Examples of how PSN engages with schools and colleges include workshop sessions for students on interpersonal and communication skills, information on the oil and gas industry (e.g jobs available), CV writing, applying for jobs, interviewing techniques and facilitating meetings. These sessions have taken place at Old Machar Academy and Mearns Academy. Members of their HR team mentor students at Robert Gordon University who are studying for their MSc in Human Resource Management. Engineering students from RGU universities meet with practicing engineers to mentor and discuss options for career development within oil and gas and other industries.

PSN hold a number of fitness actvities throughout the year including the 'Fit 4 2009 Challenge.' This involves measuring the fitness of the participants at the beginning of the programme and then again 8 weeks later. There are 6 areas to check which include body fat, blood pressure aerobic capacity and flexibility. They continue to maintain their 'Healthy Working Lives' programme. The standards criteria give them a framework to develop a strong health strategy within the business. It gives them a means of tackling not only the 'nicer' topics of health such as general fitness, but also the more difficult subjects such as urinary tract cancer, drug and alcohol abuse, stress and mental illness. Although not easy subjects to tackle they continually get wide support to 'lunch & learn' sessions throughout the year with most being over subscribed.

Appreciation is instant and communicated company wide via the electronic mail system. Rewards for ideas or innovation are part of the discretionary annual bonus at the end of the year.

powerPerfector serves as a platform for the voice of future generations. As the sponsor of www.footprintfriends.com, powerPerfector has made a commitment to taking an active role in supporting the climate change conversation for children. Their belief is that young people should be encouraged to be actively involved in the climate change challenge and that there is urgency in enabling them to actively make their own impact at school and in the home. An outcome of this partnership is a highly successful national schools initiative called ‘Wipe Out Waste'. This involved school age children presenting ideas to a panel of green dragons in aid of removing wasteful practices in the school environment. Over 15 members of staff were involved in this event.

Management tool kits/resources are provided to give the manager guides on some of the key HR policies such as how to manage attendance and how to manage a disciplinary. Portico have a policy that allows individuals to request pay/support for external management qualifications. Portico have a number of internal programmes as well as the ILM accredited Team Leading and First Line Management. Portico have a team of Mentors who currently work with Supervisors to help them grow in the business. Mentoring meetings take place monthly. Portico host quarterly Management breakfast seminars for networking and they bring in a speaker/trainer to focus on a key leadership/people manager area.

Portico have a formal Thank you Scheme that is an instant recognition scheme across their whole business. Each location has staff noticeboard to share relevant communications such as internal vacancy list, training posters, event posters. Portico also send out regular posters via email communicating training events, Giving Back events and social activities as well as reward and recognition.

Populous sponsor the ABS fun run as well as taking part and were presented by the Company's Award for the most significant contribution to the ABS in the Course of the year 2010. Populous also donate computers to schools and take part in educational days with school children in addition to donating sports equipment to schools.

Populous have live Q&A surgery sessions at staff meetings. They have no cellular offices so all leader/ senior managers are approachable and work in open plan offices alongside employees. They hold regular staff meetings, talks and office parties and events and all new staff are invited to introduce themselves to the board at a board meeting (collectively). Populous believe that they have approachable leaders.

On average, employees receive 40 hours per year formal training with an average spend of £300 per employee per year. Employees at Ponti's undertake training activities such as: Induction, Fire training, Food Hygiene Supervisory training, Influencing Employee behaviour, Management Development Programme, Barista coffee training, Train the Trainer course and NVQ's.

On average, employees receive 40 hours per year formal training with an average spend of £300 per employee per year. Employees at Ponti's undertake training activities such as: Induction, Fire training, Food Hygiene Supervisory training, Influencing Employee behaviour, Management Development Programme, Barista coffee training, Train the Trainer course and NVQ's.

Places for People have Star Awards to ensure that employees feel they are rewarded for their efforts. The Star Awards include a celebration dinner each year for those who were nominated for the awards. They also hold regular 1 to 1's and appraisals as well as personal thank yous from the CEO.

On average, employees receive 18 hours per year formal training with an average spend per employee on training per year of £80. They provide training activities such as: H&S, Induction, Manual Handling, presentation skills, influencing skills, IT training and leadership development.

They reward employees both monetarily with generous pay, bonus, flexible benefits and pension plans, and in broader terms with their commitment to training, support, recognition and opportunities for career development. As well as custom employee award and recognition schemes such as the GEM awards, they also invest a great deal of time in their in-house training programme so that their employees feel fully challenged, developed and rewarded, not only financially but also socially and professionally.

Penspen Ltd say that the e-cards at Christmas are a great idea as they are both sustainable and a great way of freeing up additioanl funds for charity. They also encourage small enterprise giving, supporting charity bungee jumps etc. The weekly 'Ramble and Roll' through Richmond Park also requests a small charitable donation to be given in order to take part. A number of their employees help and support local fundraising activities via small group enterprise eg. by raising money for their nearest Elizabeth Fitzroy Home, which provides support for people with disabilities.

Management Workshops are run for all existing managers and aspiring managers to aquipe them with the skills and knowledge to motivate and manage their teams in line with best practice and Company Policy. Where appropriate external management qualifications are supported through the Company assisted study programme and internal management workshops are run periodically for all people managers. Mentoring is provided by one of their Directors, all of which have been fully trained. Many Managers at Pattonair are members of a proffessional body e.g. CIPD, CQI, CIMA, CIPS and they attend seminars periodically to keep up to date with new initiatives and network with others in their field for support. Others attend formal courses to contribute to their continuous proffessional development.

Management Workshops are run for all existing managers and aspiring managers to aquipe them with the skills and knowledge to motivate and manage their teams in line with best practice and Company Policy. Where appropriate external management qualifications are supported through the Company assisted study programme and internal management workshops are run periodically for all people managers. Mentoring is provided by one of their Directors, all of which have been fully trained. Many Managers at Pattonair are members of a proffessional body e.g. CIPD, CQI, CIMA, CIPS and they attend seminars periodically to keep up to date with new initiatives and network with others in their field for support. Others attend formal courses to contribute to their continuous proffessional development.

Parasol has an annual motivational plan setting out a variety of special, entertaining events/activities for staff to look forward to throughout the year. They ask volunteers from across the business to help come up with ideas for events and take ownership of planning and running the activities on the day. Parasol's customer service team celebrated Customer Service week with team activities and a competition to come up with a bright idea to make their customers love Parasol even more. They promoted a bit of healthy competition amongst teams in their health and wellbeing/sports week.

The Chief Executive believes that Parasol's most important asset is the people. He gets a kick out of seeing people developing and performing to the best they can be because he recognises that each individual success leads to an even more successful future for Parasol. On occasions where a team is out of the office at team building events for example and the department is being operated by a skeleton staff, the Chief Executive regularly mucks in, emerging from his office to answer phones and respond to queries normally picked up by the team. This really builds morale amongst those looking on.

There is a full training schedule available to each member of staff that not only helps you to be competent within your current role, but will also help you reach the next stage in your career. Personal development is another area that the training department have worked on at great length. Palmarium feel it is important that you cannot only achieve your work targets and goals but that hopefully, with some guidance, they can be here to help you reach your personal goals and objectives. Their courses are continuously being reviewed and developed to ensure they are keeping abreast of market conditions, trends and also that they are enabling you to achieve then exceed.

Palmrium Management have access to a dedicated recruitment and training organisation (elite). Management are also given membership to governing bodies i.e. CIPS and ACCA