Small Agency (2-29 UK employees)

Mid-Size Agency (30 to 99 employees)

Large Agency (100+ employees)

In-house Team

Training & Development Award

• How do you decide what kind of training you provide to individual members of staff? Eg: during line manager appraisals, using third party training providers 

• Describe your approach to staff training 

• How do you measure the success of the training programmes?

• How much money and/or time do you allocate to staff training and development?

• How are staff promotions managed?

• How do you identify and fill skills gaps?

Rewards & Benefits Award

• Describe your approach to staff pay

• Please describe your approach to staff bonuses. Eg: how the bonus is calculated, what percentage of profit is spent on bonuses 

• Are staff able to acquire equity in the business? If so, please detail your approach 

• What is your pay bracket for entry-level staff? Eg: £23k to £26k

• How do you assess if staff are being fairly remunerated for their work? Eg: benchmarking against industry averages 

• Please describe your approach to holidays/annual leave

• Please describe your approach to staff sabbaticals, if applicable, and detail how many employees have taken sabbaticals in the past three years 

• Describe your staff pension offer

• Please list other main staff benefits that you offer. Eg: health insurance, gym membership, cycle to work schemes

Organisational Health and Ethics

•  Do you record and measure sickness absence for your agency/team, and if so how?

• What is the average number of days that each member of staff takes as sickness each year? 

• What steps are you taking to reduce staff absences? 

• What percentage of job offers that you made over the last 12 months were accepted? (Please express as a percentage)

• What percentage of your staff/team left in the past 12 months?

• What is the average length of service at your agency/in your team? 

• How do you help newcomers settle into the business/your team? 

• Do you allow staff to refuse to work on accounts/campaigns if there is a clash of personal beliefs? Describe your approach 

• Describe your organisation's approach to corporate social responsibility

Diversity & Inclusion Award

• How do you encourage diversity in your recruitment, in terms of gender, ethnicity, educational background, disability and LGBTQ+
• What impact have your policies had on the makeup of the workforce? Eg: proportion of non-white and female staff and board members

Best Internship Scheme Award

• Describe your organisation's approach to internships, if applicable
• What impact has the internship scheme had on your organisation and on interns, if applicable? Eg: how many interns go on to become full-time staff members
• Describe your organisation's approach to apprenticeships, if applicable
• What impact has the apprenticeship scheme had on your organisation and on interns (if applicable)? Eg: how many interns go on to become full-time staff members

**NEW** Employee support during COVID-19

Please outline ways in which your organisation has adapted its workplace policies during the era of the coronavirus pandemic, with a particular focus on changes made in 2021. This includes, but is not necessarily limited to:

• Changes to the office (if relevant), especially with the 'return to office'
• Having effective systems and processes in place when teams are combining working from home with working from the office (if relevant)
• Mental health support
• Employee/employer communications channels and approaches

Please note: it's likely that you would have mentioned some of these steps earlier in the application form. It's not a problem to repeat them here.

**NEW** Sustainability

• Does your organisation operate a cycle-to-work scheme to encourage more environmentally-friendly commutes?
• Does your organisation offer other incentives for staff to travel using more environmentally-friendly means for business reasons? (If so, please give details)
• Does your organisation offer incentives for staff to travel using more environmentally-friendly means for non-business reasons? (If so, please give details)
• Does your organisation track and report its carbon footprint?
• Has your organisation set science-based targets for reducing its emissions? (If so, please give details)
• Does your organisation work with an external consultant or another third party to be more environmentally sustainable? (If so, please give details)
• Has your organisation taken steps to ensure its supply chain is more environmentally sustainable? (If so, please give details)
• Does your organisation buy second-hand computers or other equipment/furniture to be more environmentally sustainable?
• Does your organisation use a scheme or schemes to offset its carbon emissions? If you do, please indicate whether the schemes match the Gold Standard under the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals.
• Does your organisation have a policy of not working with specific clients or industries on the grounds of their detrimental impact on the environment? (If so, please give details)
• Has your organisation undertaken any other notable steps to be more sustainable (please give details)? For example: increase recycling capabilities, use low-emission lightbulbs etc.

Culture, wellbeing and mental health support

• How do you ensure your staff don't work excessive hours?
• How do you compensate or reward staff who work excessive hours?
• Detail any specific policies or schemes you have to support the mental health of employees
• How you measure the success of these schemes?
• How would you support a member of staff whose mental health appears to be suffering?
• How you ensure line managers are able to support the mental health of their team? 

Flexible working and parental policies

• Describe your organisation's approach to flexible working
• Describe your organisation's parental leave policy or policies, including maternity and paternity pay
• Do you offer benefits for parents and/or those caring for elderly relatives, and if so, what form do these take? Eg: childcare vouchers, home working, nursery/crèche arrangements 
• Do you have a 'returnship' programme for parents returning from parental leave? If so, please detail 
• How do you balance the needs of working parents with those of non-parents?
• Please provide data, if applicable, to support the success of your flexible working and/or parental leave policies, eg: proportion of staff who return after parental leave