Haygarth have recently reinvigorated Strata meetings and see these as an opportunity for employees at each level of the business, regardless of team, to come together on a monthly basis. Strata meetings encompass a finance and general business update, as well special interest presentations and group work. These sessions are great forums for cross-team working and communication, allowing employees to get to know those people that they may not necessarily work with on a daily basis.

Haygarth have a long-standing relationship with a local charity, The Wimbledon Guild, who do valuable work in the local Merton community. The Charity team work hard to plan a calendar of events to run throughout the year and are constantly coming up with new fundraising ideas. As a result, they run a large number of fund-raising initiatives for the Guild, from regular cake sales and sweepstakes, to themed breakfasts and charity raffles and auctions. One of the annual highlights is their charity auction which takes place at the Summer Away Day. This year the company raised over £350 at the event. Beyond fundraising, a team from Haygarth run a stall at the annual Wimbledon Guild Summer Fete – this year, Haygarth assisted with the jousting tournament, selling props and programmes, whilst in previous years, they have run the champagne tent.

Hardies main community initiative is supporting and raising monies for local charities. Each office within the firm has selected a local charity and events are run throughout the year, with the funds raised being given to these charities. The company also runs a school's programme initiative, where again each office adopts a local school to encourage an interest in surveying and administration and to provide work shadowing and job opportunities. Hardies' Corporate Social Responsibility document is reviewed annually and includes a list of all members of staff and Partners who commit to various boards and charities within the community.

Hardies main community initiative is supporting and raising monies for local charities. Each office within the firm has selected a local charity and events are run throughout the year, with the funds raised being given to these charities. The company also runs a school's programme initiative, where again each office adopts a local school to encourage an interest in surveying and administration and to provide work shadowing and job opportunities. Hardies' Corporate Social Responsibility document is reviewed annually and includes a list of all members of staff and Partners who commit to various boards and charities within the community.

The values are clearly set out and communicated at all levels. Harbour have a competency framework which contributes to the values and is incorporated into their recruitment, training and appraisal processes. The organisation's 360-degree appraisal process includes all Senior Managers so Harbour can receive feedback on how well they demonstrate their values. Lesley operates an open door policy and staff at all levels know she can be approached about any matter, something that happens regularly. She is based in Hartlepool but spends time in the working week based at other Harbour locations so she is visible and experiences the front line operations at all times.

Harbour believes passionately that to provide a great service they need to employ enthusiastic, compassionate and talented people, then ensure the organisation continually invest in them so they keep learning, improving and developing their services. As a result of this staff receive ongoing training and development throughout their employment with Harbour, with many of them working towards accredited qualifications.

Hall & Partners are mindful of the importance of communicating with one another regularly outside of the daily and weekly team gatherings. Working in a busy and rapidly evolving environment, it's important staff are presented with new and innovative ways to interact and communicate with leaders. One of the avenues for doing this is through the company's annual company-wide initiative ‘Imagine Day'. This gives staff the chance to come together and share ideas through collaboration and training. This year saw a presenter from TrendWatching comment on the latest industry trends, encouraging staff to consider new approaches and areas of growth in their respective industries. Hall & Partners also hold frequent ‘London Pop-Up' meetings with the whole office to ensure all employees are kept up-to-date with Marketing, People, big wins, any key developments and news. They have also maintained their ‘Fifteen minutes of fame sessions', which are held monthly. These provide all employees with a platform to share and inspire their colleagues, showcasing examples of innovative and exciting work. Hall & Partners also encourage teams to enjoy a monthly ‘wellbeing day', an opportunity to leave their desks, escape the office and do something fun together. These include outings to theme parks, treasure hunts, sports days, cooking classes and even murder mystery days.

Hall & Partners are mindful of the importance of communicating with one another regularly outside of the daily and weekly team gatherings. Working in a busy and rapidly evolving environment, it's important staff are presented with new and innovative ways to interact and communicate with leaders. One of the avenues for doing this is through the company's annual company-wide initiative ‘Imagine Day'. This gives staff the chance to come together and share ideas through collaboration and training. This year saw a presenter from TrendWatching comment on the latest industry trends, encouraging staff to consider new approaches and areas of growth in their respective industries. Hall & Partners also hold frequent ‘London Pop-Up' meetings with the whole office to ensure all employees are kept up-to-date with Marketing, People, big wins, any key developments and news. They have also maintained their ‘Fifteen minutes of fame sessions', which are held monthly. These provide all employees with a platform to share and inspire their colleagues, showcasing examples of innovative and exciting work. Hall & Partners also encourage teams to enjoy a monthly ‘wellbeing day', an opportunity to leave their desks, escape the office and do something fun together. These include outings to theme parks, treasure hunts, sports days, cooking classes and even murder mystery days.

Greenfield's have invested £100,000 into ‘Tendring Reuse and Employment Enterprise', or ‘TREE', a charity providing volunteer and work placement opportunities for people in the local community. In July the company's Area Forum in Witham held a Summer Fete for both employees and residents, which raised over £400 for their charity of the year. The annual garden competition and Edible Estates encourages residents to spend more time outside and to get active while being involved in looking after their gardens. Later this month Greenfield's are hosting a coffee and cake morning to encourage members of the community to come and talk about possible work opportunities in local organisations. In aid of Essex Air Ambulance Greenfield's recently organised a Go Yellow Day, where employees were encouraged to wear something yellow and provide only yellow food! The company's Digital Inclusion Co-ordinator runs free sessions to upskill residents with digital tasks, including applying for Universal Credit and searching for employment. Residents can even study for a City and Guilds qualification and borrow a laptop or tablet for home use. Employees can also volunteer to be digi-pals and provide additional support to the coordinator by assisting those attending the sessions. Furthermore Greenfield's can offer learners the opportunity to sit the Entry Level 3 Award and Certificate for IT Users, with 20 residents having already gained this qualification. On top of this, their Positive Engagement Coordinator does outreach work with young people in the community, with the aim of reducing ASB and drug/alcohol abuse. So far 500 people aged 15 – 25 have been involved and using football as an engagement tool the Coordinator has ‘kicked about' on local parks and joined in with games. He's even encouraged them to provide garden maintenance services to vulnerable, elderly and disabled residents. Five people have even worked with our Trades team to develop DIY skills over two solid weeks of work experience.

Despite last year's budget requiring that the company make cost savings of £12.5million by 2020, the decision was made to maintain their Learning and Development budget and continue to invest in employee development. Employees are able to request development at any point during the year, which could be in the form of shadowing, coaching, courses, conferences, roadshows etc. All employees are also invited to apply for funding for a formal qualification once a year, with all applications this year being approved. Greenfield's also run monthly lunch and learn sessions, where either an employee or external guest will discuss a specialist area. Recent topics include CPR training, Dementia Friends, Healthy Eating and Speaking with Impact, as well as other work related topics. These sessions encourage development in a range of areas, as well as providing opportunity for cross-team interaction. One of the most interesting things offered last year was coaching skills workshops for non-managerial employees. Whereas previously this was only offered to managers, this time round various employees from different teams attended the four workshops offered, where they found it helpful to discuss issues with people from different teams that they did not usually work with. One participant even said ‘I can't believe how well coaching works. I've just had a conversation with one of our residents who I was making no progress with. I used coaching and it really worked.'

Every month Good Relations reward an employee with a ‘Passion Day'. This is an opportunity for an employee to take an additional day's holiday to pursue a particular passion or hobby – from singing in a choir to some extra training to run a marathon! Employees simply describe what they would do with a Passion Day, and then the company select a deserving candidate each and every month. As an agency that fully supports and encourages a good work-life balance, Good Relations find the Passion Day initiative very effective, in ensuring employees know that their hobbies and passions outside of the working environment are supported.

Every month Good Relations reward an employee with a ‘Passion Day'. This is an opportunity for an employee to take an additional day's holiday to pursue a particular passion or hobby – from singing in a choir to some extra training to run a marathon! Employees simply describe what they would do with a Passion Day, and then the company select a deserving candidate each and every month. As an agency that fully supports and encourages a good work-life balance, Good Relations find the Passion Day initiative very effective, in ensuring employees know that their hobbies and passions outside of the working environment are supported.

Ewan Hilton Chief Executive works above and beyond his role within the organisation to raise public awareness of mental health and the difficulties faced by people with mental health problems, both through Welsh Government platforms and with the media in Wales. By partnership working with other organisations in the sector, he leads in a way that allows Gofal to deliver that message even more strongly than they could on their own. Part of the organisation's Strategic Plan is to create a culture which is led by Experts by Experience, involving their service users in every aspect of their work. The core competencies are linked to the Organisational values and demand that Senior Managers work as role models of each competency for the rest of the organisation. Ewan Hilton Chief Executive does not have an office base, enabling him to work from any of the satellite offices. Ewan is extremely approachable and enjoys engaging with employees, plus he takes the opportunity when working in different sites to speak to and listen to employees on a day to day basis. He is also able to email "all users" in the organisation.

Gofal have committed to becoming a Thinking Environment. This is the start of a journey which will take them several years, but the organisation have started by training every Line Manager in the principles of the Thinking Environment, helping them lead team meetings in a way which actively encourages listening and full participation of all members. Gofal started the launch to all team members at their recent Staff Wellbeing Day, when everyone was able to participate in an organisation wide Thinking Environment workshop. All staff were also invited to a company wide staff wellbeing day, including wellbeing activities, a presentation of the organisational strategies and an introduction to the Thinking Environment.

Global Aerospace's current community initiatives include employee volunteering, foodbank donations, a work experience programme, support to local charities through charitable donations and business mentoring. The recently launched Business Mentoring Scheme provides support to students in a local school who do not have a role model in work or may have difficulty relating to the world of work. Global Aerospace's local borough, Tower Hamlets, is only a stone's throw away from the financial heart of London that houses the richest concentration of economic business in the world. TH is the UK's most deprived borough, with 39% of people living in poverty and 55% of pupils qualifying for free school meals. There are high levels of unemployment and crime, plus low educational attainment in children. A team of eight volunteers will mentor children over a school year, with the aim of nurturing talent and encouraging the young people. These activities benefit not just society but Global Aerospace too, as they provide an opportunity to learn and good practice to be shared and built on.

Earlier this year Global ran a series of lunchtime guided City walks, held on a monthly basis. Walks were led by qualified City of London Guides and incurred no cost for attendees. As well as providing an opportunity to explore the unusual and hidden features that the City of London has to offer, the walks provided healthy moderate exercise, an opportunity for members of the PMI scheme to earn additional points from increased daily activity and the chance to socialise with colleagues. The lunchtime beginner group, offered by the store emphasises on participation and not pace. Feedback was received from one employee that from being a non-runner, after 7 weeks' attendance, they successfully completed a 5km run in 30 minutes. The Company funds massage therapy appointments which are delivered in-house, twice a year and are available to all employees. The massage therapist uses a combination of massage and acupressure techniques to the back, neck, shoulders, arms, hands and scalp while the employee sits in a specially designed chair. Each massage lasts for 20 minutes and takes place during the working day. Benefits include easing tense and knotted muscles, improves mobility and flexibility, relieves anxiety and stress, induces relaxation and wellbeing and increases mental alertness and clarity. On a day-to day basis, they provide employees with the use of a large kitchen with break-out seating area to encourage individuals to take time away from their desks to eat lunch and integrate with their colleagues. For those requiring a more tranquil area, a First Aid room is available for private reflection.

As stated elsewhere, Frame live their values, believing this to be more genuine and real than merely stating them. Not all employees are aware of instances where they have been honest, at a cost to the business, but many are, and most managers could point to an instance of this. They talk about the ambition and progress at staff meetings, particularly the annual review. And individual departments have their own review meetings where the overall direction and the way Frame work, and relate to each other are discussed. The company routinely demonstrate the ‘employee first' mentality in the way they manage, encourage, develop, promote and reward the people. And where they are forced to choose between a client's and an employee's interests, Frame always choose their people. They have resigned clients on this basis and for this reason – the most notable being a six-figure income client. Working hard, and doing your best is in the DNA of the company. And this is top-down. Frame take their work extremely seriously without taking themselves too seriously. And they never criticise failure, only lack of proper application and effort.

In January this year, Frame's over fifty staff were spread over 2 separate neighbouring properties. They had grown quickly and were in danger of losing the collective spirit that was the source of their success. The company decided that they should move office, not because they were running out of space but because their working environment was beginning to compromise their culture. The search was on for new offices that would facilitate more open, collaborative ways of working, stimulate the senses, uplift everyone and signal the company ambition. In August, they moved into a 13,000 square foot office in the Creative Quarter of Glasgow on the river Clyde. They are sandwiched between the BBC and STV in the orbit of countless radio and TV production houses and other businesses in the creative industries. The £100k+ office refit was undertaken to deliver a physical environment that would improve team interaction and communication. They have provided a café area with full kitchen facilities and seating for around 30 staff. Numerous break-out areas have been designed to enable informal or impromptu meetings. They have a free bar and ping-pong area, a screening room with bleachers to seat up to 25 people, and numerous project areas with wall to wall magnetic whiteboards. They gave the staff a budget to stock a creative library with reference books, and the arrangement of desks has been designed to enable communication and collaboration – in particular, the creative department, where desks are arranged in one huge row seating 24.