Stateside Foods has a strong record of developing its people and identifying high potential employees for further progression. The company work to an internal recruitment target of 80% and many of their senior team have progressed through the Company from entry level roles. Many managers are often promoted for their technical ability and it is important to ensure that Stateside Food's managers are supported with training in management skills, to ensure that they are equipped to succeed in a management role. To achieve this, all managers participate in a Leadership Development program, externally accredited by the Institute of Leadership and Management. Between each module, delegates are required to apply their learning within their departments and take opportunities to develop their new skills. The most effective aspect of the course is the modules 5 workshop; during which participants are given the opportunity to role play some key management conversations supported by the Directors, who attend to play the role of the 'employee'. The event is conducted in a light hearted manner but managers always ensure that they prepare thoroughly for this module, so that they are able to practice their new skills effectively. Feedback has been extremely positive from all participants to date.

Employees at Stateside Foods are given time away from their day to day duties during working hours to become involved in community projects that benefit the local area. Most recently, employees organised and participated in a community litter pick of their industrial estate and local town centre. The pick was so successful that employees could be seen clearing litter from the main roads after reaching their original goal of clearing the estate. The company's next project is to tackle vandalism that has recently occurred at Westhoughton train station. Employees will be given the opportunity to get involved by tidying up the area and planting new flowers to improve the station environment for both Stateside Foods employees and local commuters. Stateside Foods also has a strong relationship with Westhoughton High School. They recently sponsored pupils to attend a Food Science summer school at Nottingham University, giving them experience of living away from home and studying in a university environment. Stateside Foods aim is to promote manufacturing as a career option in the local area and attract pupils to consider the many career options available to them on their doorstep. They have careers boards positioned at the school with staff profiles and they will be hosting a food science visit in November to show pupils their facilities and introduce them to their graduates that have chosen food science as a career path. The company also provide pizzas for sensory work to the food science department.

They are constantly looking at ways to develop their industry leading learning and development programme. This year they introduced Myers Briggs Type Indicator team sessions into the business. These sessions are about supporting individual growth and ensuring that teams gain a greater understanding of working styles and to ensure further cohesion and harmony in their work. They have taken over a 100 people through the sessions. These are facilitated by the Regional HR Director and Head of Learning and Development, both of whom are qualified MBTI practitioners and bring their own experience and creativity to the sessions. They developed the programme from an initial half a day workshop exploring preference type to a full day session that explores the impact of the different preferences on one another at work. These sessions have been invaluable as they have taken senior teams, client teams and board members through these practical, fun and experiential workshops. This is some of the feedback received “I found it very interesting not just learning about my own typology but also about my peers. I will definitely have some new added perspectives now when managing my team and pitching ideas.”

They are constantly looking at ways to develop their industry leading learning and development programme. This year they introduced Myers Briggs Type Indicator team sessions into the business. These sessions are about supporting individual growth and ensuring that teams gain a greater understanding of working styles and to ensure further cohesion and harmony in their work. They have taken over a 100 people through the sessions. These are facilitated by the Regional HR Director and Head of Learning and Development, both of whom are qualified MBTI practitioners and bring their own experience and creativity to the sessions. They developed the programme from an initial half a day workshop exploring preference type to a full day session that explores the impact of the different preferences on one another at work. These sessions have been invaluable as they have taken senior teams, client teams and board members through these practical, fun and experiential workshops. This is some of the feedback received “I found it very interesting not just learning about my own typology but also about my peers. I will definitely have some new added perspectives now when managing my team and pitching ideas.”

St Ermin's Operating (UK)'s employee rewards programme encompass the 4 areas within the culture and is designed to reward employees for behaviours that meet the Vision and Mission. Traditionally in hotels, reward programmes are centred on earning credits/points that can be exchanged for items within various company catalogues. The company believe that the most important thing to their team members is the ability to earn extra money outside their normal salary. St Ermin's created a programme called ‘Fish hook', which is split into the 3 of the 4 core value areas, Choose Your Attitude, Make Peoples Day and Be There plus Guest Recognition. The reward is a points based system, 1 point = £1 and the company pays the employee and employer tax on that £1 so that the employee receives the whole £1. Points are issued to employees by way of a personal cheque given by a Manager. All managers are issued with guidelines on what to look for within the business and are able to issue cheques to any employee they see or hear fulfilling the required criteria. Points are totalled at the end of every business quarter and the employee receives the cash value of their points in their salary. The average quarterly cost to the business has increased from £4,000.00 (plus the employee tax) in 2013 to £4,7000.00 in 2014. All new employees receive a travel card wallet with the Vision printed on the back and Fish hook details within.

St Ermin's Operating (UK)'s employee rewards programme encompass the 4 areas within the culture and is designed to reward employees for behaviours that meet the Vision and Mission. Traditionally in hotels, reward programmes are centred on earning credits/points that can be exchanged for items within various company catalogues. The company believe that the most important thing to their team members is the ability to earn extra money outside their normal salary. St Ermin's created a programme called ‘Fish hook', which is split into the 3 of the 4 core value areas, Choose Your Attitude, Make Peoples Day and Be There plus Guest Recognition. The reward is a points based system, 1 point = £1 and the company pays the employee and employer tax on that £1 so that the employee receives the whole £1. Points are issued to employees by way of a personal cheque given by a Manager. All managers are issued with guidelines on what to look for within the business and are able to issue cheques to any employee they see or hear fulfilling the required criteria. Points are totalled at the end of every business quarter and the employee receives the cash value of their points in their salary. The average quarterly cost to the business has increased from £4,000.00 (plus the employee tax) in 2013 to £4,7000.00 in 2014. All new employees receive a travel card wallet with the Vision printed on the back and Fish hook details within.

Every year they hold a Spire's Customer Services week to say thank you to everyone for their continued hard work. It is a week when all Spire colleagues are reminded of the important part they play in the customer journey with fun activities, such as guess the baby competition and awards to nominate colleagues in categories ranging from The Florence Nightingale award to more humorous ones like the megaphone and most accident prone. Work shadowing colleagues from other teams plays an important part as this helps not only increase skills and knowledge, but to also see how best they can work together. Spire's Management Team go back to the floor during the week and then they have a celebratory finale lunch, where team cohesion is at its strongest. To promote team work they aim to do this in a fun, positive and creative way. Their 'Cocktails with their Customer Services and Customer Engagement Team' is a great example of how they promote, share ideas and feedback and get to know colleagues better. Everyone gets involved throughout the week and participates in one way or another. It's a popular team building event with colleagues taking the lead in delivering and bringing it to fruition.

Mi Life is Spire's health and wellbeing programme and was launched following colleagues' feedback in April 2014. Their Mi Life group consists of champions who meet to set the vision and aims and look at how to bring these to fruition. The group meets monthly to organise the activities, decide the best way to spend the budget and plan the themes of the programme. Feedback from colleagues has been collected through an online survey. The focus has been around a better work/life balance with particular focus on relaxation, exercise, mind-management, as well as healthy eating. An outside communal garden area designed by colleagues opened to give colleagues an area to relax, but also to hold meetings. This is an example of how Spire is pro-active at introducing new practices. To promote healthy living they joined in with National Bike Week holding lunchtime cycle trips and a virtual cycle ride to Paris using their new exercise bike. There is a weekly lunchtime subsidised pilates class to help ease back and shoulder problems. Every colleague has a £20 personal budget to spend on anything that will enhance their wellbeing. During their Check your Numbers week ‘The Wellness Academy' provided free of charge health checks for colleagues. This in turn led to nutrition work shops and water bottles being provided to all to help combat dehydration. National awareness days are celebrated throughout the year to raise awareness on smoking, alcohol, men's health, back problems, healthy eating, hydration and exercise and many more.

The company offers flexible working and organises various social activities during the year.

SPF Private Clients' Sales Consultants are rewarded in line with the company's TCF (Treating Customers Fairly) principles.

Speedy recognise the importance of employee involvement and feedback and has established the ‘Employee Forums' as a framework for discussion on matters affecting all employees. They believe it is imperative that they give all employees their “voice”. The employee forums were initiated throughout the business as a result of feedback from our annual employee survey. They have been introduced as a way of improving communication methods throughout Speedy. The Forums have helped the business to establish and understand our people's thoughts, opinions, views and suggestions from all different grades, within all the business areas and departments. They have been a successful method in allowing the organisation to share business information with employees and as a result of the suggestions and comments raised there have been many improvements made to the day to day running of the business. They are a two way process of communication, discussing matters that affect all employees in a positive, professional and constructive manner. The Employee Forums are being held to share business information; encourage open and honest feedback, suggestions and ideas from employees; build stronger connections between their business strategy and what their people think; supplement the existing channels of communication within the group on business matters; provide effective two way feedback to promote better understanding and good relationships with employees, managers and leaders. The fact that the organisation set these up as a result of employee feedback gives an indication that they do listen and act upon feedback from employees

Employee development is encouraged at every level within the business within the parameters of Speedy Hire's “Career Journey” and this is evidenced tangibly in the volume of roles that are obtained by individuals already working within Speedy. 25% of vacancies within Speedy are filled internally as individuals are encouraged to complete both role based and aspiration training and development, preparing them well for their next career move. The development of the employee starts at the “Qualified” level of the Career Journey. Inductions to the business are tailored for each discipline and each team member has a career journey that highlights courses required, relevant qualifications and on the job training to support them through three levels of competency through the “Developed” level to “Expert”. At this point, the team member is in a great place to progress to their next career move. Each course is supported by their internal Training Academy to ensure each individual training log is up to date and the booking process is seamless. The leaders in the business are supported with tailor made management courses at different levels that will give each attendee a qualification from the CMI (Level 3 or 5) and there are various leadership plus modules and 360 feedback put in place to develop them further. Development is seen at every level and a number of current Directors started in the business at entry level. The internal mobility supported by the Career Journey is certainly one of the best examples of their commitment to employee development. In addition to this, Speedy Hire have a Human resources Service Charter manual that details all of the services they provide for employees to ensure managers and employees know what they have access to and what extra services they provide to support them in their development.

Senior managers at Spectrum Housing are aware of the values and were all involved in deciding what these should be. All senior managers act as role models and are aware of the need to act in line with the values and lead by example. They are all accountable for their behaviours and the values underpin everything that the organisation does. Senior Managers work in creative ways and have backed a ‘smarter working' project group. This has been trailed in Finance with the senior Finance and IT managers overseeing it. The results have been positive and employees have been allowed to come up with creative ways of solving problems. These groups will be set up in all departments. Senior managers go to all sites every other month to give a presentation on Bigger News. These managers give sessions throughout the day then spend the day at the site. Managers go to sites they wouldn't usually therefore meeting new people and developing relationships. These managers offer shadowing to all staff and take part in back to the floor days. There is the ‘one voice' section on the intranet where managers can update everyone on progress and offer thanks or congratulations. Senior managers use the Spectrum leadership competencies to ensure they act in a professional and responsible manner. All senior managers have or are undertaking a coaching and ILM qualification so every day they act as a role model.

Spectrum Housing introduced a staff recognition scheme in August 2012 called Spectrum Stars. Monthly nominations are made for Employee, Manager and Team of the Month with nominations being made by staff, residents or Board Members. These categories are voted for by the Executive Management Team, Senior Leadership Team and Staff Forum members, leading to one winner each month for each category. An e-Bulletin is circulated to all staff following the voting process to announce the winners. The winners for Employee and Manager of the Month each receive a £25 voucher and the Team receive a £50 voucher. All winners receive a gold star icon against their name in the staff phone book, a silver star lanyard and their photo in the reception area. The monthly winners form the 'shortlist' for the Annual winners for the same 3 categories. Spectrum Superstars, with the winners being announced at the Staff Conference. Winners for Manager and Team of the Year are voted for by the same monthly voting team and the Employee of the Year is voted for by all staff at the Conference. Each winner receives a £250 voucher and a glass award. Within the monthly e-Bulletin all nominees are listed (not just the winners). They also recognise long service milestones and dedicate a section where staff can publicly say thank you to a colleague, or where letters of compliments have been received from residents. Staff are engaging with the scheme across the Group and like the monthly bulletins.

Spark44 aim to always fill positions internally. Their quarterly appraisal programme is objective driven enabling them to identify areas for development. They also support professional training and study leave.

Employees at Spark44 are asked to contribute their ideas of what the company values should be, and then their values were defined using the feedback and thoughts.

Once all the feedback is in, management will sit down and go through all the ideas that have been put forward. These are then divided up into the relevant teams and that team head is then responsible for implementing their teams ideas. They produce documents that can be viewed by staff across the company so they can see the progress being made. A list is put up on the internal intranet so staff can see in real time what has been achieved and what is still to be done.

Once all the feedback is in, management will sit down and go through all the ideas that have been put forward. These are then divided up into the relevant teams and that team head is then responsible for implementing their teams ideas. They produce documents that can be viewed by staff across the company so they can see the progress being made. A list is put up on the internal intranet so staff can see in real time what has been achieved and what is still to be done.

The buddy system allows employees to buddy up with a more experienced member of the team to learn more and to have a mentor. Both parties are able to learn and develop their skills. They also invest £1500 per physio for their CPD training in order to develop themselves.

They had a summer team event where all clinics had to work as a team to put together a band and perform. Everyone had a lot of fun and enjoyed themselves.