Every month Chorus reward their support engineers as a group and by naming an individual who stood out that month. The company have set targets to achieve for delivering customer service and depending how much they are exceeded affects how large the rewards are. By rewarding an individual Chorus find it brings a competitive element and by doing this monthly staff know they stand a really good chance of winning and beating their target. By also doing a team reward Chrous help build team-building and ensure staff are rewarded for their hard work. These rewards have included a go-karting day out, meal and drinks for the team, paintballing etc and the rewards are chosen by the team so they have something they would want to receive.

This year Chorus are supporting the Children's Hospice South West as their charity of the year. Last December they asked all staff to nominate a charity that they wanted to support – these charities were then listed on the internal social site Yammer and all staff voted, with the winner being CHSW. Throughout 2016 the company organised various fundraising activities – both as a company and as individual activities with company support and donations. Individual activities have included the Bristol 10k and the Guernsey Marathon, while company activities have included a 5k colour run, the Portishead Raft Race and cake sales. As well as activities, Chorus have a collection basket in their staff area for staff to drop off unwanted goods that they take to their charity shop, as well as a collection pot. Chorus do not have any written initiatives but have an equality and diversity policy in place so do not discriminate. They ensure that their buildings (and past offices) are accessible for anyone with disabilities and will be as flexible as possible to help anyone return to work.

CarShop have a very clear development journey that arms colleagues with the right tools, training and support along the way. CarShop supports colleagues with studies and e,ployees are able to request study leave. CarShop will also assist in funding courses if there is a business need for someone to gain a qualification. There is an e-learning renovation project underway too to make this a blended learning approach. The company also work with some excellent third parties to tailor training for bespoke requirements, which makes them an industry leader in their training programmes.

CarShop have a very clear development journey that arms colleagues with the right tools, training and support along the way. CarShop supports colleagues with studies and e,ployees are able to request study leave. CarShop will also assist in funding courses if there is a business need for someone to gain a qualification. There is an e-learning renovation project underway too to make this a blended learning approach. The company also work with some excellent third parties to tailor training for bespoke requirements, which makes them an industry leader in their training programmes.

Being a dispersed workforce, it's critical that Canonical provide their employees with valuable opportunities to improve interactions and communications within their teams, as well as across the organisation. To achieve this, the company hold a number of Sprints. Sprints are opportunities for teams to fly to some exciting locations around the world to work in a co-located environment. Sprints are used as an opportunity to align company strategy, priorities and for teams to work on projects. The founder, CEO and EVP's are actively involved at these Sprints, providing employees with opportunities to interact at all levels. In addition, Canonical uses a number of online communication tools such as instant chat, group emails, video calls and virtual town halls to encourage the sharing of opinions and ideas and to ensure teams are getting the value of face to face communication. There is a culture of open communication and transparency at Canonical. Jane Silber the CEO and the Executive Team encourage this by providing regular company updates, town-halls and opportunities for every employee to actively engage in decisions and news. This is further demonstrated by skip level meetings to remain current and engaged with employees across the organisation.

Reward and recognition programmes are important at Canonical to support the retention of top talent, improve team culture and to ensure they are continuing to foster a higher performance organisation. There are various ways the company recognise their employees, including a number of internal awards such as ‘Exceptional Contribution', ‘Spot Light on Success', ‘Valuable Contribution' and the ‘Thank You' awards. Anyone across the organisation can nominate colleagues for these awards, which draws visibility to great work and provides valuable recognition across peer groups. When driving a high performance culture, it's important that everyone can recognise what 'great' looks like and this programme empowers employees to advocate and recognise greatness. Those nominated are celebrated with company-wide recognition and a cash award. In addition to all this, every employee is eligible for the annual compensation review, which includes a performance based bonus. Canonical value and encourage innovation and the pursuit of personal and professional ambitions. They are even frequently producing achievements in the form of publications, keynote and software innovation and development, which is recognised and celebrated company-wide via various communication channels.

CDP is an independent innovation partner who has completed over 1,000 product development assignments for businesses around the world. Members of their team are named inventors on many hundreds of patents owned by their customers. The company are based in two of the world's leading centres for science and technology. Their European office is in Cambridge, a city with an 800-year history in science and creative thinking. Their USA office is in Silicon Valley, probably the world's most successful innovation hub. CDP are happy for anyone in the business to hold up the company values as a mirror to any decisions the business makes and to then hold CDP to this account. Staff do this at the annual strategy day forum. This year the company is making several changes to the way they operate in response to this challenge from the staff, for example in their working conditions, structure and training investment.

CDP offer many employee rewards, including spot prizes for recognition of effort for individuals or a team. They are also known to give family tickets to Legoland and evening meal vouchers for two. CDP are keen to ensure employees associate their working environment with enjoyment, leading to events such as the whole company curry evenings and pirate themed barbecues.

CMBC are using innovative and creative digital approaches to communicate with their workforce. Traditionally they have displayed their primary purpose using policies and procedures, but they are now using augmented reality videos and YouTube videos to communicate CMBC's organisations Primary Purpose, Values and Outrageous Ambition. These video posters are displayed across the council and uploaded onto the council's intranet pages. Furthermore local college media students and apprentices record employee's stories to help deliver CMBC's outrageous ambition. The Chief Executive personally invited 500 Middle Managers who operate below Head of Service level to attend a half day Big Leadership Conversation workshop. Corporate Leadership Team shares CMBC's outrageous ambition to the Best Borough in the North and discusses with the Managers the organisation's three corporate priorities, how they fit with their values and behaviours and their role in making this happen. They also have a council Facebook page to deliver key messages to their communities and workforce on a daily basis.

CMBC are using the 70:20:10 model of learning to provide a base for employees to shape their learning. The organisation is just about to publish a revised Learning and Development Policy for the first time in several years, which they will use to underpin the development of a culture of self-directed learning. The emphasis is on seeking out learning instead of relying on paid for structured programmes of learning. CMBC also have a coaching and mentoring programme which has been in place for three years. They have built their own pool of workplace coaches and mentors that anyone in the council can request to have time with. They also run a ‘Day in Your Shoes' campaign, which aims to get employees connecting with one another across teams and learning from others about what their services do. This is promoting cross-council networks and helps employees to understand what goes when it comes to delivering CMBC services to the public.

The company's mission statement and values are communicated in everything they do. They include these when recruiting for employees, and include this in their induction pack which is issued to employees when they first start with at BSD. As they implement these straight away when the employee starts with BSD - they find these are always embedded with the employees and are always communicated inside BSD and outside with their clients. They also have a staff intranet where this is collated and used to evidence this.

BSD encourage all employees to develop and enhance their CPD all the time, they regularly send employees on courses to enhance their professional knowledge including degrees, HNC, HNDs and such, all paid for by BSD. They also encourage employees to develop their interests outside the business, and they encourage this through charity involvement, they run events throughout the year which allows employees to enhance their skills and abilities and therefore supporting employee development, allowing them, for example, to improve communication skills. BSD also run regular CPD events with clients, enabling the employees to see other aspects of building services design, gather with other companies on the way they work, and bring innovations together

The ‘Make it Happen' attitude is seen in all areas of the business and it is never just one stakeholder taking priority. The Stool model is lived by everyone and engages the team to have a full understanding of what is expected of them. Any decisions the management team make need to be for the good of all three legs of the stool. Through this the management have created a caring and engaged team that deliver great service whilst having fun and making money. This is reflected in the great feedback Brooklands receive from guests regarding the team, low staff turnover for the industry and reaching management budget five years in a row. The management are very hands on and offer an open door policy to all staff. This year Brooklands even went against the industry trend and budgeted to pay all of their team players the National Living Wage, regardless of if they met the criteria. The team are quite often heard saying 'we are the Brooklands Family' and this is great to hear. Marco also meets every prospective employee before they start by leading the daily dash meeting, doing an introduction at the team player monthly induction and running the ‘Make it Happen' workshops for all new starters. He walks the property on a daily basis and even cooked the BBQ with chef for the team event. He also judged the Brooklands Bake off, but felt quite sick after tasting over 30 cakes! He'll even do weekend cover, where he can be found serving behind the bar and doing the pass in 1907, demonstrating to all of the team that they're are in this together and that leadership can take on various different forms to be successful.

The ‘Make it Happen' attitude is seen in all areas of the business and it is never just one stakeholder taking priority. The Stool model is lived by everyone and engages the team to have a full understanding of what is expected of them. Any decisions the management team make need to be for the good of all three legs of the stool. Through this the management have created a caring and engaged team that deliver great service whilst having fun and making money. This is reflected in the great feedback Brooklands receive from guests regarding the team, low staff turnover for the industry and reaching management budget five years in a row. The management are very hands on and offer an open door policy to all staff. This year Brooklands even went against the industry trend and budgeted to pay all of their team players the National Living Wage, regardless of if they met the criteria. The team are quite often heard saying 'we are the Brooklands Family' and this is great to hear. Marco also meets every prospective employee before they start by leading the daily dash meeting, doing an introduction at the team player monthly induction and running the ‘Make it Happen' workshops for all new starters. He walks the property on a daily basis and even cooked the BBQ with chef for the team event. He also judged the Brooklands Bake off, but felt quite sick after tasting over 30 cakes! He'll even do weekend cover, where he can be found serving behind the bar and doing the pass in 1907, demonstrating to all of the team that they're are in this together and that leadership can take on various different forms to be successful.

Each quarter, managers get the chance to nominate eight employees that they feel have exceeded expectations within a chosen value. The selected eight employees then get to decide between four reward day options ranging from a balloon ride and dinner in London to a golf lesson and spa afternoon. These employees will take the day out of the office to do this and will be paid as usual. All staff are set around six objectives that are reviewed throughout the year. Employees will be scored against their performance against these objectives. A bonus is provided to employees at the end of the financial year depending on their personal scores and company performance. Each month they welcome all employees to nominate a colleague that they feel has displayed one or more of their four values. Nominations are submitted via a Perspex post box (one located in each office). All nominations are collated and reviewed and four winners are chosen, each will receive a £50 voucher of their choosing and are congratulated in the monthly newsletter.

Each quarter, managers get the chance to nominate eight employees that they feel have exceeded expectations within a chosen value. The selected eight employees then get to decide between four reward day options ranging from a balloon ride and dinner in London to a golf lesson and spa afternoon. These employees will take the day out of the office to do this and will be paid as usual. All staff are set around six objectives that are reviewed throughout the year. Employees will be scored against their performance against these objectives. A bonus is provided to employees at the end of the financial year depending on their personal scores and company performance. Each month they welcome all employees to nominate a colleague that they feel has displayed one or more of their four values. Nominations are submitted via a Perspex post box (one located in each office). All nominations are collated and reviewed and four winners are chosen, each will receive a £50 voucher of their choosing and are congratulated in the monthly newsletter.

BI Worldwide are presently leading the way through a process of refreshing the values and agreeing, through workshops with employees, what behaviours are driven by each of the values. This will ensure full engagement with the behaviours once they are launched. Furthermore this activity is being led by the MD. On a more regular basis, the company's mission, values and vision are embedded in all internal communications, all in-house training and in all briefings delivered by the Managing Director. Employees demonstrating the core values are rewarded through the internal reward recognition scheme, which itself is overtly aligned to the values. Examples of the above are the Internal Intranet, New Starter Inductions, Company Meetings, ENGAGE emails and Questionnaires.

BI Worldwide are presently leading the way through a process of refreshing the values and agreeing, through workshops with employees, what behaviours are driven by each of the values. This will ensure full engagement with the behaviours once they are launched. Furthermore this activity is being led by the MD. On a more regular basis, the company's mission, values and vision are embedded in all internal communications, all in-house training and in all briefings delivered by the Managing Director. Employees demonstrating the core values are rewarded through the internal reward recognition scheme, which itself is overtly aligned to the values. Examples of the above are the Internal Intranet, New Starter Inductions, Company Meetings, ENGAGE emails and Questionnaires.

The Firm has a Recognition Scheme which enables managers to reward employees instantly to recognise exceptional work they have done. Awards can be given for a range of reasons such as working on a specific project, recognising hard work through a busy period, providing exceptional service to a client or making a significant contribution to the department. The scheme is designed to be flexible so managers can either give vouchers between £10 to £200, or they can purchase a gift such as pay for dinner for two, home furnishings or champagne. The other point that makes the scheme unique is that it also provides for peer to peer recognition. So a peer can nominate another peer to recognise support, hard work or exceptional contribution they have made. It is designed to be informal and more of a thank you, so a gift up to £50 can be given in the form of flowers, chocolates or wine. As part of the scheme, the nominator gives the award and the Firm branded thank you card directly to the individual, and thanks them for their contribution. The reason it is particularly effective and unique is because awards can be given at any time throughout the year, there are a range of awards that can be given and also the presentation and card are designed to have the personal touch so the individual feels appreciated for their contribution

Recent fundraising initiatives for Baker and McKenzie's two office charities include a Boss in the Box Challenge, quiz night, inter-departmental walking challenge, 4 participants in the London Marathon, a 10k run, Christmas Jumper Day, abseil and a Bake Off. A Volunteer Day is offered to all staff. Departments are encouraged to use their day either as an individual or as part of a team. Recent group initiatives include a day of boat maintenance with Ahoy!, a day of building refurbishment with City Gateway, and a day of garden maintenance at Richard House. The company organise an extensive pro bono legal advice programme - regular clients include Save the Children, UNHCR, NSPCC, Breast Cancer Care, Oxfam, ARK (Absolute Return for Kids). Around 30 staff are involved in regular school-based volunteering and lunchtime volunteering with homeless charity The Connection at St Martin's. The company provide office space to Amicus (UK charity campaigning for justice for US prisoners on Death Row) and also participate in pro bono legal research and casework for the charity. They also support the Albert Kennedy Trust Youth, a homelessness charity supporting LGBT young people in crisis through sponsoring their annual youth conference. This attracts many and provides a mix of skills development workshops, networking and education to help increase confidence and employability. To ensure internal opportunities are actively promoted to disabled young people. In conjunction with the company's Career Ready partnership, they offered a six-week placement to an A-Level student with muscular dystrophy and covered the cost of a carer to travel to London each day. The scheme has significantly enhanced this young person's career aspirations and employability.