The company have created a unique culture capable of supporting diverse talent. They call their collaborative way of working blending, and it's central to everything they do – allowing them to take ideas from strategy and concept to launch and evaluation as quickly and effectively as possible. Whether in a single room or across their 40 offices worldwide, blending lets them cast the right people for the challenge. Their approach embraces the creative tension between left brain and right brain. They believe that when they combine data and storytelling – when mathematicians and poets join forces – they get more powerful results. They have designed their offices to enable this collaborative way of working, with open-plan seating (no offices for senior management), flexible spaces, hot-desking and lots of informal areas for meetings.

REWARD AND RECOGNITION SCHEME: The company run an innovative and highly popular recognition and reward scheme, which is open to all colleagues. Individuals can be nominated for doing game-changing work or going over and above their day job. Colleagues are invited to nominate people who have delivered against an element of their skills profile, which covers four core areas: delivery and innovation, craft, people and client and commercial skills. They have a monthly budget of £10,000 for the scheme and they award more than 50 people each month in the following categories: Diamond (£1000 reward), ¬Platinum (£500), Gold (£250), Silver (£100) and Bronze (£50). This is an ‘always on' scheme, which enables them to reward people all year round outside of the normal performance pay process timetable. All the winners are announced and celebrated on their internal comms platform The Insider and at their quarterly company meetings. UNICORN AWARD: Twice annually, the company give a Unicorn Award to one person in the company for doing truly exceptional work. This ties into their reward and recognition scheme, but the way they award it is very different. The company either offers a large cash award or something a little more special and unique to that person. For example they gave one person a week off work and paid for them to do a creative writing course. This prize was reflective of their passion for writing, and was something they would never have been able to do given the busy job they have. They also enabled one team member to fulfil a lifelong dream by going to America on a road trip.

Throughout the year delatre hold a number of company-wide and team specific relationship building events to maintain a high employee morale, strengthen the intra-company relationships and say thanks for all the hard work their dedicated staff put forth. deltatre financially supports a 5-a-side football team that plays weekly throughout the year. Moreover, they sponsor an industry-wide philanthropic football tournament as well as theme days like Football Shirt Friday in order to raise money for charity and give back to the community. On a team level, they support departmental team building sessions like the Go-Kart outing their video team recently organised to relieve tensions during the lead up to the launch of an important project. However, the highpoints of their team building activities are unquestionably their two company wide workshops. In the summer, delatre take to the outdoors and stage a light-hearted physical activity that is fun and inclusive. Earlier this year they recreated the retro hit TV show “It's a Knock-Out” complete with absurd games and large costumes. In the winter, they stage a glitzy Christmas party for all full and part-time employees and freelancers as well as their partners. Last year's Christmas festivities took on a masquerade theme and had masked guests enjoy a three course meal and trying their luck at the casino games.

Throughout the year delatre hold a number of company-wide and team specific relationship building events to maintain a high employee morale, strengthen the intra-company relationships and say thanks for all the hard work their dedicated staff put forth. deltatre financially supports a 5-a-side football team that plays weekly throughout the year. Moreover, they sponsor an industry-wide philanthropic football tournament as well as theme days like Football Shirt Friday in order to raise money for charity and give back to the community. On a team level, they support departmental team building sessions like the Go-Kart outing their video team recently organised to relieve tensions during the lead up to the launch of an important project. However, the highpoints of their team building activities are unquestionably their two company wide workshops. In the summer, delatre take to the outdoors and stage a light-hearted physical activity that is fun and inclusive. Earlier this year they recreated the retro hit TV show “It's a Knock-Out” complete with absurd games and large costumes. In the winter, they stage a glitzy Christmas party for all full and part-time employees and freelancers as well as their partners. Last year's Christmas festivities took on a masquerade theme and had masked guests enjoy a three course meal and trying their luck at the casino games.

Companion Care have this year launched their very own Learning Academy which provides both clinical and professional development to their colleagues delivered by both internal and external experts. They also offer a Graduate Development Programme which supports new graduates through a 2 year mentoring programme which is closely aligned to their professional bodies' development requirements. This is a structured programme designed to ease the transition from graduate to seasoned vet by providing invaluable training, support and mentoring.

Companion Care always try to ensure that all of their colleagues utilise all of their holiday entitlement along with taking time back for additional work they may do. They also actively promote regular rest breaks and none of their colleagues are contracted to work over 40 hours per week. They continue to monitor hours worked to ensure that they can spot any pressure points before they become an issue. Companion Care also offer Cycle2Work along with a number of other health related schemes.

Phil encourages every employee to treat the business as if they were the owner and to do the right thing based on the company's values rather than follow a detailed rule book of do's and don'ts.

Phil encourages every employee to treat the business as if they were the owner and to do the right thing based on the company's values rather than follow a detailed rule book of do's and don'ts.

Team building exercises are incorporated into broadbandchoices 'Away Days' to allow staff from different teams to interact with each other outside of the office environment. It is their goal for the entire business to view itself as one 'central team' so these exercises are intended to break down barriers that may currently exist between staff members who do not regularly interact with each other. They also launched a training programme recently for line managers to develop their management skills by hosting an afternoon of challenges that pitted senior management staff against teams of line managers. It was a successful strategy and encouraged line managers on the training programme to behave like one cohesive unit from the beginning.

This year broadbandchoices launched their Emerging Managers Programme (EMP). This was a management development course run over 4 months for 10 managers and covered a broad range of subjects which would help them in their day to day work and also develop them. It consisted of workshops and also individual coaching sessions. It also was a fantastic opportunity for people who don't always work together to have time to discuss common issues.

Brandwidth appreciate that Engagement surveys can drive change that leads to business improvement. They will use the results of this survey to make informed changes within the organisation. It will enable them to regroup, refine and reenergise the company because when employees see that their suggestions are acted upon, their engagement increases.Increased engagement leads to better performance and decreased turnover. Organisations that keep engagement data can combine it with other data to create predictive analytics that can lead to sophisticated workforce planning and pre-emptive interventions

All Brandwidth's social events bring the entire company together to communicate, share experiences and have fun. They are hugely successful and help to bridge the gap caused by their company having multiple locations. The emphasis is on fun and strengthening relationships which in turn helps energise the business as a whole.

With the introduction of Beyond Zero, all employees have the confidence that what they say matters. This is one of the unique aspects of working for BAM Nuttall. To actively encourage feedback from staff, they went out to everyone with the Beyond Zero workshops and encouraged people to come forward at a personal level. Any personal discussions, positive or negative, were undertaken confidentially so their personnel could speak freely. There are many ways in which they gather feedback from their staff from the dedicated Beyond Zero email address to just talking to people. The most effective is the Safety and Environment observation cards. All sites, offices and depots are provided with cards. Everyone is encouraged to record observations, anonymously if they wish, to report issues and near misses or simply to share good practice. They can be health and safety issues, environmental issues or any other event worthy of being brought to other people's attention. People can record details of any action they have taken in situations, to share their ideas and to prompt discussion or action at management level. All our staff are regularly reminded of the importance of giving feedback. At the end of 2012, BAM Nuttall held a successful awards ceremony, available to everyone across the country via their intranet, celebrating what was best about Beyond Zero. It was a simple way of demonstrating how Beyond Zero can make a difference on site, in the office and most importantly, for the well-being of each of their employees.

Apprenticeships at BAM Nuttall are recognised and celebrated as one of their key entry routes and continue to provide the Business with talented, skilled and committed employees who contribute to the continued success of the Company. BAM Nuttall's programmes are designed to support people through the early stages of their career and give them all the same opportunity to become professionally qualified and climb the career ladder. Through the success of their award winning Engineering Apprenticeship they expanded the programme in 2009 to offer an apprenticeship for commercial staff. This was the first of its kind in the industry and has received accreditation from Chartered Institute of Civil Engineering Surveyors. In 2013 BAM Nuttall have expanded this programme further to offer a route for aspiring young Planning Engineers. In 2012 they significantly increased the number of Craft Apprentices in the Business and they continue to develop the support model to effectively retain these apprentices. BAM Nuttall currently have over 145 apprentices enrolled on technical, trade and business support apprenticeships. However, BAM Nuttall strive to know and support all apprentices working on their sites regardless of who they are employed by. Apprenticeships are embedded throughout the organisation and supported by several key roles –Apprentice Advisors who support and guide apprentices throughout their programmes, a network of highly skilled staff who fulfill the roles of mentors and line managers as well as a growing alumni of past apprentices who are always willing to offer a helping hand.

The Aquarius annual conference took place in December 2013, providing an opportunity for all staff to come together, share their experiences and participate in workshops, individual / team awards activities which included laughter yoga, a quiz. In March 2013 we sent six of our staff on a learning trip to Rome where they visited a substance misuse service. They learnt about the services on offer, recieved training, visited local communities and took in the sites of the city.

Aquarius offer a comprehesive range of developmental training throughout the year to support staff in their roles. They have recently invited employees to participate in an NVQ training programme and their first cohort have now commenced work on their qualification through Birmingham Metropolitan College. Aquarius have secured external funding to support this opportunity and staff are able to utilise work time for completion of the required elements.