What are companies doing with regards to 'My Company'

The Supply Group offers various incentives/rewards to employees. They understand that each employee has different ways that they are motivated by and they adapt their rewards to each individual.

The Supply Group have a 'break out' area which has table tennis, free vending machines, basketball and football goals. This encourages employees to exercise and have a well-deserved break.

Stride Treglown offers university placements for those conducting environment/sustainable research projects and continue to work closely with schools, offering work experience for pupils whilst telling them about architecture, design and environmental issues within the built environment. A number of their senior staff also lecture at local universities and all staff are given time off to undertake voluntary work and/or trustee duties.

Stride Treglown have a green committee that is engaged with One Planet Living which helps them understand how to make the business more efficient and how best to advise clients of environmental matters. Following the One Plant Model, they focus their efforts on; carbon reduction; waste; transport; use of sustainable material; fair trade; food; water and health and wellbeing.

For the last two years Story Homes has funded a sports programme which supports nine schools in Carlisle which is ran in partnership with Carlisle District Sport and Physical Activity Alliance Foundation (SPAAF). The programme funds physical education lessons for schools. It started in September 2012, aiming to keep the Olympic legacy alive amongst school pupils. Fred Story was inspired to contact SPAAF and get the scheme up and running after learning that funding for sport in schools was being cut, leaving children with even less opportunity to participate in the sport they had seen in the Olympic Games. Through Story Homes funding, SPAAF coaches spent half a day each week working with the children in their own schools, teaching new sports and encouraging them to get involved in physical activity. They promoted health, hygiene and fitness alongside confidence, self-esteem and motivation to achieve and succeed in sport. In 2010, in order to showcase and encourage interest in site based careers such as bricklaying, joinery, roofing, plumbing and groundworks, Story Homes recruited a team of apprentices, along with their subcontractors, who were challenged to build a 4-bed house at their Magellan Park development. This was filmed and shown on ITV4 in March 2011 as part of a three part series called "Rookie Builders." The majority of apprentices were recruited from the high unemployment area following a jobs fair in order for local people and the community to benefit .

Story Homes' CEO, Steve Errington, is an open, transparent and visionary leader. Steve joined the business in August 2012 and has been working collaboratively with the team and overhauled the core house building processes in order for Story Homes to be fit for purpose and for their ambitious growth plans which has made a huge difference to the business.

The senior management team work incredibly hard to demonstrate that their staff are valued within the organisation. Examples of this include an open door management style; regular walkabouts to chat and communicate with staff; being visible to staff in all locations, by doing regular visits to satellite offices and field workers and organising an annual away-day event for all staff which is purely about meeting colleagues and having fun away from the office.

St Lyle's held a staff away day at Ashcombe Country Park for all employees. It involved a short presentation from the CEO followed by team building exercises such as archery and puzzle solving. It was an opportunity for staff to network and get to know each other as well as having a day of fun away from the office. It was a great success. Recently they held a foundation-wide event to bring to life their 2020 vision and strategic plan displaying how it influences their day to day roles and above all, how it can really change people's lives. Following this presentation, senior managers led facilitation sessions where they asked for active participation in delivering the strategic plan and shaping the foundation, specifically within areas such as structure; systems; staff and skill, both in number and capability and shared values. They also hold departmental away days to look at forward future planning.

Staff development is integral to St Anne's culture and is covered as part of PDRs and appraisals. Staff can aim to complete competencies at a higher level than their role if they wish.

St Anne's have recently re-invested in a new EAP, which provides day one stress intervention and serious illness/accident support. This has been effective in returning people to work and supporting them through periods of depression and anxiety.

In July, Spirit Pub Company held a Summer Bash at their support centre organised by their fun and fundraising team, GRIN, giving employees the opportunity to socialise. They wanted to give a relaxed feel to the event so right from the start they themed it as though the invitation was coming from “Cosmic the Dog” rather than Spirit. The name Cosmic came from the entertainment which they had organised, a fun band called the Cosmic Sausages who went from table to table singing and interacting with our employees. The event, held in the atrium where the bar is located, was totally free to employees and included BBQ food, a full range of drinks and entertainment. Employees could finish work at 4pm to join in the fun. Their atrium was so full with employees that they needed to re-jig the chairs and tables to fit everyone in. Cosmic became famous and the excitement spread, employees were talking about it for weeks running up to and after the event. So much so that they are bringing Cosmic back later in the year for their Christmas bash! Their new approach of “making people smile” has helped to break down barriers between the support team and the operations team to work more effectively.

Spirit Pub Company offers “employee care”, an employee assistance programme, provided by First Assist. It's a confidential service where employees have access to a website and a helpline providing advice and support on all aspects of their lives from financial concerns through to quitting smoking. The helpline is available 24 hours a day 365 days a year and is completely free of charge. There is also a telephone counselling service and face to face counselling service available. They also offer employees at the support centre a discounted gym membership at a local golf and country club in Burton where employees can receive a corporate rate peak membership of £49 per month with no joining fee, compared to their usual rate of £65.50 with a £199 joining fee. Memberships can be extended to golf at a special rate too.

Somo have started to record their weekly stand-up sessions so that those who cannot attend or are in different time zones can see what is said. The company has also introduced new wiki sites to accompany this.

Somo hold team building days for all new starters as part of their induction. This is a full day which is held offsite and looks at their values and also the way in which the company works. They also hold a summer and Christmas team building event, which includes a full day of information sharing and then an evening social event.

The MRAP scheme (Market Rate Adjustment Programme) was launched in 2008 in response to feedback SIX received on their remuneration section of the employee survey of that year. The MRAP scheme was created with two objectives in mind: (1) to invest money into basic wages part way through the year (rather than waiting for year end) if their salary benchmarking process shows that an individual has fallen below market rate, and (2) to reward individuals with one off cash bonuses for outstanding contribution to a particular project or business issue. The budget for the MRAP scheme is reviewed on a quarterly basis and financial rewards are offered to individual employees for either outstanding contribution during that quarter to their business, whether it be through new ideas put forward, innovative solutions or the successful completion of a project, or investment into their basic salary if the market has shifted. These payments are a separate reward to their annual bonus or annual salary review. HR work closely with line managers to review nominations for the MRAP list. If they are unable to financially reward an individual in one quarter, they remain on the list and are prioritised for the next quarter. The MRAP initiative has been effective in bringing the philosophy of contribution and reward closer together and strengthens employee engagement with the organisation.

The MRAP scheme (Market Rate Adjustment Programme) was launched in 2008 in response to feedback SIX received on their remuneration section of the employee survey of that year. The MRAP scheme was created with two objectives in mind: (1) to invest money into basic wages part way through the year (rather than waiting for year end) if their salary benchmarking process shows that an individual has fallen below market rate, and (2) to reward individuals with one off cash bonuses for outstanding contribution to a particular project or business issue. The budget for the MRAP scheme is reviewed on a quarterly basis and financial rewards are offered to individual employees for either outstanding contribution during that quarter to their business, whether it be through new ideas put forward, innovative solutions or the successful completion of a project, or investment into their basic salary if the market has shifted. These payments are a separate reward to their annual bonus or annual salary review. HR work closely with line managers to review nominations for the MRAP list. If they are unable to financially reward an individual in one quarter, they remain on the list and are prioritised for the next quarter. The MRAP initiative has been effective in bringing the philosophy of contribution and reward closer together and strengthens employee engagement with the organisation.

Shopzilla have a monthly charity budget, that determines the level of contributions to individuals/team who are raising money for their chosen charity partner. Currently their monthly guide is £500, but they are always willing to review this.

Shopzilla run wellbeing awareness weeks, offer subsidised gym memebrship and other activities such as yoga and football. They also give quarterly massages.

Although Seymour House scored quite well in this category last year, it is an area that as a company they are looking to improve on. They are currently building a team section within their intranet which will incorporate links to health campaigns, healthy eating and wellbeing initiatives.

This year, taking on board feedback from employees, the senior management team agreed the introduction of a voluntary benefits scheme. "Seymour Rewards" offers all team members exclusive discounts and cashback deals on thousands of high street and on-line retailers. The take up of this scheme was very high within the first 2 weeks of launch and has been consistently used since then, creating a buzz amongst many staff.