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

Everyone is given a day a year to volunteer for a local charity. Recent projects have included decorating a community centre, painting a school, beach cleans and serving Christmas Lunch on Christmas Day for Estuary League of Friends.

Michelmores run a range of 'Inspireme' talks with people from outside of the profession to learn new ideas and get a different perspective on the challenges they face.

The Theatre offer all new joiners a work Buddy to help them navigate the way they do things and give them general support as they adjust to working at Mayflower Theatre. The new joiner and their buddy are allocated time in work to meet for a coffee and in addition they are allocated two tickets to a show.

The Theatre offer all new joiners a work Buddy to help them navigate the way they do things and give them general support as they adjust to working at Mayflower Theatre. The new joiner and their buddy are allocated time in work to meet for a coffee and in addition they are allocated two tickets to a show.

Employees receive 25 days annual leave and 15 days public holiday every year. Flexi time and time off in lieu are also available to employees, as well as a generous package of special leave which covers paid time off for study, attending medical appointment and even time to move home.

Maryhill Housing launched a new management development programme in 2018. All managers of the organisation attended this Behavioural Science in Leadership programme. This was held over 5 different days and got managers thinking about all various areas of management/leadership from motivation, engagement, empowerment, performance management and a number of other areas.

Every hotel is encouraged to engage in local community activities as they believe that when they support communities outside of their own hotel doors, they make them stronger.

The President and Managing Director is a true believer that the cornerstone of the company is its people and retains a laser-like focus on building a strong culture that fosters innovation and embraces wellbeing.

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.