TO MARK A quarter century of providing dental care plans, staff at Denplan wore fancy dress for a 1980s-themed day and tucked into birthday cake last year. During the company's national conference in September, employees were treated to a bagpipe troupe, a speech by former Downing Street spin doctor Alastair Campbell and even a trip behind enemy lines to Cadbury World. Marking 25 years, Steve Gates, Denplan's managing director since 2001, said: "I firmly believe that a business is only as good as its people and Denplan could not ask for a more passionate, dedicated and professional team." The workforce of 348 people agrees. Staff say people in their teams go out of their way to help them, with a top 15 positive score of 81%. More than half of the workforce is aged 34 or younger and there is a strong family feel (77%). Set up in 1986 by two dentists, Denplan now has 6,500 dentist members across Britain caring for about 1.8m patients. Sales and helpline teams work from home with a head office in Winchester. Four out of eight senior directors were internal appointments, and everyone's development plan is reviewed twice a year. Managers do not do a lot of telling without listening (75%) and staff say they get plenty of support from bosses (78%). Questions regarding Denplan's dedication to Giving Something Back yield its highest factor ranking of 10th (72%) and staff give it a top score of 85% when asked if it does enough to protect the environment. They say the business genuinely cares about the environment (87%, a score beaten by just one other company.) It also makes it easy to be green (84%, ranked fourth). www.denplan.co.uk
