Leadership - How employees feel about the head of the organisation, senior management and the organisation's values and principles
Leadership has the biggest influence on how employees feel about the organisation.
Leaders need to create inspiring visions and provide clear direction to positively Impact the My Company factor.
When it comes to Wellbeing, no amount of free fruit or stress busting classes are going to address an imbalance. Employee Wellbeing is a by-product of the leadership and management culture.
If there’s pressure at the top of your organisation, it won’t take long to be felt throughout.
Flexible working and flexi-hours – they have a progressive approach to staff working flexible to ensure that their work/life balance and to reduce the likelihood of stress – whether it be due to arranging childcare or rush hour commutes. Fruit Tuesdays – they encourage healthy eating by providing free fruit every Tuesday morning.
Their appraisal process is robust; it encompasses 3 elements: 360 feedback from colleagues and clients, self review and the appraisal meeting with the manager. Embedded into the appraisal process is a ‘training needs analysis' where they identify where gaps exist in employees knowledge/experience and they aim to fill those gaps with recommended training, be it external/internal training courses, mentoring, job shadowing, etc. They have approved and supported most training requests; ranging from short courses, degree courses, right through to MBAs. The appraisal process is focused on enhancing professional development by encouraging all employees to consistently deliver results, capitalise on successes, learn from failures and grow in their position.
Human Resources has been given full responsibility to take appropriate action following the results from the survey. Firstly they plan to communicate the overall results to all. Where appropriate, they will run focus groups to dig deeper and gain insight on the areas that they will work together to translate the results in more concrete action plans. A senior member of the team will be assigned to take ownership of each area. Employees will be given updates on a regular basis on how these things are progressing. They will also take notes on the areas they scored well in and ensure these are maintained and enhanced further.
Triodos provides a variety of ways to support co-worker well-being. They provide free organic fruit supplied by one of their customers for all co-workers to help themselves. They have a £50p.a. well-being allowance for all co-workers. This can be used towards anything to do with the co-worker's well-being and can be attuned to their interests, for example it has been used for gym membership, massages and bike equipment. They have internal clubs/societies where like minded people can get together and share a passion, such as their book club, craft club and netball club. They have begun lunchtime learning sessions where co-workers can learn a new skill in their lunch break. Their recent lunchtime learning is over an 8 week period -1 hour per week and involves 20 co-workers exploring the 8 Habits of Happiness. This is run by a positive psychologist from the Happy City Initiative. This is the first time such a course has been run at an organisation level so they are pioneering new ground with Happy City. Future planned activities involve learning languages, musical instruments, crafts, and being a DJ! These lunchtime learnings will all be run by their co-workers, who are keen to share their skills.
Triodos Bank continually gives something back to the local and wider community through their very existence and business model. They only finance organisations that can demonstrate a positive impact on the environment, society and culture around them locally and globally. Through their lending and customer relationships, co-workers and customers are aware of their local and wider social engagement and impact. The point is it's part of their DNA as opposed to a CSR exercise. As such, they find that both co-workers who are already socially minded, and those who are less so, after spending time working at Triodos almost become more engaged with their local and broader communities simply by osmosis. Community participation, engagement and social impact by co-workers is encouraged, and supported by the bank though away days, social events, customer visits. Their co-workers take part in local sporting teams pitched against other organisations. Many co-workers volunteer at local organisations, and their procurement processes seek to use local, community and/or fair trade suppliers where possible, for example the twice-weekly local organic fruit delivery, the fair-trade tea and coffee supplied for co-worker and visitor refreshments.
Triodos provides a variety of ways to support co-worker well-being. They provide free organic fruit supplied by one of their customers for all co-workers to help themselves. They have a £50p.a. well-being allowance for all co-workers. This can be used towards anything to do with the co-worker's well-being and can be attuned to their interests, for example it has been used for gym membership, massages and bike equipment. They have internal clubs/societies where like minded people can get together and share a passion, such as their book club, craft club and netball club. They have begun lunchtime learning sessions where co-workers can learn a new skill in their lunch break. Their recent lunchtime learning is over an 8 week period -1 hour per week and involves 20 co-workers exploring the 8 Habits of Happiness. This is run by a positive psychologist from the Happy City Initiative. This is the first time such a course has been run at an organisation level so they are pioneering new ground with Happy City. Future planned activities involve learning languages, musical instruments, crafts, and being a DJ! These lunchtime learnings will all be run by their co-workers, who are keen to share their skills.
Throughout the year, many Rooflight staff support charitable events such as Children in Need, The Nasio Trust and Nets for Malaria by organising events that are fun and raise money for the nominated charity. The company will match any funds raised by employees and also sponsor 14 children through their school years at an orphanage in Aligarh, India which they got to know through a relationship with one of their suppliers. They have an environmental policy including movement sensors so that lights are not left on, measuring power consumption, recycling of waste materials and the sustainable sourcing of food.
Throughout the year, many Rooflight staff support charitable events such as Children in Need, The Nasio Trust and Nets for Malaria by organising events that are fun and raise money for the nominated charity. The company will match any funds raised by employees and also sponsor 14 children through their school years at an orphanage in Aligarh, India which they got to know through a relationship with one of their suppliers. They have an environmental policy including movement sensors so that lights are not left on, measuring power consumption, recycling of waste materials and the sustainable sourcing of food.
Throughout the year, many Rooflight staff support charitable events such as Children in Need, The Nasio Trust and Nets for Malaria by organising events that are fun and raise money for the nominated charity. The company will match any funds raised by employees and also sponsor 14 children through their school years at an orphanage in Aligarh, India which they got to know through a relationship with one of their suppliers. They have an environmental policy including movement sensors so that lights are not left on, measuring power consumption, recycling of waste materials and the sustainable sourcing of food.
The company has an open door policy at all levels. They hold quarterly company meetings where everyone gets to say whatever they want. They then get into teams to solve a specific problem. It could be anything from company titles to dress code to new business opportunities. They then write this meeting up and send it around to everyone. Throughout the quarter they follow up on any actions taken as a consequence to these meetings and send out the outcomes. Nothing gets ignored that has been mentioned in these meetings.
The two owners are both incredibly hands on and available, even when they have a lots of their own work. They are fun, likeable, fair and encouraging and they work hard and lead by example. They get involved, whether it means getting up at 5am or partying with everyone until 2am. They do not forget their roots and strongly believe that their staff make the company what it is.
The organisation seeks to enhance the wellbeing of employees. They have lots of arenas for communication, both public and private. There are weekly yoga sessions, juices and fruit are always available and there are cycling initiatives. They also give an extra days holiday for birthdays!
At The Midcounties Co-operative, openness is one of their key values. They try to be transparent with each colleague about what benefits there are to being employed by Midcounties. One way they can see this is by logging onto their colleague portal and viewing their Total Reward Statement (TRS). Their TRS shows all their benefits over the year including salary, uniform, health benefits, service awards, training, discount savings and more. TRS were launched in 2013 and was supported by a huge communication campaign and is backed up by ongoing poster campaigns at sites. They've chosen Savvy Sam as the face of Your Benefits and created a brand to have consistency in their communications to colleagues. Sam is a friendly reminder of what is available to colleagues and where to find their benefits. Sam's website has been set up for each colleague to provide a place where they can get discounts with external businesses online, read about Society news, see what events are coming up, hear about new benefit schemes, enter monthly competitions and chat to other colleagues across all of the businesses on the forum.
At The Midcounties Co-operative, openness is one of their key values. They try to be transparent with each colleague about what benefits there are to being employed by Midcounties. One way they can see this is by logging onto their colleague portal and viewing their Total Reward Statement (TRS). Their TRS shows all their benefits over the year including salary, uniform, health benefits, service awards, training, discount savings and more. TRS were launched in 2013 and was supported by a huge communication campaign and is backed up by ongoing poster campaigns at sites. They've chosen Savvy Sam as the face of Your Benefits and created a brand to have consistency in their communications to colleagues. Sam is a friendly reminder of what is available to colleagues and where to find their benefits. Sam's website has been set up for each colleague to provide a place where they can get discounts with external businesses online, read about Society news, see what events are coming up, hear about new benefit schemes, enter monthly competitions and chat to other colleagues across all of the businesses on the forum.
In 2011 their colleagues elected Women's Aid as their two year charity partner. Selecting a domestic violence charity was a brave and unusual choice for a retail business; indeed it was a first for Women's Aid. As is usual, the partnership had a particular emphasis on raising funds. Soon into the partnership it became very clear that this was so much more than fundraising. This was an opportunity to help change behaviour and to raise awareness of the impact of domestic violence to their colleagues, members, customers and the wider community. It became about helping to break the cycle of two women dying each week as a result of domestic violence. When the partnership ended in February 2013 they had raised £345,000; given 22,741 hours of volunteering time (10,959 of these in the West Midlands area); changed their internal policies to recognise domestic violence and trained their HR team to support colleagues in need; supported a national Women's Aid campaign collecting 24,000 signatures helping Women's Aid to surpass their 2011 target of 10,000 signatures and created an educational toolkit for Women's Aid to use nationally in schools to break the cycle of abuse before it happens. Their work has helped Women's Aid to raise their profile nationally and their partnership has been recognised through the achievement of national awards.
The organisation looks after and manages 3,000 acres of Triassic Pebblebed Heaths which enables over 500,000 visits a year by the local community at no cost to them. They gave over 270 local school children a chance to visit the Heaths and learn about its "240 million year old Triassic past", even meeting their own 240 million year old Triassic repile - the Rhynchosaurus! They also use wood fuel to heat their office and they are rolling out this green energy approach to other buildings this year. They have installed a 50kw solar PV array next to one of their business parks to encourage use of solar power by their business tenants and they have just applied to install a 4 mega watt scheme next to a larger business park in Exmouth to power all the businesses with renewable energy. They also provide "ride to work stabling" at Bicton Arena for employees who wish to travel to work by horse.
The organisation hosts "Skip Sessions" - i.e. skipping layers of management where each quarter five employees meet informally with the leader of the organisation for a two hour session where anything can be discussed and ideas and thoughts on how to improve the way they work can be put on the table and discussed. The only rules are that those attending may not discuss anyone not present and there are no formal minutes but the Director takes away the key un-attributable messages and ensures that they are followed up.
The organisation seeks to reward employees in various ways. They arrange dinner or lunch with a family member from the Estate's owners, which provides an opportunity to say "thank you" personally and for the employee to feel appreciated. Employees receive recognition for years of service by receiving a certificate and gift presented by Lord Clinton and the Estates Director after 10, 20, 25, 35, 40, 45 and 50 years. Our last 50 year certificate was in April 2012; our next will be in 8 years' time.
They are fortunate enough that they have two opportunities a year where the entire organisation comes together in London. Although they have increased their staff force by a large amount in the past year, the leaders still value the importance of spending time as a whole organisation. This year in April was the 4th anniversary and they held an event to celebrate. The event began in the afternoon with all staff being split into groups and rotating round a carousel of different sessions. Each session was led by a different group of staff. Each local leadership team led a fun and interactive session, such as a quiz or a treasure hunt, around how their office works and their local area. They also had a session with the senior leaders with the opportunity to ask them any questions staff wanted answered. Another enjoyable session was a ‘getting to know you' game to mix all staff together and find out some interesting things about people they didn't know before. This all lead up to the social in the evening where they all came back together for some food and drinks and opportunity to just relax. They had some entertainment provided by some of the local choirs who sang beautifully and even wrote their own Challenge Network version of a Les Miserable classic. They ended the evening with karaoke and dancing at a local bar which was thoroughly enjoyed by all.
Any issues or trends that come out of the survey results will be taken very seriously and meetings with Senior Leaders and Local Leaders of all zones will be held to discuss them. Depending on the results they may set up working groups to look into how they could make this better next time. The Challenge is very flexible and is not afraid of change. The staff's well being and happiness is more important to them than anything else.
They are fortunate enough that they have two opportunities a year where the entire organisation comes together in London. Although they have increased their staff force by a large amount in the past year, the leaders still value the importance of spending time as a whole organisation. This year in April was the 4th anniversary and they held an event to celebrate. The event began in the afternoon with all staff being split into groups and rotating round a carousel of different sessions. Each session was led by a different group of staff. Each local leadership team led a fun and interactive session, such as a quiz or a treasure hunt, around how their office works and their local area. They also had a session with the senior leaders with the opportunity to ask them any questions staff wanted answered. Another enjoyable session was a ‘getting to know you' game to mix all staff together and find out some interesting things about people they didn't know before. This all lead up to the social in the evening where they all came back together for some food and drinks and opportunity to just relax. They had some entertainment provided by some of the local choirs who sang beautifully and even wrote their own Challenge Network version of a Les Miserable classic. They ended the evening with karaoke and dancing at a local bar which was thoroughly enjoyed by all.
Each new starter has a departmental induction which involves spending time in the various departments to understand how their role fits with the team. We ran a "Wanted Programme" where the successful candidate was awarded with our management trainee placement. As a management trainee, the team member spends a few months within each department in the hotel to have a comprehensive understanding of the hotel operationally. They receive one to one coaching sessions with the Hotel Manager and also participate in our Management Development programme. They receive reviews in each of their departments in order to track the progress they have made. The hotel is also partnered with Purple Cubed who administer the appraisal process and also conduct training sessions within the hotel. The Talent Toolbox appraisal system enables the organisation to identify and place greater focus on development needs.
Each new starter has a departmental induction which involves spending time in the various departments to understand how their role fits with the team. We ran a "Wanted Programme" where the successful candidate was awarded with our management trainee placement. As a management trainee, the team member spends a few months within each department in the hotel to have a comprehensive understanding of the hotel operationally. They receive one to one coaching sessions with the Hotel Manager and also participate in our Management Development programme. They receive reviews in each of their departments in order to track the progress they have made. The hotel is also partnered with Purple Cubed who administer the appraisal process and also conduct training sessions within the hotel. The Talent Toolbox appraisal system enables the organisation to identify and place greater focus on development needs.
The Cavendish London is passionate about taking clear and meaningful steps towards reducing their impact on the environment. Through a little extra creativity, effort and compromise, a carbon neutral meeting package has been developed to ensure that business and environmental objectives can be achieved in tandem. Having won a Visit London Gold award and an Enjoy England Silver award for sustainable tourism, The Cavendish London has created a meeting package in conjunction with Carbon Clear to ensure that all their meeting packages are carbon neutral. The Cavendish London is also supporting Luara ceramic by purchasing in excess of 300 tonnes from Carbon Clear's Arrozal-Guarai Fuel Switch Project. This fuel switch project consists of six small-scale ceramic factories in Rio de Janeiro where each factory has been retrofitted to enable sustainable biomass, waste wood and sawdust to be burned as fuel to heat the brick kilns. Heavy fuel oil was used as the fuel source previously. As a result significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions are achieved.
The company has both a football and netball team and provides sponsorship to these teams for kit etc. They provide the ability through their IT systems to work from home to facilitate flexibility for employees to take home deliveries or who have travel difficulties. Last winter, employees worked from home during the snowfall rather than risk travelling to the office and those stranded at the office were taxied home by the MD in his 4x4.
They have a fully funded study support package available to people in accounting, taxation, marketing and HR functions. They strongly support CPD and ensure their people are developing professionally as well as acquiring knowledge. They also operate an internal management development program for selected employees every two years. This is a bespoke program developed for taylorcocks by an external provider who has worked closely with the company for over ten years.
The company has both a football and netball team and provides sponsorship to these teams for kit etc. They provide the ability through their IT systems to work from home to facilitate flexibility for employees to take home deliveries or who have travel difficulties. Last winter, employees worked from home during the snowfall rather than risk travelling to the office and those stranded at the office were taxied home by the MD in his 4x4.
In 2011 SwiftKey introduced special effort awards. These are peer nominated awards made to employees who have 'gone the extra mile', for example to meet a demanding deadline or just for a job extremely well done. There are no restrictions on who can nominate who; SwiftKey wanted to encourage wide adoption of the scheme and a culture in which all employees think about how they can recognise the contributions of their peers, whether 'junior' or 'senior' to them and whether part of the same department or a different department. All nominations do require at least one seconder, to ensure that they are appropriate for the scheme and to prevent unfair bias. They believe the scheme is both unique and effective because it doesn't rely on a restricted or formulaic choice of gift (such as a cash bonus or shopping vouchers). They get to know their employees and their personal interests and values, so that they can select a well-considered gift that's particularly meaningful to them. This also encourages people to nominate their colleagues, because they know that the gifts are carefully selected. Examples of gifts that they have previously given are jazz show tickets for a music fan; a copy of a hard-to-find author-published book on 'Arch Linux' for an enthusiastic software engineer; a hamper of locally brewed beers for a CAMRA member; and a 'go pro' camera for a tech enthusiast who's always got a new geeky project on the go.
In 2011 SwiftKey introduced special effort awards. These are peer nominated awards made to employees who have 'gone the extra mile', for example to meet a demanding deadline or just for a job extremely well done. There are no restrictions on who can nominate who; SwiftKey wanted to encourage wide adoption of the scheme and a culture in which all employees think about how they can recognise the contributions of their peers, whether 'junior' or 'senior' to them and whether part of the same department or a different department. All nominations do require at least one seconder, to ensure that they are appropriate for the scheme and to prevent unfair bias. They believe the scheme is both unique and effective because it doesn't rely on a restricted or formulaic choice of gift (such as a cash bonus or shopping vouchers). They get to know their employees and their personal interests and values, so that they can select a well-considered gift that's particularly meaningful to them. This also encourages people to nominate their colleagues, because they know that the gifts are carefully selected. Examples of gifts that they have previously given are jazz show tickets for a music fan; a copy of a hard-to-find author-published book on 'Arch Linux' for an enthusiastic software engineer; a hamper of locally brewed beers for a CAMRA member; and a 'go pro' camera for a tech enthusiast who's always got a new geeky project on the go.
In 2011 SwiftKey introduced special effort awards. These are peer nominated awards made to employees who have 'gone the extra mile', for example to meet a demanding deadline or just for a job extremely well done. There are no restrictions on who can nominate who; SwiftKey wanted to encourage wide adoption of the scheme and a culture in which all employees think about how they can recognise the contributions of their peers, whether 'junior' or 'senior' to them and whether part of the same department or a different department. All nominations do require at least one seconder, to ensure that they are appropriate for the scheme and to prevent unfair bias. They believe the scheme is both unique and effective because it doesn't rely on a restricted or formulaic choice of gift (such as a cash bonus or shopping vouchers). They get to know their employees and their personal interests and values, so that they can select a well-considered gift that's particularly meaningful to them. This also encourages people to nominate their colleagues, because they know that the gifts are carefully selected. Examples of gifts that they have previously given are jazz show tickets for a music fan; a copy of a hard-to-find author-published book on 'Arch Linux' for an enthusiastic software engineer; a hamper of locally brewed beers for a CAMRA member; and a 'go pro' camera for a tech enthusiast who's always got a new geeky project on the go.
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