What are companies doing with regards to 'My Manager'

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.

Part of the Southpaw culture is to be open and honest with every member of staff. As part of this ideology the company hold a quarterly company meeting that welcomes new joiners to the agency, celebrates the best strategic and creative work, rewards individuals who have represented their BOB values most consistently and also explains how the business is performing commercially. Southpaw celebrate the highs and lows together in order to stay united as a pack and to progress forward. They are very transparent on gross income generated, performance against budget, profit generated to date and forecasted profit. They feel this transparency gives their talent a real sense of ownership and empowers them to make a significant difference to their commercial, creative and cultural development. All employees are also given laptops, which allows them to work collaboratively and to not be tied to a specific spot within the building, which really helps promote team interaction for effective working and relationship building.

In addition to the support that Southdown provide to thousands of local vulnerable people, they also make additional and discretionary contributions. The organisation are accredited as a Disability Confident Employer and provide advice to other employers in promoting opportunities and providing support for employees who have a disability or other long-term health conditions. 21% of employees have a declared disability or a long-term health condition. Each year staff choose a charity to support together. In 2015 staff raised over £2,400 through a range of activities, including a live music event to support ‘Caring (therapeutic) Pets'. They have also been providing a food bank staff donation point for three years. For 2016 staff chose The Centrepoint Charity Relief Fund and have already donated over £1,000 from their fundraising. In East Sussex Southdown are providing free training to help local people who use mental health services and their carers so they can have their say and actively influence the services being provided. They are passionate about helping vulnerable people to overcome barriers that can prevent them from accessing work opportunities. As a specialist provider of supported employment and vocational advice they support over 1,200 people with mental health challenges each year to secure or retain paid work. Southdown are recognised as one of 14 ‘Centres of Excellence' in the UK by the Centre for Mental Health for delivering Individual Placement and Support employment services. They also provide a dedicated vocational support service for carers. Called Ambitions, the service works with carers to support them to identify and pursue their vocational aspirations.

SVHS have 11 trained facilitators across the organisation available to help focus and drive meetings/training sessions to improve communication flow. The company have a number of break-out spaces available to staff who can use the areas to chat to colleagues and have informal meetings. The Creative Room, with bright furniture including a sofa and bean bags, encourages staff to use the space to brain storm, share ideas and be creative in problem solving. SVHS also have large screens in meeting rooms with Apple TV's to allow easy use of video conferencing software, including staff who are unable to physically attend the meeting with team discussions. Earlier in the year SVHS hosted an all staff event called Future Focus. One of the main objectives of the event was to focus staff on understanding the future direction of the organisation; however the event also aimed to ensure staff were aware and understood the new ways of working and also focused on collaboration. The benefits of the event were highlighting the progress of the organisation to date, re-confirming leadership aims and goals for the organisation. The event allowed SVHS to run a number of activities aimed at encouraging cross-organisational collaboration and team building. These included asking each team to produce a ‘team board' in advance, being creative to display team success over the past 12 months and also areas which they felt could be improved.

Salix Homes uses a performance management system, which manages all service action plans under the Corporate Plan. Managers are responsible for reporting on their service areas within the system and are required to attend quarterly performance clinics to report their performance to the Executive Team. On an annual basis each service area/team has an externally led audit carried out and the outcome is then reported to the internal audit committee. Once the actions have been agreed at the committee, the Manager is responsible for providing bi-monthly update reports to the committee. Managers are subject to monthly one to one and annual appraisals with their Managers, where both their performance against objectives and the competency framework are measured.

RD actively encourages and supports a wide range of activities under its "Sport and Social Committee", which includes organising regular social activities and also backing the participation in a range of sports including football, cricket, hockey and running. In addition, the company have introduced a "random acts of kindness" budget that allows for Managers to do small things like buy snacks, lunches, flowers and so on to recognise the contributions of their team or lift spirits at times of unusual stress. Staff throughout the group are managed closely and due to the company's size staff related problems and issues can be quickly identified and addressed. RD is always extremely supportive and flexible in its approach to assisting staff. As well as this, Management Development specifically includes time spent looking at staff wellbeing.

As part of the company benefits Pulsant do look to provide helpful ways to support employees in maintaining a well-balanced and health conscious lifestyle. They currently provide fresh fruit and fruit juice, as well as healthy breakfast produce. The company have a Bike to Work Scheme in place. Some employees are entitled to free gym memberships and others can obtain discounts for gym memberships via the ‘My Pulsant Rewards' discount programme. There are additional opportunities to enhance wellbeing as part of the Health Shield cash plan, which gives employees access to an employee assistance programme as well as considerable contributions to health care and wellbeing. The 'Pulsant Plodders' go on regular runs during lunchtime and enter various local challenges. Pulsant have and will continue to refer to their occupational health provider as and when they feel this would be of benefit in order to manage and obtain advice on best practice as required.