Great place to work

We worked hard in 2007 and 2008 to make sure that CCGB is a great place to work. Each member of the executive team has responsibility for a specific element of our culture and working environment. They report on their area of responsibility at monthly executive team meetings.

Each month, CCGB's president has a working session with our Great Place To Work (GPTW) Team, which is made up of employee representatives from each of our departments. The aim of the group is to develop our GPTW programme and positively influence our work culture.

Key areas covered in the programme include:

• Employee engagement
• Employee wellbeing
• Opportunities to make a difference in the community
• CCGB as an employer of choice for existing and potential employees

The GPTW programme has brought benefits to many areas of work. These include:

• Work-life balance initiatives - summer hours and flexible working
• Cross functional team events - team days, social events and team breakfasts
• More effective communications - monthly team briefing sessions and daily communications from the press
• Wellbeing - our Cycle to Work scheme, the on-site gym and a subsidised restaurant
• Environment - initiatives included the Thames river clean up, the green allowance (an incentive for employees to use public transport) and personal carbon footprinting
• Community - initiatives included our fundraising involvement with Special Olympics GB and the mentoring of local school children.

Case study - Thames river clean up

In 2008, CCGB started a partnership with Thames 21 - a local charity that directly improved the environment and the community in which we work. Thames 21 was a good match for the objectives of CCGB's Green Team, which encourages employees to live more sustainably - both in and out of the workplace.

Litter-picking sessions with the Thames 21 crew are organised on the river at Hammersmith, which is close to CCGB's offices. At each of the sessions, up to 50 employees volunteer to clean up by collecting litter from the riverbed at low tide.

In 2009, we entered the Great Place To Work Institute UK's rankings for Great Britain for the first time at No.26. We also debuted at No.34 in the Top Green Companies to work for.