They regularly support local charities that have a meaning or link to employees. They also support local educational establishments in work placements/work experience. This included taking eight students for a four week period where they gave them a specific project to work on supported by employee mentors and gave the students real life work experience to support university applications.

Building Adhesives offer an occupational health facility on site which is open to all employees. They are able to self-refer to discuss any issues with their health advisor, who are independent of the organisation and information is confidential. They provide counselling for individuals if they are having a difficult time, not just work related but if they have any issues in their personal life that they need support with. Building Adhesives also offer mini medicals for all employees.

As part of Brocade's global WellFit strategy all employees in Europe, including the UK, are invited to participate in all global contests and challenges by leveraging on line tools and resources. Wellness programmes provide unique fitness alternatives for employees and are designed to improve their overall health and wellbeing globally while decreasing benefits costs. Most recently this has included an Executive Fitness Challenge. In this challenge Brocade's CEO Michael Klayko and his direct reports challenged all Brocade employees to partner in teams of 12 to complete at least 30 minutes of exercise for two weeks. Over 500 people participated in 44 teams across all geographic locations. In the end the executives came in 28th place. Their CEO said it was a humbling experience for him and it was a fun event for all employees who participated. They also held TheHealthy Living Family Fun Challenge. In its first challenge designed for families, Brocade's WellFit team launched the Healthy Living Family Fun Challenge. Participants tracked the number of fitness minutes they completed with a family member. Another event was Specific for EMEA and was called The Step on it Challenge, Walking is simple and an easy way to get fit you can do it any time, anywhere, on your own or with your family. In this challenge, designed to meet the needs of Brocade's employee population in Europe, participants were given a free pedometer from WellFit so they could track steps and complete against colleagues.

As part of Brocade's global WellFit strategy all employees in Europe, including the UK, are invited to participate in all global contests and challenges by leveraging on line tools and resources. Wellness programmes provide unique fitness alternatives for employees and are designed to improve their overall health and wellbeing globally while decreasing benefits costs. Most recently this has included an Executive Fitness Challenge. In this challenge Brocade's CEO Michael Klayko and his direct reports challenged all Brocade employees to partner in teams of 12 to complete at least 30 minutes of exercise for two weeks. Over 500 people participated in 44 teams across all geographic locations. In the end the executives came in 28th place. Their CEO said it was a humbling experience for him and it was a fun event for all employees who participated. They also held TheHealthy Living Family Fun Challenge. In its first challenge designed for families, Brocade's WellFit team launched the Healthy Living Family Fun Challenge. Participants tracked the number of fitness minutes they completed with a family member. Another event was Specific for EMEA and was called The Step on it Challenge, Walking is simple and an easy way to get fit you can do it any time, anywhere, on your own or with your family. In this challenge, designed to meet the needs of Brocade's employee population in Europe, participants were given a free pedometer from WellFit so they could track steps and complete against colleagues.

The leader of the organisation is a person of high integrity, committed, passionate and a leader who has never lost sight of the Company's vision to be the premium provider in their sector. He has a most engaging management style, is open to ideas and listens to everyone. He is clear and reasonable, in setting objectives and supportive in their efforts to achieve these goals. In terms of interacting with employees, he is genuinely warm in his approach, has an astonishing capacity to remember names and a scary capability to remember previous conversations. At social events he is never happier than mixing with staff at all levels and always the first man to put his hand in his pocket. In summary he is a man that is recognisable as Casterbridge's leader and a leader who everyone is happy to follow.

Casterbridge's training department (The Casterbridge Academy) amongst other activities operates internally and runs apprenticeship schemes for Level 2 and Level 3 qualifications in Childcare and Young People's Workforce. The overall aim of Casterbridge Academy is to recruit, train, educate and progress the future leaders of the business. Taking on approximately 120 new learners each year, they are based in Casterbridge's nursery settings which provides them with the right balance of gaining excellent on the job experience with formal training courses and programme assignments and tasks. The apprenticeship programmes and the team of dedicated trainers and assessors work with the learners in order to develop their skills and knowledge to the level of becoming a premium childcare practitioner allowing them to offer only the highest standards of care to all their children and parents. Upon graduating from the Level 3 programme the learners are considered by the industry to be ‘qualified' and are allowed to work independently and even progress on to be Supervisors and Nursery Managers although Casterbridge provide them with a lot more training before then. As far as they are aware, they are the only company in the industry to offer internally run apprenticeship programmes.

Company social events are a regular feature. Addiction Worldwide hold Friday drinks every week, when they all get together at the end of the day to chat over a few beers. Their monthly staff meeting always adjourns to a local pub, and turns into a social event. Recently they decorated the building with cobwebs and pumpkins for Halloween, most people dressed up and the day ended in a party. They also have a well-supported softball team. They are hardworking, highly motivated individuals who genuinely enjoy each other's company. People will often hear of staff members who go on holiday together and spend time together out of office hours. Fun and playfulness are key to a culture that is creative and encourages innovation and socialising is a lovely by-product of this. Social events are not limited to the 'junior' or 'younger' members of staff. The long standing, more senior members of staff are not afraid to get stuck in either.

Addiction Worldwide is fast paced and often has intense periods of working, so they have to be communicating, observing and listening to what is happening throughout the organisation. They work on the basis of 'Ask forgiveness not permission'. Feedback is an integral part of their culture, which is something they bring in from the interview stage. They are an entrepreneurial, creative company which employs people who want and indeed need to share ideas on a daily basis. To that end there is no suggestion box or other 'one fits all' way of capturing all of this. Instead they make sure that every single member of staff knows that they will be listened to and answered. It is integrated into their DNA .

They have a passionate belief in supporting their colleagues and have faced numerous challenges since the merger of the two heritage businesses, each with their own training methods and practices. To further develop their customer service training, they knew they needed to radically change the way they developed the capability of their practice colleagues adopting not just a ‘Best of Both' but a ‘Better than Both' approach to the challenge. Historically D&A had operated a compulsory NVQ programme for all of its practice colleagues whilst Boots had adopted a less structured but customer-led approach. To best support their colleagues the decision was taken to retain the formal NVQ approach. They also decided to make the programmes increasingly flexible and fit for purpose in a fast moving sector. So last year they made the Level 2 NVQ apprenticeship programme compulsory for all new joins - 400 new apprentices each year with capacity to flex up to over 600, and to ensure a consistent training experience for all learners whether full time or part time, government funded or non funded. In the last year, with the mission to ensure successful take up of the NVQ programme, they have opened five new satellite or regional training centres across the country. These have been carefully sited to ensure that all colleagues are within reasonable travelling distance of a centre, and that their Optical Consultant population do not have to stay overnight. This is particularly important given the number of part-time colleagues and colleagues with families, for whom residential training is extremely difficult. The company have invested large amounts in facilities, equipment and staff for these centres and they have all been created with colleagues' personal needs in mind. They want to ensure all of their colleagues have the knowledge they need to succeed in their role and the opportunity to develop themselves personally while at work, and the apprenticeship programme is just one example of that.

They have a passionate belief in supporting their colleagues and have faced numerous challenges since the merger of the two heritage businesses, each with their own training methods and practices. To further develop their customer service training, they knew they needed to radically change the way they developed the capability of their practice colleagues adopting not just a ‘Best of Both' but a ‘Better than Both' approach to the challenge. Historically D&A had operated a compulsory NVQ programme for all of its practice colleagues whilst Boots had adopted a less structured but customer-led approach. To best support their colleagues the decision was taken to retain the formal NVQ approach. They also decided to make the programmes increasingly flexible and fit for purpose in a fast moving sector. So last year they made the Level 2 NVQ apprenticeship programme compulsory for all new joins - 400 new apprentices each year with capacity to flex up to over 600, and to ensure a consistent training experience for all learners whether full time or part time, government funded or non funded. In the last year, with the mission to ensure successful take up of the NVQ programme, they have opened five new satellite or regional training centres across the country. These have been carefully sited to ensure that all colleagues are within reasonable travelling distance of a centre, and that their Optical Consultant population do not have to stay overnight. This is particularly important given the number of part-time colleagues and colleagues with families, for whom residential training is extremely difficult. The company have invested large amounts in facilities, equipment and staff for these centres and they have all been created with colleagues' personal needs in mind. They want to ensure all of their colleagues have the knowledge they need to succeed in their role and the opportunity to develop themselves personally while at work, and the apprenticeship programme is just one example of that.

Blue Rubicon place a huge emphasis on the sharing of knowledge and thirst for knowledge within their culture – facilitating and encouraging this at the most senior level of the company. This is reflected in knowledge sharing forums that have been part of their DNA for over a decade: Their Thursday lunchtime ‘brown bags' are open to the whole company to come and learn from inspiring internal and external speakers over lunch. The company constantly look for ways to extend this principle to provide new and exciting opportunities for employees – and this was behind the launch last year of Blue Rubicon's ‘Exchange'. This has been established with three different types of agencies within the marketing sphere including advertising and experiential, to provide opportunities for their people to exchange ideas and knowledge. In a formal way this involves shared training on a wide range of topics. On an informal level, the Exchange provides a network of peer to peer contacts to act as sounding boards, test ideas out on, invite to brainstorms and simply create new inspiration and shared knowledge. The Exchange also provides opportunities for mentoring with very experienced senior people from across the marketing mix to explore personal development from a broad perspective

The company recognised the need to re-visit some of the fundamentals of their 5 year business plan: the market had changed significantly, they had been through a tough year financially and needed to re-ignite some of the passion employees felt about working for Blue Rubicon. They consulted and engaged everyone in this process – and ultimately re-shaped a bolder and ambitious growth plan for the next 5 years. This was presented by the senior management to the whole agency where we were clear about: Where the company was headed and why, Identifying the opportunities for individuals to have personal progression. As a result this inspired debate across the agency – at the Q&A session and during the following days. Specific feedback was sent directly to their CEO and included: “Thank you for today's presentation – I found it really inspiring. It's really exciting to be part of an agency with such bold ambitions!”

As well as having an employee assistance programme in place, employees are able to have massages during their working day. The firm also offer access to a doctor and occupational health specialists. A full workstation assessment programme is also in place.

As well as having an employee assistance programme in place, employees are able to have massages during their working day. The firm also offer access to a doctor and occupational health specialists. A full workstation assessment programme is also in place.

All employees from Senior Account Manager level and above attend the BCL Academy Line Manager Training.

All employees from Senior Account Manager level and above attend the BCL Academy Line Manager Training.

In 2010, Barlows entered and won the Sheffield Chamber of Commerce Business Awards Invest in Skills category. To celebrate their sucess all employees were invited to attend an awards ceremony.

To initiate employee engagement, new employees will be given a structured induction over two weeks from arrival at Barlows. Their personal development process provides a two-way framework that balances a structured approach with flexibility and informality. It is also intended to integrate a process of employee and company improvement into the everyday running of the business by improving hard and soft skills, addressing behaviour and liking roles to the company mission. The company also share their knowledge and skills in the workplace through coaching and mentoring, workplace secondments and collaborative planning. All have an immediate impact on business results.

An open and caring attitude of the company to staff health, welfare, safety and care. Avidity IP do the basic things very well (as an office based business), such as the office environment, facilities and ergonomics (seating, IT equipment, ergonomics). Also their policy of keeping capacity always reduces stress on employees. Some of the smaller things which are done every day include: Methodical office and kitchen cleaning, decontamination of door handles and work surfaces, thorough kitchen cleaning. Additionally the company provide annual Eye checks and care, and Flu Jabs.

Bonus based on profit performance of the firm.