What are companies doing with regards to 'My Manager'

Phoenix's Community Chest project sees an annual fund of £100,000 made available to groups and organisations with ideas for projects that will improve the community and life chances for residents. Since 2013, Phoenix has awarded £300,000 worth of funding to projects that have benefited more than 3,000 Phoenix residents and local people and are set to reach even more. Community events include a Phoenix Festival, which attracts more than 3,000 people each year, a Summer Fun programme for children in their area and regular Community Links events where residents can get involved in what's happening in their locality. They supported a small village in Togo via the Dekamile charity through inkind support and also engaged with staff to raise £12,000 to support further essential construction. They offered an opportunity for one Phoenix staff member, along with an employee of the subsidiary Phoenix Repairs Service, to travel to Togo to support the construction project and see first-hand the impact of their contributions. Unemployment in Lewisham, London, is more than twice the national average. Phoenix offer a range of initiatives to support local people to take the necessary steps in or back to work. Their ‘Roots into Work' programme offers a weekly job club, one to one advice and coaching from dedicated careers advisors, plus CV and interview workshops and a broad range of flexible training programmes. In 2015-16 they supported 48 residents into long-term employment. Free training ranges from functional skills in English, Maths and IT to vocational programmes that include work experience/placements. They also offer apprenticeships each year and seek to maximise job and apprentice vacancies within contractors and broader supply chain. Since 2014 a total 33 Lewisham residents have benefited from apprenticeships.

All employees have access to professional coaching and are assigned a mentor from within the business. Penna's People Manager Group meets quarterly and is led by the MD. This group works together to support people management in the business and to support one another with their people management role and responsibilities. Good leadership is a core tenet of the overall brand, along with the client experience and colleague experience; therefore the company believe it is essential that they maintain the standards of the leadership behaviours they have established. Each Penna Leader is asked to gather personal feedback on how they are performing. They do this by consulting their direct reports and anyone else whom they have led as part of projects they have undertaken in the last 12 months. Managers are then required to attend a one-hour training session where they learn how to give and receive feedback in the best and most respectful way. Managers then attend a feedback session with their own Line Manager, who shares and walks through the feedback to identify and maximise on strengths and also build upon any development areas.

There is an overall programme to support and develop Ombudsman Services Managers to be at their best. This programme includes refresher training sessions, as prior to mid-year reviews taking place a programme was provided for Managers focusing on the preparation and delivery of the review meeting, including dealing with challenges from employees. Managers also have access to online learning. This contains e-learning modules, guides and checklists around ‘Performance & Development', ‘Coaching & Mentoring' and ‘Managing People'. One to one coaching is provided to Managers using both internal and external coaches. An internal accreditation is awarded to those Managers consistently demonstrating effective coaching and observation is continued on a less regular basis to encourage maintenance of standards. Mentoring is supported within the organisation and a number of Managers have an internal mentor as part of their development. Objectives are set at the beginning of the year and are a basis for gauging progress and performance. Managers have a monthly conversation with their own Manager to discuss progress against their objectives and general wellbeing. Regular observations of one to one's and coaching sessions with team members also take place, with feedback and suggestions for development being provided to all Managers.

In addition to NNT Data offering occupational health and the Employee Assistance Programme, the company promotes the sabbatical and flexible working policy and also encourages employees to utilise these benefits. The business also encourages employees to take all annual leave throughout the holiday calendar year. The company recognises that in unfortunate circumstances an employee may need to take up to five days paid leave, which is another benefit used to assist employees with wellness and their return back to work.

No1 Lounges reward their operational staff with a ‘Performance Bonus' of up to 15% of gross salary each month. The bonus is awarded in two parts, one of 5% and one of 10%. Performance is linked directly to guests' experiences, which they receive in the lounge each day with a feedback questionnaire. 5% is attributed to each team achieving the target Net Promoter Score within the lounge and 10% is awarded based on how guests score certain aspects of their experience which are relevant to each role. The Performance Bonus scheme is free of any management bias and is not connected to the company's financial performance, which No1 Lounges believe to be unique in the world of hospitality. In addition to the Performance Bonus scheme the company also operate ‘on-the-spot' rewards for extra-special service moments, all in recognition of people going above and beyond in the delivery of the lounge experiences. These include tickets to the cinema and theatre, spa days, extra holiday time and high street vouchers.

In designing the NHBC's bonus structure the organisation have recognised that whilst all employees can influence business performance, those at lower grades have considerably less influence than Senior Managers on corporate objectives. As a result of this, to drive and recognise employee performance NHBC have weighted the bonus calculations for lower graded employees, allowing them to have greater influence over their bonus achievement. For most employees the bonus is based on 75% individual performance and 25% Company performance, whilst the CEO is 85% Company performance. This means that lower graded employees will receive a substantial proportion of bonus if they perform well but the Company does not over achieve.

money.co.uk offer 3 days' paid leave for team members to volunteer for a charity or organization of their choice. They value community and believe that work should not prevent those who want to, to volunteer for organisations who need help. They have a number of people on the team who are involved in organisations and charities outside of work such as the Brownies Association and Soroptimists International. This policy allows these individuals to get involved with the community and give back to organisations set up to help those most in need. This supportive policy is a sign that they support community and believe that it's important for the team to have interests outside of work. money.co.uk has allocated £2 million to donate to local and national charities this year and all employees are involved in deciding which organisations the donations go to. The team recently voted to collectively sponsor the Young Enterprise's “Learn to Earn” programme. This year Chris has empowered his team further by giving £5,000 to every member of his team to donate to a charity of their choice and so far 48 employees have embraced the opportunity to support an organisation that has special meaning for them.

The Møller Centre are committed to the health and wellbeing of their team and have several practices in place designed to support staff wellbeing. They offer onsite workplace massage for all staff at the end of the year. The HR and Training Manager is booked on to the Mental Health First Aid course to offer further support to those suffering with mental health issues. They offer a free counselling service as part of their health care plan and the HR and Training Manager has access to a number of other resources and Counsellor's if required. They have run and will continue to run resilience training. They have run a series of Pilates classes in house. They also include a wellbeing tip in the monthly newsletter, which is always well received. They try to link the message to something topical such as National No Smoking Day, Stress Awareness Day or Mental Health Awareness Day. As above but in addition to this they have run a mental health first aid lite course for Manager's to enable them to spot the signs of mental health issues. Each month the HR and Training Manager also offers an open 2 hour drop in session which is available to all staff to discuss any issues which are personal or work related.

The Møller Centre staff nominated Charity of the Year for 2015/2016 was East Anglian Air Ambulance, which provides Helicopter Emergency Medical Services across the county. During their year of support, they provided various ways for team members to get involved and raise much needed funds. Some of the team joined in with a collection in the local market square. They held a race night and quiz night, inviting staff to join in, have fun and raise money. They encouraged staff to donate money at Christmas for a non-uniform day and donated money in lieu of sending company Christmas cards. They asked for volunteers to take part in running the Cambridge Half Marathon, with other team members supporting on the day. They donated their time and facilities by running an afternoon tea for the EAAA volunteers and had a Euro-themed football sweepstake, again, raising much needed funds. Throughout the year they also sold various merchandise with all proceeds going to EAAA and had collection tins throughout the Centre. During the lead up to the Quiz night they sold EAAA scratchcards, offering some light hearted competition to see who could win the most! They also contributed an amount to the Charity for every Delegate Feedback Questionnaire received at the Centre during the year.

Mcginley's weekly fresh fruit drop and healthy treats like energy and cereal bars, which are always provided at meetings, encourages staff to eat healthily. The company provides clean and well-maintained areas for employees to prepare and store their own meals too. McGinley have embraced the notion of actively encouraging employees to take proper lunch breaks and hit the gym at lunchtime. The company also offers the flexibility of a slightly longer lunch break so it's definitely worth it! Moreover, for those that wake up early to squeeze in a morning workout session, the company is always accommodating to a slightly late start. Mcginley's have even partnered with Incorpore to offer all employees a discounted gym membership scheme across 2980 health clubs in the UK. They have also created a staff breakout area with pool and ping-pong tables where staff can relax away from the PC screen and unwind. There's even some good quality coffee and coffee machines, which helps to brighten the mood and is probably one of the quickest pick-me-ups! All of offices are given the option to listen to music whilst they work, as playing music instantly relaxes the mood and stress levels. The daily morning huddles also help teams and individuals to reach out to fellow colleagues to lend a helping hand, providing support, guidance and ultimately reducing stress.

McDonald's are aware that no single factor is more important to their success than the dedication and efforts of their employees. As a result of this the company operate the “Employee of the Month” (EoM) award in all restaurants. Every year 12 employees per restaurant have the chance to win this accolade and a gift box to go with it. Every employee of the month receives a range of prizes ranging from an Employee of the Month gold name badge and a personalised congratulations card to a specially designed ‘Make It Special' USB stick, an engraved black Congress pen in a presentation case and an engraved black A6 mole notepad to name but a few. Four times a year each restaurant will select an employee from the EoM winners to be their Employee of the Quarter and winners from all restaurants are then entered into a competition to find the “Employee of the Quarter” for each Operations Manager group. The winners of this quarterly competition are then considered for the Director of Operations “Employee of the Year”. Finally, each person selected as the Director of Operations overall winner will go forward to compete to become McDonald's Employee of the Year final, which takes place at McDonald's Head Office with the COO and Senior Vice President. As finalists they receive £250 worth of Love to Shop vouchers and the overall winner will also receive £2,500 worth of Travel Vouchers. All also receive recognition trophies.