Marlin Financial offer flu vaccinations and occupational health support.

Marlin Financial offer flu vaccinations and occupational health support.

At Magenta Living their unique, partnership approach brings positive benefits to the local and wider community as well as securing value for money. Through partnerships they are able to offer an extensive programme of resident training and capacity building, all of which is free to participants. Local organisations such as Wirral Met College, Lifelong Learning and Union learn work with them to provide training in a wide range of topics from dressmaking to computing to key skills such as english and maths. They are able to provide accredited training at their community properties which leads to qualifications assisting residents to become more able to access employment as well as building skills confidence and self worth. Accessing employment opportunities is important within the challenging environment many of their residents face. Their innovative partnership with Job Centre Plus through their Wow (Working on Wirral|) project sites an employment skills advisor within their team, again at no cost to residents accessing the service. Four residents have found jobs within the first month of this exciting pilot project. Their partnership with Partners Credit Union (also sited within their building) has enabled them to set up their Digital Deal scheme where they offer cheap, recycled computer equipment to residents with the option to access affordable credit. This is accomplished by budgeting training and IT qualifications to combat digital exclusion. Partnerships with social enterprises address local issues, put money into the local economy and assist in employing local people. They support a range of social enterprises including 14-19 Wirral which specialises in youth consultation. A member of Magenta Living's staff sits on its board.

At Magenta Living their unique, partnership approach brings positive benefits to the local and wider community as well as securing value for money. Through partnerships they are able to offer an extensive programme of resident training and capacity building, all of which is free to participants. Local organisations such as Wirral Met College, Lifelong Learning and Union learn work with them to provide training in a wide range of topics from dressmaking to computing to key skills such as english and maths. They are able to provide accredited training at their community properties which leads to qualifications assisting residents to become more able to access employment as well as building skills confidence and self worth. Accessing employment opportunities is important within the challenging environment many of their residents face. Their innovative partnership with Job Centre Plus through their Wow (Working on Wirral|) project sites an employment skills advisor within their team, again at no cost to residents accessing the service. Four residents have found jobs within the first month of this exciting pilot project. Their partnership with Partners Credit Union (also sited within their building) has enabled them to set up their Digital Deal scheme where they offer cheap, recycled computer equipment to residents with the option to access affordable credit. This is accomplished by budgeting training and IT qualifications to combat digital exclusion. Partnerships with social enterprises address local issues, put money into the local economy and assist in employing local people. They support a range of social enterprises including 14-19 Wirral which specialises in youth consultation. A member of Magenta Living's staff sits on its board.

Key Travel offer a very comprehensive Employee Assistance Programme which is highly confidential and enables employees to discuss health, financial, personal and family matters. They have also appointed an external occupational health partner who works with them to ensure anyone who is struggling in their role for health reasons is fully and appropriately supported. Finally they have partnered with a DSE assessment organisation to ensure that these assessments are undertaken by experts rather than them in house.

Key Travel have a charities policy which allows employees to ask for time off to volunteer, be that their own time which we will then match or work time. They also match funds raised by the employee for a charity. There is no upper cap but their charities policy requires employees to seek authorisation for time off and fund matching before an event to enable them to ensure any potential monies to be matched are within their budgets and each case is considered on its own merits. No case has been declined to date.

The organisation created the IHG Academy - a public:private partnership model, helping local people develop their skills and take a first step into employment. One model is sector based work academy that is delivered in partnership with JobCentrePlus and targeted towards those not in education, employment or training. The model includes a City & Guilds qualification, work experience in their hotels and an interview with the opportunity to secure employment and continued development. During 2013, 27% attendees of an IHG Academy have 'graduated' into employment in our hotels. The IHG Academy won business in the community work inspiration award for work on the academy programme across the UK&I, specifically in Leeds, for the excellent work the academy programme does in the local communities, providing learning and job opportunities. Graduates follow a robust training programme to develop their careers which is aligned to nationally recognised qualifications. Hence, the IHG Apprenticeship programme started where employees can gain an NVQ level 2 and be assessed by their line manager whilst completing daily tasks. IHG's apprenticeship scheme has been recognised at the National Apprenticeship Awards 2013. The company achieved ‘highly commended' in the ‘new employer' category for the Thames Valley Region because of their commitment to offering new apprentices and excellent career opportunities, with over 100 places offered to date. A video of candidate success stories has been produced to promote this initiative.

The organisation created the IHG Academy - a public:private partnership model, helping local people develop their skills and take a first step into employment. One model is sector based work academy that is delivered in partnership with JobCentrePlus and targeted towards those not in education, employment or training. The model includes a City & Guilds qualification, work experience in their hotels and an interview with the opportunity to secure employment and continued development. During 2013, 27% attendees of an IHG Academy have 'graduated' into employment in our hotels. The IHG Academy won business in the community work inspiration award for work on the academy programme across the UK&I, specifically in Leeds, for the excellent work the academy programme does in the local communities, providing learning and job opportunities. Graduates follow a robust training programme to develop their careers which is aligned to nationally recognised qualifications. Hence, the IHG Apprenticeship programme started where employees can gain an NVQ level 2 and be assessed by their line manager whilst completing daily tasks. IHG's apprenticeship scheme has been recognised at the National Apprenticeship Awards 2013. The company achieved ‘highly commended' in the ‘new employer' category for the Thames Valley Region because of their commitment to offering new apprentices and excellent career opportunities, with over 100 places offered to date. A video of candidate success stories has been produced to promote this initiative.

Inferno have a traditional ‘royal mail' post box which sits in the lobby and invites everyone to help themselves to an ‘I'd love it if' card on reception to post any suggestions or gripe, anonymously or not. They strongly believe that listening is the very basic method of being available and approachable. There is an informal and relaxed atmosphere within the open plan building and staff are encouraged to have opinions, which are heard and addressed. Company updates are held on the last Thursday of every month and are a relaxed forum over a beer or glass of wine (sometimes even champagne) for discussions to ensure staff can see that needs are being addressed. Regular departmental away-days provide an opportunity for ideas to be shared outside the office environment, in an inspiring setting to encourage new thinking and perspective. It is not usual for teams to come back from these with an entirely new and more effective approach for their departments.

Every last Friday of the month Inferno holds a social event called ‘Love What Could Be', which gives the chance to gather the entire agency, build morale and inspire collaborative working. These varied events are organised by their ‘Love What Could Be' committee and some are seasonal, some are festive and some are completely random. Alcohol and nibbles are always a prerequisite. In the past year, an example of these are: a summer picnic and games, a pumpkin carving competition, a cocktail making class and a “guess the baby” tea party. Though not quite a team building ‘event', a “buddy system” is introduced on an employee's first days where new staff are partnered with someone on their department who is not their line manager, who will introduce them to their new home and colleagues, beyond the initial HR tour. Inferno will also pay for the buddy to host a team lunch outside the agency. Departments also have regular ‘away days' to discuss new practices and strategy, this is held at a nice and inspiring venue (such as an art gallery meeting room) and include breakfast/lunch and down-time drinks when the day is through.

Managers are given simple to use performance setting template and guidelines to take their teams through. Each of the leadership team go through the business objectives at the start of the year to enable them to intergrate them into their planning for the year. Managers attend regular leadership away days to understand where the business is going and what is needed to get there. Each business area and region have their own deciaded HR teams that work with them through out the year to plan. Some departments have quartlerly people surveys to sense check where they are in terms of plans. With the help of the HR team managers are given guidelines and help to conduct team plans, including succession planning. The exec have set out their stall in terms of what they expect from their management team and have worked together to bring it to life.

Wellbeing in Homebase is part of their core beliefs system, they place high value on the work the wellbeing team do to ensure the golden thread of wellbeing continues through the business. Their dedicated wellbeing and support leadership group, focus on developing new and existing programmes to engage their colleagues, including free flu injections in the contact centre this winter. They also have working parties for charitable giving, volunteering and talent and skills in the community, as Homebase have recognised that involvement in activities across these three other areas has a significant impact on the wider wellbeing of colleagues, in addition to the practical financial and physical package of benefits they provide. Their approach therefore is to promote and communicate opportunities for colleagues to get involved in one or more of these areas. This kind of involvement helps colleagues develop personally, gives them a feeling of pride about working for Homebase. It also improves team morale and generally helps to create a better sense of wellbeing in the workplace and in their personal lives. The biggest goal is to recruit 30,000 Dementia Friends from across the business who will benefit from an awareness raising session to develop a better understanding of people with dementia, as part of their partnership with the Alzheimer's Society. Homebase know many of their colleagues have family members with Dementia and want as many of their colleagues to be able to support each other, but it will also be a valuable and transferable skill for their families futures.

Hifx provide incentive linked pay schemes to all employees regardless of job function. Management and support services staff are eligible for a quarterly bonus that is a % of their annual basic salary.Each employee is linked to the performance of the company (or their dept) financial results (top line and/or bottom line) as well as key customer metrics such as NPS (net promoter score - driving customer excellence). Employees are paid against a blend of company metrics dependant on their role. For some involved in IT/technology and payment processing this will be STP (straight-through processing) element of bonus pay (for driving automation and efficient payment services). They then pay some functions (e.g. sales, marketing and management) on customer conversions. Some of the senior management are paid against staff survey results (e.g. senior directors and HR director and HR team). They then pay an element of people's bonus pay linked to personal / team performance (e.g. progress against actions). By having a universal framework for how they pay bonuses, they ensure that everyone from board level to the post-room is aligned to the same objectives and focused on customer service excellence. In addition to bonus/incentive pay, they also recognise star performers (or those people that go beyond the call of duty) and regularly organise fun activities such as go-karting, nights out, trips to special places (e.g. Maclaren racing Head office). Hifx also provide high performers with awards known at HiFX as "ITNs" (interesting to note) with recognition awards given for exceptional behaviour.

The CEO at Hifx 'walks the floor' every day and takes time to speak to staff and understand how they are getting on within their roles and what challenges they may currently be facing. The CEO, personally leads each staff communciation presentation and takes sigificant time to prepare for these presentations. Their CEO presents in an open/honest manner that is not sugar coated in 'management speak'. He allows people to ask questions without fear and takes time to answer all questions raised, Ensuring any questions not answered in the meeting are answered ASAP after presentations.

Harrier LLC have over the past 2 years delivered a 95% reduction in landfill waste and whilst this has increased employment through the management of the project it has also saved the business over 100k and has been recognised in a recent national award by DS Smith .

Harrier created a voucher system for outstanding achievements; this includes the "Employee of the month awards" and is delivered with all staff in attendance on a monthly basis; this not only includes the EOM but any other voucher awards made for special one off acheivements. This is then presented on the notice boards, intranet and newsletter.

Hall & Partners invests in a variety of team building events throughout the year and quarterly company meetings for all. One of the most established events held each year is “Imagine Day”, a unique interactive forum for cross-company collaboration and the generation of new ideas to continue building our company strategy. Imagine Day provides a chance for everyone at Hall & Partners, no matter what their level or aspect of the business, to contribute their individual perspective. It represents the start of their planning process for each new year, helping them to identify otheir goals and priorities based on the hands-on experiences of their employees. This provides a strong focus as well as energy for developing initiatives which will support the continued success of Hall & Partners business and company culture. This year (2013), the purpose of Imagine Day was to leverage their digital expertise and encourage smarter digital thinking and behaviour across the company. The main goals of the day included: Enabling all employees to make a tangible contribution to how they develop their business around their digital offer, Working together to identify where they are now with the current scope of digital tools and behaviours, and where they want to be Prioritising their actions by plotting a road map to success By encouraging open exploration and debate both within and across teams, Imagine Day allows for the entire company to be fully immersed in the shaping and development of Hall & Partners' company vision.

Managers set clear, specific and tailored objectives for employees at yearly appraisal sessions, designed to measure and assess developmental progress. Outside of formal appraisal meetings, managers continue to monitor employee progress through regular meetings and informal catch ups. This allows managers and employees to work together closely throughout the year to further tailor objectives if required, and to set new objectives if progress allows. In line with this structure, praise and recognition are given when an employee excels in order to motivate and show appreciation for their efforts and dedication in his/her role. This can range from wider visible recognition (e.g. personal mention at company meeting) to more personal commendation (e.g. in smaller department team meeting).