People Managers Matter

An open door policy is in operation and Directors work in open plan environments at Head Office and the majority of site offices. The Directors are very visible in the organisation. They carry out regular site visits and attend all regional meetings and social events. Regular cluster and regional meetings are held where employees can ask the Directors questions

Employees are supported in a variety of ways and can work from home if need be. They offer flexible hours to suit their personal needs and view all employees as individuals and treat them according to their specific individual needs. The Board lead by example and promote a healthy lifestyle. They encourage all staff to do the same.

Azzurri communicate and engage with their employees through a number of channels including CEO's monthly update, newsletters, their Intranet and their employee representative forum. They have started to use e-newsletters called IMPRINT as a way of communicating new information to people in a more interesting and colourful format other than normal e-mail. They also have an Information and Consultation of Employees Council called Voice of Azzurri. There are 13 representatives from across the business who were nominated and voted for by all employees. They meet on a quarterly basis. The role of the VOA forum is to hold useful and worthwhile discussions between management and employees on a wide range of issues that impact all employees within the business where everybody can have their say and pass on ideas to the board.

Although there is no specific budget Azzurri does hold social events to increase team spirit which are fun including a bowling night, ‘Azzurri's Got Talent', a charity fundraising barbeque and quiz nights along with annual Christmas parties.

The company has funds especially for fun and social events. £220 was spent per person between August 2009 and August 2010. This included the Comedy Store Christmas Party, Softball in the Park, Company Drinks, Company Conference, Quiz Nights and a Summer BBQ. Formal team building is provided 1–2 times per year and included a soft ball event in Regents Park.

David Alberto makes it his business to visit centres regularly and speaks to all employees when he can. He is known as an inspirational leader in Avanta. His open door policy encourages all to speak with him whenever they need, take ideas to him and any Suggestions offered are taken seriously. David's invitations to events are spread widely so everyone has an opportunity to attend where possible. David starts any Induction day off with a presentation of the company, with an open and answer question and answers session. He has created an open culture and close family feel to Avanta, and has maintained this through a strong period of business growth. The current SMT started working with David in 2004, when the business started and they have continued to be part of this growing company alongside David, working as a team to build the best possible business that they can.

Each quarter, Autodesk UK holds "All Hands" meetings, a meeting for all UK employees to celebrate successes and share business updates. Employees and managers have the opportunity to nominate a colleague for going "above and beyond" and the winning nominee receives public recognition and a gift in front of their colleagues. "Autobucks" is a spot recognition bonus award program. It provides managers with a convenient, easy to use means of recognising and rewarding employees that demonstrate above and beyond performance. The purpose of a spot recognition program is to reward employees “on the spot” in order to recognise an exceptional work product or behaviour.

One Autodesk employee "banked" their volunteer hours and spent some time participating in a volunteer program in Salvador, Brazil. The placement was working at a Sisters of Charity day care centre in one of the favelas (shanty town) on the outskirts of Salvador. These centres were set up through Mother Teresa's mission to care for the poorest children in the community and provide them with food, shelter and love. The employee's role at the centre was to help with feeding, playing (using development activities as far as possible) and washing. Other employees have participated in career coaching and workshops in local schools and community centres.

Angel Trains offer leadership courses and management skill courses. As the need is identified the company will organise for an external company to conduct a 360 feedback process. This is then fed back to employee to work on with their line manager. The company also have 2 professionally trained coaches who offer coaching to all employees. The senior managers and executive receive external coaching when the need is identified.

The company ensure that they explain to employees why they have the budget for pay and bonuses. Angel Trains reward their high performing employees well, aiming to pay upper quartile compensation. They also offer competitive benefits including a defined benefit pension scheme or 15% contribution of salary, 30 days holiday for most employees and free permanent health insurance. Average training spend in the UK tends to be £300 per head, whereas in Angel Trains it averages over £1,800 per head.

The Council's safety adviser gives advice and support for quitting smoking and holds a budget to fund smoking cessation products. We have lunchtime fitness classes at the Council such as ‘gut busters', Pilates and yoga. They have run several health screening days where staff can have their cholesterol, blood pressure, BMI and bone density. They also have a range of flexible working policies including non standard working hours, flexi-time, flexible working for parents and carers and paid time off for urgent family leave. They also hold events such as ‘Bring your children to work' day.

The organisation have team lunches to celebrate birthdays and other special occasions or achievements. The council encourages staff to put themselves forward for external awards and recognition. Wherever appropriate staff from the team will be sponsored by the council to attend award ceremonies and events. They are running three pilot schemes for "an even better place to work" programme which will be rolled out across the council in the New Year. This is an inclusive and innovative programme to assist staff to manage their morale and motivation and build better relationships within the team.

The organisation offer various management courses including "Managing for First Time". They also offer various informal line manager days to help to build on the management skills that employees have.

The organisation review their salary structure on a regular basis and deal with anomalies. They also ask for regular feedback through supervisions and balanced scorecard reviews.

The Leadership Trust is a charity. All profits they make are distributed in grants and bursaries to other voluntary organisations in order to further their leadership development. Since starting their grants and bursaries scheme they have donated in excess of £3.4M.

Employees serious about losing weight are offered moral support. Time off is supported if an employee feels this is appropriate for managing stress, otherwise managers are encouraged to offer support on an ongoing basis. It is recognised that this is a real issue for some employees and time off/support from manager is provided. They provide a fully equipped fitness centre with new equipment that is available to staff to use any time outside working hours as long as the site is open, free of charge.

Strategic Directors have previously run customer excellence Workshops for staff. In addition our Chief Executive holds regular Chief's Chats on issues that may be of concern to staff. There is an open door policy in place at Stratford District Council. The leader has strong integrity and believes in a culture of transparency, openness, fairness and equality for all staff. He encourages flexibility within the organisation.

There are a number of ways in which staff are rewarded, in addition to their salary. Honoraria payments are made where employees take on additional work beyond their usual role. The employee award scheme recognises where staff have 'gone the extra mile' and awards a financial payment or additional annual leave to the category winners. There is a team award as part of the annual Employee Award Scheme.

Employees only have a contract for a maximum of 37 hours per week. Care Managers can authorise anyone wishing to work overtime for a maximum of 48 hours per week. These levels of work are in line with the European Time Working Directive and are in place to protect Sandwell's employees. Sandwell also employ a staff care counsellor for any employee experiencing specific personal or employment issues. The care counsellor can refer individuals for specialist counselling if necessary. Sandwell also has a specialist occupational health advisor who employees can see or be referred to with any physical or mental health issues.

Management tool kits/resources are part of the management training programme. Sandwell offer pay/support for external management qualifications. They currently have a care worker on a university qualification which SCCT is funding. There is also a Management Development Programme. Sandwell offer 360 feedback through Management meetings and personal supervision. Internal coaching/mentoring is undertaken with personal supervision.

A Health and Wellbeing group, with representatives from across the council, has recently been formed to look at all areas of Health and Wellbeing. A Health and Wellbeing Fair was held earlier in the year involving a number of local professionals and organisations giving advice and demonstrations on a variety of subjects. As a result of this several further events have been made available for staff including reiki/massage sessions and pilates. It is envisaged that through the work of the Health and Wellbeing Group this events list will grow. Additional health and wellbeing provision includes access to free counselling services, occupational health and the opportunity to pay into the health scheme.

Communication is the key to ensuring employees feel they are rewarded for their efforts and feel valued as part of the organisation. People's contribution to the organisation is recognised and valued. There are celebration awards, a staff suggestion scheme and being informed of the results of any suggestions made and letting staff know their opinions were valued. There is an appraisal system and staff receive feedback from their managers. The Council has adopted a rolling review process for Investors in People to ensure the mechanisms continue to be in place to support staff and let them know how valued their contribution is.

Postcomm has a culture amongst its staff to raise money for charity. A number of staff have undertaken bike rides, runs for a variety of charities, e.g. Anthony Nolan Trust, British Heart Foundation, Breast Cancer awareness.

Postcomm has a culture amongst its staff to raise money for charity. A number of staff have undertaken bike rides, runs for a variety of charities, e.g. Anthony Nolan Trust, British Heart Foundation, Breast Cancer awareness.

Staff are encouraged and supported to express their views and opinions on how they can make Poplar HARCA a better place to work and contribute to how they deliver services to residents which makes them feel valued. Poplar HARCA have an excellent range of benefits such as health screening, legal and personal counselling, childcare vouchers and subsidised schemes.

The Leader is approachable to all levels of staff within the organisation, proactive in sharing the vision and explaining how all staff fit in, encourages new ideas and initiatives from all staff and sends personal invites to staff to attend corporate events.

Effective Talent Management and Leadership Development is a key objective for Chief Executives, Chairs and Boards. Best Practice research suggests that there are eight pre-conditions or essentials for successful Talent Management and Leadership Development. The NHS East of England propose that these essentials are simplified and embedded into the SHA and PCT Talent and Leadership plans to provide a consistent and coherent focus of attention, ensuring that they are spoilt for choice for Leaders and Talent across the NHS both now and in the future.

The NHS East of England are a high performing organisation that makes many exciting demands of their staff. They offer a vibrant, dynamic working environment that gives opportunities for people to explore both breadth and depth in their roles. While the pace is fast and the expectations are high, they give back to their staff as much as they give to the organisation.

Performance is awarded through the ‘Performance Management System' which links to the annual pay award. Natural England also operate a recognition policy which enables managers to recognise individuals or groups of people for contributions to Natural England. The pay and benefits package includes an annual pay award which is linked to individuals' performance. The company also listen and take steps to introduce additional flexible benefits which employees value. Some of the further benefits that have been introduced include career breaks, discounted gym membership, buying annual leave and salary sacrifice schemes to enable people to buy childcare vouchers or bicycles.

Performance is awarded through the ‘Performance Management System' which links to the annual pay award. Natural England also operate a recognition policy which enables managers to recognise individuals or groups of people for contributions to Natural England. The pay and benefits package includes an annual pay award which is linked to individuals' performance. The company also listen and take steps to introduce additional flexible benefits which employees value. Some of the further benefits that have been introduced include career breaks, discounted gym membership, buying annual leave and salary sacrifice schemes to enable people to buy childcare vouchers or bicycles.

To ensure employees feel they are rewarded for their efforts the company have performance related pay, significant training and development, significant annual leave, opportunities for external and internal secondments, project work and cross-functional team working.

To encourage healthy eating, fresh fruit is available in the office for all staff. Employee Assistance Programmes are in place for managing stress and mental health issues. Staff are very sports minded and several of them have run in the Westmonster Bridges monthly run at lunchtime programme. They also have a Cycle To work Scheme which more than 10% of staff have taken advantage of. The company have also offered membership to the Civil Service Sports Council.

Training activities within the organisation include Pensions Scheme training, Data Protection, IT Systems and Corporate training. Formal qualifications are also supported through time off or funds.

In order to support people managers in the organisation, they have Internal management development training, meetings and internal/external coaching available.

Johnnie Johnson Housing regularly provide information and advice to their customers through their newsletter to help them reduce the cost of utilities and also reduce their own environmental impact. They have a large programme of refurbishment work, in which they are upgrading elements of their housing stock to provide more energy efficient homes for their customers. They are also starting to provide innovative measures, such as onsite generation of electricity from photo voltaic panels to help their customers save money and reduce the environmental impact of their properties.

People managers within "Johnnie" Johnson Housing are given the opportunity to take part in mentoring programmes to assist others inside and outside of the organisation to develop their skills. Where possible the company open up courses to other managers who are not necessarily pursuing the full qualification, e.g. individual modules/sessions on the ILM courses.

Impact Housing Association regularly hold management training sessions especially the Institute of Leadership and Management qualification and internal events on managing attendance, discipline and grievances. They are currently running a CIH Management Development Programme. Where appropriate they pay for management qualifications. Impact hold four managers meetings a year where all the organisation's managers come together to discuss development and service improvement.

Impact Housing Association regularly hold management training sessions especially the Institute of Leadership and Management qualification and internal events on managing attendance, discipline and grievances. They are currently running a CIH Management Development Programme. Where appropriate they pay for management qualifications. Impact hold four managers meetings a year where all the organisation's managers come together to discuss development and service improvement.

Global Action have a Christmas party, quizzes and evenings out and a Swish event.

Global Action have a Christmas party, quizzes and evenings out and a Swish event.

An MA in teaching and learning is provided free and run by the Institute of Education, University of London. A Coaching Diploma, accredited by Middlesex University, is open to all services and teaching staff. Regular Friday afternoon sessions are run on teaching and learning, teachers teaching teachers. Long-term management development programmes are run for senior, middle and aspiring leaders. Mentoring by both external and internal staff is available for managers and work shadowing is available to all staff.

The company issue certificates at awards ceremonies for the completion of both internal and external professional development. Teams are taken for meals in recognition of outstanding performance. Hospitality is provided to all staff on the occasion of significant achievement. All staff are thanked publicly in all staff briefings in recognition of successful outcomes and hard work. Letters of recognition are sent to individual employees and to whole teams when there is high performance. The company hold Termly Star Awards according to various categories nominated by staff and students. Professional standards payments are available to teachers who meet the criteria.