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

As an organisation Immediate Media encourage everyone to have a good work life balance and to look after their physical and emotional wellbeing. At a company level they provide subsidised gym memberships, run mindfulness and yoga sessions and nutrition advice workshops. They also have an active social club which runs and promotes a range of activities to promote wellbeing. These include Zumba and Krav Maga self-defence classes, as well as seasonal activities during work like Pumpkin carving competitions and festive wreath making. Managers are trained in a model called 'Comfort, Stretch, Chaos', which teaches them how to keep a balance in people's jobs, when to recognise the signs of stress and the tactics to deal with it. At Immediate Media people are given the space to have fun and enjoy themselves so they come back refreshed and inspired from breaks. The company have a table tennis, table football and a garden area for relaxing outside, as well as break out areas across all the open plan offices. Employees can even leave at lunchtime on Fridays and are provided with an Employee Assistance Programme 24 hours a day.

Immediate Media's two programmes in management development framework are Integral Leadership Programme (ILP) and Integral Management Programme (IMP). ILP helps Leader's role model the company's values, coach, develop, delegate, collaborate and connect with teams to build success as well as a great place to work. IMP gives Manager's practical tools to grow as individuals and create great teams. Immediate Media see IMP as the foundation layer in their management development framework and whilst the company know they've got lots of good Manager's, this helps them become really great ones. Delegates of IMP join a Learning Set which starts during the course and continues afterwards. This helps people share their experiences, get help, advice and also creates a sounding board. It also allows for new networks across the business with people who wouldn't ordinarily work together. The IMP and ILP programmes teach Managers that feedback must be regular, timely and constructive; therefore discussions are open, praise and thanks are given and successes are shared and celebrated. When things aren't going so well this is where coaching, advice and support comes in.

The Lifestyle Allowance Benefit is a small contribution (up to £150) from the Company towards you taking part in a life enriching activity which has a positive impact on your well-being outside of the work place. A few examples of what employees can claim the £150 on as follows; gym membership, cooking classes, membership to a cultural or sporting pastime and sports equipment. Health Assured Health Assured is an Employee Assistance Programme which provides employees with a confidential support service to help with the following issues; Family issues, gambling, domestic abuse, debt, legal, work etc. Employees are also provided with 8 face to face or telephone counselling sessions if needed. There is a subsidised canteen with a roof top area for employees to take some time out during their lunch break. The Company offers subsidised meals to all employees, the canteen is spacious and has an outside rooftop seating area which employees take advantage of during the summer days. The canteen turns into a bar on a Thursday and Friday evening. Subsidised yoga sessions are also offered to all employees.

For the first time, the organisation has nominated a number of charities to support through the course of this year. These were arrived at through consultation with employees in the agency – and supports both national charities and those that are proximate to each office site. The majority of fundraising activity is achieved through sweepstakes and bake sales in the office, but a number of individuals (including the Leadership team) are taking point in this year's Sleepout event for Centre Point. The agency supports the notion of giving something back to the community and wider society. This is demonstrated by the organisation's MD, who volunteers his time to support undergraduate and postgraduate students at the University of Leeds through their Nurturing Talent Mentor Scheme. This typically involves providing advice and guidance to a number of students – with a clear focus on gaining experience during their studies and employment at the end of their course. Typically, students who are nominated for the scheme are likely to be from a non-university background, and in some cases, from disadvantaged groups. Finally, the organisation continues to run both a formal ‘Academy' programme for graduates, alongside an informal internship or work experience programme in order to provide opportunities to young people looking to pursue a career in the industry.

Some teams have team circles where they update every one of their priorities for the day and any support they require from colleagues. Twice weekly Icelolly have 'stand-ups', their purpose being to keep people up to date with business performance, and ensure people are familiar with what's happening in all parts of the business. Every Monday the stand-up covers the previous week's business performance and highlights of what has gone well. They then cover the targets and challenges for the week ahead and specific activities of note that are taking place during the week. Every Thursday, a team gives an overview of the work which has taken place over the previous month, specific achievements and activities planned for the month ahead so that everyone, regardless of team, knows the focus of each part of the business. Icelolly have team days where everyone in the business participates. The aim of the team days is to develop relationships between colleagues and teams and for people to work alongside others that they wouldn't normally work with on a day-to-day basis, have fun, celebrate success and recognise the progress of the business and how the team have helped us gain these results. They also aim to raise money for a nominated charity. Activities they have successfully run to date include Cocktails and Cakes, Photo Rally, Ice cream Making, Geography Challenge and Treasure Hunt, Office Olympics and a Day Trip to Blackpool.

Some teams have team circles where they update every one of their priorities for the day and any support they require from colleagues. Twice weekly Icelolly have 'stand-ups', their purpose being to keep people up to date with business performance, and ensure people are familiar with what's happening in all parts of the business. Every Monday the stand-up covers the previous week's business performance and highlights of what has gone well. They then cover the targets and challenges for the week ahead and specific activities of note that are taking place during the week. Every Thursday, a team gives an overview of the work which has taken place over the previous month, specific achievements and activities planned for the month ahead so that everyone, regardless of team, knows the focus of each part of the business. Icelolly have team days where everyone in the business participates. The aim of the team days is to develop relationships between colleagues and teams and for people to work alongside others that they wouldn't normally work with on a day-to-day basis, have fun, celebrate success and recognise the progress of the business and how the team have helped us gain these results. They also aim to raise money for a nominated charity. Activities they have successfully run to date include Cocktails and Cakes, Photo Rally, Ice cream Making, Geography Challenge and Treasure Hunt, Office Olympics and a Day Trip to Blackpool.

The Partnership Council is in place to safeguard the “soul and conscience” of the firm and is responsible for overseeing 'how' things take place at Hymans, not just 'what' is done. The Partnership Council tests and has ultimate responsibility for who is promoted into the partnership, ensuring that these individuals role model company values as well as being technically competent in their specialist areas. They also test and measure how the company reach out to clients through the 'Voice of the Client' survey. This helps them to understand how each level of staff engaging with external clients and demonstrate behaviours in line with their values. Both Ronnie and John Dickson host annual staff meetings in each of the offices. The theme of their presentation this year was around how Hymans will grow and prosper while still adhering to the company values and principles. The senior management team make sure they are accessible whilst in the office and all senior managers sit in the open plan office environment within the teams in which they work. Both Ronnie Bowie and James Entwisle recorded videos that are embedded into the new start induction video that is shown to all news starters on day one of joining Hymans. As Managing Partner, connecting and engaging with everyone across the firm is an important priority for James. He's an open, accessible person and makes a point of stopping at people's desks and speaking informally to people around each of their offices. He also plays an important role in events such as the graduate and development programmes where he introduces the firm and its latest thinking to new starts and delegates and spends time getting to know them. Earlier this year James co-presented to the CIPD evidence in support of Hymans being shortlisted as 'L&D Team of the Year'.

Hymans Robertson have a strong ethos of community support within the firm. There are two core strands to this, their financial literacy programme delivers workshops on financial literacy to disadvantaged young people by partnering with other charities and their local Helping Hands teams identify local charities who need support which the company then provide through volunteering, fundraising or ‘in kind' donations. They also offer matched funding to employees who have raised money for their own favoured charities. In total the firm allocates 2% of the firm's profits to these initiatives. This is in addition to employee's time and their fundraising efforts which include one day's paid volunteering day per employee each year to use to help a charity of their choice, previous initiatives include raising money each month through ‘Dress Down' day collections, supporting national events such as ‘Children in Need' and the Hymans Robertson Foundation which will provide focus and transparency on all charitable activities. Hymans have engaged an agency who specialise in finding placements for those that wish to work part-time. Now if they have a role that requires someone on a part-time basis they will work with them to recruit suitable candidates that cannot work a conventional Monday to Friday, 9 to 5 routine. To help in the general recruitment process, they have recognised that unconscious bias can play a role in how people managers review applications. So they have run Unconscious Bias workshops in the firm with almost 200 delegates attending. They have also worked with a government scheme called "New Starts" which aims to help ex-offenders return to work, they have taken on one new start attendee and this has worked well for the firm and we would be open to taking on more as a result.

Huntswood has a range of wellbeing initiatives, including free gym memberships, massages during work time, health checks, free fruit, cycle to work, discount shopping vouchers, social activities, a fun and functional office environment and an Employee Assistance Programme service. HR have also recently engaged ‘wellbeing champions' from across the business who volunteered themselves to help enhance the wellbeing of Huntswood employees. The champions help with the organisation of wellbeing events and initiatives and provide feedback and ideas around what employees want in terms of their wellbeing at work. The HR team also monitors absence closely by accurately recording absence information, holding return to work interviews and offering appropriate support to employees where necessary. HR have an open door policy and employees always feel that they can speak to a member of the team should they need advice or guidance. Managers are given guidance on how best to manage employees that could be at risk of stress and often provide one to one catch ups to monitor these employees. As well as all this where possible flexibility with working hours is permitted to inspire a healthy work life balance.

Every year Huntswood holds a New Year's party for employees and their partners. Although the concept itself isn't unique, the parties themselves are. The events are extravagant and employees often comment that the Huntswood parties are the best they have ever been to. This year's party was held at the Grosvenor hotel in London with a Great Gatsby theme. Employees and guests were treated to a three course meal, free bar and entertainment. This year's entertainment included Flavia and Vincent from Strictly Come Dancing and a big band with dancers. Last year employees received an all-expenses paid weekend in Paris, with entertainment including Michael McIntyre. At the parties the employees of the year award is presented. Throughout the year to celebrate key ‘wins' or events, the Founder and CEO often treat employees to lunch or gifts. For example, earlier in the year each Friday employees came into the office to find flowers, chocolate or champagne on their desks. Very recently, the Founder of the company hosted lunch for all employees to celebrate the company reaching its 20th birthday, which included Dominos pizza, burgers and Krispy Kreme doughnuts!

Hotcourses are developing their own internal coaches so that they can run their own coaching programme, along with additional workshops to support the programme when finished. They have a continuous approach to managing performance. July sees a ‘Main Review', there is a November ‘Mini Review', a February ‘Mini Review' and then in May a more in depth ‘Learning & Development Review', which identifies a personal development plan and identifies learning to be put into the training plan for July to August of the year.

Hotcourses send out a monthly health and wellbeing bulletin. They also encourage team activities around sporting events. The company's Head of People is a qualified mediator who has resolved any grievances informally through this method. Hotcourses have a very paternalistic management team, as they manage many young people where this is their first place of work. The company train their Managers to deal with situations promptly and refer to the right person to give an individual approach to stress related matters.

The layout of Horwich Farrelly's offices is open plan in design and all teams occupy a floor or a section of a floor. Most teams participate in regular meetings or daily huddles run by Managers to facilitate team working. This year through the company's soft phone system they gave all employees access to instant messenger, all to enable more direct and effective communication amongst employees. The COO has also recently completed a tour of all offices, delivering a business update to ensure that all employees are clear on the company objectives and successes. Horwich Farrelly's are currently developing an ideas sharing platform to launch in 2017, which will allow all employees in all locations to make comments or suggestions about how they could improve the business.

The layout of Horwich Farrelly's offices is open plan in design and all teams occupy a floor or a section of a floor. Most teams participate in regular meetings or daily huddles run by Managers to facilitate team working. This year through the company's soft phone system they gave all employees access to instant messenger, all to enable more direct and effective communication amongst employees. The COO has also recently completed a tour of all offices, delivering a business update to ensure that all employees are clear on the company objectives and successes. Horwich Farrelly's are currently developing an ideas sharing platform to launch in 2017, which will allow all employees in all locations to make comments or suggestions about how they could improve the business.

The CEO treats all staff with respect and gives them the opportunity to speak to him directly if they have concerns regarding the business or themselves. He shows not only an interest in their time at work but in their families outside interests. In the short time he has been in post he has been very keen to seek to harmonise and improve terms and conditions for all staff. The MD ensures that he visits all sections of the business and speaks to as many staff as possible. He engages well and proactively with staff at all levels across the business. Due to the nature of the business a great amount of on-the job training takes place, particularly for field staff. This type of on-going training enables staff to maintain and develop their skills. There is on-going support available from experienced managers and staff. The business is proficient in providing support and guidance whilst business continues. For a small number of staff an MBO process is in place. The organisation is about to introduce a formal management development programme and to set up a number of supplementary support programmes, such as mentoring and coaching. There are also plans to implement a cross organisation performance management system in the next 6 months.

The CEO treats all staff with respect and gives them the opportunity to speak to him directly if they have concerns regarding the business or themselves. He shows not only an interest in their time at work but in their families outside interests. In the short time he has been in post he has been very keen to seek to harmonise and improve terms and conditions for all staff. The MD ensures that he visits all sections of the business and speaks to as many staff as possible. He engages well and proactively with staff at all levels across the business. Due to the nature of the business a great amount of on-the job training takes place, particularly for field staff. This type of on-going training enables staff to maintain and develop their skills. There is on-going support available from experienced managers and staff. The business is proficient in providing support and guidance whilst business continues. For a small number of staff an MBO process is in place. The organisation is about to introduce a formal management development programme and to set up a number of supplementary support programmes, such as mentoring and coaching. There are also plans to implement a cross organisation performance management system in the next 6 months.

In November 2014 HomeServe launched its ‘2020 leaders' programme. The programme links directly to the 2020 strategy and offers an 18 month development programme to the 200 leaders that manage the front line customer facing teams. The programme is made up of a series of classroom events that develops the knowledge, skills and behaviours to be successful leaders, for example influencing, coaching and performance management. These classroom sessions are coupled with e-learning, action learning sets and work based assignments to embed the learning and measure the success of the programme outputs. Along with this each delegate has received 360 feedback at the start of the programme. In August 2015 HomeServe also began a Succession Planning exercise, which is undertaken every six months to identify key talent and offer appropriate additional development plans. HomeServe measure Managers and Leaders through pre and post skills assessments. Personal Development Reviews have also now shifted to focus on behaviour and development of leadership skills rather than technical. Lastly, the company now have a Leadership competency framework at all management levels.

HomeServe have supported over 150 community groups across the West Midlands. A share of £35k has also been put towards their partnership with Midlands' newspaper, Express & Star, on its ‘Cash For Your Community' initiative for the third year running. Volunteers across the business gave over 1,750 hours of volunteer time for the Sport Relief 2016 campaign, with HomeServe answering a phenomenal 2,369 donation calls and raising over £72,272 on the night. The company's people volunteered 14,000 hours, served 8,300 meals and made 6,900 food supply bags for The Midland Langar Seva Society, a local charity that provides food for the homeless. They have even provided the charity with a van to distribute food donations that HomeServe contribute to weekly from their own site. The company are also working with Career Transition Partnership and Armed forces, for example the company have recently taken on Gas Engineers who have worked with engineers to gain experience, even resulting in a job offer. To provide further opportunities for HomeServe's P&D engineers, a Level 3 Gas Apprenticeship is also available.

Haygarth have a long-standing relationship with a local charity, The Wimbledon Guild, who do valuable work in the local Merton community. The Charity team work hard to plan a calendar of events to run throughout the year and are constantly coming up with new fundraising ideas. As a result, they run a large number of fund-raising initiatives for the Guild, from regular cake sales and sweepstakes, to themed breakfasts and charity raffles and auctions. One of the annual highlights is their charity auction which takes place at the Summer Away Day. This year the company raised over £350 at the event. Beyond fundraising, a team from Haygarth run a stall at the annual Wimbledon Guild Summer Fete – this year, Haygarth assisted with the jousting tournament, selling props and programmes, whilst in previous years, they have run the champagne tent.

Haygarth have a long-standing relationship with a local charity, The Wimbledon Guild, who do valuable work in the local Merton community. The Charity team work hard to plan a calendar of events to run throughout the year and are constantly coming up with new fundraising ideas. As a result, they run a large number of fund-raising initiatives for the Guild, from regular cake sales and sweepstakes, to themed breakfasts and charity raffles and auctions. One of the annual highlights is their charity auction which takes place at the Summer Away Day. This year the company raised over £350 at the event. Beyond fundraising, a team from Haygarth run a stall at the annual Wimbledon Guild Summer Fete – this year, Haygarth assisted with the jousting tournament, selling props and programmes, whilst in previous years, they have run the champagne tent.