully paid. After the pregnancy they offer 'Keeping in touch days', whereby the employee will visit the office to catch up with everyone and often show off the new baby. Meetings are then arranged with Line Managers where they discuss returning to work conditions. The company are extremely flexible concerning the changing of hours or reductions from full to part time hours. They encourage employees not to check their emails whilst on holiday, instead naming team members/Line Managers to pick up important emails in their absence so that a holiday can remain a holiday.

Lorica consider themselves to be a very baby friendly company. They have a very effective and accommodating system in place for all expecting parents. Once they are made aware of a pregnancy for a staff member they hold meetings to discuss their plans and run a risk assessment of their work station, providing back and feet supports where needed and generally making it as comfortable and suitable as possible. They also allow time to be taken for anti-natal appointments, which are fully paid. After the pregnancy they offer 'Keeping in touch days', whereby the employee will visit the office to catch up with everyone and often show off the new baby. Meetings are then arranged with Line Managers where they discuss returning to work conditions. The company are extremely flexible concerning the changing of hours or reductions from full to part time hours. They encourage employees not to check their emails whilst on holiday, instead naming team members/Line Managers to pick up important emails in their absence so that a holiday can remain a holiday.

Each Local Care Force office actively look to support their community and the people that they work with. As many of their customers are charities they regularly work with their fundraising teams and are actively involved in numerous money-raising events. Every employee takes part in days like Jeans for Genes, Alzheimer's Day and many others and, in addition to numerous 10k & 5k runs/walks, they have been involved in the following activities in the last 12 months. One of their team went to Kenya to help build a school and Local Care Force donated clothing, stationary and raised money. The Sales Director did the London Marathon to fund a kitchen build for Together for Mental Wellbeing and will be doing another Marathon this year! They got hands-on to help a service user (a person they support in the community) recreate their garden. In 2016 16 of the Local Care Force team completed Total Warrior event for Hospitallier St John of God. They held a Christmas afternoon tea for their Nurses, with the president of the Royal college of Nursing in attendance to raise money for her charity but also for the Leeds flood damage. A team of Managers did a night rave-run. More recently, the company have supported an ex-employee to raise money for a family member who needs rare cancer treatment in Germany. Finally, in 2017 25 of the team have booked to do the tougher Lake District Total Warrior course, 8 to do Leeds Total Warrior, 3 to do tough mudder all for charity and 10 doing Gung ho for Love hope Trust.

Local Care Force constantly look to motivate their employees – the vision is that everyone looks forward to coming to work! They appreciate their team, thank them when they work late and continually express their gratitude and appreciation. They have a shift pattern to help avoid rush hour, help with child care and allow staff to go to the gym. A number of incentives run throughout the year, including activities to incentivise those who aren't targeted or on bonuses. Innovative Incentives for the administration team are taken just as seriously. A recent example is Bingo cards with customer-service related tasks to complete for prizes like luxury hotel stays, bar tabs, a parking pass and team meals out. There are often days dedicated to a given task like quality assurance or new business, where the team are given a week to plan, with prizes worth making a serious effort for, including recently an all-expenses paid holiday to Barcelona! The eventual winner of the holiday to Barcelona took a colleague with him to help celebrate his success, a real testament to Local Care Force's ethos of being friends and not just colleagues. The Management Team are dedicated to praising those who work hard, when a record or target is hit or someone simply goes over and above. The Management Team reward their entire team with a paid lunch or a meal after work to promote morale and strong relationships. Any praise is also emailed company wide, with the team positively commenting each time.

To celebrate livin's 52nd position in the Times Top 100 they ran 52 ‘Great People Moments.' The moments were designed to make staff feel good about themselves and their role in the business and ranged from fun activities to surprise treats. Examples include a One Direction ticket extravaganza, free health checks, free Starbucks, a hike in the Lake District and much more. In addition to the Great People Moments the company also invested significantly in the health and wellbeing of staff with the launch of the Every Penny Helps scheme. 85% of staff take part and the extra pennies from their monthly salaries has raised nearly £1400 for the Healthy livin Fund. Matched by livin, nearly £3000 has been raised to fund a range of activities, facilities and staff services. The funds are put towards fitness classes, fitness equipment hire, healthy lunches, bikes for use over lunch breaks, group walks, beauty and massage treatments and health checks. A telephone based Employee Assistance Programme is available 24/7 for all staff and their immediate families to access counselling and guidance on matters as diverse as financial worries, stress and household issues. Livin's commitment and approach to staff wellbeing was recognised last year with the award of the Better Health at Work bronze award and this year they've just been evaluated for silver status.

With a real focus on team interaction and to support the delivery of Plan A, livin's new business strategy this year launched 'Connected Leaders.' All participants undertake a transactional analysis questionnaire to identify individual behaviour preferences and how these effect relationships. Through a series of coaching sessions staff are then equipped with skills to effectively manage their own and others behaviours to improve relationships. Ongoing team interaction is supported through livin's internal social media platform, Yammer. 100% of staff have profiles and the platform has 98% engagement rate, with 44 subgroups of cross department teams working of specific projects. 'Eurofever' was a companywide employee engagement event which demonstrated livin's multi-cultural awareness at the height of the European football event in 2016. Teams were selected randomly at a FIFA-style grand draw, with the Chief Executive presiding. Departments were challenged to display not only their own football team's colours in their work areas but to also come up with innovative ways of promoting the countries culture. Flags were raised, fascinating weird and wonderful facts were presented in wall art, histories were written and fun was had through quizzes and interactive art. The Berlin Wall was raised once more and staff were encouraged to write slogans on it - even The Hoff was resurrected (but didn't appear for a visit). Staff even brought in sweet and savoury food they had made to share with their team from their 'countries', including German sausage, pizza, pasties and goulash.

LCF Law understand that their people are their strength and as such they ensure that they support their development wherever they can. The company appraisal process is heavily geared towards personal growth and the development of skills both directly relevant to the employee's job role and those that are important for the individual. They fund courses for their team, ranging from soft-skills coaching all the way to professional qualification lasting several years. They have also embraced apprenticeships and currently support the development of seven, with three more being actively recruited for the Summer. They make sure that their employees have the time they need to fulfil their development goals with paid time off for studies, exams and activities in a wide variety of areas.

LCF Law encourage employees at various levels to spend a day or longer in the company's other offices to ensure that everyone works as one team, maintaining the feel of a family firm, despite multiple the locations. This has made collaboration easier, plus has led to new business opportunities. As well as this, the company have an active social scene involving colleagues from every office as a result.

At Kohler, each associate is given a paid volunteer day which they can use either as an individual or a team. Previous examples include the Marketing department spending the day at the National Star College redecorating a Sports Hall and the Operations Team helping at the Butterfly Garden. Every year, Kohler associates nominate a charity to support and the business doubles any funds raised. Throughout 2016 many sponsored events have taken place, including a head shave, sponsored walks and a Skydive. As a final fundraising engagement activity for the year, a 4-week long fundraising interdepartmental competition is held in aid of Stand up to Cancer. This provides a great opportunity to increase internal engagement as well as the profile of individual departments, with events including a charity golf day, star prize raffle and a sponsored cycle challenge.

At Kohler, each associate is given a paid volunteer day which they can use either as an individual or a team. Previous examples include the Marketing department spending the day at the National Star College redecorating a Sports Hall and the Operations Team helping at the Butterfly Garden. Every year, Kohler associates nominate a charity to support and the business doubles any funds raised. Throughout 2016 many sponsored events have taken place, including a head shave, sponsored walks and a Skydive. As a final fundraising engagement activity for the year, a 4-week long fundraising interdepartmental competition is held in aid of Stand up to Cancer. This provides a great opportunity to increase internal engagement as well as the profile of individual departments, with events including a charity golf day, star prize raffle and a sponsored cycle challenge.

KCTMO have recently launched the bi monthly 'Food for Thought' lunches. Each one is hosted by a different team, who are given a set amount by the company to host the event. The lunch is themed around their team and the activities that they carry out. The aim is to better inform other teams of what that particular team do on a day to day basis. All staff are invited and food and refreshments are provided for everyone that attends. These lunches are designed to be fun, informative and interactive. A good example is the Environmental Services team, who hosted a garden party complete with plants and fake grass. In July this year KCTMO also held their annual staff conference, with the offices being closed for the day so that everyone could attend. The delegates were also asked to consider some key business issues and tasks, which this year focused on current and future climate, different ways of working and finalising the new KCTMO behaviours to support and underpin their existing values.

The Chief Executive has an inclusive leadership style, with a strong ability to speak and engage with people at all levels. He "walks the office" and spends time with staff at their desks or work locations, getting to know both the individual and what they are working on. Staff know Robert's style and openly discuss his open door approach. They are also aware of his desire for staff to feedback to him on any issues or concerns they may have. Robert's Executive Team are also visiting different locations and staff who are outside their usual teams. This has enabled both staff and the Executive Team to improve both their leadership and visibility within the organisation. Robert has conducted town hall style briefings and without exception these have all been well attended. The most recent had over 60 attendees at one session.

The nature of their business as an agency means that sometimes clients do put pressure on their employees. It is their priority to ensure employees maintain a health work life balance and as such they continuously invest in the wellbeing programme that was introduced in 2013. Kantar's wellbeing mission is to support people in seven key areas: financial, physical, mind, social, environment, ethical and spiritual. The latest enhancement to their wellbeing portfolio saw the introduction of free on-site weekly yoga classes, on-site massages, smoothie making classes and physiotherapy sessions. Kantar also continuously market the programme to ensure it is in front of mind for employees and managers alike. As mentioned above they have a comprehensive wellbeing programme which has been put in place to ease workplace stress. Each employee is unique and as such the business has a flexible approach and an open mind when it comes to dealing with a stressed employee. This approach is only possible because of the trust culture that is advocated by the senior management. The majority of their managers have attended a mental wellbeing programme run by the charity Mind which helps them identify any factors that may cause stress to Kantar employees and tips on how to support or manage it. The business also has a strong partnership with their private insurance provider, occupational health practitioner and an EAP service to support all employees should they need specialist help. This partnership allows them to provide prompt and personalised support to Kantar employees.

They offer a variety of learning support for their managers and this can range from informal on job shadowing to formal secondment opportunities so the employees can put themselves in real situations. New for 2016 was the introduction of the e-learning programme which was created to allow their line managers to manage and focus attention on their people management skills in their own time, without disrupting other business or client priorities which also form a part of their roles in the business. The e-learning programme now hosts over 30% of their courses. They strongly believe that managers are the key to employee engagement. A third of the population are line managers and as such in 2014 Kantar committed to transforming their role in business through the introduction of their three Line Manager Principles of Leads, Motivates and Cares and the Ten Behaviours. Colleagues are now only promoted or moved to “people management” roles once they have demonstrated their ability against these line manager principles, and this forms a part of the decision-making process during assessments. Learning gaps and needs are also identified in advance of an employee moving into a “people management” role. They are provided with the necessary support through job shadowing, coaching, classroom learning and the e-learning programme, which is then monitored and measured during the mid and annual performance review process. The annual employee survey results provide Kantar with a good measure of their line managers' performance both as a business and at department or team level. The data also provides Kantar with rich information about which teams and department need special attention and where the gaps are, so that they are able to improve and influence employees' experience of and engagement with the business.

Senior Management frequently work extra hours, including weekends, to ensure consistent delivery of high quality services within SLA targets for all clients. They very much believe in "walking the talk". Having happy staff is vital to a successful business so employee engagement is key to the Senior Management Team. There is a weekly report to agents covering performance, upcoming forecasts, issues and anything else that is relevant. The Team Leader groups carry out team briefings on a weekly basis to inform individual teams of campaign specific matters and more detailed performance and forecast requirements. They also hold regular drop-in workshops where all team members are encouraged to contribute by making suggestions for improvements in respect of client services and processes. Journeycall even hold monthly Employment Engagement meetings, where elected representatives from each department meet and discuss issues and suggestions to improve services and the working environment. On top of this, Theresa Wishart was named Employer of the Year at the 2016 Scottish Business Women awards. In 2015 Theresa also collected the Dundee & Angus Chamber of Commerce award for making Journeycall the Most Enterprising Business of the Year.

Journeycall have a nominated charity which is decided upon by staff. This year it is Arbroath Infirmary Dialysis Unit. The company also do a lot to raise charitable funds for organisations like Macmillan Cancer Nurses. Most of the fun initiatives organised by the company Entertainment Committee have a charitable link, including charitable donations for dress down days. Last year Journeycall raised over £3200 for Angus Women's Aid. The company take part in careers fairs in the area and are one of the largest employers in Angus, being the biggest single employer in Arbroath. The company also have a longstanding and successful partnership with the Towards Employment Team, who they engage with to recruit candidates who have completed the Towards Employment programme. Further to this, Journeycall have an ongoing partnership with Triage, which supports those who have been unemployed for a long period of time getting back into work.

JDX has consultants based on multiple client sites, meaning it is hugely important that they facilitate company-wide interaction in many different ways. As a result of this the company hold a ‘Townhall' every six weeks for all employees to attend. This is where JDX's performance and strategy are discussed, outstanding individual performances are acknowledged by Management and awards are also given. It is also a chance for new consultants to integrate with the JDX family. The SMT hold a number of initiatives throughout the year, including a quarterly ‘beers n ideas' forum. This gives employees a chance to put forward any ideas on how to further improve JDX. The best ideas are collated and presented to the MD's for consideration. The SSCC (Sports, Social and Charity Committee) is a peer-run committee dedicated to providing funding for events proposed by employees. Recent examples include Dodgeball, Salsa Dancing and Wine Tasting. The company also host a reoccurring movie night and poker tournaments throughout the year, which encourages healthy, if not ruthless, competition!

JDX has consultants based on multiple client sites, meaning it is hugely important that they facilitate company-wide interaction in many different ways. As a result of this the company hold a ‘Townhall' every six weeks for all employees to attend. This is where JDX's performance and strategy are discussed, outstanding individual performances are acknowledged by Management and awards are also given. It is also a chance for new consultants to integrate with the JDX family. The SMT hold a number of initiatives throughout the year, including a quarterly ‘beers n ideas' forum. This gives employees a chance to put forward any ideas on how to further improve JDX. The best ideas are collated and presented to the MD's for consideration. The SSCC (Sports, Social and Charity Committee) is a peer-run committee dedicated to providing funding for events proposed by employees. Recent examples include Dodgeball, Salsa Dancing and Wine Tasting. The company also host a reoccurring movie night and poker tournaments throughout the year, which encourages healthy, if not ruthless, competition!

JCT600 have introduced a new programme of "Energy Management" sessions this year. These run regionally for 1.5 hours each in a highly interactive and fun way. All colleagues are invited and multiple sessions run on one day. The Coach that runs these is hugely positive, down to earth and fits the company's culture well. He forces colleagues to think about what they put in their bodies and how this impacts on their energy at work and at home, all of which has really helped the workforce this year. Colleagues have given up caffeine, cut down on sugars or are simply considering their nutrition a lot more. Rob used fun techniques to get people thinking generally about their food, drink and energy levels. All of this has led to some true light bulb moments, great results and even greater feedback. JCT600 also provide full counselling via their OH or through their industry charity BEN for those that suffer in this area.

JCT600 have three separate Leadership Programmes. One is for fundamentals, one for introducing real Leadership Skills and one is a Potential Programme focused on emotional intelligence that is run in the Lake District and spans seven months. After programmes Managers re-group in Learning Sets to keep their relationships and form tight networks. The company's Talent Manager Sarah is taking a Coaching Diploma and provides internal Exec Coaching for some Managers following the High Potential Programme, along with coaching provided by an external facilitator. The company pays for groups of managers that have been through the High Po LDP in the Lakes to go back up for an overnight stay when they want to come back together, as they see this as a real investment in their long term development. One member of one intake was diagnosed with terminal cancer last year at 40 years old. His group met with him regularly and took him back up to the lakes before he died, a real demonstration of not only how they bonded but how they support one another long after the programme has finished. JCT600 also provide staff with quarterly in site and brand reviews and monthly one to ones with Managers. They also have a Year End Review Process. The company are a performance driven, target orientated business and this dynamic cycle is just part of the way they do things.

Ixion hold an annual Staff Awards ceremony and all bar the CEO award is based on employee nominations from colleagues. Nominated staff are invited to attend and also invite two colleagues along to share the day with them. Staff are presented with engraved trophies and vouchers. The awards recognise employee's contributions that live and demonstrate the Ixion values. A CEO Honorarium Bonus payment is also allocated for the CEO to reward individual employees who make significant contributions or impacts within their role, team or division. The bonus pot is then distributed as the CEO sees fit.

Ixion hold an annual Staff Awards ceremony and all bar the CEO award is based on employee nominations from colleagues. Nominated staff are invited to attend and also invite two colleagues along to share the day with them. Staff are presented with engraved trophies and vouchers. The awards recognise employee's contributions that live and demonstrate the Ixion values. A CEO Honorarium Bonus payment is also allocated for the CEO to reward individual employees who make significant contributions or impacts within their role, team or division. The bonus pot is then distributed as the CEO sees fit.

When a customer contacts itsu to give brilliant feedback on one of the colleagues in their shops, a member of the Executive Team goes out to that shop to present a custom made Tiffany butterfly charm to them. This is really celebrated throughout the business and photos of these Executive visits are put within the quarterly its-us magazine, which is given to every colleague at itsu.

itsu have launched two Leadership Programmes this year for their emerging Leaders and Senior Leaders. An important element is a personalised learning plan for Managers, as this encourages ownership. The company ran a 360 based on the judgement-drive-influence model and each individual was given one to one feedback from the report. They were then asked to present their strengths, opportunities and how they were going to work on them, which has informed their personalised learning path. They will continue to be supported in their development through mentoring and coaching from their Line Manager. All Managers have a twice yearly performance review, which looks at their results and behaviours against itsu's current values. Shop Managers are measured in a champions league format which measures their KPI's. If they are under delivering they are performance managed throughout the year. Those that are meeting expectations will be in line for promotion. As well as this Head Office Managers are measured by personalised KPI's specific to their job role.

Inntel offers all staff an annual bonus, which is paid out if the company achieves its targets. The bonus is made up of 50% company targets and 50% individual KPI's. Whilst this is not unique in itself, all staff attend a monthly company update with either the Managing Director or another member of the Senior Leadership Team, where the names of those who have achieved their monthly KPI target are put into a pot and if selected can have a spin on the ‘wheel of fortune' to win a prize. The prizes include cinema tickets, bottles of wine, vouchers for a meal for two or gift vouchers. This monthly meeting is called ‘Scores on the Doors' and not only serves as an opportunity for staff to be brought up to date on what is happening within Inntel during the month but also allows the company to reward staff for their efforts in a light-hearted and enjoyable way.

Inntel seeks to enhance the wellbeing of its employees in many ways. The most successful of these is a monthly health and wellbeing focus, aimed at giving staff access to information to help them live a healthy lifestyle. During the last 12 months the company have been sending out wellbeing updates to all staff, covering subjects such as Healthy Eating, which coincided with a weekly delivery of two boxes of fruit from the local farm shop to encourage staff to eat healthily. During the Summer Holidays there is information on sun care and preventing sun damage. Inntel used this month to promote their cycle-to-work scheme and discounted gym memberships. The company also have an Employee Assistance Programme, designed to give staff access to confidential support and advice from qualified professionals about personal or work matters, all completely free of charge. The business operate an open door policy and all employees can speak to their Managers if they feel they are suffering from workplace stress. Once this is identified, steps are taken to reduce this stress and make any reasonable adjustments necessary.

As an organisation Immediate Media encourage everyone to have a good work life balance and to look after their physical and emotional wellbeing. At a company level they provide subsidised gym memberships, run mindfulness and yoga sessions and nutrition advice workshops. They also have an active social club which runs and promotes a range of activities to promote wellbeing. These include Zumba and Krav Maga self-defence classes, as well as seasonal activities during work like Pumpkin carving competitions and festive wreath making. Managers are trained in a model called 'Comfort, Stretch, Chaos', which teaches them how to keep a balance in people's jobs, when to recognise the signs of stress and the tactics to deal with it. At Immediate Media people are given the space to have fun and enjoy themselves so they come back refreshed and inspired from breaks. The company have a table tennis, table football and a garden area for relaxing outside, as well as break out areas across all the open plan offices. Employees can even leave at lunchtime on Fridays and are provided with an Employee Assistance Programme 24 hours a day.

As a highly matrixed organisation, effective communication across and within teams is essential and central to Immediate Media's communications strategy. From the company's inception in 2011 they've made this a cultural principle and there is no better example than the design of the head office. At its heart is an open space occupying the entire ground floor with a café, open plan and private meeting spaces, table tennis and pool tables, a bar and a 300+ seat theatre. This vibrant and permanently busy space provides a place where people come together to collaborate, eat, socialise and it's also the centrepiece of the company communications. In the theatre area the company run regular companywide and group Town Hall meetings. These are transparent, jargon-free updates on performance from the CEO, which are followed by a short show and tells celebrating success from different teams. Open communication lies at the core of the values, so every Friday the CEO sends out an update to everyone. He selects his highlights from around the company, covering everything from big commercial wins to brand news and initiatives. He then underlines the importance of the people with a welcome to all new starters, congratulations for those promoted or have good news to share and finally saying goodbye and wishing well to any leavers.

The Lifestyle Allowance Benefit is a small contribution (up to £150) from the Company towards you taking part in a life enriching activity which has a positive impact on your well-being outside of the work place. A few examples of what employees can claim the £150 on as follows; gym membership, cooking classes, membership to a cultural or sporting pastime and sports equipment. Health Assured Health Assured is an Employee Assistance Programme which provides employees with a confidential support service to help with the following issues; Family issues, gambling, domestic abuse, debt, legal, work etc. Employees are also provided with 8 face to face or telephone counselling sessions if needed. There is a subsidised canteen with a roof top area for employees to take some time out during their lunch break. The Company offers subsidised meals to all employees, the canteen is spacious and has an outside rooftop seating area which employees take advantage of during the summer days. The canteen turns into a bar on a Thursday and Friday evening. Subsidised yoga sessions are also offered to all employees.

For the first time, the organisation has nominated a number of charities to support through the course of this year. These were arrived at through consultation with employees in the agency – and supports both national charities and those that are proximate to each office site. The majority of fundraising activity is achieved through sweepstakes and bake sales in the office, but a number of individuals (including the Leadership team) are taking point in this year's Sleepout event for Centre Point. The agency supports the notion of giving something back to the community and wider society. This is demonstrated by the organisation's MD, who volunteers his time to support undergraduate and postgraduate students at the University of Leeds through their Nurturing Talent Mentor Scheme. This typically involves providing advice and guidance to a number of students – with a clear focus on gaining experience during their studies and employment at the end of their course. Typically, students who are nominated for the scheme are likely to be from a non-university background, and in some cases, from disadvantaged groups. Finally, the organisation continues to run both a formal ‘Academy' programme for graduates, alongside an informal internship or work experience programme in order to provide opportunities to young people looking to pursue a career in the industry.

Some teams have team circles where they update every one of their priorities for the day and any support they require from colleagues. Twice weekly Icelolly have 'stand-ups', their purpose being to keep people up to date with business performance, and ensure people are familiar with what's happening in all parts of the business. Every Monday the stand-up covers the previous week's business performance and highlights of what has gone well. They then cover the targets and challenges for the week ahead and specific activities of note that are taking place during the week. Every Thursday, a team gives an overview of the work which has taken place over the previous month, specific achievements and activities planned for the month ahead so that everyone, regardless of team, knows the focus of each part of the business. Icelolly have team days where everyone in the business participates. The aim of the team days is to develop relationships between colleagues and teams and for people to work alongside others that they wouldn't normally work with on a day-to-day basis, have fun, celebrate success and recognise the progress of the business and how the team have helped us gain these results. They also aim to raise money for a nominated charity. Activities they have successfully run to date include Cocktails and Cakes, Photo Rally, Ice cream Making, Geography Challenge and Treasure Hunt, Office Olympics and a Day Trip to Blackpool.

As part of Icelolly's private medical insurance, they have partnered with Vitality Health. Vitality rewards individuals for being healthy and provides incentives to help improve their overall health and fitness. This includes weekly rewards such as cinema vouchers and Starbucks if they achieve a certain level of physical activity in a given week such as walking, running, cycling, swimming or attending the gym. In addition, individuals receive points for undertaking a health check including weight, blood pressure and cholesterol, nicotine with additional points where the results are in the 'healthy zone'. Cash back is given quarterly to non-smokers. Since its introduction, there has been a definite change in peoples' behaviour and approach to a healthy lifestyle. Icelolly actively promote activities to support a healthy lifestyle and also believe that physical health and affect mental health. They have partnered with their local gym to offer reduced membership fees for all employees. As part of Icelolly's stand ups, they regularly have 'team energisers' which are usually short, fun activities which are not work related but they do get people interacting with others and help with alleviating any stress. They have an employee assistance programme which as well as offering a multitude of advice and fact sheets via their website, also provides counselling both over the telephone and face to face. The counselling includes CBT and is available for all employees and their immediate family. Flexi rewards encourages employees to treat themselves and suggested activities include spa days, massages and short hotel breaks. Icelolly are very supportive of employees who may be experiencing personal challenges outside of work and have offered adjustments to working hours to help individuals in their times of need.

Huntswood has a range of wellbeing initiatives, including free gym memberships, massages during work time, health checks, free fruit, cycle to work, discount shopping vouchers, social activities, a fun and functional office environment and an Employee Assistance Programme service. HR have also recently engaged ‘wellbeing champions' from across the business who volunteered themselves to help enhance the wellbeing of Huntswood employees. The champions help with the organisation of wellbeing events and initiatives and provide feedback and ideas around what employees want in terms of their wellbeing at work. The HR team also monitors absence closely by accurately recording absence information, holding return to work interviews and offering appropriate support to employees where necessary. HR have an open door policy and employees always feel that they can speak to a member of the team should they need advice or guidance. Managers are given guidance on how best to manage employees that could be at risk of stress and often provide one to one catch ups to monitor these employees. As well as all this where possible flexibility with working hours is permitted to inspire a healthy work life balance.

Every year Huntswood holds a New Year's party for employees and their partners. Although the concept itself isn't unique, the parties themselves are. The events are extravagant and employees often comment that the Huntswood parties are the best they have ever been to. This year's party was held at the Grosvenor hotel in London with a Great Gatsby theme. Employees and guests were treated to a three course meal, free bar and entertainment. This year's entertainment included Flavia and Vincent from Strictly Come Dancing and a big band with dancers. Last year employees received an all-expenses paid weekend in Paris, with entertainment including Michael McIntyre. At the parties the employees of the year award is presented. Throughout the year to celebrate key ‘wins' or events, the Founder and CEO often treat employees to lunch or gifts. For example, earlier in the year each Friday employees came into the office to find flowers, chocolate or champagne on their desks. Very recently, the Founder of the company hosted lunch for all employees to celebrate the company reaching its 20th birthday, which included Dominos pizza, burgers and Krispy Kreme doughnuts!

Hotcourses are developing their own internal coaches so that they can run their own coaching programme, along with additional workshops to support the programme when finished. They have a continuous approach to managing performance. July sees a ‘Main Review', there is a November ‘Mini Review', a February ‘Mini Review' and then in May a more in depth ‘Learning & Development Review', which identifies a personal development plan and identifies learning to be put into the training plan for July to August of the year.

Hotcourses put on a Dragons Den Team Competition which runs throughout the year. Following a new structure they wanted teams to interact, so this year have mixed up people in teams. This approach has improved team interaction and collaboration. Their programme has included a Dragons Den pitch (three out of four pitches won and implemented), a Trust game, obstacles and people paired with one blind folded, a helium pole game, a Sports Day and Culture lunch days. It has now become an annual programme every year and in results from a company based survey it was shown that communication within the business is now rated ‘great' by 78% of employees (in comparison to last year when only 48% rated it as such).

The layout of Horwich Farrelly's offices is open plan in design and all teams occupy a floor or a section of a floor. Most teams participate in regular meetings or daily huddles run by Managers to facilitate team working. This year through the company's soft phone system they gave all employees access to instant messenger, all to enable more direct and effective communication amongst employees. The COO has also recently completed a tour of all offices, delivering a business update to ensure that all employees are clear on the company objectives and successes. Horwich Farrelly's are currently developing an ideas sharing platform to launch in 2017, which will allow all employees in all locations to make comments or suggestions about how they could improve the business.

The layout of Horwich Farrelly's offices is open plan in design and all teams occupy a floor or a section of a floor. Most teams participate in regular meetings or daily huddles run by Managers to facilitate team working. This year through the company's soft phone system they gave all employees access to instant messenger, all to enable more direct and effective communication amongst employees. The COO has also recently completed a tour of all offices, delivering a business update to ensure that all employees are clear on the company objectives and successes. Horwich Farrelly's are currently developing an ideas sharing platform to launch in 2017, which will allow all employees in all locations to make comments or suggestions about how they could improve the business.

Higgidy have a weekly huddle where the business come together for food, networking, a weekly business update on KPI's and a strategy update. The company put on business briefs twice a year, which are really important for making every employee feel like they are part of the ‘bigger picture'. These briefs go off results and key messages. There is a Microsoft 365 space for sharing documents and Whats App groups to send things to teams easily.

Higgidy have a weekly huddle where the business come together for food, networking, a weekly business update on KPI's and a strategy update. The company put on business briefs twice a year, which are really important for making every employee feel like they are part of the ‘bigger picture'. These briefs go off results and key messages. There is a Microsoft 365 space for sharing documents and Whats App groups to send things to teams easily.

Haygarth have recently reinvigorated Strata meetings and see these as an opportunity for employees at each level of the business, regardless of team, to come together on a monthly basis. Strata meetings encompass a finance and general business update, as well special interest presentations and group work. These sessions are great forums for cross-team working and communication, allowing employees to get to know those people that they may not necessarily work with on a daily basis.

Haygarth have a long-standing relationship with a local charity, The Wimbledon Guild, who do valuable work in the local Merton community. The Charity team work hard to plan a calendar of events to run throughout the year and are constantly coming up with new fundraising ideas. As a result, they run a large number of fund-raising initiatives for the Guild, from regular cake sales and sweepstakes, to themed breakfasts and charity raffles and auctions. One of the annual highlights is their charity auction which takes place at the Summer Away Day. This year the company raised over £350 at the event. Beyond fundraising, a team from Haygarth run a stall at the annual Wimbledon Guild Summer Fete – this year, Haygarth assisted with the jousting tournament, selling props and programmes, whilst in previous years, they have run the champagne tent.

Hardies main community initiative is supporting and raising monies for local charities. Each office within the firm has selected a local charity and events are run throughout the year, with the funds raised being given to these charities. The company also runs a school's programme initiative, where again each office adopts a local school to encourage an interest in surveying and administration and to provide work shadowing and job opportunities. Hardies' Corporate Social Responsibility document is reviewed annually and includes a list of all members of staff and Partners who commit to various boards and charities within the community.

Hardies main community initiative is supporting and raising monies for local charities. Each office within the firm has selected a local charity and events are run throughout the year, with the funds raised being given to these charities. The company also runs a school's programme initiative, where again each office adopts a local school to encourage an interest in surveying and administration and to provide work shadowing and job opportunities. Hardies' Corporate Social Responsibility document is reviewed annually and includes a list of all members of staff and Partners who commit to various boards and charities within the community.

The values are clearly set out and communicated at all levels. Harbour have a competency framework which contributes to the values and is incorporated into their recruitment, training and appraisal processes. The organisation's 360-degree appraisal process includes all Senior Managers so Harbour can receive feedback on how well they demonstrate their values. Lesley operates an open door policy and staff at all levels know she can be approached about any matter, something that happens regularly. She is based in Hartlepool but spends time in the working week based at other Harbour locations so she is visible and experiences the front line operations at all times.

Harbour believes passionately that to provide a great service they need to employ enthusiastic, compassionate and talented people, then ensure the organisation continually invest in them so they keep learning, improving and developing their services. As a result of this staff receive ongoing training and development throughout their employment with Harbour, with many of them working towards accredited qualifications.

Hall & Partners are mindful of the importance of communicating with one another regularly outside of the daily and weekly team gatherings. Working in a busy and rapidly evolving environment, it's important staff are presented with new and innovative ways to interact and communicate with leaders. One of the avenues for doing this is through the company's annual company-wide initiative ‘Imagine Day'. This gives staff the chance to come together and share ideas through collaboration and training. This year saw a presenter from TrendWatching comment on the latest industry trends, encouraging staff to consider new approaches and areas of growth in their respective industries. Hall & Partners also hold frequent ‘London Pop-Up' meetings with the whole office to ensure all employees are kept up-to-date with Marketing, People, big wins, any key developments and news. They have also maintained their ‘Fifteen minutes of fame sessions', which are held monthly. These provide all employees with a platform to share and inspire their colleagues, showcasing examples of innovative and exciting work. Hall & Partners also encourage teams to enjoy a monthly ‘wellbeing day', an opportunity to leave their desks, escape the office and do something fun together. These include outings to theme parks, treasure hunts, sports days, cooking classes and even murder mystery days.

Hall & Partners are mindful of the importance of communicating with one another regularly outside of the daily and weekly team gatherings. Working in a busy and rapidly evolving environment, it's important staff are presented with new and innovative ways to interact and communicate with leaders. One of the avenues for doing this is through the company's annual company-wide initiative ‘Imagine Day'. This gives staff the chance to come together and share ideas through collaboration and training. This year saw a presenter from TrendWatching comment on the latest industry trends, encouraging staff to consider new approaches and areas of growth in their respective industries. Hall & Partners also hold frequent ‘London Pop-Up' meetings with the whole office to ensure all employees are kept up-to-date with Marketing, People, big wins, any key developments and news. They have also maintained their ‘Fifteen minutes of fame sessions', which are held monthly. These provide all employees with a platform to share and inspire their colleagues, showcasing examples of innovative and exciting work. Hall & Partners also encourage teams to enjoy a monthly ‘wellbeing day', an opportunity to leave their desks, escape the office and do something fun together. These include outings to theme parks, treasure hunts, sports days, cooking classes and even murder mystery days.

Greenfield's have invested £100,000 into ‘Tendring Reuse and Employment Enterprise', or ‘TREE', a charity providing volunteer and work placement opportunities for people in the local community. In July the company's Area Forum in Witham held a Summer Fete for both employees and residents, which raised over £400 for their charity of the year. The annual garden competition and Edible Estates encourages residents to spend more time outside and to get active while being involved in looking after their gardens. Later this month Greenfield's are hosting a coffee and cake morning to encourage members of the community to come and talk about possible work opportunities in local organisations. In aid of Essex Air Ambulance Greenfield's recently organised a Go Yellow Day, where employees were encouraged to wear something yellow and provide only yellow food! The company's Digital Inclusion Co-ordinator runs free sessions to upskill residents with digital tasks, including applying for Universal Credit and searching for employment. Residents can even study for a City and Guilds qualification and borrow a laptop or tablet for home use. Employees can also volunteer to be digi-pals and provide additional support to the coordinator by assisting those attending the sessions. Furthermore Greenfield's can offer learners the opportunity to sit the Entry Level 3 Award and Certificate for IT Users, with 20 residents having already gained this qualification. On top of this, their Positive Engagement Coordinator does outreach work with young people in the community, with the aim of reducing ASB and drug/alcohol abuse. So far 500 people aged 15 – 25 have been involved and using football as an engagement tool the Coordinator has ‘kicked about' on local parks and joined in with games. He's even encouraged them to provide garden maintenance services to vulnerable, elderly and disabled residents. Five people have even worked with our Trades team to develop DIY skills over two solid weeks of work experience.

Despite last year's budget requiring that the company make cost savings of £12.5million by 2020, the decision was made to maintain their Learning and Development budget and continue to invest in employee development. Employees are able to request development at any point during the year, which could be in the form of shadowing, coaching, courses, conferences, roadshows etc. All employees are also invited to apply for funding for a formal qualification once a year, with all applications this year being approved. Greenfield's also run monthly lunch and learn sessions, where either an employee or external guest will discuss a specialist area. Recent topics include CPR training, Dementia Friends, Healthy Eating and Speaking with Impact, as well as other work related topics. These sessions encourage development in a range of areas, as well as providing opportunity for cross-team interaction. One of the most interesting things offered last year was coaching skills workshops for non-managerial employees. Whereas previously this was only offered to managers, this time round various employees from different teams attended the four workshops offered, where they found it helpful to discuss issues with people from different teams that they did not usually work with. One participant even said ‘I can't believe how well coaching works. I've just had a conversation with one of our residents who I was making no progress with. I used coaching and it really worked.'

Every month Good Relations reward an employee with a ‘Passion Day'. This is an opportunity for an employee to take an additional day's holiday to pursue a particular passion or hobby – from singing in a choir to some extra training to run a marathon! Employees simply describe what they would do with a Passion Day, and then the company select a deserving candidate each and every month. As an agency that fully supports and encourages a good work-life balance, Good Relations find the Passion Day initiative very effective, in ensuring employees know that their hobbies and passions outside of the working environment are supported.

Every month Good Relations reward an employee with a ‘Passion Day'. This is an opportunity for an employee to take an additional day's holiday to pursue a particular passion or hobby – from singing in a choir to some extra training to run a marathon! Employees simply describe what they would do with a Passion Day, and then the company select a deserving candidate each and every month. As an agency that fully supports and encourages a good work-life balance, Good Relations find the Passion Day initiative very effective, in ensuring employees know that their hobbies and passions outside of the working environment are supported.

Ewan Hilton Chief Executive works above and beyond his role within the organisation to raise public awareness of mental health and the difficulties faced by people with mental health problems, both through Welsh Government platforms and with the media in Wales. By partnership working with other organisations in the sector, he leads in a way that allows Gofal to deliver that message even more strongly than they could on their own. Part of the organisation's Strategic Plan is to create a culture which is led by Experts by Experience, involving their service users in every aspect of their work. The core competencies are linked to the Organisational values and demand that Senior Managers work as role models of each competency for the rest of the organisation. Ewan Hilton Chief Executive does not have an office base, enabling him to work from any of the satellite offices. Ewan is extremely approachable and enjoys engaging with employees, plus he takes the opportunity when working in different sites to speak to and listen to employees on a day to day basis. He is also able to email "all users" in the organisation.

Gofal have committed to becoming a Thinking Environment. This is the start of a journey which will take them several years, but the organisation have started by training every Line Manager in the principles of the Thinking Environment, helping them lead team meetings in a way which actively encourages listening and full participation of all members. Gofal started the launch to all team members at their recent Staff Wellbeing Day, when everyone was able to participate in an organisation wide Thinking Environment workshop. All staff were also invited to a company wide staff wellbeing day, including wellbeing activities, a presentation of the organisational strategies and an introduction to the Thinking Environment.

Global Aerospace's current community initiatives include employee volunteering, foodbank donations, a work experience programme, support to local charities through charitable donations and business mentoring. The recently launched Business Mentoring Scheme provides support to students in a local school who do not have a role model in work or may have difficulty relating to the world of work. Global Aerospace's local borough, Tower Hamlets, is only a stone's throw away from the financial heart of London that houses the richest concentration of economic business in the world. TH is the UK's most deprived borough, with 39% of people living in poverty and 55% of pupils qualifying for free school meals. There are high levels of unemployment and crime, plus low educational attainment in children. A team of eight volunteers will mentor children over a school year, with the aim of nurturing talent and encouraging the young people. These activities benefit not just society but Global Aerospace too, as they provide an opportunity to learn and good practice to be shared and built on.

Earlier this year Global ran a series of lunchtime guided City walks, held on a monthly basis. Walks were led by qualified City of London Guides and incurred no cost for attendees. As well as providing an opportunity to explore the unusual and hidden features that the City of London has to offer, the walks provided healthy moderate exercise, an opportunity for members of the PMI scheme to earn additional points from increased daily activity and the chance to socialise with colleagues. The lunchtime beginner group, offered by the store emphasises on participation and not pace. Feedback was received from one employee that from being a non-runner, after 7 weeks' attendance, they successfully completed a 5km run in 30 minutes. The Company funds massage therapy appointments which are delivered in-house, twice a year and are available to all employees. The massage therapist uses a combination of massage and acupressure techniques to the back, neck, shoulders, arms, hands and scalp while the employee sits in a specially designed chair. Each massage lasts for 20 minutes and takes place during the working day. Benefits include easing tense and knotted muscles, improves mobility and flexibility, relieves anxiety and stress, induces relaxation and wellbeing and increases mental alertness and clarity. On a day-to day basis, they provide employees with the use of a large kitchen with break-out seating area to encourage individuals to take time away from their desks to eat lunch and integrate with their colleagues. For those requiring a more tranquil area, a First Aid room is available for private reflection.

As stated elsewhere, Frame live their values, believing this to be more genuine and real than merely stating them. Not all employees are aware of instances where they have been honest, at a cost to the business, but many are, and most managers could point to an instance of this. They talk about the ambition and progress at staff meetings, particularly the annual review. And individual departments have their own review meetings where the overall direction and the way Frame work, and relate to each other are discussed. The company routinely demonstrate the ‘employee first' mentality in the way they manage, encourage, develop, promote and reward the people. And where they are forced to choose between a client's and an employee's interests, Frame always choose their people. They have resigned clients on this basis and for this reason – the most notable being a six-figure income client. Working hard, and doing your best is in the DNA of the company. And this is top-down. Frame take their work extremely seriously without taking themselves too seriously. And they never criticise failure, only lack of proper application and effort.

In January this year, Frame's over fifty staff were spread over 2 separate neighbouring properties. They had grown quickly and were in danger of losing the collective spirit that was the source of their success. The company decided that they should move office, not because they were running out of space but because their working environment was beginning to compromise their culture. The search was on for new offices that would facilitate more open, collaborative ways of working, stimulate the senses, uplift everyone and signal the company ambition. In August, they moved into a 13,000 square foot office in the Creative Quarter of Glasgow on the river Clyde. They are sandwiched between the BBC and STV in the orbit of countless radio and TV production houses and other businesses in the creative industries. The £100k+ office refit was undertaken to deliver a physical environment that would improve team interaction and communication. They have provided a café area with full kitchen facilities and seating for around 30 staff. Numerous break-out areas have been designed to enable informal or impromptu meetings. They have a free bar and ping-pong area, a screening room with bleachers to seat up to 25 people, and numerous project areas with wall to wall magnetic whiteboards. They gave the staff a budget to stock a creative library with reference books, and the arrangement of desks has been designed to enable communication and collaboration – in particular, the creative department, where desks are arranged in one huge row seating 24.

At Firstco they have a diverse social committee, made up of a self-elected cross section of employees. The aim of this committee is to organise and arrange a variety of events throughout the year, that all staff are able to attend (either free of charge, or heavily subsidised). They have a budget of £6K available to them each year, with the annual company picnic being one of the most popular and well attended events. Other events include theatre trips, tickets for sporting events, wine tasting, music sessions and barbecues. With a lot of their employees relocating to London for the job, they have found that having a strong social ethos has been pivotal for helping them settle in, make new friends within the workplace and develop ongoing working relationships.

At Firstco they have a diverse social committee, made up of a self-elected cross section of employees. The aim of this committee is to organise and arrange a variety of events throughout the year, that all staff are able to attend (either free of charge, or heavily subsidised). They have a budget of £6K available to them each year, with the annual company picnic being one of the most popular and well attended events. Other events include theatre trips, tickets for sporting events, wine tasting, music sessions and barbecues. With a lot of their employees relocating to London for the job, they have found that having a strong social ethos has been pivotal for helping them settle in, make new friends within the workplace and develop ongoing working relationships.

Ethicall give 25% of their post-tax profit to charity, resulting in more than £1.25m being donated to various charities in the last 10 years. They are committed to supporting worthy causes in the local community where employees live and work. One such charity is One 25, a charity which works to get Bristol street sex workers off the streets and rebuild their lives. Ethicall have also funded the 50K cost of an ambulance to transport children from the local maternity hospital to the operating suite of the children's hospital. Staff are encouraged to get involved with charities and Ethicall will donate £250 to any staff fundraising. The company have also done “paint and fix” activities as part of vision days for local charities.

Ethicall have awards on a regular basis, a fundraiser of the quarter and a fundraiser of the year scheme. The fundraiser of the year has been running since Ethicall was established. The winning fundraiser of the year, who is selected by the Board of Directors, is able to volunteer for up to two weeks on any project they have chosen. Past winners have volunteered to build a school in Nepal, work teaching English in a school in Peru and volunteer on a wildlife reserve in Kenya. This year's winner is volunteering with ActionAid on an overseas development project in Cambodia. The fundraiser of the year initiative is the ultimate incentive for the company's top fundraisers and something that always seems to inspire new fundraisers when they first start.

eSynergy are currently working with a local charity called St Lukes, which gives under privileged children in inner London the ability to play sports. Consultants run the lunchtime sporting activities once a week and they also run the school's football team for both boys and girls. Furthermore eSynergy sponsor the end of season football tournament, which is attended by a number of local schools in the area. Through the same charity the company also provide CV writing advice and expertise, as well as providing several work experience opportunities for those involved.

eSynergy are currently working with a local charity called St Lukes, which gives under privileged children in inner London the ability to play sports. Consultants run the lunchtime sporting activities once a week and they also run the school's football team for both boys and girls. Furthermore eSynergy sponsor the end of season football tournament, which is attended by a number of local schools in the area. Through the same charity the company also provide CV writing advice and expertise, as well as providing several work experience opportunities for those involved.

'#iMentor', Estee Lauder's reverse mentoring programme in the UK, is just one example of the company's commitment to offering the largest part of its workforce the best environment in which to grow, develop and engage with the organisation. The iMentor programme, welcoming anyone from interns to Managers, is designed to help employees embrace and epitomise inclusion and diversity. The programme was piloted in the UK and the first opportunity was for the millennials to work with the Executive Leadership Team, providing consumer insights and establishing a long term mentoring relationship to the benefit of both parties. Participants even have an opportunity to connect with iMentors from around the globe through a private community on DreamSpace called iShare. This programme is sponsored by Fabrizio Freda, President and CEO and also Phebe Farrow Port, Chief of Staff to the President and CEO.

Estee Lauder's High-Touch Leadership Competencies are at the heart of their organisation's DNA. They provide a map of the behaviours and qualities the company believe enable their employees to lead themselves, their teams and ultimately the company itself. Estee Lauder's Senior Management Team demonstrate these behaviours and operate a leading from every chair model, which means every employee has the opportunity to voice their ideas and shape the future of the organisation. The organisation has a strong ethos of sharing and integrating at all levels. An example of how the company's Leader integrates with his colleagues is through regular Coffee Mornings, where by employees have a chance to ask questions, interact and learn more about the business from the Leader himself. He also chairs a TownHall every year which is broadcast across the whole UK and Ireland organisation by video, with the opportunity for live Q&A's at the end. He attends every brand conference and even records a personal video message when he is unable to attend.

Over the past year Epiphany have doubled their training expenditure to offer employees a variety of development interventions. These include 360 feedback and workshops on time management, presentation skills and leadership. Some more innovative examples include yoga, sophology (mindfulness/meditation) and stress-busting workshops. Staff have access to an array of online resources including Google Partners Courses, Bing Accreditation, Lynda.com, Umbraco TV, Microsoft Gold Partnership and Microsoft Training. Approximately 100 people have attended one or more workshops in the past year. Many employees have also benefited from attendance at conferences and internal knowledge-sharing, including their monthly 'Brainfood' session and Expert Network groups. Epiphany have continued to invest heavily in leadership development. Over the past 12 months 32 people have undergone an intensive ten-module programme supported by 360-degree feedback, development resources, and bi-annual catch-ups to assist with personal development action planning. Psychometric assessments have been introduced to support employee development. All employees completed a Motivational Styles Questionnaire and they identified motivating and demotivating factors at individual, team and organisational level. Outcomes are being used by individuals to help with personal development and career planning. Psychometric assessments have also been used for development of the sales team. Employees completed personality and motivation questionnaires and their results were mapped onto the various stages of the sales cycle to highlight areas of potential strength and development. Employees were provided with 1:1 feedback and tips to aid their development. The overall results formed the basis for a team sales development session.

Over the past year Epiphany have doubled their training expenditure to offer employees a variety of development interventions. These include 360 feedback and workshops on time management, presentation skills and leadership. Some more innovative examples include yoga, sophology (mindfulness/meditation) and stress-busting workshops. Staff have access to an array of online resources including Google Partners Courses, Bing Accreditation, Lynda.com, Umbraco TV, Microsoft Gold Partnership and Microsoft Training. Approximately 100 people have attended one or more workshops in the past year. Many employees have also benefited from attendance at conferences and internal knowledge-sharing, including their monthly 'Brainfood' session and Expert Network groups. Epiphany have continued to invest heavily in leadership development. Over the past 12 months 32 people have undergone an intensive ten-module programme supported by 360-degree feedback, development resources, and bi-annual catch-ups to assist with personal development action planning. Psychometric assessments have been introduced to support employee development. All employees completed a Motivational Styles Questionnaire and they identified motivating and demotivating factors at individual, team and organisational level. Outcomes are being used by individuals to help with personal development and career planning. Psychometric assessments have also been used for development of the sales team. Employees completed personality and motivation questionnaires and their results were mapped onto the various stages of the sales cycle to highlight areas of potential strength and development. Employees were provided with 1:1 feedback and tips to aid their development. The overall results formed the basis for a team sales development session.

For an individual who has moved up internally within the business one to one mentoring is organised to support them with the challenges they are faced with. These challenges are related to colleagues and stakeholder's perception of them being more ‘junior' within the business. Internal work experience is also made available throughout the organisation, enabling colleagues to shadow individuals in other departments and businesses, as well as encouraging personal and professional growth.

The England and Wales Cricket Board's mission, vision and values are communicated through Cricket Unleashed. Initially this was launched to key stakeholders in cricket at the AGM. It was launched to all employees at the employee's event in 2015. This was special because it brought all employees and teams under one roof for the first time. It marked a change in the way the organisation wanted to do things going forward – collaboratively and as a team. It included an address from the CEO Tom Harrison and the Director of Cricket Andrew Strauss. The values were also communicated at the annual Christmas Event. It was launched by two of ECB's values ambassadors, who had helped the People team throughout the process and provided excellent assistance and advice throughout. Furthermore the Board designed some visually inspiring logos to bring the statements to life. They now use these across their paperwork and within their processes to reinforce the messages.

eg offers a unique flexible benefit scheme. This allows colleagues to flex their benefits package to suit them. The comprehensive standard package includes 5% matched contribution in a leading pension's scheme, 25 days' holiday, Comprehensive Private Healthcare, Income protection policy and PHI cover. The individual can opt out of certain benefits and use the money equivalent to increase an alternative benefit. For example, opting out of the income protection policy and PHI cover in order to increase the employer's pension contribution and purchase additional holidays. The flexible benefits package is coupled with eg's “Let's get Healthy” scheme to provide colleagues with a fantastic basic package. The “Let's Get Healthy” scheme encourages individuals to improve their health and well-being. Whilst being closely linked to the Private Healthcare benefit, the scheme also encourages people to take part in company arranged or subsidised social activities in or out of the office. This includes activities such as running, walking, healthy cooking and eg's very own choir.

As part of eg's ongoing fundraising activities for the company charity, the Doornkop Needy Children's Centre in Soweto, South Africa, they now have their annual Great eg Bake Off. The Bake Off commenced Monday 19th September with a total of 8 bakers participating in this year's event. Each contestant will be baking something of their choice to be judged by the eg community based on Presentation, Creativity and Flavour on a scale of 1 – 10. Each contestant is to bake something of their own choice and of course, all submissions must be home cooked! A donation of £1 will be given for a sample of each of the baked goods and all proceeds will go towards the DNCC fund to help reach their target of £5,000 for a new play area and a further classroom. Ian Sparks, eg's Software Tester, started a gruelling 960 mile cycling challenge on 3rd August from Land's End to John O'Groats in just 10 days! Ian's mission is to raise £2,000 towards the £5,000 target to raise funds for the company charity. eg solutions are proud to announce their sponsorship of Aston Juniors FC, a newly formed local junior football team based in Staffordshire. The partnership has been formed to help further accelerate the team's rapid development, by ensuring the young squad has access to the best possible equipment, facilities and coaching. Aston Juniors FC is an under-10s team formed in May by a group of local parents, who saw an opportunity to create a more organised team than the ones their children had previously played in.

Each December Edenred celebrate ‘Eden for All', a company initiative designed to mobilise employees' support of local communities. Last December employees collected gifts for House on the Hill, giving their carers a much needed respite. As a company Edenred also supports Westminster Food Bank and help by donating food every month. To help contribute to the Food Bank, each month a different department organises food hamper collections. To date over 346 kilos of food has been donated by the employees of Edenred. Throughout the year, the company carries out fundraising events for its charity partner, Action for Children. Events organised have included dress down days, themed cake bakes and talent contests. For every employee involved in charitable fundraising activities, Edenred donate a set amount to the relevant charity. This year the company also worked with the ‘The Princes Trust', a youth charity that helps young people aged 13 to 30 get into jobs, education and training. They were able to be involved in their ‘Get Into' programme, which gives selected young people who are work-ready but do not have vocational skills the opportunity to develop the relevant skills to enable them to move into a sustainable job in a specific sector of work. With regards to employees, Edenred is committed to the principle of equal opportunity in employment, resulting in no job applicant or employee receiving less favourable treatment because of a protected characteristic like race, disability etc.

To promote the wellbeing of employees, office wellbeing awareness sessions are held, which all employees are invited to attend. Information is available to raise awareness on the link between sugar and obesity and diabetes. Refreshments of sugar-free and vegetable cakes are also widely provided. As a result of the wellbeing sessions a weekly lunchtime walking group called ‘Wednesday Walking' has been set up. A monthly healthy recipe of seasonal food is emailed out to all staff. The company have also implemented a dedicated wellbeing page on the company intranet, which promotes the importance of regular exercise and healthy eating. Earlier this year Edenred implemented external mental health awareness training for all Managers, with strategies for reducing Managers' own stress levels whilst supporting employees were also explored in the training. As part of the company's benefits package, all employees are provided with a Ticket Restaurant card, a prepaid, reloadable card solution that employees can use in a huge range of restaurants, cafés, food outlets, supermarkets and grocery stores as well. Facilitating flexible working is very important to the organisation and they also recognise and look to promote internally. Edenred also have a discounted gym membership option available to all employees as part of their flexible benefits scheme.

In 2015, Edelman refreshed their values to ensure they are relevant to the company's future direction, support a client-centric culture and are inspiring great work. These core values are at the heart of everything the company do and are well publicised around the business. The values are also embedded in the talent programmes, recruitment strategies, appraisal processes, performance management and learning and development programmes. All are designed to align employee's behaviour with Edelman's mission, vision and business objectives. Edelman is dedicated to delivering Quality, something that is championed by a dedicated Global Chief Quality Officer. It's also reflected in the proprietary client satisfaction survey, all to ensure the company deliver on their client promise whilst remaining loyal to their values.

Edelman continuously supports employees' professional and personal development by refreshing their Learning & Development Programme every year. This carefully tailored programme comprises regular internal and external training sessions, including but not limited to an introduction to PR, writing skills, paid media 101, presentation and pitching. Edelman also runs the annual Client Leadership Academy, a yearly global programme to help rising stars continue their journey towards becoming the firm's client and business leaders of the future. The annual Edelman Fellows Programme sees up to ten middle Managers within the global network given the chance to transfer from their home office to selected host offices in APACEMA, Canada, Europe and CIS, LatAM and the U.S. for up to 12 months. Locally, Edelman has invested heavily in Career Pathing, ensuring their evolution from PR firm to Communications Marketing agency opens a wider range of career paths for our people. Lastly, the Edelman Global Women's Executive Network supports future female leaders within the company and this year offered an opportunity for employees to attend the International Women's Forum in Tel Aviv. There, they joined discussions on the future of leadership and examined pressing global issues.

To support Senior Managers commitment to values, the Leadership Charter was developed with input from all staff. This forms the keystone of the behaviours expected of all Managers and is based on three principles: leading, managing and developing their teams. Senior Managers role model the behaviours laid down in this Charter and their performance against these principles forms part of their annual appraisal. The Principal and Directors meet with all new staff at their induction. The importance of the values is discussed with staff and how all staff are expected to respect them. The Principal has a clear open door policy and all staff know that they can talk to him about any issue. He is visible around the college premises and encourages both staff and students to talk to him. He regularly communicates important and also 'good news' messages to staff through Outlook and has a regular feature in the college newsletter to update staff on college activities, challenges and successes. He attends the staff focus group meetings. He always receives minutes of these meetings so that he can 'keep a finger on the pulse' on the day to day activities within the teams. The Principal will lead the more formal annual conference but also participates in the workshops, which are led by different staff from across the college.

There is an annual Summer barbecue and Christmas party for all staff. There is always a theme for the barbecue, enabling staff to dress up and get into the spirit of the event. Last Summer the theme was 'South Sea Islands'. There was a range of grass skirts, sun hats and even a surf board all adding authenticity to the day. There is a prize for the 'best dressed' employee. The Christmas party will include a challenging quiz. The various teams chose their own unique names and a considerable amount of friendly competition develops. These events take place at the two college sites in Beverley and Bridlington and are for all staff, the majority of whom attend, including the Directors. These events are held at the end of the Autumn and Summer terms after the students have left, so enabling the staff to fully relax after a very taxing 10 to 12 weeks. The college holds an annual staff conference which is compulsory for all staff to attend. The morning programme is planned so Directors can explain the current position of the college and also set the scene for the year to come. The afternoon workshops support the theme of the conference and from a selection of at least eight workshops staff will chose three that are most relevant for them to attend. The variety of workshop topics ensures that there are relevant topics for both teaching and support staff.

The company launched their innovative blogging platform dunnhumby uncensored last year. There is a webpart blog section on the intranet homepage that allows employees to post their own blogs for global readership. It is 100% user generated and 100% uncensored to encourage them to write about anything personal or professional. The aim is to connect employees, boost communication between teams and help dunnhumby get to know their people better to share learnings and experiences easily. They appointed blog champions and rewarded them with a blogging toolkit, which was sent in the post as a surprise and delight. This included a book on blogging tips, a moleskin notepad, pens, sweets and branded goods. They also ran training for these champions, joined by the CEO to endorse the channel further. They were asked to populate the first content and now act as advocates for blogging in their offices. They set topics occasionally to stimulate blogs such as 'tell us about your proudest dunnhumby moment', but they get a range of topics from people's pets to their biggest success at work. The company also started “pic of the day”. They set up an instagram account and asked employees to upload pictures using #dunnhumbypic to showcase what goes on in their day to day lives. This connects employees visually and gives an insight to other offices and cultures.

The company launched their innovative blogging platform dunnhumby uncensored last year. There is a webpart blog section on the intranet homepage that allows employees to post their own blogs for global readership. It is 100% user generated and 100% uncensored to encourage them to write about anything personal or professional. The aim is to connect employees, boost communication between teams and help dunnhumby get to know their people better to share learnings and experiences easily. They appointed blog champions and rewarded them with a blogging toolkit, which was sent in the post as a surprise and delight. This included a book on blogging tips, a moleskin notepad, pens, sweets and branded goods. They also ran training for these champions, joined by the CEO to endorse the channel further. They were asked to populate the first content and now act as advocates for blogging in their offices. They set topics occasionally to stimulate blogs such as 'tell us about your proudest dunnhumby moment', but they get a range of topics from people's pets to their biggest success at work. The company also started “pic of the day”. They set up an instagram account and asked employees to upload pictures using #dunnhumbypic to showcase what goes on in their day to day lives. This connects employees visually and gives an insight to other offices and cultures.

The CEO of Dr. Martens recently shared the brand framework to the global workforce using a Vodcast. To reinforce this message, each employee has been given a vinyl record created specifically to explain the company's Ambition, Why They Exist, What They Believe In and Who They Are. Rather than a formal mission statement and values, Dr. Martens have this framework which defines what they stand for, how they behave and where they are going. It's their brand, on the record.

Wellbeing is a high priority for Dr. Martens Culture Team, so they have introduced a series of lunch and learns that focus on “mindfulness”. To assist those who need a little more energy they have also launched a Couch to 5k running club, subsidised yoga and HIT training. The company also invite specialists to site to provide massage therapy to those employees who want it. They even provide a little extra motivation on a Monday with smoothies and free fruit and veg in all stores and offices. In addition, Dr. Martens have an EAP that all employees can access, which includes an online library of wellbeing knowledge and an independent telephone helpline with face-to-face counselling if required.

At DMH 10 minute massages are offered during lunchtimes twice a month at the Gatwick office. Weekly Yoga classes are held at the London office and Pilates classes are scheduled at the Guildford office. Three times a year there are subsidised team social events, where teams are able to choose the type of event and dates to suit. The company also offer free access to the Employee Assistance Programme. The EAP provides 24-hour personal assistance over the telephone where employees can talk to a qualified adviser. The service also includes counselling services and information services covering topics such as managing money, relationships, moving house and family life.

Each year DMH organises an AGM (Annual General Meeting) event that every member of staff is invited to. Unless staff are out of the business on a non-working day or annual leave then all employees are required to attend the afternoon part of the event. The AGM has many different elements to it. There is a Charity Committee raffle in aid of the staff charity on arrival at the event and there are some great prizes to win. The day starts with a presentation from the Managing Partner, which reflects on the firm's performance over the last 12 months, provides an overview of what the future of the firm may look like and details of the overall strategy. Following the presentation there is a fun team based activity which is organised by a different business group each year. This activity can range from a treasure hunt, quiz, fancy dress competition, ‘Mr & Mrs' game show and anything in between! Following the afternoon activities there is a dinner and dance. Each member of staff is able to invite a guest of their choice to attend with them should they wish. A live band is organised as entertainment and this year the Managing Partner joined the band on stage to play his guitar! Anyone who lives more than five miles away from the event venue is able to claim up to £40 towards the cost of travelling to and from the evening event or overnight accommodation.

As a collection of over 30 unique businesses D&D's general Managers are empowered to develop, with the support of HR, unique ways to recognise and reward the performance of their teams. This means that there isn't one fixed approach, but a series of flexible incentives and rewards. From a group perspective one reward they do offer, which they believe is a unique way of rewarding the performance of key talent, is to give Head Chefs the opportunity to become a chef-patron. London is currently the epicentre of the culinary world but the industry is suffering chef shortage (there is a war for talent raging in the kitchen). The reputation of the chef and the restaurant are intrinsically linked, which means that it is crucial to retain talented and successful chefs. As a chef-patron they receive a small percentage of the company, so in effect the name of the chef becomes synonymous with the restaurant. Most chefs dream of one day owning their own business and D&D feel that offering this type of reward provides a long term goal that facilitates engagements, aids retention and incentives culinary performance in a challenging and highly competitive market. Each chef is set their own performance target, which will be based in part on achieving financial targets but also heavily waited on performance from food scores on Trip Advisor and Open Table through to achieving industry recognition via Michelin Stars or AA rosettes.

Employee development has always been central to D&D's success. They recognise that great training is fundamental to delivering quality and exceptional service. It's also vital in equipping the company to overcome the industry wide skills shortages at a senior level. As well as a company induction, role specific skills and standards training and the statuary e-learning programme, internal staff are able to development their career against a simply competency framework that facilitates growth toward management roles (either front of house or in the kitchen). Career development is supported by a quarterly appraisal process called 'Talking Talent' and a series of unique industry leading development programmes that link to the competency framework. 'Step Forward' is the internal programme aimed at helping entry level employees get a taste of what it takes to be a great supervisor. 'Rise' is the management training programme that helps supervisors develop towards management roles (this year 30 employees have successfully completed these programmes with double that signed up to start in November). 'Accelerate Leader's' programme takes top managerial talent and develops them as Leaders. They also run Love Wine, a collection of training (including WSET levels 1 -3) aimed at developing an employee's ability to engage with customers about wine and utilise suppliers to deliver a range of product based sessions. As a way of attracting the best new talent D&D run a chef apprentice. More recently the company held a communication skills workshop developed around the Paralympic sport of Goal Ball.