At their September sales meeting Lundbeck held a chocolate making competition, an Apprentice style challenge. The whole sales organisation was split into groups and given an afternoon to create, package and market a new chocolate brand. These were then pitched to the Senior Management Group and a winner was chosen. It was a lot of fun and a break from formal work exercises.

At their September sales meeting Lundbeck held a chocolate making competition, an Apprentice style challenge. The whole sales organisation was split into groups and given an afternoon to create, package and market a new chocolate brand. These were then pitched to the Senior Management Group and a winner was chosen. It was a lot of fun and a break from formal work exercises.

Live & Breathe foster a culture of collaboration where each member of the team is valued equally. Ideas, can and do, come from anywhere and rewards are shared. As such, good people progress quickly. Being small gives Live and Breathe a clear advantage in being able to listen and feedback to the wider team. The senior team have weekly one-to-one sessions with their team members and on top of that the flat hierarchy means everyone can talk to a Director pretty much whenever they want. Additionally they employ the Clear Partnership for coaching and mentoring which has proved valuable in many ways not least the fact they are completely impartial and staff feel able to talk openly to them.

Live & Breathe helped organise and participated in an ‘It's a Knockout' event for one of their nominated charities ‘Caravan'. As well as giving the event coordinator time during her working day to arrange the event, a team consisting of Live & Breathers and their clients was assembled and given the afternoon off work to compete. Not only did everyone enjoy the event but it had two key benefits - it raised £20,000 for a very good cause related to the sector in which Live & Breathe operate and it provided the opportunity to work together with their clients in a constructive, out of business environment, getting to know and understand them and themselves better and work better as a team.

The most effective approach is an ambitious digital training programme which began towards the end of 2010 and was completed in the summer of 2011, facilitated by uTalk Marketing. Leo Burnett wanted to inspire and excite their people about the opportunities digital offers and give people the specific, practical skills to create digital communications. By running a fully comprehensive training programme featuring nine interactive workshops for their account management, planning and creative teams, they gave them confidence to integrate digital into their everyday work and talk to clients about digital with the same credibility that they can talk about offline communications. The workshops were attended by mixed peer groups which made interaction between attendees more beneficial and left people feeling empowered and inspired to take a different approach to their day-to-day tasks. Leo Burnett's course evaluation showed the programme was enormously successful. 94% of staff stated that they were "very satisfied" with the programme. To complement the utalkmarketing training activity Leo Burnett also undertook a number of other development initiatives to enhance the digitisation of the agency such as lunchtime learning sessions with companies such as Facebook, Google, etc. and Q&A clinics in specialist areas such as Social Media, User Experience, Hypermedia, Digital Production etc.

The most effective approach is an ambitious digital training programme which began towards the end of 2010 and was completed in the summer of 2011, facilitated by uTalk Marketing. Leo Burnett wanted to inspire and excite their people about the opportunities digital offers and give people the specific, practical skills to create digital communications. By running a fully comprehensive training programme featuring nine interactive workshops for their account management, planning and creative teams, they gave them confidence to integrate digital into their everyday work and talk to clients about digital with the same credibility that they can talk about offline communications. The workshops were attended by mixed peer groups which made interaction between attendees more beneficial and left people feeling empowered and inspired to take a different approach to their day-to-day tasks. Leo Burnett's course evaluation showed the programme was enormously successful. 94% of staff stated that they were "very satisfied" with the programme. To complement the utalkmarketing training activity Leo Burnett also undertook a number of other development initiatives to enhance the digitisation of the agency such as lunchtime learning sessions with companies such as Facebook, Google, etc. and Q&A clinics in specialist areas such as Social Media, User Experience, Hypermedia, Digital Production etc.

As a thank you for everyone's hard work in the first half of the year, Leasedirect took everybody to the cinema for the afternoon! They closed the offices, hired a private screen and treated everyone to sweets, ice creams and drinks. It was really well received by all and was something a bit different to show their gratitude.

Leasedirect have introduced a twice weekly fruit delivery across the business which provides all staff with free fruit. They have also introduced a scheme to help people stop smoking. They are keen to support all employees with a desire to stop smoking, from funding the cost of nicotine patches to hypnotherapy Leasedirect have also negotiated a discounted rate for all staff at their local gym and are part of a cycle to work scheme.

It is difficult to pull out just one or two examples of how Lands' End seek to enhance the wellbeing of their employees as they offer a raft of opportunities which they believe encompasses the full diversity of their employees. Lands' End recognise that personal development, job satisfaction and a realistic work/life balance all have a positive impact on the wellbeing of their employees.

Lands' End's managers are keen to understand how they behave in the workplace by completing a Personal Profile Analysis. They also receive direct feedback from their superiors, colleagues and subordinates by completing the 360 degree feedback process. Lands' End managers work with their teams to plan and prioritise workloads. The Managers are able to recognise and reward in various ways including Individual Performance Awards (£), above effective annual appraisal ratings, employee evaluations in our Operational areas (EEvA), trophies, vouchers (£) and team awards.

KFI has a monthly bonus scheme in place for the majority of people that allows them to earn an additional 20% OTE. Targets are set for each person which are specifically related to performance and quality. Capital bonds are paid over and above the monthly bonus scheme. All of Kwik-Fit's people are engaged in the scheme that allows them to earn bonds each month for achieving performance and quality targets. Bonds accrue over the year and are paid at Christmas. Their employee of the year scheme also ensures people feel rewarded for their efforts. Every month each department identifies their employee of the month. All winners are rewarded with free food in the restaurant, access to the concierge service and gym membership for one month. All winners go through to the four monthly Qualifier Awards and department winners are treated to a day off and lunch with the senior management team. Qualifier winners are also invited to their Employee of the Year ceremony. This is a black tie event held in a 5 star venue and partners are invited. Each department winner gets £1000 and the overall employee of the year is awarded £10,000.

As charity giving is an integral part of of the culture of KFI, they have gradually introduced a number of activities which all help to form their commitment to charities. They include a payroll giving scheme called 'Donate an hour's pay' which encourages staff to sign up and allow a salary deduction of the equivalent of one hour's pay each month, dress down days when they ask staff to donate once a month £1, a 'Countdown to Christmas' weigh in scheme in which employees are sponsored to lose weight (monitored by the Occupational Health Nurse), a number of group events during the course of the year, including Maggies Monster bike and Hike, Caledonian Challenge and fun events such as white water. Each year, employees select a charity of the year. Last year, Rutherglen High School (a local special needs high school) reveived many benefits including a new minibus and a new sensory garden.

Keyfuel's leader is approachable, an excellent communicator, passionate about the business and the people who drive it forward. He communicates a clear vision and practices the company values.

Keyfuels have a weekly Friday breakfast, monthly fruit and yoghurt mornings. There have been improvements to air conditioning facilities, improvements to Health and Safety policies and introduction of marked walkways to enhance personel safety.

Keoghs offer a number of ways for staff to offer ideas and feedback and work hard to encourage a two way information flow. Communication options available include: Internal newsletters (staff are encouraged to send in content), Daily business communications (a daily email issued to all staff covering a variety of topics – often used to promote opportunities for feedback), Surveys (undertaken for a range of topics from where to hold the staff Christmas party to feelings on particular issues going on within the firm), Forums (offers staff the ability to post questions to the Board which can be done anonymously if preferred), Meetings – Business update meetings are held quarterly, staff are encouraged to send in their questions prior to the event and are given the opportunity to ask questions at the meetings themselves. Surveys are then circulated to ask for feedback on the issues raised. Team meetings are also a great opportunity to gain feedback from staff in person.

Keoghs offer a number of ways for staff to offer ideas and feedback and work hard to encourage a two way information flow. Communication options available include: Internal newsletters (staff are encouraged to send in content), Daily business communications (a daily email issued to all staff covering a variety of topics – often used to promote opportunities for feedback), Surveys (undertaken for a range of topics from where to hold the staff Christmas party to feelings on particular issues going on within the firm), Forums (offers staff the ability to post questions to the Board which can be done anonymously if preferred), Meetings – Business update meetings are held quarterly, staff are encouraged to send in their questions prior to the event and are given the opportunity to ask questions at the meetings themselves. Surveys are then circulated to ask for feedback on the issues raised. Team meetings are also a great opportunity to gain feedback from staff in person.

During the monthly meetings with their consultants, Kelly Services' managers review their team's performance individually by considering a number of factors. They use this information to assess the demands upon their team members and evaluate any development or training needs. Managers also use this time to highlight any successes of the month and ensure recognition for any particular achievements is given. As well as the weekly meeting, managers every day conduct a 'daily call-over' meeting with their teams. The purpose of these brief meetings is to discuss the achievements of the previous day and to review their focuses for the day ahead. Managers conduct a Development Discussion with individuals at the beginning of each year where they ask the employee for input on what they feel their business and professional development goals should be. These goals are reviewed at a mid-year meeting and then again in a meeting the following year where new objectives and goals would also be set.

Kelly Services recently identified that when looking at their management population, a large number of them had been promoted internally. While this is a very positive realisation, it also means that as a company they need to ensure that they have the tools and skills that they need to be successful. As such the company designed and implemented a Business Manager Development Programme, which assesses and evaluates all managers within Kelly Services and then creates an individual specific development programme. This programme can comprise of a wide range of different learning techniques; including class room based training, job shadowing, mentoring and individual project work, to target the development needs of each manager. The feedback that the company have received for this programme so far has been very positive and this approach is a very important part of their learning and development strategy going forward.