This year they have offered work-life balance and healthy-eating workshops. They offer a weekly yoga class and monthly massage sessions during working hours.

For the first time in the Trust's history, every member of staff shared in the success of the financial year 2013/2014 with a 2% bonus. The record breaking year was a triumph of dedication and hard-work from the whole team which was recognised by the board of directors.

Fairpoint have set up a charity committee containing 16 self nominated charity champions. The purpose of Fairpoint's charity committee is to make a difference in the local and wider community through fund raising, volunteering and taking part in activities that help their community. The role of the charity champions that make up the charity committee is to organise fund raising events across the business They will lead and promote fund raising activities across the business, contribute to the monthly charity newsletter, attend monthly charity meetings, promote the Making A Difference framework across the business, produce promotional material to promote various charity events, encourage ideas across the business to help make a difference in the local community and promote and organise any social events across the company. A charity calendar is produced at the start of the year created by the charity committee based on feedback from employees on what charities should be supported this year. This meant that the company has a set charity or charities to support each month. Fairpoint set a target to reach £15,000 through fund raising activities, sponsorship and workplace giving in 2014. They were on target to reach this as they raised over £13,000 to September 2014 with more events planned during the last quarter of the year. The fund raising events and sponsorship that takes place in the company encourages employees to work together as a team and also makes employees feel proud to work for a company that helps the local and wider community.

Fairpoint have set up a charity committee containing 16 self nominated charity champions. The purpose of Fairpoint's charity committee is to make a difference in the local and wider community through fund raising, volunteering and taking part in activities that help their community. The role of the charity champions that make up the charity committee is to organise fund raising events across the business They will lead and promote fund raising activities across the business, contribute to the monthly charity newsletter, attend monthly charity meetings, promote the Making A Difference framework across the business, produce promotional material to promote various charity events, encourage ideas across the business to help make a difference in the local community and promote and organise any social events across the company. A charity calendar is produced at the start of the year created by the charity committee based on feedback from employees on what charities should be supported this year. This meant that the company has a set charity or charities to support each month. Fairpoint set a target to reach £15,000 through fund raising activities, sponsorship and workplace giving in 2014. They were on target to reach this as they raised over £13,000 to September 2014 with more events planned during the last quarter of the year. The fund raising events and sponsorship that takes place in the company encourages employees to work together as a team and also makes employees feel proud to work for a company that helps the local and wider community.

EMaC is a hands-on highly personal business. The experience delivered to customers is consciously personal. This ethos is reflected by the SMT. The SMT walk the floors and walk the talk. ‘Catching people doing things right' is an approach designed to reaffirm confidence and empowerment. Having grown from 2 to almost 100 people in ten years, the Values are very much part of the business DNA. Deeply embedded into business processes and procedures under the banner of ‘doing the right thing' team members are empowered to act in a way that supports the values and the needs of EMaC's multiple customer layers.

EMaC is a hands-on highly personal business. The experience delivered to customers is consciously personal. This ethos is reflected by the SMT. The SMT walk the floors and walk the talk. ‘Catching people doing things right' is an approach designed to reaffirm confidence and empowerment. Having grown from 2 to almost 100 people in ten years, the Values are very much part of the business DNA. Deeply embedded into business processes and procedures under the banner of ‘doing the right thing' team members are empowered to act in a way that supports the values and the needs of EMaC's multiple customer layers.

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

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

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

The senior management team has fully embraced the You Made a Difference scheme, using it to engage with colleagues for a job well done. There is a genuine warm and friendly approach adopted by the senior leaders that makes colleagues at all levels comfortable with approaching them. It is an informal yet clear approach that makes colleagues feel that they are not simply a number in the organisation. This is clearly demonstrated by the back to the floor days during which a member of the senior team spends a day at site, where they really get their hands dirty. Elior's HR Director, Arran McDowell was the most recent member of the Leadership team to show his commitment, spending a full day in the kitchen preparing food for service. It is also important to note that 60% of their board has been promoted internally – there is a real focus and dedication to colleague development.

East Thames invests heavily in the training and development of its employees in order to maintain and improve the quality of service delivery. Through their achievement of the Investors in People Bronze award, and their ongoing commitment to its principles they have acknowledged the importance of developing staff skills to meet the long-term organisational objectives of the Group in ways that are consistent with their core values. The strategic priorities of the Group include a commitment to improve their capacity to manage their business and sustain growth. This can only be realised with a competent, motivated, and committed workforce. This is achieved by ensuring that staff have the materials, tools, personal development plans and training to do their job.

East Thames Group's performance briefings are organised by the senior management team to ensure all staff have the information they need on East Thames' performance. The quarterly presentations are delivered by the Chief Executive, alongside other senior members of staff who present on the important issues affecting East Thames. As well as providing important information they are often interactive and aim to educate staff about various areas of the business. During the briefings there are frequent opportunities for staff to ask the senior management team questions and ensure two-way communication is taking place.

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

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

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

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

Cooper Lomaz hold events in Dublin, Marbella and Prague. They hold a summer social BBQ and have an annual awards ceremony. They have the Cooper Lomaz football Cup and the Cooper Lomaz bake off.

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