Aquila offer the flexibility to work from home and travel to other offices to work more closely with colleagues. Each year all employees get together in one of Aquila's locations. They also have international food days where different nationalities teach employees about their nationalities and bring in a selection of different food and drinks. They also have free fruit available in each office at all times. The office bike to work scheme is highly subscribed and well used and employees often arrange out of work biking events together, which shows how effective this scheme is. Aquila have a quiet room where employees can go and work in a quiet area so they can focus without interruption, as they understand that not everyone likes working in an open plan environment. They have multiple breakout areas with couches so teams' individuals can get together and meet. They also encourage off site meetings, for example popping to a cafe for a meeting and a change of scenery. Finally every office uses Sonos provided to listen to music, which employees find creates an effective stress free atmosphere.

Aquila offer the flexibility to work from home and travel to other offices to work more closely with colleagues. Each year all employees get together in one of Aquila's locations. They also have international food days where different nationalities teach employees about their nationalities and bring in a selection of different food and drinks. They also have free fruit available in each office at all times. The office bike to work scheme is highly subscribed and well used and employees often arrange out of work biking events together, which shows how effective this scheme is. Aquila have a quiet room where employees can go and work in a quiet area so they can focus without interruption, as they understand that not everyone likes working in an open plan environment. They have multiple breakout areas with couches so teams' individuals can get together and meet. They also encourage off site meetings, for example popping to a cafe for a meeting and a change of scenery. Finally every office uses Sonos provided to listen to music, which employees find creates an effective stress free atmosphere.

Anchor's Leadership Development Programme is well embedded. The organisation also offers tailored leadership solutions consisting of bespoke training. Based on training needs analysis this includes a review of the people profiler, performance management data and conversations with Senior Leadership Team members and business partners. Performance management is based on formal reviews twice a year which are supported with monthly updates. Anchor have also developed simple and fit for purpose tools and processes for Care, Housing and Support Services. Talent review is currently focused in the Leadership Team and Support Service roles including district, home and care Managers. Calibration activity in functional teams has been led by HR to help increase consistency in performance rating application and to identify potential stars and/or successors for the future.

Anchor's Leadership Development Programme is well embedded. The organisation also offers tailored leadership solutions consisting of bespoke training. Based on training needs analysis this includes a review of the people profiler, performance management data and conversations with Senior Leadership Team members and business partners. Performance management is based on formal reviews twice a year which are supported with monthly updates. Anchor have also developed simple and fit for purpose tools and processes for Care, Housing and Support Services. Talent review is currently focused in the Leadership Team and Support Service roles including district, home and care Managers. Calibration activity in functional teams has been led by HR to help increase consistency in performance rating application and to identify potential stars and/or successors for the future.

All employees are financially linked to their department's Return on Sales. This provides a pool of cash for each individual that can then be increased based on other factors, such as Customer Service and Health and Safety. These elements are broken down into smaller measurements, which are then reported to the employees so they can see areas for improvement as a group or individually. There is also comparative information between depots and departments. The scheme actively encourages development of individuals and teams, as well as interdepartmental discussions on developing improvement strategies. Acting safely and responsibly is an integral element of the AFI philosophy and the company will continually seek to improve and revise their processes in order to deliver a safe working environment. They want the families of their employees to know that their family member is safe at work and will arrive home that evening. As a result of this AFI have been accredited with the ROSPA Gold Award for commitment to the health and safety of team members and customers.

All employees are financially linked to their department's Return on Sales. This provides a pool of cash for each individual that can then be increased based on other factors, such as Customer Service and Health and Safety. These elements are broken down into smaller measurements, which are then reported to the employees so they can see areas for improvement as a group or individually. There is also comparative information between depots and departments. The scheme actively encourages development of individuals and teams, as well as interdepartmental discussions on developing improvement strategies. Acting safely and responsibly is an integral element of the AFI philosophy and the company will continually seek to improve and revise their processes in order to deliver a safe working environment. They want the families of their employees to know that their family member is safe at work and will arrive home that evening. As a result of this AFI have been accredited with the ROSPA Gold Award for commitment to the health and safety of team members and customers.

The staff at Weber Shandwick held an off-site panel discussion with all staff, which involved Senior Management attending the event to do a live Q & A and showcase their favorite campaigns. This allowed the Senior Management team to transfer their knowledge and speak to all employees across all the different practices as to why they believed the campaign of their choice was their favorite. With Digital being one of our transformational pillars within the organisation, the company launched the Digital University which all employees are encouraged to attend, allowing employees to stay up to date with current and up and coming digital trends and skills that they can apply to their roles.

Weber Shandwick have provided a comprehensive learning and development program via a blended learning approach comprising classroom instruction, webinars and online delivery, self-directed learning, on-the-job training and external development support. As an integral part of their Employee Value Proposition, they are providing a variety of training in more flexible ways to meet the unique needs of employees, with 24/7 availability. This year Weber Shandwick launched the Digital University – where Digital experts host training, with curriculums to teach employees at all levels community management skills, content development, social crisis management etc. In addition, weekly updates keep employees up to date with trends and developments in the Digital arena, whilst weekly picks from the company's e-learning platform advises their people on pertinent up-to-the minute training ideas. In addition, the company host fortnightly talks. Weber Shandwick also launched podcasts with inspirational speakers from well-known digital leading companies. In addition, there are workshops on pitching, creativity, digital, strategy, analytics and communications, along with the company's rolling ‘key skills' training covering subjects such as line management, negotiation and writing skills, project management and a suite of finance/commercial skills courses, open to all employees.

The company are proud to say that over 60% of Senior Management team have been with them for 5 years or more! This is a true testament to belief in retaining and developing their own talent. Manager development begins with an introduction to the company; within their first year they are invited to join one of the bi-annual events with One Thought, this builds on the culture of making sure people are happy and helping them maintain a great state of mind. If they create an environment in which our team feel content and free of stress, everything else slots into place; that's when the magic happens! They hold quarterly succession planning meetings with the General Managers to ensure continuous identification where they need to develop Managers. They offer a library of training courses both internally and externally. In the last year, they have run Master classes to help build the skills and confidence ofmanagers, these have included a Fourth Master Class, Show me the Tools, A day in the Life (2 days training programme).

The company are approached on a regular basis for overnight stays/dinners for charity raffles & prizes. In the past year, they have supported Hospitality Action, Action Against Hunger, Amar International, NSPCC, CRY, Great Ormond Street, UNICEF and The Royal Hospital for Neuro Disability to name but a few. They currently work with Street Smart at Grain Store and Sleep Smart at the hotels; they add £1 to every bill, which in turns goes to the charity. A MacMillan Cancer Day was held at one of the local hairdressers, they happily provided the cocktails and team to serve them! They work with Global Generation at Grain Store and purchase all the edible plants & herbs through them, this is in line with their sustainability policy.

Communication is top of the agenda at Thomas, and they have invested a lot of time and effort in ensuring it is of the highest quality. The monthly forums from the CEO and a guest speaker ensure that every employee is fully aware of what is going on across the business, and offers the opportunity for them to respond to the message. The company encourages cross-functional working as regularly as possible at Thomas. Projects usually involve employees from a variety of departments, ensuring that they are working as one team towards a collective goal, and creating an environment of collaboration. Groups such as the product lifecycle group, a committee focusing on the development of new products, bring representatives from across the business together to encourage innovation and dynamism. The company also hold monthly social events, which recently have included an evening at Windsor race course, paintballing, bowling, and a quiz night. These socials are chosen by employees, and help the company to further foster the team environment.

At Thomas, they practice what they preach, they are in the business of developing people, and this is also our number one focus with employees. The people development programme, My Thomas Development, uses assessments to support the development of their employees, and ensures that managers are consistently holding 1-1 meetings and reviews. The company offer secondments with other departments or international partners, fund external training, and runt their own internal training courses, which are created in response to development needs. A whopping 25 of the 118 employees have been promoted this year alone, which is testament to the quality of the development programme.

The company promote a virtual shares programme called ‘Brickies' to reward employees. Employees can invest part/all of their annual performance-related bonus into Brickies, and the company guarantee that this amount will grow in line with the agency's revenues during that period. It's a tax-efficient way for employees to feel that their savings are growing in line with the company's growth. In keeping with the agency values of 'Above & Beyond' the company also hold monthly Above & Beyond awards, where employees nominate colleagues who they believe have embodied the Above & Beyond spirit. The person with the most votes gets £50 in cash to spend on whatever they choose.

Team interaction and communication is very much an intrinsic part of day-to-day company life. The company have always recognised the importance of getting everyone together so have built a forum for this around Friday lunchtime. Every week free food and drink is provided for everyone in the reception area. As well as sharing lunch together they use this opportunity to update employees on news: To celebrate new business wins; to recognise those that have gone ‘Above&Beyond'; to share work. But most importantly to keep everyone updated. The company believe the best teams are built when there's total transparency. Communication is key to this whether to celebrate success or to ‘dig deep' and move on from a more challenging experience. In addition, training sessions will typically bring people from across the agency together. The company host fortnightly 'Well Red' sessions for the whole agency where industry professionals come in to share their areas of knowledge & expertise. Other training sessions vary from all company day sessions to smaller bits of training typically attended by between 3 and 10 employees. Less formally there are two company parties each year: The Summer Party and Christmas Party. The second would typically be expected, but the first is the company's opportunity to give something back.

The organisation work with a company called Lifetime Training, to offer their employees NVQ equivalent training in management and catering roles. This is available to anyone without prior higher education qualifications, and who has lived in the European Union for the last three years. There are strong opportunities for employees to grow and develop with The Good Eating Company. When recruiting they look for general assistants with the potential to become supervisors, supervisors with the potential to become managers and managers with the potential to become operations managers. Many of their most successful employees started work with them at a junior level. Their Head of Operations, and the three Operations Managers all started working for the company as general café assistants.

The Company actively tries to work on promoting the idea of the company as a family. They look to build a strong sense of belonging to their family within their employees. This is evidenced by a wide number and variety of social events and parties they arrange for employees, and they take significant groups of employees to prestigious restaurants and bars. Small early gifts at the outset of employment also enhance this. For example, they often treat a manager to dinner, or buy them a bottle of champagne once they have completed an early milestone like the successful management of a client event.

The BIO Agency have regular offsite company meetings which involve breakout groups, feedback sessions and presenting back great and inspiring work to the company. They recently launched BIO DIVERSITY – an initiative to increase internal sharing and collaboration through lunchtime sessions putting a spotlight on different areas of the business. All of their employees have been trained in the last six months in Agile and Scrum methodologies, which ensures everyone at The BIO Agency is aligned and working in the most collaborative way.

The BIO Agency has an office dog called Philip. Research has shown that having a dog in the workplace reduces stress and this is certainly the case at The BIO Agency. Philip is a well-loved member of the team and provides an opportunity to de-stress during times of pressure. They offer some really nice perks, like a gourmet breakfast delivery once a week for the whole agency and personalised Hummingbird Bakery cakes on birthdays. After work the breakout space turns into a cocktail bar with one of the employees mixing a menu of freshly made cocktails. This boosts interaction and is a positive and rewarding way to end the working week.

To ensure that the company's principles, mission and their ambitions remain core to how The App Business operate rather than an abstract ideas, the company maintain regular and open communication of them. It is both the values and vision which shape their annual mission statement, formulated and revised by the Co-Founders with input from our Senior Management. This mission is presented to the team by the Co-Founders. It then cascades down to each Community Practise e.g. iOS to establish tangible goals and initiatives for how their department will deliver again the mission for the coming year. Team members will refer to this mission at the start of each initiative to give a perspective and focus for their work and ensure it remains front of mind. The company principles are communicated extensively in our working day and life at TAB from a new starter's first day induction sessions to their welcome meeting with the Founders focusing solely around our principles, which ensures their recognition from the outset. Self-organising project teams use them to set goals for each sprint cycle to drive direction and efficiency as well as retrospectives which aid future problem solving. Findings from these retrospectives are offered shared in their Friday ‘Wrap Up' meetings so everyone can benefit and remain true to the Agile environment. The Principles are also used as a basis of who they hire as well as how they assess individual's progress and development areas.

Last year the company engaged an external consultant to work with the Senior Management team, alongside the rest of the company, to participate in various workshops. This allowed the company to take a step back and re-evaluate the previous values of the company, reworking them into 7 new TAB Principles which can be applied to daily life at TAB. Since then, the Senior Management team has embedded these core TAB Principles into the following processes; -Interview assessment to ensure all potential hires can demonstrate their adherence to company values; -On-boarding sessions focused solely on TAB Principles from one of the Founders within the first 3 months at the business; -To help articulate feedback at the end of probation periods, and use this as a guidance for highlighting improvement needs; -Guidance for ways of working in the daily work of Senior Management team members; -During retrospective sessions with clients to ensure the team builds on delivery and continuous improvements; -In the weekly Senior Management meetings to steer decision-making and problem solving; -End of year annual reviews where salary reviews are based upon fulfilling these principles.