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My Company - The level of engagement employees feel with their job and organisation
My Company is what we call an ‘output’ factor, it focuses on people’s ‘love’ and ‘pride’ in working for your organisation.
Now unfortunately you can’t directly make people feel these emotions, but when all of the other seven factors are doing well, people will be far more likely to experience that love and pride ultimately improving the My Company factor as a result.
In 5 years' time the company aim to be twice as big and twice as profitable with both existing and new products, and intend to double the amount of staff they currently have. Helping you make a difference™ is about using the values that they have listed through demonstrating their behaviours by behaving in a way that demonstrates the belief in the 8 values. The company's mission is to adapting our behaviours to match our beliefs.
The company recently created a new breakout area for all staff to use. ‘Our House' incorporating ‘The Lounge' is a space for everyone to relax and unwind during their lunch break. It is a relaxed and inviting area, with the opportunity to catch up on some daytime TV or to share a game of pool or table tennis with their colleagues. This room can also be used as an informal relaxed meeting room. This is something that the company have introduced to help enhance the wellbeing of their employees. They have also installed subsidised vending machines containing healthy snacks along with better coffee machines. The company offer subsidised eye tests for all staff and free hearing tests for those employees who are exposed to a noisy working environment. They try to accommodate flexible working hours where possible and have offered for some office based employees the option to work from home. The company offer a fully expensed company car for the sales executives, which includes funding fuel for both work and personal use.
Instead of sending Christmas cards the company usually donate money to a local charity or supply a gift to a local women's refuge. They also have a Christmas raffle and any money raised from this goes to a local charity which is chosen by the staff. The company is a major contributor to Whizz Kidz and they are now in the process of setting up their own charity, "The Arnold Haase Charitable Trust", to help the local community. They are also a major sponsor of our local radio station Red Shift Radio and are patrons of the South Cheshire Chamber of Commerce.
Sentinel Housing support all of their people to grow and develop personally and professionally. The company offer a blended approach to L&D, recognising that everyone has a preferred learning style and if they can tap into that the L&D will be more effective. One great example of how the company have supported employee development is a restructure of their front line operations to create a tier of team leaders and to appoint all posts from internal candidates. This came about from staff consultation. Many comments were made that the company's hierarchical structure was too flat so there were limited opportunities for upward career development. Sentinel Housing took this feedback seriously and subsequently restructured their neighbourhood and customer services teams to create 7 team leader roles. The company appointed all posts internally and set up a L&D programme for all to attend. They also developed team leader competencies and a reward structure that gave incremental salary increases as competencies were reached. This has had a hugely motivational effect on the organisation. Firstly it demonstrated that Sentinel Housing do take feedback seriously and it showed that they value their staff and are prepared to invest in them. So the heightened morale extended beyond the individuals who directly benefitted from the restructure. And now some of those people feature in the company's succession plans to be future managers of their business.
The Sentinel Housing trades team (around 30 people) take part in an incentive scheme which is paid out quarterly. It looks at a number of different areas but is linked to the company values and also what is important to their customers. It is important to Sentinel Housing that they put the customer at the heart of what they do and as their trades team are working with our customer's day in and day out. Feedback and compliments are taken very seriously and the team are rewarded for receiving compliments. This also is linked to the ACE customer service model which looks at an Awesome Customer Experience. Sentinel Housing boast a competitive salary, excellent annual leave entitlement, flexible working opportunities, childcare vouchers, a personal development allowance for staff, free car parking on site, an employee assistance programme giving access to professional advice and counselling, free eye tests and a contribution towards glasses, life insurance for employees and reduced health insurance rates for family members, amongst other benefits.
Sentinel Housing have a variety of learning & development programmes that support their managers at different stages of their development. This includes formal training, mentoring and coaching and toolbox talks. All newly appointed team leaders and middle managers attend management skills training run by the Corporate Coach Group. This ensures that the company have a consistent approach across all management disciplines. Further training is given to meet individual need. Individual L&D plans are developed and agreed between manager and individual taking into consideration current level of skill and career ambition. Sentinel Housing group also provide training to help us meet our corporate ambitions and strategies. This year the company focused on coaching to improve staff empowerment. For staff to be truly empowered they need to be capable and confident. Coaching reinforces learning and is the best way to build confidence so our staff will take decisions at the lowest level. Monthly toolbox talks are run by the company HR Team. They are a useful refresher for the management skills used less frequently; absence management, capability management, disciplinary & grievance, selection interviewing etc. Sentinel Housing Group senior managers are currently on a leadership programme with Ashridge Business School – ‘Leading the Difference'. The company are identifying the leadership style they need to keep their business highly successful against an external environment that is very challenging for housing associations.
The company have embarked upon a strategic communications programme that makes homeworking real, with clearly articulated benefits for organisations, their customers and the employees that serve them. They are involving their people in this – from videos and company bloggers to contribution to PR activity – and all this is underpinned by an active social media programme.
The company believe that their shift flexibility is a key benefit. Employees have to work a number of pre-agreed core hours, but are then free to select hours that give them a good work/life balance. This means that they have predictability of working hours, but also flexibility if they need to have a special day out with the children or simply make a doctor's appointment. The company's technology also supports shift ‘swapping' which means that employees can reach out to colleagues to swap shifts, giving even more flexibility to achieve the best work/life balance.
The company believe that their shift flexibility is a key benefit. Employees have to work a number of pre-agreed core hours, but are then free to select hours that give them a good work/life balance. This means that they have predictability of working hours, but also flexibility if they need to have a special day out with the children or simply make a doctor's appointment. The company's technology also supports shift ‘swapping' which means that employees can reach out to colleagues to swap shifts, giving even more flexibility to achieve the best work/life balance.
Their vision as a business is to become a global provider of investment property brands, renown in each market they serve for their ability to successfully align investor returns with brands that exceed end users' expectations. Their values centre around their team members being committed to excellence, always demonstrating integrity and showing respect and being passionate, active and take pride in everything they do. Their esteemed management team do this from leading from the front and demonstrating superior conduct and professionalism. The management team acknowledge the success and talents of individuals but also realise that true excellence is delivered through the combined efforts of team members so rewards tend to be team based, such as department trips to Dubai. This also enables global teams to meet and interact which cultivates a positive working relationship.
Every Monday morning at 8.45am every team member meets in the sales office for a kick off meeting. The London team skype in from the office so that all team members know what is happening across the UK. This boosts motivation for the week and allows all departments to update the rest of the company with the main highlights from the previous week and what they are looking forward to that week. In addition to this and to encourage interaction between departments and offices, Select Property Group holds regular social events both in and out of work time to allow all team members to participate, regardless of personal circumstances. Examples of this have been a series of summer lunch parties at both the Alderley Edge and London office – Paella Day, BBQ Day and Pizza Day are just three examples. All events are run simultaneously in both Alderley Edge and London with group images and video calls made in real time in order for the two offices to bond.
Their vision as a business is to become a global provider of investment property brands, renown in each market they serve for their ability to successfully align investor returns with brands that exceed end users' expectations. Their values centre around their team members being committed to excellence, always demonstrating integrity and showing respect and being passionate, active and take pride in everything they do. Their esteemed management team do this from leading from the front and demonstrating superior conduct and professionalism. The management team acknowledge the success and talents of individuals but also realise that true excellence is delivered through the combined efforts of team members so rewards tend to be team based, such as department trips to Dubai. This also enables global teams to meet and interact which cultivates a positive working relationship.
Enabling Your Potential -Ethics of coaching and developing so people know where their future is within the company.
Impact Awards - A global award programme celebrating the positive impact on clients, each other, and the world. Core Value awards, Buddy Awards, Bonus
Impact Awards - A global award programme celebrating the positive impact on clients, each other, and the world. Core Value awards, Buddy Awards, Bonus
The company's brilliant office space plays a big part in promoting collaboration. Double height ceilings and multiuse furniture solutions make it an extremely flexible place to work. All employees are provided with a MAC laptop on arrival, so everyone has freedom to hot-desk. They offer plenty of desk space, sofas and amazing break-out areas for people to have informal meetings and brainstorm. They also have a dedicated canteen/lunch area in the basement where staff can gather over lunch, or break off to one of the snug areas fitted with sofas and soft lighting for more relaxed chats. Rufus knows the importance of taking time out together. Each team has an allocated budget that they can use for social activities. In addition, the events team Freshly Squeezed puts together a bespoke programme of monthly classes and events to help motivate and inspire. These include everything from shoe design, sushi making and movie nights – this means many opportunities to work together with colleagues in smaller groups. They also run regular clubs, including Wine club and Book club. Their Party Animals team also organise lots of opportunities for teams to bond outside of work. Every month, they run an initiative called “Life Lessons With…” These are a fortnightly team challenge where staff nominate a topic, then get together and present their understanding of the topics to each other. In addition they run monthly ‘Masterclasses' - show-and-tell sessions designed to share with each other the work in their respective areas.
Aside from their fixed and regular reward initiatives like the Employee of the Month award, Xtra Mile programme and end of year Red Lion awards, which are voted for by colleagues and directly reward staff performance with tangible benefits of up to £1000, they have worked hard to develop one of the most diverse and comprehensive benefits packages in their industry. Part of their benefits sees the company curate a programme of cultural events called Freshly Squeezed, which aims to cater for the ‘whole person' by offering a wide range of topics. Staff are encouraged to get involved at their leisure and within work hours to develop new skills. This gives staff the opportunity to take a break, with the intention of feeling valued and making Rufus a rewarding place for them to come to work. Rufus have had fantastic feedback from both permanent and freelance staff who say they haven't seen such a wide-ranging and unique initiative at any other agency. Their benefits seek to reward staff with everything from time off to discounts on leisure activities (1 free cinema ticket for Vue and Cineworld each week; 40% off British Airways flights; 25% off Eurostar) to looking after their physical and emotional health and wellbeing. On a daily basis, if people need to work late to hit a deadline, they'll be provided with as much beer, pizza and ice cream as they can manage!
The company's brilliant office space plays a big part in promoting collaboration. Double height ceilings and multiuse furniture solutions make it an extremely flexible place to work. All employees are provided with a MAC laptop on arrival, so everyone has freedom to hot-desk. They offer plenty of desk space, sofas and amazing break-out areas for people to have informal meetings and brainstorm. They also have a dedicated canteen/lunch area in the basement where staff can gather over lunch, or break off to one of the snug areas fitted with sofas and soft lighting for more relaxed chats. Rufus knows the importance of taking time out together. Each team has an allocated budget that they can use for social activities. In addition, the events team Freshly Squeezed puts together a bespoke programme of monthly classes and events to help motivate and inspire. These include everything from shoe design, sushi making and movie nights – this means many opportunities to work together with colleagues in smaller groups. They also run regular clubs, including Wine club and Book club. Their Party Animals team also organise lots of opportunities for teams to bond outside of work. Every month, they run an initiative called “Life Lessons With…” These are a fortnightly team challenge where staff nominate a topic, then get together and present their understanding of the topics to each other. In addition they run monthly ‘Masterclasses' - show-and-tell sessions designed to share with each other the work in their respective areas.
Rocket Fuel have a Town Hall teleconferencing meeting with all their offices worldwide to communicate the company vision and strategy.
Rocket Fuel HR team provides one to one coaching for people managers and offer fortnightly people focused coaching meetings for new managers recently promoted. They have a management mentoring programme of junior staff members on industry knowledge and technical which gives them experience to learn and coach junior team member. In Rocket Fuels Marvels Training programme they offer management courses to up skill managers with management tools, The following training is provided to all managers. Accelerated Feedback training, The versatile manager, Challenging conversations along with accelerated leaders programme to up skill their talented employees in the business to develop in their careers. HR also work with people managers to set out quarterly objectives for their team members, to support them in providing challenging and measurable objectives that are non revenue focused. Rocket Fuel also carry out a twice a year performance review of all employees allowing managers to fill in a self evaluation form along with feedback provided to them directly by their managers in a formal performance meeting. The strong culture in Rocket Fuel is team work and everyone working together to achieve the business success.
Every Monday morning Rocket Fuel hold an All Hands Europe Meeting, where they use a teleconferencing visual system to connect all their Europe offices together for a Europe Team meeting that is led by SVP and General Manager EMEA . During the 1 hour meeting it give the entire team a commercial update and to share communication in a collaborative interactive way. Each office has an opportunity to share their weekly successes and challenges. Rocket Fuel hold Quarterly Business Review meetings with the whole team and discuss the performance of the past quarter, along with a variety of presentations on new products, new incentives and client and agency feedback. The UK Managing Director runs the meeting and acknowledges the top performers of the quarter in each department, presenting each individual with gifts. The meeting lasts for 3 hours in a collaborative way, offering each department time to present. After the meeting the team have team drinks in the bar to encourage open communication and cross departmental interaction in a relaxed social environment. Rocket Fuel also hold social events in the office every quarter such as Halloween parties, Hawaiian BBQ's, celebrations of birthdays, births and engagements which also creates a good social platform for teams to celebrate and have fun together during work.
Robert Woodhead Ltd value their employees and their supply chain immensely and the ‘Good to Gold' programme is a pathway through which they offer them the support they need. In whatever area support is required, from health and safety, project and work management, recruitment and human resources, business compliance to best practice, the ‘Good to Gold' programme is designed to help them learn, improve and grow. They are putting their core values, their knowledge and expertise into helping them go from 'good' to 'gold' standard. The program consisted of workshops aimed at increasing the employees' knowledge and understanding and so growing their business and their supply chain.
Robert Woodhead Ltd allowed their local Scout Group to stay in their building overnight, using the facilities available, to enable them to complete several badges. The Scout Troop held an award presentation evening where Robert Woodhead Ltd provided them with the funds to cater for all Scouts, their families and members from the Scout movement. Robert Woodhead Ltd have also engaged with communities around their construction sites, this included the BIG Initiative Programme (Building to Inspire a Generation) which has been set up with the purpose of addressing the skills gap of both on site and office based roles across the construction industry. The purpose of the BIG Initiative was clear and focused on two areas: They wanted a robust strategy, method and brand to inspire people of all ages to join the construction industry. Secondly they wanted a vehicle to drive training and development for people who were already in the industry. The B.I.G Initiative is a companywide commitment to training and development.
Robert Woodhead Ltd value their employees and their supply chain immensely and the ‘Good to Gold' programme is a pathway through which they offer them the support they need. In whatever area support is required, from health and safety, project and work management, recruitment and human resources, business compliance to best practice, the ‘Good to Gold' programme is designed to help them learn, improve and grow. They are putting their core values, their knowledge and expertise into helping them go from 'good' to 'gold' standard. The program consisted of workshops aimed at increasing the employees' knowledge and understanding and so growing their business and their supply chain.
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