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Giving Something Back - The extent to which employees feel their organisation has a positive impact on society
Giving Something Back focuses on the organisation’s social responsibilities. If key factors such as ‘Leadership’ and ‘My Manager’ are performing well, it can influence the improvement of all the other factors, boosting your overall engagement.
The past year has brought new ways of working in a pub over and again, with changes implemented fast – from social distancing tables to how to serve ketchup. Peach added cleaners to pub rotas to keep up with new sanitising measures, sourced washable face masks and provided a strong pack of communication tools to help staff deal with challenging guests when The Rule of Six and Tier system came in.
A structured in-house training programme complements external courses such as Wine and Spirit Education Trust qualifications. On Peach Adventure Days teams head to big cities such as Manchester and London to soak up the restaurant and bar scenes and gain inspiration for Peach venues.
Most Peach pubs have continued to make meals for homeless people, including turning the pumpkins that would have been used to celebrate Halloween into soup and pasta for them. Some venues have used their facilities for charity or to help local needs in other ways and around 70% of employees have volunteered at some stage during the pandemic.
The Employee of the Month, who is nominated by colleagues is awarded £500 and there is Dinner with Phil, the chief executive, for all winners at the end of each quarter. The top three prizes for Employee of the Year range from £500 to £2,000 for the winner.
Several informal societies been formed including a Strava group who cycle, run and walk to quizzers, Scrabble players and a Fantasy Premier League. P2 has offered free laptops to employees whose children require them for home schooling and has continued to send staff birthday and special event hampers.
A company-wide bingo night and virtual fundraising events including quiz nights, a charity auction and best and worst Christmas Jumper competitions raised £2,606 for Great Ormond Street Hospital and Alzheimer's Society. Two company-wide competitions - bike riding in June and running in July - brought in £577 for the NHS.
Staff were kept informed about health and safety issues and Oprema's sales figures during the pandemic. Update meetings took place on Microsoft Teams and, on the social side, there were remote quiz nights. Managers maintained contact and recognition by sending gifts to staff in the post.
Microsoft Teams and WhatsApp groups help colleagues to communicate with each other when they are not at work together. Company e-cards, which were designed in-house, have been a hit and enable the team to say thank you, well done and happy birthday.
Mind Cymru remains the company's charitable partner this year as it was unable to raise as much money in lockdown-affected 2020 as in previous years. In 2019 it donated nearly £10,000 to Macmillan Cancer Support. During the pandemic, it raised funds through the on-site tuck shop which it ran.
The company's monthly staff award has been renamed the Lorraine Berry award, in memory of its Learning and Development Manager, a dear colleague who passed away last year. CEO Susanna sends gift tokens as a thank you to employees who have gone above and beyond during the pandemic.
The #OneFileinNature initiative encourages every employee to spend an hour outdoors during daylight each day to nurture their health. The company has paid for wellbeing apps to encourage activities such as yoga and meditation and puts on Zumba classes during the working day.
OneFile provides career advice and work experience to BAME females, a group under-represented in the technology sector. Clothes are donated to a charity that helps people in poverty dress smartly for job interviews and extra tea and coffee is given to a homeless shelter.
Continuous learning and development are an integral part of the culture at OAG where managers act as mentors helping staff to gain professional skills or relevant experience and everyone is encouraged to dedicate one paid day per month for self-development.
In addition to weekly wellbeing webinars and regular wellbeing surveys the firm organised a wide range of fun events to boost team spirit with virtual activities including horse racing, a Family Fortunes game show, photo competitions, a Quarantine Kitchen OAG cook-a-long, and quiz nights.
Throughout the pandemic OAG has continued to support charities by taking part in virtual fundraising events including a week long Christmas Jumper Day for Save the Children where staff were encouraged to get creative and jazz up an old jumper to help the environment and children at the same time.
During the pandemic the company introduced the Naked Treat Box, as a way of boosting community and rewarding one another. Everyone gets to nominate one person every quarter and write them a message of appreciation which goes in the box containing locally sourced goodies.
Every year Naked Wines sends six budding future leaders on a four day Happy Leadership course. Two employees who attended the course have since been promoted to Head of Partnerships and Head of Continuous Improvement. Two rising stars have been supported to study for an MBA at the local university.
Employees get one day paid leave a year to support the local community from volunteering to giving blood and cleaning up local beaches. It also raises money every month for winemaker Carmen Stevens to run a soup kitchen for disadvantaged children in South Africa.
Moneypenny still runs on the family ethos embedded by its sibling co-founders. Everyone treats each other with the same respect, from director to visiting delivery driver. Everyone rolls up their sleeves: from CEO Joanna Swash manning reception or CTO Pete Hanlon picking up laptops for people when everyone moved to remote working.
The company had an 81.5% internal promotion rate last year, with 103 new roles created, of which 84 were filled internally. Moneypenny says: “We learnt so much from our last survey in 2018, which highlighted a concern by staff about personal development. We launched our Leadership Development Programme and 163 people participated in 2020.”
Company co-founder Rachel Clacher set up national charity WeMindTheGap to provide support and opportunities for young people. Moneypenny adopted 26 different species of animals and raised £1,170 after a Chester Zoo appeal and its charity committee, Raising Pennies, gave £1,000 to a local foodbank, hospital and the Salvation Army.
The recruiter sees its business success as intrinsically linked to its ability to attract, develop and retain brilliant people. Each manager is measured and compensated against a selection of criteria, which includes their ability to achieve this – and the company is constantly looking to improve.
The company relaunched its values during lockdown with none of the management team or board involved in setting the tone of the organisation. These are strength in diversity, stronger together, challenging the status quo, and we never settle – a commitment to exceptional delivery.
Wilton & Bain helped to raise funds to provide laptops to needy children for home-schooling during lockdown. Many families didn't have access to the basic equipment that was required, with Ofcom estimating that more than 1m children weren't able to get hold of a laptop, desktop or tablet at home.
In the Know' sessions take place weekly with a different presenter, either internal or external, doing a 30-minute presentation on a specific area. This is used for knowledge transfer and product overviews, and allows employees to get some insight into areas of the business they may be less familiar with.
The online resource EAP Care first is available to all employees, offering information and advice on a wide range of personal and workplace issues. Liquidlogic staff can also access Healix private healthcare for medical support as part of their benefits package.
In line with the firm's environmental policy, staff are encouraged to keep printing to a minimum, turn off electrical items when not in use and use the air conditioning responsibly. Energy saving lightbulbs are fitted throughout the offices and waste is sorted for recycling.
Managers send weekly status reports to the senior team and directors. Manager, customer and staff feedback is taken seriously. Last year the company set out a five-year strategy, outlining where it was going and how everyone had a part to play in getting it there.
The senior management team is heavily involved in talent nurturing, supporting career growth and development by mentoring employees and allowing everyone to reach their full potential. It also promotes family-friendly working hours, including flexible working, which was appreciated by staff during the pandemic.
Learning Pool is committed to behaving ethically, focusing on its local communities and on the development of continuous environmental initiatives to reduce its carbon footprint. As an online enterprise, it empowers customers to help create a more sustainable world by using its technology.
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