The company launched their innovative blogging platform dunnhumby uncensored last year. There is a webpart blog section on the intranet homepage that allows employees to post their own blogs for global readership. It is 100% user generated and 100% uncensored to encourage them to write about anything personal or professional. The aim is to connect employees, boost communication between teams and help dunnhumby get to know their people better to share learnings and experiences easily. They appointed blog champions and rewarded them with a blogging toolkit, which was sent in the post as a surprise and delight. This included a book on blogging tips, a moleskin notepad, pens, sweets and branded goods. They also ran training for these champions, joined by the CEO to endorse the channel further. They were asked to populate the first content and now act as advocates for blogging in their offices. They set topics occasionally to stimulate blogs such as 'tell us about your proudest dunnhumby moment', but they get a range of topics from people's pets to their biggest success at work. The company also started “pic of the day”. They set up an instagram account and asked employees to upload pictures using #dunnhumbypic to showcase what goes on in their day to day lives. This connects employees visually and gives an insight to other offices and cultures.

The company launched their innovative blogging platform dunnhumby uncensored last year. There is a webpart blog section on the intranet homepage that allows employees to post their own blogs for global readership. It is 100% user generated and 100% uncensored to encourage them to write about anything personal or professional. The aim is to connect employees, boost communication between teams and help dunnhumby get to know their people better to share learnings and experiences easily. They appointed blog champions and rewarded them with a blogging toolkit, which was sent in the post as a surprise and delight. This included a book on blogging tips, a moleskin notepad, pens, sweets and branded goods. They also ran training for these champions, joined by the CEO to endorse the channel further. They were asked to populate the first content and now act as advocates for blogging in their offices. They set topics occasionally to stimulate blogs such as 'tell us about your proudest dunnhumby moment', but they get a range of topics from people's pets to their biggest success at work. The company also started “pic of the day”. They set up an instagram account and asked employees to upload pictures using #dunnhumbypic to showcase what goes on in their day to day lives. This connects employees visually and gives an insight to other offices and cultures.

The CEO of Dr. Martens recently shared the brand framework to the global workforce using a Vodcast. To reinforce this message, each employee has been given a vinyl record created specifically to explain the company's Ambition, Why They Exist, What They Believe In and Who They Are. Rather than a formal mission statement and values, Dr. Martens have this framework which defines what they stand for, how they behave and where they are going. It's their brand, on the record.

Wellbeing is a high priority for Dr. Martens Culture Team, so they have introduced a series of lunch and learns that focus on “mindfulness”. To assist those who need a little more energy they have also launched a Couch to 5k running club, subsidised yoga and HIT training. The company also invite specialists to site to provide massage therapy to those employees who want it. They even provide a little extra motivation on a Monday with smoothies and free fruit and veg in all stores and offices. In addition, Dr. Martens have an EAP that all employees can access, which includes an online library of wellbeing knowledge and an independent telephone helpline with face-to-face counselling if required.

At DMH 10 minute massages are offered during lunchtimes twice a month at the Gatwick office. Weekly Yoga classes are held at the London office and Pilates classes are scheduled at the Guildford office. Three times a year there are subsidised team social events, where teams are able to choose the type of event and dates to suit. The company also offer free access to the Employee Assistance Programme. The EAP provides 24-hour personal assistance over the telephone where employees can talk to a qualified adviser. The service also includes counselling services and information services covering topics such as managing money, relationships, moving house and family life.

Each year DMH organises an AGM (Annual General Meeting) event that every member of staff is invited to. Unless staff are out of the business on a non-working day or annual leave then all employees are required to attend the afternoon part of the event. The AGM has many different elements to it. There is a Charity Committee raffle in aid of the staff charity on arrival at the event and there are some great prizes to win. The day starts with a presentation from the Managing Partner, which reflects on the firm's performance over the last 12 months, provides an overview of what the future of the firm may look like and details of the overall strategy. Following the presentation there is a fun team based activity which is organised by a different business group each year. This activity can range from a treasure hunt, quiz, fancy dress competition, ‘Mr & Mrs' game show and anything in between! Following the afternoon activities there is a dinner and dance. Each member of staff is able to invite a guest of their choice to attend with them should they wish. A live band is organised as entertainment and this year the Managing Partner joined the band on stage to play his guitar! Anyone who lives more than five miles away from the event venue is able to claim up to £40 towards the cost of travelling to and from the evening event or overnight accommodation.

As a collection of over 30 unique businesses D&D's general Managers are empowered to develop, with the support of HR, unique ways to recognise and reward the performance of their teams. This means that there isn't one fixed approach, but a series of flexible incentives and rewards. From a group perspective one reward they do offer, which they believe is a unique way of rewarding the performance of key talent, is to give Head Chefs the opportunity to become a chef-patron. London is currently the epicentre of the culinary world but the industry is suffering chef shortage (there is a war for talent raging in the kitchen). The reputation of the chef and the restaurant are intrinsically linked, which means that it is crucial to retain talented and successful chefs. As a chef-patron they receive a small percentage of the company, so in effect the name of the chef becomes synonymous with the restaurant. Most chefs dream of one day owning their own business and D&D feel that offering this type of reward provides a long term goal that facilitates engagements, aids retention and incentives culinary performance in a challenging and highly competitive market. Each chef is set their own performance target, which will be based in part on achieving financial targets but also heavily waited on performance from food scores on Trip Advisor and Open Table through to achieving industry recognition via Michelin Stars or AA rosettes.

Employee development has always been central to D&D's success. They recognise that great training is fundamental to delivering quality and exceptional service. It's also vital in equipping the company to overcome the industry wide skills shortages at a senior level. As well as a company induction, role specific skills and standards training and the statuary e-learning programme, internal staff are able to development their career against a simply competency framework that facilitates growth toward management roles (either front of house or in the kitchen). Career development is supported by a quarterly appraisal process called 'Talking Talent' and a series of unique industry leading development programmes that link to the competency framework. 'Step Forward' is the internal programme aimed at helping entry level employees get a taste of what it takes to be a great supervisor. 'Rise' is the management training programme that helps supervisors develop towards management roles (this year 30 employees have successfully completed these programmes with double that signed up to start in November). 'Accelerate Leader's' programme takes top managerial talent and develops them as Leaders. They also run Love Wine, a collection of training (including WSET levels 1 -3) aimed at developing an employee's ability to engage with customers about wine and utilise suppliers to deliver a range of product based sessions. As a way of attracting the best new talent D&D run a chef apprentice. More recently the company held a communication skills workshop developed around the Paralympic sport of Goal Ball.

Each year Carlson's locations are asked to choose a charity they would like to support throughout the year. They organise their own fun-raising activities around various themes and also collect money around the office. Such activities have been themed around ' The Great British Bake Off', where people baked cakes and brought them in. Slices were sold off and the money all went to the chosen charity. Branches have also run a fancy dress competition and Carlson really give the branches free reign with this to do as they wish.

Last year Carlson introduced Fish and Chip suppers, whereby their SVP and a member of the Leadership Team went to each location in the UK and Ireland network and had an evening of fish and chips and an open discussion forum. Staff members were very open about their likes and dislikes and were encouraged to be honest. The company also have a weekly update and two monthly updates that are sent to the network. The weekly one highlights what has been happening in the network, updates on staff and training and also roles that are available around the network as a whole. For the monthly updates, one is from the SVP and is called 'Catch up with Chris', providing a general business update. The other comes from the Marketing Director and is called 'Assets of the Month'. This informs staff what's new in the marketing world and also what CWT is doing in relation to marketing campaigns. Carlson used to use Yammer but have now changed this to Jive effective 1st January. Jive is a platform whereby staff can share ideas, suggestions, help colleagues and collaborate across a much wider network. People are encouraged to set up groups for different project and topics and use it as the go-to place for peer-to-peer support.

CS Healthcare employ a reward and recognition framework for their employees. This assesses what reward should be given to an employee or team based on their contribution to the Society. It also looks at an employee's behaviour based on the company's five key behaviours and performance. The criteria looks at whether an employee or team has performed over and above the required level for their job, if they have demonstrated all the key behaviours positively and if their behaviour is consistently good in their contacts across the Society. Employees will be eligible for rewards on different levels. This process will ask Line Managers and the Senior Management Team to nominate an individual or team with final sign off from the Chief Executive, who will then decide what level of reward will be given.

CS Healthcare brought in a Chiropractor to assess all employees that wanted a free consultation. As the company are an organisation where employees are sat at their desks most of the time they wanted to ensure they had an opportunity to get checked and sort any painful issues they may have had. This was very well received and gave the Society the opportunity to show they care about the wellbeing of their employees. CS are also introducing Resilience Training for employees to give them the tools to cope resiliently with stress. They have increased the lunch break period to promoted breaks to ensure employees can get away from their desks and feel refreshed. This is important for employees wellbeing as well as enhancing productivity. They are even introducing Mentoring and coaching at work, with the aim of providing additional support for staff to ensure they receive all the help they need.

Leaders and managers are easily accessible at CPPG and are always ready to listen. Team leaders are encouraged to discuss proposed new initiatives with their teams and feedback their comments. Working parties led by members of the management team are used with representatives from each department or location so that all views can be gathered. Regular meetings are held so that everyone in the company is kept up to date with such discussions. CPPG operate an open door policy to encourage discussion amongst team members and their team leaders and managers.

Leaders and managers are easily accessible at CPPG and are always ready to listen. Team leaders are encouraged to discuss proposed new initiatives with their teams and feedback their comments. Working parties led by members of the management team are used with representatives from each department or location so that all views can be gathered. Regular meetings are held so that everyone in the company is kept up to date with such discussions. CPPG operate an open door policy to encourage discussion amongst team members and their team leaders and managers.

During CityWest Homes management development programme action plans are created, redefined and developed. Action learning sets are then created and all Managers are taught to coach so that they can aid one another in their learning sets. They help to support one another with their action plans, both personal and professional and they also expand their cross-company knowledge and networks. In addition they provide eLearning wherever possible to support their training and use their intranet to store useful documents and resources for Managers who have been on training courses. All Managers are required to have one to one's with their Managers at least weekly or bi-weekly to measure their performance. At this meeting they receive feedback on management capabilities, culture and values. Additionally at the end of each financial year Managers are assessed formally against their objectives. They also have a 360 review completed by their peers and reports to determine how far they display the cultures and values.

CityWest have a number of initiatives that bring their people together so that they all get to know people outside of their teams. In 2014 CityWest Homes launched a new networking group called ‘creating balance'. This group aims to build a vibrant and supportive network to expand the opportunities for women at CityWest Homes. Meeting at their Head Office, all of their people have the chance to share experiences and learn from a range of guest speakers. The most recent speaker was the Arsenal Ladies footballer Danielle Carter. Danielle gave a fantastic insight on what it is like being a female footballer, the drive and determination needed to make it and she also gave some useful hints and tips on how to achieve your dreams. The CityWest Homes book club meets every six weeks to discuss a book over food and a glass of wine or a soft drink. The CityWest Homes Social Club runs subsidised events every month, which range from salsa classes and cocktail making to a Halloween walk through central London.

Every employee is included in CIL's generous company bonus scheme. A bonus is paid three times per year, in September, March, and a smaller Christmas bonus in December. The amount received is a function of company performance, the individual's grade and the individual's own performance. People are told about their bonuses personally by one of the Partners, and everyone receives a personalised letter summing up the key projects and achievements from the last six months. Through the bonus scheme, employees receive an uplift on their salary ranging from 20% of base (at Analyst level) to 100% (senior managers).

CIL have a comprehensive internal training programme that aims to support people on their career journey from Analyst through to Partner. Everyone starts with a thorough two-week induction fortnight, which focuses on the core skills that one will need as a consultant and how they apply them on CIL projects. The fortnight finishes with a mini-team project to simulate the kind of work people would do on a typical project. After induction fortnight they have c.40 training modules that support people with their journey to Consultant. During this time there is also a lot of emphasis placed on self-teaching and using the people around you to help coach. CIL encourage new joiners to be curious and ask questions of those around them. For Consultants and above they have a series of lunch sessions with guest speakers from friends amongst their client base. These sessions are intended to introduce Consultants to themes outside of the core day job but also to help them get a good feel for what CIL clients really look for in their work. To help people progress to Partner, CIL have an excellent sales training programme that focuses both on presentation techniques but also sales habits and processes. These are delivered by specialist external training companies.