What are companies doing with regards to 'My Company'

PPHE Hotel Group operates an Inspirational Service Programme. The overall aims of the programme are to give all the company's employees the skills and confidence to consistently create the desired guest experience, as defined by PPHE Hotel Group's Context. The training consists of three modules directly linked to the three elements of the PPHE Hotel Group's Context desired guest experience of feeling welcome, surprise and passion. This programme engages the team and gives them the tools to excel in their job.

PPHE Hotel Group operates an Inspirational Service Programme. The overall aims of the programme are to give all the company's employees the skills and confidence to consistently create the desired guest experience, as defined by PPHE Hotel Group's Context. The training consists of three modules directly linked to the three elements of the PPHE Hotel Group's Context desired guest experience of feeling welcome, surprise and passion. This programme engages the team and gives them the tools to excel in their job.

At Porter Novelli, managers have regular meetings with their Line Managers, Resource Planning meetings and 360 Appraisals.

Porter Novelli gives every member of staff a half day to do something of their choice for charity. The company encourages staff to club together for bigger effect but the choice is theirs. Porter Novelli asks staff to share their efforts so the rest of the company can be inspired to also participate in charitable activities. So far people have walked dogs for cancer, raised money for Cancer Research, fed the homeless, participated in the London Triathlon and Marathon and much more. The commercial value of this time is more than £30K per annum.

The Ministry of Innovation (MOI) is a group of representatives from across the company that meets every six weeks to empower employees to discuss issues and ways to make the company a better place to work. The MOI receives feedback and ideas from around the company, as well as Best Companies survey results, and develops initiatives to improve areas including staff well-being and engagement, office look and feel, social events and the overall employee experience. Last year, it focused particularly on well-being, leading to the introduction of the Summertime Working Scheme and Giving Something Back, and conducted focus groups with other staff members on both topics. One resulting initiative was the promotion of their 'Charitable Chums', where staff members promote the work or activities they undertake to peers and colleagues. Social events and activities organised by the MOI at the quarterly learning and information days have ensured that People 1st's family ethic has remained strong throughout the changes they have faced. Each MOI meeting is attended by the CEO/COO to ensure decision makers are informed and that proposed initiatives have both the support of employees and senior management. It also gives employees an opportunity to ask questions to the organisation's leaders, which are then fed back to wider teams.

The company launched a new way of working in February 2012, with six ‘project streams' agreed by the senior management team to guide the direction of work at People 1st. Prior to an event called the ‘Industry Leaders event', which launched this new approach to working and areas of focus for the sector the organisation represents, their CEO Brian Wisdom held a dial-in conference. The conference was attended by head office-based employees, and people working remotely or in the devolved nations were able to dial-in. The conference served to explain the new direction of the company, following the merger with sector skills council GoSkills and successful bids for funding. Staff members attending the 'Industry Leaders event' were briefed about the company's objectives for the evening and the messages that People 1st were hoping to convey to their guests. The conference created a dialogue for the entire company to ask questions, offer suggestions, and clarify the elements of the new project streams that were relevant to their department and nation.

The organisation have a good job evaluation process. They also have other pay options, appraisals, and a performance management process. They regularly review job descriptions and carry out employee appraisals and
monitor staff wellbeing by reviewing work loads. In addition, they have a well established communication flow, for example, staff rep groups. They also have regular staff meetings and a staff survey.

To enhance the well-being of employees the organisation includes staff in decisions, listens to their suggestions, supports regular activities of the Staff Representative Group, puts emphasis on safe working, and creats good working environments, management and practices.

The "What If…" employee led engagement initiative at Payzone UK Ltd has included the redecoration of a meeting room, in order to create a calm work free zone as well as a creative "think tank". The room has been themed to promote positive thinking and well-being. Decorated as a greenhouse, it includes artificial grass as the carpet, a blue sky with fluffy clouds, party bunting hung around the walls and flower stencilling. Funky chairs are provided and a welcome mat on entering. When the room was unveiled, it created a buzz of fun and laughter within the business and indeed continues to do so to this day. Employees have said that spending time in the room helps them to unlock their creative potential and eases the stresses and strains of working life.

Managers and Team Leaders performance is measured against the company's PACE values. The Personal and Caring values require the managers to provide evidence of how they have supported their team members to achieve both their personal objectives, and their individual development objectives. Additional support is available from the HR team to ensure that managers and team leaders feel fully supported when dealing with difficult or sensitive performance issues.

As the local children's sports clubs struggle for funding, Party Delights Ltd "sponsor" a number of the teams and supply all fund raising events with products at cost.

As Party Delights Ltd is a party company, they have regular events to coincide with celebrated occasions. These range from "Cupcake" week competitions, Red Nose Day events, and many others. These events build a great team spirit.

Their staff and management conferences this year have produced really good feedback from employees about how they can improve culture and customer service. Of their total headcount, they had 350+ employees attend one of the three staff conferences. The afternoon session in all three conferences, including the management conference, enabled employees to discuss with colleagues what should be on their agenda for improving customer service and how they work together to achieve it. The ideas that employees came up with were collated and a report sent to the Leadership Team for agreement on short and long term actions. Their communications with employees following the conferences have kept them informed of progress as they requested. A full report of the events will be uploaded onto the intranet.

One thing the senior management team have done this year is give employees a real chance to give their personal view about what sort of place they want to work in over the next five years. Employee responses are really shaping what the charity will look and feel like in the future. They are creating new Mission, Vision and Values for the charity; they wanted them to be real world, and not marketing jargon. So the people with the best views were the staff and customers. The first stage of engagement was to ask staff what they thought of their current Vision and Values. This was done by a brand consultancy. This feedback was taken to their staff conferences, where they created a memorable, interactive process asking staff to share their opinions on potential new Values. Everyone from the charity had their say about the sort of organisation they wanted to work for in the future. The session concluded with each employee voting for the ten words or phrases that best described the Trust. 500 votes later and the exercise in employee engagement resulted in new Values for Papworth Trust. The result was an honest picture of what employees thought.

Panasonic UK is pursuing an ECO strategy and has an ECO ideas scheme currently in place. By 2018, the company will be the largest supplier of ECO products worldwide. Through clever design, Panasonic's products are using less energy and are able to be recycled, thus having a more positive impact on the environment.

Panasonic UK have recently taken the principle of pay for performance down to all staff levels and not just managers. Therefore all employees have the opportunity to be rewarded based on targets and their performance. Panasonic UK also have MD recognition awards twice per annum.

Palletforce have recently introduced health benefits through Paycare which includes an employee assistance program. The company also have an onsite gym and a personal trainer who comes in once a week, employees can take an hour out of work time to attend the gym with the trainer.

Palletforce launched its Employee Recognition Scheme in 2011, which aims to get all employees involved in recognising each other for the work staff do either at Palletforce or outside of work. Employees can nominate each other and are recognised by the company's CEO and their achievements are published in internal newsletters and on Palletforce's intranet. The company also launched their long service awards which see employees awarded for milestones starting at 10 years.