What are companies doing with regards to 'Leadership'

Each year Cambridge Online take two students on a work experience programme. Each member of the Leadership Team spends time and shares their views of what it is like to run a team within a company. The students then spend time with each member of those teams to bring to see how it works in reality. This gives them a great insight into what work is really all about and how different teams interact and the views and needs of companies and their managers or employees from a real employer's perspective. The Managing Director spends time giving an overview of the pressures of managing a business and bringing together how all the departments need to work together to effect this. Additionally, there is a session on making a difference as an employee and instructions as to how companies interview and guidance on how to approach the job market. They offered a week's work experience to someone known to the Company who has recently fallen on hard times. This has given him the opportunity of regaining some self-respect and feeling valued again, giving him the benefit of a good reference and hopefully giving him the inspiration to seek further employment. They also have a team who organise various charity events for staff to attend throughout the year. These events are funded by the Company and raise a significant amount of money for a chosen charity. Cambridge Online are proud of their continued support of the apprenticeship scheme and each year aim to continue this.

Each year Cambridge Online take two students on a work experience programme. Each member of the Leadership Team spends time and shares their views of what it is like to run a team within a company. The students then spend time with each member of those teams to bring to see how it works in reality. This gives them a great insight into what work is really all about and how different teams interact and the views and needs of companies and their managers or employees from a real employer's perspective. The Managing Director spends time giving an overview of the pressures of managing a business and bringing together how all the departments need to work together to effect this. Additionally, there is a session on making a difference as an employee and instructions as to how companies interview and guidance on how to approach the job market. They offered a week's work experience to someone known to the Company who has recently fallen on hard times. This has given him the opportunity of regaining some self-respect and feeling valued again, giving him the benefit of a good reference and hopefully giving him the inspiration to seek further employment. They also have a team who organise various charity events for staff to attend throughout the year. These events are funded by the Company and raise a significant amount of money for a chosen charity. Cambridge Online are proud of their continued support of the apprenticeship scheme and each year aim to continue this.

Xero UK have an ‘All Hands' meeting fortnightly which is recorded and circulated, and have weekly Friday Night Drinks in both their Milton Keynes and London offices in order to encourage communication and a more sociable form of engagement. They have a pool table, ping pong, space invaders and play station so employees can relax and enjoy each other's company further in the office. Use Officevibe, a weekly engagement check-in tool, allows for employees to comment on 10 factors and to give feedback and dialogue about how they are feeling about work.

Xero UK receive support from their own Learning and Development Specialist. Some employees have had further coaching than that given at the beginning of employment. They have a monthly People Managers Meeting and PX are there to support and advise. Some employees are going on to do a coaching qualification themselves. 360 degree feedback is given annually. There is increasing use of Workday to initiate feedback. Engagement is measured by Officevibe and reported real time on a weekly basis to ensure that employees are happy at work. The company work hard to maintain a two-way flow of information.

Rewarding their employees for their efforts is at the heart of X4 Group and something they pride themselves on. They have a strong sales team who are all highly motivated as a result of incentives such as four annual holiday targets including Vegas and Marbella, monthly lunch clubs at some of London's top restaurants, free gym and spa membership for every employee, highly competitive commission structure, monthly massages and frequent company events such as annual boat party. These name only a few of the company's amazing incentives. One that is particularly unique to X4 is the 4 holiday targets, they have a number of Director 'Wild Cards' for every trip. This means that the individuals who didn't quite meet the financial or deals target but in other areas really stood out are rewarded also. This is effective as it encourages everyone to work extremely hard in all areas even when they may not be as close to hitting target as they had hoped.

Employee engagement and interaction is critically important to the day to day competitiveness and the culture of our business. X4 Group understands that positive interaction between all members of staff boosts morale and improves performance. They have a digital leader board visible to all teams in the office to share every team's performance and showcase their position on the leader board with updated deals. This information system provides employees with instant updates of the whole company's performance, allowing a transparent working environment which they have found greatly improves efficiency and competitiveness between teams. The company encourage weekly competitions among different teams in different markets and have monthly nominations for Team, Deal & Consultant of the month where each winner gets a prize. Prizes include team lunch, night out, West End show, champagne etc. Every team in the company is eligible to win every month so it encourages team members to support each other. They are highly focused on attracting and hiring the right people so have a very collaborative approach, involving employees in the hiring process. Under this process candidates interact with future teammates improving team interaction from the very beginning. They have several team building days out annually to encourage company interaction. Recently the company did a Mud Run Assault Course followed by an all paid for company party. They also do things like go-karting, charity sports days etc. In addition to this they have several sports teams and play competitively in tournaments against other companies!

At Unicef, different teams adopt different practices according to their needs. These include weekly stand up meetings to share priorities for the week and to ask for assistance if they need it using a red /amber / green status flag, which indicates their workload to colleagues. There is also the use of instant messaging or communication apps such as WhatsApp to share information, updates and to ask questions, plus the use of Skype or FaceTime to dial colleagues into meetings. Each year, Unicef bring all employees together for an all staff away day. This is an engaging event which gives real meaning and purpose to everyone's jobs by connecting people to the impact their efforts and Unicef's work is having for children around the world. 2016's event was themed around Children on the Move. They had informative presentations from colleagues working in their Jordan and Lebanon country offices and heard from inspiring young people about the positive impact one of their UK Programmes 'Rights Respecting Schools' is having on their lives. Staff also had the opportunity to participate in a humanitarian emergency simulation and take a virtual reality tour of a refugee camp.

At Unicef, different teams adopt different practices according to their needs. These include weekly stand up meetings to share priorities for the week and to ask for assistance if they need it using a red /amber / green status flag, which indicates their workload to colleagues. There is also the use of instant messaging or communication apps such as WhatsApp to share information, updates and to ask questions, plus the use of Skype or FaceTime to dial colleagues into meetings. Each year, Unicef bring all employees together for an all staff away day. This is an engaging event which gives real meaning and purpose to everyone's jobs by connecting people to the impact their efforts and Unicef's work is having for children around the world. 2016's event was themed around Children on the Move. They had informative presentations from colleagues working in their Jordan and Lebanon country offices and heard from inspiring young people about the positive impact one of their UK Programmes 'Rights Respecting Schools' is having on their lives. Staff also had the opportunity to participate in a humanitarian emergency simulation and take a virtual reality tour of a refugee camp.

Specsavers seeks to reward employees in a variety of formal and informal ways, from peer to peer shout outs and customer first awards to long service recognition and the annual Specsavers Ball. The company's quarterly bonus is also based solely on an individual's achievement of their objectives and is in no way related to company performance. All employees who have passed their probation are eligible to receive this. The scheme creates employee engagement, motivation and the need for Managers to manage their people effectively and appropriately. The scheme also means that all Managers have to meet each quarter to calibrate their bonus recommendations. This creates the need for a discussion about overall performance, like a mini people review on a regular basis, which thereby enables consistency and employee recognition amongst leadership teams.

Specsavers are passionate about giving back to and working with many local, national and international causes. The company are involved in a vast number of activities to raise money for charities, for example their continued work with Vision Aid Overseas to safeguard the nine eye clinics Specsavers established with them in Zambia. The company also help to deliver a range of hand-crafted quilts made in Guernsey to an orphanage in Johannesburg, South Africa. Also in its 20th year, the annual Spectacle Wearer of the Year competition has raised £80,000 for UK anti-bullying children's charity Kidscape. New starters can donate a 'coin' to one of the charities that Specsavers support at the end of their induction, giving them an early understanding and participation in the organisation's charity work. Through the 'Giving back to our local communities' policy, staff are also encouraged to spend one working day per year helping out in the community. Specsavers also have staff nominated charities in each office and encourage staff to raise money for them. Last year the company raised almost £190,000 for these fantastic charities.

The Senior Management Team always look to lead with excellence in delivering against the company's BOB values across everything they do. They do this through initiatives like Curiosity Week, quarterly forums and acting as coaches for all of their talent. Tom is an inspirational and engaging leader of Southpaw. He fully promotes a flat structure and encourages people of all levels to be honest and open on what's working and what's not so they can drive positive change. He fully integrates with all staff and sits amongst the client service team. He is fiercely passionate about the BOB values and ensures that all of the talent within the agency are making them their own and leveraging them for career growth, contributing to the culture as well as delivering original creative thinking for clients. On a day to day basis you will see Tom being one of the team by making the odd cup of tea, asking people how their day is going and running from one meeting to another just like everyone else!

Part of the Southpaw culture is to be open and honest with every member of staff. As part of this ideology the company hold a quarterly company meeting that welcomes new joiners to the agency, celebrates the best strategic and creative work, rewards individuals who have represented their BOB values most consistently and also explains how the business is performing commercially. Southpaw celebrate the highs and lows together in order to stay united as a pack and to progress forward. They are very transparent on gross income generated, performance against budget, profit generated to date and forecasted profit. They feel this transparency gives their talent a real sense of ownership and empowers them to make a significant difference to their commercial, creative and cultural development. All employees are also given laptops, which allows them to work collaboratively and to not be tied to a specific spot within the building, which really helps promote team interaction for effective working and relationship building.

Prospectus' leadership team demonstrate in many ways their commitment to the values of the organisation. In the first instance they sit amongst their teams and have 'no fixed abode' which enables them to hot desk across their teams and the organisation which underpins and supports their values of trust, collaboration and community. The CEO shares his diary for the week ahead each week to the whole company so they can see what he is doing and contribute and request information. The senior management group and leadership team meeting every Tuesday morning to discuss business activity, share information and learning, identify ways to collaborate with clients and candidates and support the work of the community. All managers participate in networking externally and contribute to the workshop programme that support employee development. Several members of the team are trustees of charities. David is at the heart of the organisation passionately endorsing Prospectus' commitment to quality recruitment and desire to find the best people for the beyond profit sector. He has created a language that all employees use. David doesn't have an open door policy because he is rarely in the office but you will find him somewhere in the wider office personally appraising successes, enquiring about recruitment projects, sharing information, knowledge and experience, providing guidance, sharing his passion for people and the beyond profit sector and celebrating! Only last week they had the difficult task of closing part of a desk due to the need of the clients changing, and whilst this didn't lead to dramatic internal changes, David lead a celebration of that desk with a breakfast for everyone, recognising what was achieved and moving the company forward.

Prospectus is a community that participates and has an impact on the larger communities that are within the recruitment space, the beyond profit sector and society. Their impact can be felt in the way the Prospectus team work together to connect thousands of talented individuals with hundreds of beyond profit organisations every year. They work with a range of organisations, from small grass-root community-led local charities, to large-scale NGOs operating in hundreds of countries. All of these organisations and all of the talented individuals that the company place helps to bring about global change. This is reflected in the recent accreditation as a B Corp organisation. Other community initiatives include the fundraising that takes place including two upcoming events, the Big Sleep Out for the Big Issue and a team cycling for the British Asian Trust. The CEO is trustee and patron for several organisations, and the company are pioneers for the Trust Youth initiative. They a team run in the British London 10K raising money for various charities. Every employee gets 6 volunteering days a year. Examples of volunteering can be seen in the attached copy of Beat. Prospectus is a pioneer of Advantaged Thinking, a philosophy that underpins the Trust Youth movement, an alliance of organisations and individuals working to promote an asset-based approach to young people. As part of this they are dedicated to ensure young people are given the right opportunities to thrive and prosper. In addition, they have made a commitment to offer at least two weeks of work experience to young people each year. This reflects previous experience of supporting initiatives assisting this who might have difficulty gaining or regaining employment.

After a period of huge growth and success in the last two years, Pegasus held a Vision Day in July this year. This day began with staff entering work to find an office filled with balloons and a gift of a new branded Moleskine notebook for each employee. Pegasus then decamped from the office to a local venue near the seafront for a half-day session, the purpose of which was to recommunicate the company's shared purpose, values and vision. Whilst there staff were asked to contribute ideas and suggestions to the new company value ‘Take Pride'. The day ended with a champagne address from the Managing Director, followed by an enjoyable evening out!

Two-way dialogue and transparent interaction is openly encouraged at Pegasus. In fact, some of their pivotal changes in recent years have been the result of staff feedback, such as the creation of the five Pegasus behaviours and the company's move to Brighton. The company have established countless regular channels for people to feed in their suggestions, from contributing at internal peer group meetings, being invited to provide formal feedback on new initiatives or simply meeting Simon the MD for lunch and a chat. To strengthen staff insights further, Pegasus have recently invested in a formal online engagement tool called ‘HIVE'. HIVE sends bi-weekly micro surveys to all staff, providing real-time data and acting as a barometer for the overall engagement of people on a range of workplace matters. The company also run an internal group called Culture Club, which acts as a working group focusing on staff wellbeing, social and charity events.