Cranstoun's strategic vision and values are well known across the organisation and at every level. Their vision is simple and reflects the core reason that their employees work for Cranstoun, to beat alcohol and drug addiction. Their strategic vision is supported through action across four domains: Service User's, People and Performance and Growth. Each service / department formulates their annual business plan for the next financial year. Managers are responsible for holding business planning days, involving their whole team reviewing past performance and agreeing objectives for the year ahead. The business plans are linked to Cranstoun's strategic domains to ensure that all objectives support the business strategy and that every employee is aware of the contribution they are making to the performance and success of the organisation. Cranstoun's Staff Recognition Scheme rewards exceptional performance based on different categories, which mirror the strategic domains, again reinforcing the organisation's vision to all employees. The charity's values are core to everything they do, how they treat service users, staff and one another. The values are reflected in Cranstoun's policies and practices, as they recruit people with their values and measure individual and team performance against competencies aligned to their values.

All of Cranstoun's Managers have taken part in a management development programme. Following the programme, support is provided through management and supervision structures and also informally through peer-support. They have invested in an external coach to support their Senior Managers to hopefully affect positive change and support them to achieve to their potential. The coaching has been hugely beneficial and bought about noticeable changes, with follow up sessions being provided to enable Managers to revisit their goals and maintain momentum. The performance of Cranstoun's Managers is reviewed via monthly supervision meetings, which lead incrementally to an annual appraisal. Performance is assessed through a variety of Key Performance Indicators including service performance, where services are monitored monthly against agreed targets with commissioning bodies. Additionally residential and rehabilitation services are also assessed against occupancy levels and organisational KPI's, where Managers are assessed quarterly against a number of organisational KPI's including staff retention, staff attendance, volunteer numbers etc and audits, where internal Quality, Performance and Results teams carry out annual audits on a range of working practices broadly in line with the Care Quality Commission standards. Performance is 'traffic lighted' and shared at a senior level, with supportive action plans agreed amongst Managers.

At CIL employees work in small project teams, typically made up of 3-5 people, and encourage project managers to hold regular group catch ups every two days. During these catch ups, managers are encouraged to let each member of the team speak uninterrupted for two minutes. This allows different viewpoints from all members of the team to be aired without any risk or fear of being challenged. This was also partly driven by the idea that often the best ideas come from within the team, rather than just the manager! There is also real benefit to sharing hypotheses across different work streams so that everyone has a full appreciation of how the project is progressing overall and what the key commercial issues are. CIL also work with external contractors and make sure that they are fully involved in these processes.

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.

Every month Chorus reward their support engineers as a group and by naming an individual who stood out that month. The company have set targets to achieve for delivering customer service and depending how much they are exceeded affects how large the rewards are. By rewarding an individual Chorus find it brings a competitive element and by doing this monthly staff know they stand a really good chance of winning and beating their target. By also doing a team reward Chrous help build team-building and ensure staff are rewarded for their hard work. These rewards have included a go-karting day out, meal and drinks for the team, paintballing etc and the rewards are chosen by the team so they have something they would want to receive.

Every month Chorus reward their support engineers as a group and by naming an individual who stood out that month. The company have set targets to achieve for delivering customer service and depending how much they are exceeded affects how large the rewards are. By rewarding an individual Chorus find it brings a competitive element and by doing this monthly staff know they stand a really good chance of winning and beating their target. By also doing a team reward Chrous help build team-building and ensure staff are rewarded for their hard work. These rewards have included a go-karting day out, meal and drinks for the team, paintballing etc and the rewards are chosen by the team so they have something they would want to receive.

All of the Leadership Team are visible in branches and celebrate behaviour which is in line with the company values and ethos. Every half term the Managing Director sends out a communication to everyone across the brand which details financial performance and success stories of where the company culture has benefitted both Celsian people and their customers. The Management community created the values and the Consultant community created the supporting behaviours. These values are the foundation of the business and are owned by every single member of the Celsian community. Their MD is very visible within the brand, visiting each branch every half term. On national sales days he will select a branch across the network and sells to clients alongside Consultants and Managers. In addition, he will train and coach new employees whether that be on sales calls or accompanied visits to potential clients. Each half term he distributes his half term update to all which is written and based around the half term that's just been, not only financially but in terms of celebrating outstanding achievement and personal success, which upholds their values. At the end of each person's probation period individuals present to their Manager, Operations Director and the MD in order to celebrate success. He takes the winners of the employee of the term out for a champagne lunch. He gets to know people on a personal level as well as a professional level and vice versa, is open about himself personally with all employees. He sends personal hand written birthday and celebration cards to every single person within the branches. he holds forum days every term for each sector and each Consultants working on that sector.

Every single person across Celsian puts the child at the heart of every decision they make and this is within their DNA. As specialists in education recruitment, Celsian have been matching exceptional teachers and support staff with fantastic primary, secondary and SEN schools for more than 20 years. From Southampton to Gateshead, they have branches all over the UK with in-depth local knowledge and specialist insight. For teachers and support staff, they offer unique incentives like their Guaranteed Pay Scheme, Celsian School Heroes and Core Subject Bonus. And for schools, the industry-leading Children and Young People Guarantee offers a quality assurance that the people we place will improve outcomes for your pupils. Celsian are a member of APSCo which means we have been recognised as a recruitment agency you can trust, and have confidence in.

Being a dispersed workforce, it's critical that Canonical provide their employees with valuable opportunities to improve interactions and communications within their teams, as well as across the organisation. To achieve this, the company hold a number of Sprints. Sprints are opportunities for teams to fly to some exciting locations around the world to work in a co-located environment. Sprints are used as an opportunity to align company strategy, priorities and for teams to work on projects. The founder, CEO and EVP's are actively involved at these Sprints, providing employees with opportunities to interact at all levels. In addition, Canonical uses a number of online communication tools such as instant chat, group emails, video calls and virtual town halls to encourage the sharing of opinions and ideas and to ensure teams are getting the value of face to face communication. There is a culture of open communication and transparency at Canonical. Jane Silber the CEO and the Executive Team encourage this by providing regular company updates, town-halls and opportunities for every employee to actively engage in decisions and news. This is further demonstrated by skip level meetings to remain current and engaged with employees across the organisation.

Being a dispersed workforce, it's critical that Canonical provide their employees with valuable opportunities to improve interactions and communications within their teams, as well as across the organisation. To achieve this, the company hold a number of Sprints. Sprints are opportunities for teams to fly to some exciting locations around the world to work in a co-located environment. Sprints are used as an opportunity to align company strategy, priorities and for teams to work on projects. The founder, CEO and EVP's are actively involved at these Sprints, providing employees with opportunities to interact at all levels. In addition, Canonical uses a number of online communication tools such as instant chat, group emails, video calls and virtual town halls to encourage the sharing of opinions and ideas and to ensure teams are getting the value of face to face communication. There is a culture of open communication and transparency at Canonical. Jane Silber the CEO and the Executive Team encourage this by providing regular company updates, town-halls and opportunities for every employee to actively engage in decisions and news. This is further demonstrated by skip level meetings to remain current and engaged with employees across the organisation.

The company's mission statement and values are communicated in everything they do. They include these when recruiting for employees, and include this in their induction pack which is issued to employees when they first start with at BSD. As they implement these straight away when the employee starts with BSD - they find these are always embedded with the employees and are always communicated inside BSD and outside with their clients. They also have a staff intranet where this is collated and used to evidence this.

BSD enable all managers and potential managers to coach and job shadow employees higher than them. They also run this for lower staff who wish to progress in the business at all levels, they are mentored and coached by the higher levelled employees. They have also created an external management course which six employees have attended, enabling them to learn new ways to manage and what methods to approach and use. Once completed, this will be used in-house and the experience will be shadowed along to other managers and seniors, to help progress the lower end employees. They believe coaching and mentoring is the best method, particularly in the M&E industry where nothing professional changes much, all the methods stay the same and it is the way in which you learn from others which is the best. Therefore, coaching lower people will provide them with the best possible approach to learn, along with mentoring which will enable them to pick up as they go along. They have performance reviews every 6 months and measure the performance of all employees, not just managers. The performance reviews involve objectives and measures to ensure that the managers are keeping in line with policies and procedures and that they achieve the objectives and aims set for them every 6 months.

Each quarter, managers get the chance to nominate eight employees that they feel have exceeded expectations within a chosen value. The selected eight employees then get to decide between four reward day options ranging from a balloon ride and dinner in London to a golf lesson and spa afternoon. These employees will take the day out of the office to do this and will be paid as usual. All staff are set around six objectives that are reviewed throughout the year. Employees will be scored against their performance against these objectives. A bonus is provided to employees at the end of the financial year depending on their personal scores and company performance. Each month they welcome all employees to nominate a colleague that they feel has displayed one or more of their four values. Nominations are submitted via a Perspex post box (one located in each office). All nominations are collated and reviewed and four winners are chosen, each will receive a £50 voucher of their choosing and are congratulated in the monthly newsletter.

A key part of Block's strategy this year is to ensure that Block is a 'Great Place to Work'. Each Senior Manager has been designated objectives agreed with the CEO with an aim to improve employee engagement and satisfaction at Block. The group meet weekly to review progress. Once a member of staff has been employed for over five years, Block will set up a video conference and provide lunch for everyone in both offices, award that specific employee with £1000 and a personalised plaque will be displayed at the entrance of both offices. There will also be a special announcement in the monthly newsletter. Each quarter, they ask managers to nominate an employee or employees that they feel have demonstrated one or more of the company values. The company owners will select eight employees out of the nominations that will then go onto to win a reward day. Staff are provided with four reward day options and will have to agree on an option together. Each month, four members of staff will be awarded with a £50 gift card voucher of their choice following nominations from other employees. Everyone who joins Block will meet with both company owners for around thirty minutes within their first couple of weeks of joining Block for an informal introduction. This is a great chance for new starters to get to know the company owners and understand their role and responsibilities and the history of the company. Every month the CEO and CTO take turns to distribute a company newsletter. Both have an 'open door' policy and continually walk around the office to have conversations with staff at their work stations. Both leaders also use Socialcast (Block's internal social webpage) to post personal and business related updates.

To ensure regular team interaction and communication, AxiCom host a lively monthly company meeting at the local boutique cinema. They even provide a yummy breakfast to enjoy whilst the meeting takes place! The meeting is used to showcase the great work each team has been doing that month and to update all on the company's European offices to ensure the communications that are cascaded are not just regarding the UK. AxiCom often invite guest speakers to the monthly company meetings to ignite debate, curiosity and ideas amongst staff. The CEO and UK MD use this monthly slot to ensure the company's vision and long-term strategy is continuously articulated and understood. AxiCom's Global Cohn & Wolfe Group CEO also attends around once a year to cascade the Group vision and strategy. As a company AxiCom promote lots of interaction in the meeting for people to ask questions and seek any clarity that is needed. After the meeting staff have a chance to socialise and discuss what they have learned.

This year Axicom launched their ‘Leadership Development Programme', which aims to recognise and develop the pivotal role their Leaders play across the organisation. The annual programme covers topics ranging from developing a leadership mind-set and being a good agency role model to improving personal and team effectiveness, to name but a few. External coaching sessions are also offered to the Leadership Team and the internal HR team are constantly on hand to provide support, guidance and assistance to them. AxiCom is a meritocratic environment and is consistently rewarding all of their employees, not just Managers, for their great work and achievements. Performance across the business is measured through Personal Development Plans. Whether an employee or Manager, staff are appraised formally once a year and are continually set challenging objectives in consultation with their own Line Managers through ongoing quarterly review meetings. From a management point of view, AxiCom measure performance through setting challenging KPIs against AxiCom's overall business objectives. These are set by the UK MD and CEO, who personally sit with the Senior Managers to discuss and plan their career progression and performance against the business strategy. The UK MD runs a weekly leadership meeting where Senior Leaders within each practice get together to discuss how they are tracking against our targets, recruitment needs and ensuring people who are in the pipeline for promotions are on track and have the support they need in order to achieve this.

During 2015 Atkins introduced the Group CEO bonus scheme, which is designed to recognise exceptional effort and contribution by an individual to the business. In any given year there are a handful of really stand-out contributions that individuals make to the business that go above and beyond what is required of them. Whilst most such contributions are picked up by the bonus schemes the company have in place, there are sometimes individuals who do something so special that further recognition is appropriate. For example, they may develop an innovative solution to a client's problem which has brought external recognition or they may have produced a world class piece of thought leadership. The scheme is largely honorific in nature, with a personal letter from the CEO to reinforce the importance of the employees abilities and contributions to Atkins' continued success. The individual also receives a cash bonus to a maximum individual value of £3k and in 2016 there were 37 CEO bonuses awarded.

Atkins are creating a more open, agile and connected business through intelligence forums. These increase agility, empower their people and enhance teamwork across the business. One example of where this has been successful is in the Atkins Transportation division, where their forum enabled the entire Leadership Team to clearly understand the immediate goals of the business. This resulted in productivity going from 74% to 78%, beating forecast and adding to the bottom line. There are now forums like this in 2/3 divisions and HR, with plans to introduce them at UK level and in the third division over the coming months. This Summer and Autumn, everyone in the business will have a face to face conversation about where Atkins is taking the business, helping them to see the personal role and contribution they can make to the company's success.

Managers work the closest to their teams, so they need to be able to have supportive conversations and look out for signs of stress or a general change in their behaviour; therefore Managers regularly have effective one to one's with their colleagues. The company also provide an Employee Assistance Programme for counselling, as well as all round physical and mental health care through health assessments. This covers areas such as weight, blood pressure, nutrition and diabetes. At these appointments employees also discuss exercise plans either for the gym or at home and ARM also signpost them to their Physiotherapist if required. The company also provide resilience training to help people cope during stressful times. ARM are also currently working on a wellbeing intranet page, where all global information will be held here, for example EAP, charities, daily desk exercises, mindfulness and a place where people can leave an anonymous questions if they don't want to talk about their stress to their Line Manager or the People team.

Managers work the closest to their teams, so they need to be able to have supportive conversations and look out for signs of stress or a general change in their behaviour; therefore Managers regularly have effective one to one's with their colleagues. The company also provide an Employee Assistance Programme for counselling, as well as all round physical and mental health care through health assessments. This covers areas such as weight, blood pressure, nutrition and diabetes. At these appointments employees also discuss exercise plans either for the gym or at home and ARM also signpost them to their Physiotherapist if required. The company also provide resilience training to help people cope during stressful times. ARM are also currently working on a wellbeing intranet page, where all global information will be held here, for example EAP, charities, daily desk exercises, mindfulness and a place where people can leave an anonymous questions if they don't want to talk about their stress to their Line Manager or the People team.