What are companies doing with regards to 'Leadership'

talkbackThames strive to engage and listen to employees opinions and conduct an internal engagement survey. The results are fed back to employees through presentations, team meetings with the findings published on their intranet. Employees are encouraged to put forward ideas and initiatives. They have held a pitching market open to everyone to contribute creative ideas with prizes including TVs and holidays. They give a spot bonus for exceptional work and send emails around the company to thank individuals for their contributions and reward employees with flowers, chocolates and lunches.

talkbackThames strive to engage and listen to employees opinions and conduct an internal engagement survey. The results are fed back to employees through presentations, team meetings with the findings published on their intranet. Employees are encouraged to put forward ideas and initiatives. They have held a pitching market open to everyone to contribute creative ideas with prizes including TVs and holidays. They give a spot bonus for exceptional work and send emails around the company to thank individuals for their contributions and reward employees with flowers, chocolates and lunches.

Star Refrigeration support charities by making a donation to top up funds raised either within the workplace or for activities that individual employees have undertaken for charity. Effort is also made to support charities with a personal connection to staff. They follow the basis tenants of reclaim, recycle and reuse in their day to day operations, for example used paper is collected for shredding and recycling and materials are reused/recycled where possible on sites. They also support the local community, for example, they have recruited three young people in the last year through a local regeneration scheme including one who is now a management trainee. They also recruit apprentices every year and are involved in a mentoring scheme at a local school.

Star Refrigeration support charities by making a donation to top up funds raised either within the workplace or for activities that individual employees have undertaken for charity. Effort is also made to support charities with a personal connection to staff. They follow the basis tenants of reclaim, recycle and reuse in their day to day operations, for example used paper is collected for shredding and recycling and materials are reused/recycled where possible on sites. They also support the local community, for example, they have recruited three young people in the last year through a local regeneration scheme including one who is now a management trainee. They also recruit apprentices every year and are involved in a mentoring scheme at a local school.

Southdale monitor their organisations impact on the environment by building code 3, 4 and 5 sustainable properties they are members of the Considerate Constructors scheme and work with local initiatives to reduce their carbon footprint. Waste management systems are implemented in all of their developments, as well as the recycling policy that is in place within all of their offices. Employees have also undertaken various challenges and activities in a bid to raise funds for local charities including a Golf day, the Three Peaks Challenge, the Great North Run, Virgin Vie parties, dress down days and coffee mornings, staff also have the opportunity to take time off to fulfil voluntary commitments and staff are encouraged to get involved with local voluntary organisations.

The company invest heavily in training and development for all members of the team from directors to site operatives. They are committed to offering career opportunities for people to come into the industry and a number of training programmes, including professional and technical, site management, apprenticeships, graduate placements and work experience. They have developed a coaching culture to ‘grow' the team and ‘unlock' their potential. Southdale would be prepared to consider any employees proposals in regards to their own personal development and where practicable implement them.

Employee success is recognised in monthly and quarterly reviews. For successfully achieving a large deal a ‘ring the bell' email is sent out. To bring out the best in people, staff are given flexibility and are encouraged to work in areas of ability and confidence. Solarcentury are keen to listen and engage with employees and conduct an annual survey, where results are presented and discussed at quarterly review meeting and then posted on the shared drive and intranet site.

Employees are encouraged to take part in charitable activities and are given up to 3 paid days off per year to assist them. They have taken part in a number of events including sponsored cycle rides, Big Chill festival and a PR trip to Africa which was in support of SolarAid. SolarAid was set up by the Chairman Jeremy Leggett with the companies first year profits. Solarcentury's vision is to make a big difference in attaining a cleaner world and a sustainable future. Every 6 months, the management team meet with the Environment Champion to review progress, set targets and look for ways to improve their performance in this respect. In support of their local community they also offer talks in schools work placements for students.

Savile Group work hard on developing their teams and offer various methods for furthering people's careers and education. Courses available include personal coaching, MBA sponsorships and various other external skills courses. Employees are also given opportunities to work in different environments, recently some consultant's offered their time to help antislavery and community networks charities.

The people who work at Savile Group take an immense amount of satisfaction from their job. Seeing the end result of their efforts when somebody finds their ideal job creates a great sense of pleasure for all who work there. There is an excellent team spirit and the company invests heavily in their staff whilst handing out thank you cards and offering recognition during meetings for excellent performance or great ideas.

The company have a number of schemes in place to ensure employees feel valued and are rewarded for their efforts. They offer an individual performance related bonus and a site wide bonus for manufacturing performance. Employees can also nominate one another for work they have done above and beyond expectations. Points are then awarded which can be redeemed for vouchers and their achievement is acknowledged by all of the senior management team. To provide employees with a more instant form of recognition line managers issue on the spot vouchers for the staff canteen.

Employees benefit from an accessible and visible management team. The company operate an open door policy and employees can approach managers of any level at any time. The Managing Director Dr Alan Mclenaghan is often seen on the shop floor engaging with employees and many mangers participate in social and sporting events with employees from all levels. A management communication session and a team brief are held monthly which gives employees an opportunity to raise any questions.

All employees are included in deciding which charitie's the organisation support. They are actively encouraged to volunteer within the local community and take part in fundraising events. They have led reading groups in local schools, volunteered in local charity shops and undertaken gardening at a childrens' hospice. Rouse & Co undertake legal work at discounted rates or on a pro bono basis for a number of charities.

Rouse & Co believe in personal development for every employee and offer a wide range of external and internal training such as public speaking, risk management and time management. All vacancies are advertised internally and employees are encouraged to apply. They financially support formal qualifications for all employees and allow time off to study and complete exams. Prior to exams senior management will tutor employees during and outside of working hours. Weekly ‘know how' sessions are held which cover internal work related matters. Each team participates and provides opportunities for more junior level associates to improve their presentation skills, their knowledge of anything from recent case law to any new internal procedures.

Employee's wellbeing is supported. They offer a flexitime scheme as well as short term flexible arrangements. If employees wish to take time off in lieu rather than being paid after working additional hours, this is also generally available. Should employees wish to attend such things as medical appointments, allowances are also made for these.

Rother District Council rewards their employees for their efforts through a reward scheme and recognition emails. The Council relies on the innovation, creativity and lateral thinking of its individuals, as an integral part of development. This also helps them to improve services to their customers. In addition to this they recognise the value of good people and help staff to maximise their potential during their time at Rother.

Robert Clack has been judged as an outstanding school by Ofsted in the last 3 inspection reports. It serves a community characterised by extremely high levels of poverty; amongst the lowest wage level in London; the lowest level of qualifications amongst the adult population and high crime. Despite the considerable challenges that the catchment area provides, under the dynamic leadership of Sir Paul Grant the school has transformed itself from one of the worst performing schools in the country in 1997 to being inside the top 1% of schools nationally in 2008. Due to its transformation, the school has aquired a local, national and international reputation for excellence in all areas. The school is now an official High Performing Specialist School and has, unusually, applied for and been granted three separate curriculum specialist areas of excellence: Science, Maths & ICT and finally Languages. The school is also visited by numerous guests throughout the academic year eager to see the leadership and management strategies that have made the school such an enormous success.

As a maintained school, every full time colleague must fulfil 195 days in work every year of which 5 days are designated training days. On these days, all maintained schools may close to offer whole staff training on certain whole school themes. Employees are also given the opportunity to attend professional development activities arranged by external private providers. During the course of 2008-2009, a total of 402 full days were spent attending external CPD events. Colleagues may also seek to gain further professional accreditation; this may be professional qualifications which will enable colleagues to gain promotion. One senior leader has gained the National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH) which enables people to become Headteachers whilst other colleagues have gained the similar qualification aimed at middle leaders (Leading from the Middle). Another person is in the process of conducting research into an area of teaching and learning which will allow him to visit an international destination (Australia) in order to see best practice in action. Other staff have gained financial support from the school to further their academic study e.g. through studying a MA in Education Leadership.

In all of their company meetings the Executives and senior management invite questions throughout, so as to ensure employees are fully aware of everything happening within the company. All employers and leaders are in an open plan office. All leaders are approachable and welcome any interaction. They have employee dinners with update presentations; they also have various adhoc presentations, and team meetings and lunches where senior management attend. As they have an open door policy, if anyone has anything they would like to discuss with him they may and he regularly encourages dialogue with all of their staff. He regularly interacts with all staff, socially and at work. They often attend many of the "fun" functions they hold.

Once a month they wear jeans to work and a donation is made to an employee nominated charity, which can be charities that their employees have a personal involvement with. The organisation use a company called Carbon Neutral to offset their carbon usage. They have paper and cardboard recycling with Shred-it who replant how ever many trees worth of paper they recycle. They have a company allotment, where employees can grow vegetables. They believe that all of the areas described above make them a sustainable company. They have frequently supported Heathrow Special Needs Farm and worked with them for 2 years in their local community which is part of the Business in the Community (BITC) Group.