A small team, drawn from all skill levels, set out to inspire and ignite the business to Be the Difference. There's a major shift going on in the world. From closed to open, protected to connected and aware to active. Added Value needed to be a part of this shift. With three motivations; Be active. Because they welcome hard graft, Added Value got the business to commit to two days for each individual to help a charity of their choice. Be generous. Because they want to build lasting partnerships, Added Value committed to work with their charity partners to help with their challenges. Their involvement has been a massive turning point in their ventures. Be Green. Because small actions can make a big difference, Added Value committed to inspiring behavioural change in the office and their personal life. They have work-shopped with DoNation and TEAM UP to help them define their character, mission statement and tone of voice, which gave the junior employees the chance to develop facilitation skills. 2013 has seen them continue their work with Shooting Star Chase by freshening up one of their local charity shops and paint Bollywood inspired posters to decorate their children's hospice. Other activities have included clearing up a local garden for Samaritans, volunteering for the Teddington River Festival, raising £500 for Comic Relief with fancy dress, £235 for East-End Shed, which offers underprivileged kids to attend drama groups and held an in-office barista coffee shop.

The brand team spent 2 days away in The Kent countryside. "The agenda? Have some fun - they did a vineyard tour, made pizzas – got to know each other, oh and do some work - they did some 2014 planning and developed a new offer to start selling to clients as soon as got back to HQ." The qual team headed into London for a day master class in Analysis Skills. A day of fun energisers like making models of colleagues out of play dough, practising analysis techniques and finished with a well-earned glass of wine. "It was a great session to learn and share ideas. It was also great to be out of the office all together something that doesn't always happen given the life of someone always on fieldwork." "Every month Qual get together for a sharing session. They invite members of other teams to join them to share their recent work or pov on various topics and sometimes have people from outside AV talk to them including hypnosis in research." "After winning a Shine award for their work on the Land Rover account, what better way to spend the winnings than on a night of cocktail flaring and tapas eating. 18 members of the Land Rover account from teams across the business enjoyed a night of cocktail making and drinking followed by dinner. A really fun night and a great reward for all of the hard work on a big and sometimes challenging account."

acdc prides itself on developing relationships with its employees and listening to them. They actively encourage open and honest communication and employee involvement. At acdc they have an open door policy and all their employees are encouraged to raise any suggestions, improvements, ideas or concerns that they may have and bring them to the attention of their Manager during 1-2-1's or via other conversations or email, the Engagement Team via the Engagement email address or Suggestion Box, or the CEO. By actively encouraging suggestions, ideas and listening to their employees a member of the Despatch team came up with an idea to improve the packaging and labelling of their products when being shipped. acdc worked with them to put together a business case for a new piece of machinery including the cost of the machine, new banding tape, training and potential cost savings on implementation. The idea and plan was well received and was implemented. The employee was rewarded and recognised for his efforts and this promoted further ideas and suggestions from other employees.

acdc actively encourage team building events to foster interdepartmental awareness, cross functional departmental activities and improve communication. Examples of different events and sizes include the acdc annual company conference where all employees are taken off site to a nearby hotel for the afternoon and evening and this is fully funded by the company. The format for the conference includes a review of the previous year and a look ahead to the company's key goals and objectives in the forthcoming year. This enables key messages to be communicated consistently to all the employees. At the end of this year's conference acdc held a team activity which involved devising an advert for their lighting products which resulted in greater knowledge sharing, communication and better relationships from this fun team activity. Once the conference and team building activity has ended they provide a buffet, free bar and disco for all employees to enjoy and discuss the afternoon's activities or any other questions or comments they may have in a relaxed, informal environment, which encourages improved communication and awareness, Additional team building activities include the sponsoring of company netball and football teams, an annual Christmas Partly, Family BBQ, Running and Cycling Clubs, various charity events including Movember and the Burnley 10K, as well as Go Karting and other activities. acdc also hold formal team building events for their Senior Managers and leaders of the business to improve teamworking, strategy, direction and communication.

A3D2 hold a Company conference every 6 months that culminates in a party at one of their venues. They take the management teams away on various supplier trips throughout the year. The venues also hold regular team nights out and the company holds two staff parties every year. The General Manager awards held this year in Barcelona where a wonderful opportunity to recognise the management teams hard work over a previous difficult period. A3D2 take the Senior team away to a three day strategy conference. This is made up of fun team building events alongside agreeing and developing the business plan for the coming year. Getting everyone out of the office helps forge working relationships and develop innovation and excellent strategy.

A3D2 hold a Company conference every 6 months that culminates in a party at one of their venues. They take the management teams away on various supplier trips throughout the year. The venues also hold regular team nights out and the company holds two staff parties every year. The General Manager awards held this year in Barcelona where a wonderful opportunity to recognise the management teams hard work over a previous difficult period. A3D2 take the Senior team away to a three day strategy conference. This is made up of fun team building events alongside agreeing and developing the business plan for the coming year. Getting everyone out of the office helps forge working relationships and develop innovation and excellent strategy.

The best example is the internal training programme designed by the Zolfo Cooper training team. After a comprehensive review of their old training plan, which involved interviews with Partners and consultation with staff, the training team made a business case to increase the annual budget for learning and development by a third. Subsequently the suite of internal training courses has been re-designed and comprehensively covers technical skills as well as personal and career development skills. These are bespoke courses which have been designed for and in conjunction with Zolfo Cooper employees across all levels and teams within the Firm. Several of the courses such as Negotiation Skills and Technical Tasters are by self-nomination, therefore employees are encouraged to reflect on their own individual learning needs and attend those that they feel are most beneficial to them.

Managers are required to invest time in offering support and guidance to their team members. They should also provide feedback on a regular basis and ideally straight after the completion of a project. Zolfo Cooper ensure that they have open discussions with staff and objectives are well thought through and follow the SMART principle. Many managers act as mentors to junior members of staff. This means that they provide independent and objective career advice to employees outside the formal Appraisal system.

The company sets aside 1% of pre-tax profits for charitable giving each year and the funding decisions are primarily made by the family council who represent the shareholders. Their focus is on giving back to the communities where they do business and most of the funds allocated to charities based in Scotland which is where the company is registered and is the family home. The company have a matched giving policy and all employees are entitled to apply for matched giving either to match funds raised or for voluntary hours given to a charity. All employees can claim matched giving up to a maximum of £1,000 in any one calendar year.

As well as all the usual ongoing engagement activities, feedback from employee surveys prompted William Grant to form a new team of 24 employees last year representing their global operations and business areas. Their goal was to work together to make WG&S a really fantastic place to work. The team was officially branded the “Best Place To Work” (BPTW) team. Their first priority was to find out from colleagues what they could do to make WGS the “Best Place to Work”. A “Message in a Bottle” campaign was launched where every employee worldwide was sent a bottle shaped form to complete with their ideas and suggestions for improving life at work. To get maximum effect this was posted to individuals home addresses. The response was staggering and the company received a phenomenal 287 suggestions covering all aspects of life at work.

Wiggin have a monthly Wiggin Wiglet award which goes to the employee who has gone the extra mile in delivering service either externally to clients or internally. The reward involves the employee wearing a brightly coloured wig for the day alongside media related gift vouchers, champagne and their merits applauded at the monthly briefing.

Wiggin carry out a Firm listening exercise asking employees in small groups what they could do to help the firm's strategy.

Westmill have a strong Action Learning approach. This works for them for two reasons. Firstly, the company want their people to be part of their future therefore engage every single employee in a process to derive the Mission and Behaviours. This is action learning because it is the line managers and their leadership team who create and deliver the process to do this. This builds important skills around project management, facilitation, leadership and listening on a real business issue rather than in simulated training exercises. Westmill people learn and develop key skills and the business benefits from the work they are doing on a real business issue.

Westmill have pay reviews, pay benchmarking and recognition awards for those performed well.

The company ownership structure means that a charitable trust fund, 'The Russell Trust', owns 28% of the company shares. This trust uses the dividend from its shareholding, around £250,000 per annum, to make charitable donations to the local community. They have engaged with the local community and local councils to build the Tullis Russell Environmental Education Centre (TREE Centre). This centre supports their environmental branding and will provide environmental education to the local community and schoolchildren.

The company ownership structure means that a charitable trust fund, 'The Russell Trust', owns 28% of the company shares. This trust uses the dividend from its shareholding, around £250,000 per annum, to make charitable donations to the local community. They have engaged with the local community and local councils to build the Tullis Russell Environmental Education Centre (TREE Centre). This centre supports their environmental branding and will provide environmental education to the local community and schoolchildren.

The College has a Staff Appraisal Policy for all staff, whether full or part time. This ensures members of staff are given an opportunity to talk with their line manager about their work; where they see their career progressing as well as staff development opportunities. However, the culture of the College means that staff can talk with their line managers at any opportunity. New staff are assigned a mentor (as part of the Induction Checklist) and also have set review meetings after one, two and four months for support staff and two, four and six months for academic staff. Academic staff also have lesson observations as part of their probation review. This gives new staff not only the opportunity to discuss any aspect of their role with their mentor but also ensures time is set aside for the line manager to appraise their progress and to address any concerns (should there be any) at the earliest opportunity.

The College has continued to support an annual Christmas party at a local hotel since opening in 1993. For previous landmark occasions (anniversary's, outstanding achievements) they have held celebratory parties, some of which have been held at the Eden Project. However, the Christmas Party last year in Falmouth was a great success.

The company use a career road map to ensure that each consultant knows in which direction their career is going, what they need to do to get there, what coaching will be offered to help them and what awards will be accrued when they reach their goal. Employees are rewarded through bonuses and incentives which encourage them to work at maximum capacity. After every year of service, the Directors take the individual employee for congratulatory drinks and discuss their successes. Listening to the employees ambitions, the Director(s) suggest potential development and further avenues for exploration. Employees are made aware of opportunities to develop in terms of promotions or sideways movements.

The company use a career road map to ensure that each consultant knows in which direction their career is going, what they need to do to get there, what coaching will be offered to help them and what awards will be accrued when they reach their goal. Employees are rewarded through bonuses and incentives which encourage them to work at maximum capacity. After every year of service, the Directors take the individual employee for congratulatory drinks and discuss their successes. Listening to the employees ambitions, the Director(s) suggest potential development and further avenues for exploration. Employees are made aware of opportunities to develop in terms of promotions or sideways movements.