GPS's Learning and Development Programme offers one to one coaching and mentorship for all managers. Breakfast Brainstorms and Lunch and Learns are available to all and bimonthly virtual presentations keep everyone in the loop. Through its emerging leaders programme participants receive the Star Manager level 4 certificate.

A signatory of the Women in Finance Charter, GPS is dedicated to promoting female talent in the sector. Men are also supported and last November staff raised money for mental health charities by taking part in Movember. Virtual breakfasts and blog posts also helped spread awareness of men's health issues.

It was paramount for the company to maintain a regular training rhythm during the pandemic and digital learning made sessions more flexible. The company ran an onboarding session with the education team to allow new starters to understand better the history, culture and products.

For 16 years ghd has supported Breast Cancer Charities globally and has helped raise $20 million through annual limited-edition collections and awareness campaigns. It no longer uses silica gel within its supply chain, replacing it with a non-toxic, chemical free and is fully biodegradable.

Development opportunities include the Leading the Way and Momentum management programmes and apprenticeships to develop new talent. Recent training has included how to effectively manage and support remote teams, a mental fitness training workshop, safety training and courses in competition law and anti-bribery.

During the pandemic Fulcrum prioritised and provided enhanced services to those helping combat Covid-19. This included speeding up utility connections for new homes for NHS workers, helping a hand sanitiser manufacturer scale up production quickly and helping a new NHS laundry open faster.

Chief executive, Rich Keith and chief operating officer, Catherine Cheetham, have weekly or bi-weekly 1-2-1s with all managers offering coaching and mentoring and making sure they are listened to and supported. They also operate an “open door” culture with no need for people to wait for meetings.

Last year Fourth Floor Creative conducted a pay review and gave a pay increase to employees who had been with the company for longer than a year and passed their probation and it is planning to hold a company summer party whenever it can get the whole team together.

Staff get three working days a year to spend on learning and development and last year this was expanded to include volunteering. Farewill also runs remote Friday 5s where people sign up to talk for five minutes about something they have learned that week.

Farewill has sent staff care packages with goodies including desk plants and exotic teas to make working from home a little more fun. A number of non-work social channels have also been introduced on topics from photography and video-games to food and meditation along with film and book clubs.

The organisation showed its work family it cared during the pandemic with paid days off to recognise the contribution they had made, thank you days focussed on fun and wellbeing plus treat bags accompanied by a note of appreciation from Chief Executive, Marcia Sinfield.

FHA has always invested significantly in training and development even in challenging periods and last year it introduced a Leading Change Programme, open to all while 30 staff took up the opportunity to increase their skills and qualifications through apprenticeship programmes.

After carrying out a project on collaboration within the business, in which every employee had their say, it launched multiple communication channels. It found some people preferred to listen at work and others to discuss, some to read and others to watch, and adapted its approach accordingly.

The company calculates that by being exclusively paperless, it avoids using 2 million pieces of paper a year on traditional billing and envelopes. It also helps the environment by providing smart meters and giving advice to customers on saving water and preventing blockages.

The Women at EngageTech group was launched to reflect the growing number of females in the business. As well as a chat channel for regular socials and catch-up calls the group meets once a month to discuss relevant issues and more women are consequently now involved in late stage interviews.

During the pandemic EngageTech staff were given time off to support the NHS volunteer scheme, delivering medicines and acting as a social point of contact for people shielding. For Mental Health Month employees picked a daily fitness challenge and secured sponsorship, raising more than £5,000 for various mental health charities.

Training has been ongoing throughout the pandemic and has included virtual continuing professional development sessions, seminars, Lessons Learnt and best practice workshops. EDGE has focussed on sharing short lessons delivered by different disciplines, sectors and individual team members and all employees have been actively encouraged to identify topics for training.

In addition to fundraising, staff are involved in a range of community and volunteering activities. During the pandemic, one member of staff volunteered for night shifts as part of the team constructing The NHS Nightingale Hospital in Birmingham and another served as a sergeant in The Special Constabulary.

Chief executive, Patrick Peal, started a social media #walkwithPatrick encouraging staff to post photos of themselves out in the fresh air getting exercise. Many internal briefing notes were written in the first person, with managers explaining how they were feeling and how the pandemic was impacting them personally.

EAAA organised daily activities ensuring everyone had at least one opportunity a day to socialise with colleagues and workmates. These included a film club, a weekly quiz, an art club and Desert Island Discs where a different person was in the hot seat every week being interviewed.