Mott MacDonald utilises two primary groups to listen to the views of employees. To promote professional excellence, a Young Professional Excellence (YPE) network exists across all of the company's business units. This network creates a learning culture among the company's younger staff. YPE promotes two way communications and ensures that the views of their young professionals are fed back to senior management. As the YPE networks are representative of Mott MacDonald's business units, the Groups can be targeted depending on the nature of the query on which the company is seeking views. The other channel which MacDonald uses is staff councils. These allow effective two-way communication between the company and staff at all levels. In doing so, they provide a forum in which company policy can be explained to staff. They are held on a quarterly basis and minutes are posted on the company's intranet to ensure all staff have access to on going discussions.

The senior management team at Mott MacDonald has produced a video called Moving Forward, aimed at giving their staff an insight into the opportunities and challenges the company is currently facing and where they expect to be going as a company for the next five years. The video started with a reminder of how the company fared in the past 12 months and looked at the new reality impacting the business and the challenges it brings. To make it as easy as possible for everyone to see the video, the company hosted the production on their internal e-learning site as well as making it available on DVD for staff outside the office. To ensure maximum awareness was generated for the production, an email was sent out from the Group's chairman well as notices appearing on the intranet encouraging all staff to view it. Feedback from staff showed this approach was welcomed and included positive comments about how sincerely and well the senior management came across.

Morningstar have partnered with the City of London and a charity based in the city fringes to provide teenagers in deprived areas with an opportunity to visit a City office, go through a workshop with employees on City careers, practice interviewing, learn more about career paths in a financial company and take part in work experiences and internships potentially leading to a permanent role.

Morningstar have partnered with the City of London and a charity based in the city fringes to provide teenagers in deprived areas with an opportunity to visit a City office, go through a workshop with employees on City careers, practice interviewing, learn more about career paths in a financial company and take part in work experiences and internships potentially leading to a permanent role.

Manx Telecom run an idea scheme called 'innov8' whereby staff can submit ideas for improvement. These are evaluated by a committee of managers and staff who can make financial awards based on the quality of the idea. They hold annual staff update sessions with the senior team and their managers hold monthly team briefs. Manx Telecom encourage staff to play an active part with their managers to identify specific issues and actions to address areas for improvement. After last year's survey, employees were invited to take part in a competition to submit 88 reasons that make Manx Telecom a great place to work. All the entries were rolled together to come up with the definitive list.

As part of Manx Telecom's monthly analysis of customer complaints they identified a need to improve the quality of customer interactions when dealing with difficult situations. As a result of this, managers were asked to undertake a staff training needs analysis which is being used to design and deliver training modules to address the specific skills required. They have recently entered the Isle of Man Newspapers award for excellence in the category 'People Management & Development'.

The hotel has invested in the back of house colleague areas and attempted to enhance the work environment. They have opened their third restaurant in as many years called the Canteen as well as brand new Locker Rooms and Offices for the Administrative Departments.

There are bi-monthly NETMA (Nobody Ever Tells Me Anything) meetings chaired by the General Manager, attended by 'nominated' Representatives from each Department. These Representatives are elected by their colleagues and serve a six month term.

At their September sales meeting Lundbeck held a chocolate making competition, an Apprentice style challenge. The whole sales organisation was split into groups and given an afternoon to create, package and market a new chocolate brand. These were then pitched to the Senior Management Group and a winner was chosen. It was a lot of fun and a break from formal work exercises.

At their September sales meeting Lundbeck held a chocolate making competition, an Apprentice style challenge. The whole sales organisation was split into groups and given an afternoon to create, package and market a new chocolate brand. These were then pitched to the Senior Management Group and a winner was chosen. It was a lot of fun and a break from formal work exercises.

Live & Breathe foster a culture of collaboration where each member of the team is valued equally. Ideas, can and do, come from anywhere and rewards are shared. As such, good people progress quickly. Being small gives Live and Breathe a clear advantage in being able to listen and feedback to the wider team. The senior team have weekly one-to-one sessions with their team members and on top of that the flat hierarchy means everyone can talk to a Director pretty much whenever they want. Additionally they employ the Clear Partnership for coaching and mentoring which has proved valuable in many ways not least the fact they are completely impartial and staff feel able to talk openly to them.

Live & Breathe helped organise and participated in an ‘It's a Knockout' event for one of their nominated charities ‘Caravan'. As well as giving the event coordinator time during her working day to arrange the event, a team consisting of Live & Breathers and their clients was assembled and given the afternoon off work to compete. Not only did everyone enjoy the event but it had two key benefits - it raised £20,000 for a very good cause related to the sector in which Live & Breathe operate and it provided the opportunity to work together with their clients in a constructive, out of business environment, getting to know and understand them and themselves better and work better as a team.

In the most recent away day to launch the agency's new proposition, staff were put into groups and asked to present back on a live brief incorporating the new values of the business. Feedback at the end of this day was excellent with staff reporting that they had an opportunity to work with senior staff and other teams and share ideas and thoughts on the new proposition. Coupled with this, they got to use the new values alongside real work scenarios allowing them to easily see how to implement them once back in the office. Lexis conduct an annual employee survey and have six monthly peer group meetings of which the results are analysed and fed back to the Board along with key recommendations. These are then fed back to employees at the next quarterly review. Every Friday Lexis finish at 4pm and gather for an all agency meeting. In this meeting, agency messages are reinforced and staff are updated on any business developments. This meeting is also an opportunity for staff to recognise team mates or peers for doing great work that week, by nominating them in the 'Big Ups' category.

By recognising the importance of creating business leaders for tomorrow within their organisation Lexis have implemented a leadership development programme. This is aimed at Account Managers and above and is a module based training programme combining internal and external training where staff receive training on running their own PR business, financial management, leadership training, media relations and day to day management training. 60% of senior management are 'home grown', testament to their continued commitment to promote from within and develop their staff to their ultimate potential.

The leaders of the organisation are passionate about ensuring that every aspect of the business is run professionally to the highest standards possible. They also work tirelessly in their quest to build a company that is recognised globally as the best in its category. The leaders of the organisation act as role models within the business, making themselves accessible to all employees. Information about the company is regularly shared with employees, through agency update presentations, newsletters and the social enterprise network, Yammer. They always act fairly and genuinely care aboout people in the business.

As the world's most creatively awarded healthcare advertising agency, Langland have won many awards in the UK and overseas. To recognise the contribution played by all team members across the entire agency, not just creatives. Langland have sponsored their attendance at the award ceremonies. This year they have given a number of people the opportunity to go to award ceremonies in New York and to spend a few days there at leisure, at the company's expense.

In January 2011 Kelly Services hosted their annual Kelly Kick Off. It's such an important time in their business where their nationwide network of offices and the company's different divisions come together to celebrate their successes, whilst learning and engaging with colleagues, many who have never met. The focus of the event is always to ensure their employees feel important and engaged. The afternoon provides time to spend together, whilst learning about different areas of the business, hearing from the company's Leadership Team and being reminded of their strategy and goals. The evening focuses on celebration where they recognise a number of their employees for outstanding achievements and those going above and beyond to achieve their goals. Truly the most important social event in the organisation, Kelly Kick Off is the company's way of rewarding, recognising and celebrating their employees.

During the monthly meetings with their consultants, Kelly Services' managers review their team's performance individually by considering a number of factors. They use this information to assess the demands upon their team members and evaluate any development or training needs. Managers also use this time to highlight any successes of the month and ensure recognition for any particular achievements is given. As well as the weekly meeting, managers every day conduct a 'daily call-over' meeting with their teams. The purpose of these brief meetings is to discuss the achievements of the previous day and to review their focuses for the day ahead. Managers conduct a Development Discussion with individuals at the beginning of each year where they ask the employee for input on what they feel their business and professional development goals should be. These goals are reviewed at a mid-year meeting and then again in a meeting the following year where new objectives and goals would also be set.

Jumeirah Hotels have implemented Shining Stars - an instant reward scheme where managers give an on the spot thank you card and in cases of excellent work - a cheque to be redeemed from the 'treasure chest'. Prizes include a night stay in the hotel, high street shopping vouchers, a massage plus many more rewards.