What are companies doing with regards to 'My Manager'

Xero UK receive support from their own Learning and Development Specialist. Some employees have had further coaching than that given at the beginning of employment. They have a monthly People Managers Meeting and PX are there to support and advise. Some employees are going on to do a coaching qualification themselves. 360 degree feedback is given annually. There is increasing use of Workday to initiate feedback. Engagement is measured by Officevibe and reported real time on a weekly basis to ensure that employees are happy at work. The company work hard to maintain a two-way flow of information.

Whitbread strive to support and encourage development within their Management populations. When Managers are appointed to a new role they are assigned a mentor who will be an experienced and high performing operator at the same level. In Premier Inn the ‘Shooting Stars' programme supports team members as they progress into their first management role all the way through to being an experienced multi-site manager. Whitbread also have Apprenticeships programmes to develop and support team members, starting from an Intermediate level 2 through to an MSC level 7 in Multi Site Management. Across Premier Inn 398 Apprentices have been promoted, 102 to Operations Manager, 58 to Assistant Operations Manager, 166 to a Premier Inn Host, 58 to Head Housekeeper and 14 to Head Chef. Health & Safety also features heavily, with bi-annual audits conducted by an external provider to ensure that all sites and Managers are compliant with health & safety laws and internal targets relating to the safety of team members. Across Whitbread they measure management performance through their Whitbread in numbers card or ‘WINcards', which is split into four central measures: Winning Teams, Customer Heartbeat, Profitable Growth and Good Together.

Twice a year companywide training events on employment law are provided, as well as managerial skills sessions for all Managers. Urgo also give 360 assessments for people Managers. As part of the annual appraisal process, Managers are assessed versus the Urgo Managerial competencies. A talent review day also takes place each year, where each Manager is presented by their line Manager to the Leadership Team in order to identify high potential people and to also create development plans.

Unity's employees have volunteered at a donkey sanctuary, where therapy is provided for disabled children. They have also visited Acorns children's hospice to help with decorating and tidying up the garden. They've held a MacMillan Coffee Morning for which employees baked cakes and took part in a raffle. Raffle prizes were donated by suppliers, customers and other organisations in the company's building. Employees have also taken part in fun runs, mud runs and triathlons to raise money for charity. The next event planned is to scale three mountains in 24 hours. Unity even have a committee called 'Unity in the Community'. Their aim is to promote and organise volunteering and fundraising events that everyone can get involved in. Employees also have the opportunity to volunteer at any organisation they choose. Unity is an equal opportunities employer and will make reasonable adjustments to ensure that all employees are able to perform their duties to the best of their abilities. The company are keen for the money that they lend to their customers to have a positive impact on the community; therefore they measure and publish the positive social outcome of their lending.

The Car Finance Company use the 70:20:10 model as the basis of their learning and development strategy in order to focus development on topics that Managers have the opportunity to put into practice immediately in order to be the most effective. Their Leadership and Development Manager has facilitated meetings being held by the Leadership Team as part of their development programme. A group of Team Leaders are presenting at their departments conference for the first time, so they have been supported to develop their presentation and to deliver it building their confidence. A group of Managers took part in a workshop on performance management ahead of the company's quarterly review process. They believe this is a more practical approach and allows delegates to put changes into practice more effectively. Employees can also get involved in coaching and mentoring programmes, which the company find to be more useful as short technical training sessions. Finally performance is always measured against quarterly objectives.

Open communication and accessibility to the senior team are key within Tate. Through spending time in the branch network and asking for feedback in terms of what's working and what should change there is an environment of continuous improvement. Everyone has a voice and opinions and ideas are valued. The Regional Directors hold a weekly conference call to share news and updates and send out a weekly update highlighting achievements and performance. The values at Tate are not just something written on a piece of paper, or in the Boardroom, they are actively practised in the business, and there is an expectation within Tate that all employees, including Senior Management, demonstrates them at all times. They ran a survey earlier this year about values and engagement in the business to identify people's concerns and issues. The results of this survey were shared from the senior management team addressing all of the questions and providing solutions and answers to ensure everyone feels their opinion is valuable to the business. The CEO lives the brand and the culture with a capability of making the vision a reality and he is always very visible and accessible within the business, working from each branch and constantly asking for feedback. His style is very inclusive and he build strong relationships with all employees. He has a sense of humour and appreciates that hard work and gaining results don't have to be to the detriment of fun along the way. David is very highly regarded and respected in the business, very approachable, open and interested in everyone. He is results oriented, but ensures great customer satisfaction is at the forefront of everything Tate do.

Working in a high risk industry SPV run a regular training plan which they draw up in conjunction with the CITB & NFRC. Over and above this, in 2016 they have put all supervisors through training to enable them to get gold CSCS cards. They have four team members booked on a heritage roofing course which they have requested and will also ensure they can offer another service to their clients. They have also enrolled all administration members in a customer services NVQ Qualification that they enrolled out to newly promoted supervisors onto the Institute of Roofing management and technician course. The MD Howard is The institute of Roofing Midlands Regional Chair and as such the company has a number of manufacturers CPD courses coming up later in the year. In 2016, SPV enrolled two new apprentices on a built up felt roofing apprenticeship with a further two to be enrolled later in the year. In 2016 they put three team members through a cladding apprenticeship which they are due to complete in early 2017. In 2015, they enrolled six team members on the pilot Liquid Waterproofing Specialist up skill Course. This programme was written by the Liquid Roofing and Waterproofing Association in conjunction with the CITB to infill the training gap in the industry between the Apprenticeship and OSAT. SPV Group then subsequently put a further three team members through the course early this year. In 2016 they enrolled a further three onto the Liquid Waterproofing Specialist Apprenticeship course.