What are companies doing with regards to 'My Manager'

Founder Simon Martin has led from the front on the company's diversity policy, launching a Changemakers programme to coach employees on what it means to be anti-rascist, not just non-rascist. More than 40 changemakers have been trained and a dedicated Diversity & Inclusion lead hired.

Team interaction has not been curbed by the pandemic with the company introducing a range of initiatives including a weekly kid's club for work-at-home parents, exercise sessions, dance classes and entertainment from a comedian and a professional singer. Online mixology classes and a “Quarantini” virtual bar night have proved popular.

In addition to organising webinars on topics such as Leading in Times of Change, Addictive Behaviours, and Resilience, Ikano Bank collectively challenged staff to walk, run or cycle the distance from Nottingham to its offices in Sweden over the period of a week.

Traditionally Ikano Bank has rewarded staff with vouchers worth between £75 - £175 to share with their friends and family and has given digital gifts such as Echo Dots, Virgin Experience Days, additional holidays and even trips to Sweden to fully embrace the Ikano culture.

Last year, Healios launched the Healios Academy, a career-development initiative for experienced clinicians to develop autism assessment skills. The academy was set up to address Helios's need to expand its neurodevelopmental team, as a result of unprecedented demand for its assessment services.

Concerns were raised about physical and mental wellbeing when lockdown restrictions precluded employees from leaving home. Staff spearheaded a Healios group on an exercise tracking app to support and generate fitness-related activities and ideas. The company continued its weekly mindfulness sessions, fortnightly yoga classes and “Walking Wednesdays”.

GMCA has continued with operational training, after an initial pause at the start of the pandemic. Now done in a Covid-safe way, development moved online through e-learning, webinars, and other platforms. The organisation received excellent feedback after two very well-attended events, ‘Learning at Work' week and a ‘Festival of Learning'.

Lots of teams do lots of different things to try to replicate some of the things they are missing about the office, including randomised coffee meets, huddles, quizzes, escape rooms and more. GMCA has installed new audiovisual equipment at all fire stations to support firefighters with group training, communications, and debriefs.

During lockdown in place of the usual monthly staff lottery which has a £100 prize, Fair Ways introduced a quarterly lottery where employees can win a £1,000 for a holiday of their choice. Staff can also now choose how they would best like to work in the future.

During the pandemic Fair Ways set up internal and external Help Squads to support vulnerable members of staff and the local community. Fair Ways staff helped colleagues or their families with shopping and picking up prescriptions and organised the donation of over 1,000 items to local food banks.

The business likes to send physical things through the post to remind people that it appreciates them. This includes small birthday presents, quarterly deliveries of a director-chosen gift – a bottle of wine, chocolate, beauty products, dependant on individual preferences. Several sets of hand-packed care boxes also went out.

Development was ongoing for all staff during the pandemic and was, in fact, strengthened to levels higher than previous years. This included training with the company's tooling partners; LinkedIn Learning; in-house courses; lunch-and-learn sessions; and staff obtaining formal qualifications such as Six Sigma and Prince 2 certification.

Lockdown gave the business the opportunity to stop and reflect on the training offered and the result was a complete overhaul of the online training system, moving to a new system with increased content compatibility and accessibility for all. The drpg Academy was also relaunched as the home for all development needs.

People at the company felt everyone was in unprecedented times together and so the focus was on open conversations, transparency and regular updates. Every week saw a TV-style programme give news on what was happening, how drpg was doing, what needed doing, and with people able to ask questions and comment

Monthly “Outstanding Awards” recognise staff going above and beyond. Employees can be nominated by their peers or by managers for demonstrating outstanding work in line with the charity's values. The winner receives a gift voucher and are celebrated in the staff monthly newsletter along with all nominees.

Staff placed on furlough have received regular “check-ins” from their line managers to keep them in touch with what's going on, give them updates on organisational changes and support their wellbeing. Staff also have access to an Employee Advice Programme which includes a 24/7 support line and online resources.

This year, Croner has been awarded Platinum Trusted Service status by Feefo, an independent market research organisation, which recognises businesses that go above and beyond to provide a consistently excellent service and dedicate themselves to exceeding customer expectations for at least three years in a row.

A Next Leaders programme supports employee development by teaching the specific skills needed for managerial roles. It provides tailored mentoring to educate and prepare individuals for a particular position. Line managers and departmental managers are coached on different areas such as client satisfaction, team building and teamwork.

Regular check-ins and events keeping teams connected include after-work virtual pubs and games, a book club, and wellbeing and yoga sessions. Managers' wellness is also not neglected. Team leaders have a direct comms support channel for personal and workplace conversations with the board and their peers.

All the in-date food, coffee and tea that was left behind when people started home-working was donated to a Black Country foodbank. cloudThing aims to achieve ISO:14001 certification by the end of 2022 and to be carbon neutral, both in itself and in the services it supplies, in five year's time.