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

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

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

The Breathe Team are responsible for the Social Investment Fund 'breathe investment grants', or ‘BIG's', where funding is available to small scale community projects across all the neighbourhoods up to a maximum of £2000. Since the fund was introduced Adactus have supported over 750 community projects, totalling in excess of £800,000. This year the company has £225,000 available to bid for across the Adactus Group. Each project must demonstrate how it supports a specific theme and the applications are judged by Adactus residents through the Adactus500. The company's Environmental Budgets support a number of community projects, such as community gardens, allotments and biodiversity projects such as Bee Keeping. Adactus hold different dress down days within the company to support a range of charities. They have completed food bank collections and sponsored sporting events, such as the Wigan 10K and Born Survivor to raise money for an Employee's son who required a sports wheelchair. The company's giving nature is uncapped, with 30 packs being made up for a local school to deliver to another school in Sowetto and 300 shoeboxes being delivered to a Manchester homeless charity. Adactus's employability programme ‘Step Forward' is to support residents and their families into training, employment and learning. The company is engaged in a range of programmes to tackle worklessness both internally and with other providers for their general needs housing stock, hostels and supported housing. The Adactus Young Unemployed Persons Project, jobs clubs, gradate schemes, apprenticeships and a work experience programme all add to Adactus's continued commitment to getting people into employment, with the team taking referrals directly from residents and also from other departments.

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

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

ZPG's Leadership Team are heavily involved in the induction process for new starters. The CFO attends the company's Sales Conference and helps the remote teams understand the values, focus and mission of the business. The Leadership team also run, "An audience with..." sessions, which help provide those who are interested with a greater understanding of, and insight into, other areas of the business and is great way for those within the Leadership team to share their knowledge. The HR Team, including the Group HR Director, have designed and run a first day induction to help staff understand the company's culture, values and ways of working so they can quickly integrate into the company. To ensure they hire people who fit their culture and values and develop onward through their career they utilise a psychometric tool, which provides us with indepth profiling and interview questions.

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

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

Zone encourages a collaborative culture, where open conversation is at the heart of what they do. As a result of growth over the last 12 months they have placed a huge emphasis on making office space as dynamic as possible. A newly acquired state-of-the-art office for the Bristol team has provided a fun, open-plan space which has helped shape the Bristol team's identity and boost morale. They have redesigned the London office to create more breakout spaces and informal meeting spaces. In both locations, a large kitchen space and numerous meeting spaces have encouraged more regular informal interaction between teams. This year they also launched an internal instant messaging portal, powered by Slack, which all employees have signed up to and are encouraged to use across teams and locations to encourage constant knowledge sharing and team interaction.

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

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

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

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

The company have dedicated internal communications specialists who work with their services to ensure that key messages are communicated to staff in ways that are suited to the various job roles in the organisation. Their intranet is updated on a weekly basis and followed up with weekly news alerts to staff to let them know what's going on. Their Chief Executive sends out a monthly brief with her key updates, also directors sends out their own brief to share updates at a local level. They have television screens displayed within all their office buildings and these show key messages and updates of what's going on at Wigan Council. They also have a text messaging service staff can sign up to receive key updates.

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

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

This Christmas will be Whitespace's third charity fundraising campaign. In their first year, the team of Whitespace Elves sourced an arcade grabber machine, and worked out how their clients could control it from their own desks to program the claw to grab and deliver presents. For everyone who had a go, the company donated £1 to charity, but for skilled operators who grabbed and delivered a present, Whitespace donated £5. This all helped deliver real presents to kids who might not have received anything else. With thousands of site visitors and hundreds of participants, in only two days, Whitespace were able to donate £1,670 to Forth 1's Cash for Kids charity appeal. In 2014, Whitespace started working with global charity Mary's Meals and they realised that by joining forces, they could increase the impact of their Christmas fundraiser. The company gave Whitespace time for free and some Whitespacers also donated their own personal time out of hours. The result was the ‘One More for Christmas campaign'. The cost of a typical Christmas dinner is £16 per person. But for just £12.20, Mary's Meals can provide food for a poverty stricken child in a place of education for an entire year. So Whitespace created a virtual Christmas dinner table and invited people to set a place for £12.20. In a month the company raised over £47,000 - enough to provide 3,300 children with a daily meal for a year. For Christmas 2015 Whitespace are planning to build on this success and reach a higher target.

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

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