What are companies doing with regards to 'Giving Something Back'

The CEO regularly holds a book group for those aspiring employees at Macs. This is an opportunity for the CEO to impart their knowledge of the industry and work experience and help mentor and knowledge share fresh ideas/ways of thinking with those members of the team at Macs who are keen to grow professionally and personally.

The Leadership team are key to ensuring that they uphold Values at every opportunity and ensure that these are embedded at every phase of their employee life cycle.

In 2016, Lyreco introduced a Charity Steering Group with the purpose to expand support provided to local communities. Staff submit initiatives they are involved in and Lyreco will donate funds, volunteers or products.

Lyreco advertise all vacancies internally, so the workforce has access to the opportunities available.

Bionic Group have five clear ways that they measure the effectiveness of their managers.

1) Driving Business Results. They have a balanced score card approach which is central to how they focus their efforts & measure their success. It enables them to pull together as one team and align to common goals. They hold operational dashboards to review performance against these KPIs.

2) Employee Engagement Surveys to measure team player motivation and engagement. Those leaders with engagement results lower than the company average have a high support from their people and culture team to support them on improving their results through focused action plans.

3) Turnover rates are measured on an annual and monthly basis and shared with their Exec Team and Investors. Working groups are created with a number of leaders if they see spikes in churn. Glassdoor reviews of job candidates and leavers is also monitored and reported monthly and assessed against turnover rates and exit interview data.

4) 360 Feedback is used for their talent programme. This enables their leaders to get feed-back from their manager, peers, team members and stakeholders. Each leader has a detailed feedback session from an experienced external coach to enable them to devise a Personal Development Plan.

5) Performance Management system. Their managers performance is measured by performance and potential. Every 4 months, every Exec leader presents the talent ratings for their overall teams which is calibrated across Bionic Group. This allows each Exec member to provide performance feedback of individuals to support their development.

In the words of Aristotle, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit”. Their development is focused on developing expertise in the pursuit of getting better every day. This is a way of life in Bionic. They pride themselves on the fact that 58% of our leaders have been promoted internally.

A strong contributor to their success of leaders and teamwork, is their Year of the Coach and Year of the TL programme that's run internally by their leaders. This is a chance for team players to work towards a leadership role. In 2019, 35 players have attended the programs with 25% of these being promoted since. The YOTL attendees have bi-weekly workshops and in role training to enhance their leadership skills including how to forecast budgets and driving performance through others.

Their Team Leaders then deliver the YOTC programme, for those team players who have the desire to coach their colleagues and progress into leadership roles in the future. This involves learning how to lead a buzz session, inspiring and motivating the team and how to conduct quality 121s to get the best from their colleagues. Not only does this programme provide their aspiring leaders with the skills they need it also gives their TLs great experience in designing and delivering training courses. By the end of the training, their TL's and Coaches all have a detailed Personal Development Plan including the next step in their career and how they achieve this.

The Chairman makes weekly visits to construction sites to talk to site operatives about the progress and the challenges being faced.

The Chairman makes weekly visits to construction sites to talk to site operatives about the progress and the challenges being faced.

Lakeland provide free bus services for colleagues at their HO sites, reducing the use of private vehicles and offer colleagues the opportunity to utilise the cycle to work scheme, encouraging green commuting and exercise.

Lakeland offer an employee assistance programme where employees can do wellbeing assessments and gain advice on physical health, mental heath as well as counselling if necessary and occupational health which is well used.

Kuoni offer every employee with two days of volunteer leave a year, giving them the opportunity to give back to something close to their heart.

Each department has an employee rep who sits on the 'your voice' panel. This representative brings suggestions and feedback raised by the employees to the monthly your voice meeting. These ideas are then discussed with senior managers so changes can be made.

At Just IT, any employee can join 'The Network' - this is a company group dedicated to initiatives around charity, community, events and well being. The network pledges to raise money for the organisation's chosen charity.

Bimonthly meetings bring together colleagues across the organisation to examine and discuss the company's products. They then look at how to deliver them more effectively from a broad range of perspectives.

The cheque book reward system means that team members are given 10 cheques each. Each cheque equates to a £5 voucher to spend at various retailers. John West encourage Crew to give cheques to their colleagues when they have supported them as a way to say thanks as well as recognising them for good work.

The John West offices promote recycling both at work and at home. Their House committee lead on these initiatives and have sent out communications in the past and clearly label all bins to ensure appropriate recycling is done.

The Jellyfish Senior Management Team demonstrate their commitment to the values and principles of the organisation by living their Core Values and challenging any behaviours that go against these.

The Jellyfish Senior Management Team demonstrate their commitment to the values and principles of the organisation by living their Core Values and challenging any behaviours that go against these.

The firm work in an open plan office and the leaders, partners, senior management and staff all share the same space and services. The Chairman is as accessible as the Junior Operations team.

The firm work in an open plan office and the leaders, partners, senior management and staff all share the same space and services. The Chairman is as accessible as the Junior Operations team.