What are companies doing with regards to 'My Manager'

The company are committed to the training and development of their workforce and to this end they have achieved Gold status with investors in people. Some examples of their employee development include: structured induction and probation process comprehensive training plan for all new employees bespoke training to meeting additional needs of young people. All care staff expected and supported to achieve QCT level 3 in care. All managers expected and supported to achieve QCF level 5 in management. The development of a bespoke performance management supervision tool which addresses the Focus, Skills and engagement of staff and helps managers give constructive evidence based feedback across all areas thereby enhancing performance and engagement in the work place. Supervision policy ensuring regular supervision and support is provided to staff Mentoring and coaching to support new staff and existing staff develop skills Development of life skills through our company wide IT skills development program enabling all staff to achieve NVQ level 2 in IT. Giving opportunities for staff to champion areas of work in the organisation such as Health and Safety, Environment thereby developing additional skills such as chairing meetings.

The company has always encouraged cross department and team working, with a 'one company culture'. Every week, team members gather at HQ for an information sharing and learning session. This not only gives support to those that are in isolated offices but also ensures that everyone has up to date information and shares best practice and achievements. The company also encourages team away days, so they can focus on the future of their departments and what the plans are for the year ahead. The company try to incorporate some competitive activities too, such as the Property Management away day which had quad biking and clay pigeon shooting activities mixed with some sessions with the Director on the future of the business.

The company has always encouraged cross department and team working, with a 'one company culture'. Every week, team members gather at HQ for an information sharing and learning session. This not only gives support to those that are in isolated offices but also ensures that everyone has up to date information and shares best practice and achievements. The company also encourages team away days, so they can focus on the future of their departments and what the plans are for the year ahead. The company try to incorporate some competitive activities too, such as the Property Management away day which had quad biking and clay pigeon shooting activities mixed with some sessions with the Director on the future of the business.

Core communication to the Pinnacle team comes from James Spencer, MD, who is highly visible to all employees on a daily basis. James has a no desk, no PA policy, ensuring he works from all office locations, sitting amongst staff. He will frequently gather teams to give a "State of the Nation" on Pinnacle's vision and performances. This is always a very open forum, never shying from away from difficult subjects or issues the business maybe facing. Frequent meetings with the management team and personal mentoring and coaching helps those new to the management team accelerate their personal development and performance. The staff newsletter also provides communication of the mission and core values.

The company strategy is aligned to one of their core values - ability, and their primary guiding principle; superior financial performance. The desired outcomes are to drive superior sustainable financial performance and enhance the retention. Promotion and development of high performing staff who live the company values. The company has a progressive pay scheme benchmarked to ensure they pay median basic salaries for the appropriate grades they offer. From the outset they make it clear that talented sales staffs who are successful will obtain superior earnings, however they will never seek to drive a culture of high basic salary low value performance incentives.

Pension Protection Fund have completed a series of health and wellbeing workshops for the last year to positively engage with employees and help enhance their health and wellbeing. The topics have been varied to encourage employees to attend. The company have run workshops of mindfulness, sleep deprivation, nutrition, fitness, impact on the immune system, dealing with difficult people, resilience, work/life balance, people skills, how to deal with lack of energy, how to take control and sharpen your focus. The sessions are normally led by external provider: ‘Feelgood'. The company have had nutritionists, clinical psychologists, mindfulness practitioners and sports consultants in to lead and engage with their employees. The sessions tend to be held in a boardroom with the speakers guiding the attendees through slides, enabling discussion and on occasion group work. Sometimes the session can be interactive such as the fitness session. The slides and handouts are then posted to the intranet for download. The handouts that accompany the slides have soundbites and top tips around health and wellbeing, and all have been positively welcomed. Pension Protection Fund also run monthly free fruit drops for employees, they provide enough fruit for an am and pm drop in both market squares and signpost reminders each month that the fruit drop is available.

Octink strives to work in close partnership with the local community and directors and employees alike are actively involved in our community activities. Our CEO, Will Tyler is Chairman of Spark, a charity that creates links between local schools and businesses to improve the employability of young people. While our MD, Mike Freely is a Director of Cultivate London, an innovative urban farm and social enterprise based across multiple derelict sites in West London. These partnerships with Spark and Cultivate London reflect our wider community commitment. To helping improve the employability of young people in the community by giving them opportunities to gain work experience and develop new skills. In the last 12 months the company has invested a combination of employee volunteering time, cash donations and work in kind donations to the value of over £15,000.

They work with all managers to improve their business performance through a combination of understanding themselves and understanding how to achieve improved staff performance. The business employs a number of approaches to supporting and developing the management team. An appraisal process which focuses on providing constructive feedback on individual and team performance and setting the development objectives for the forthcoming half year. A 360 degree feedback tool which gives employees an opportunity to ‘score' their managers. An exit interview process which gives constructive feedback on how they could improve in employee engagement efforts, and particularly how managers could maximise the value they get from their employees. A mentoring programme for all employees, including management, which gives the leaders in the organisation an additional support network outside the work environment. A regular weekly team meeting for all management is held to provide a forum for discussing business challenges and gleaning advice and feedback on work in progress. Frequent feedback and coaching is available to all managers on a regular basis- this performance feedback should identify skill gaps, leading to training and future improvement.

BUPA health screening is available to all Senior Managers and Directors which gives an overview of their current state of health and wellbeing. The assessment of current health and future risks includes: A medical history and lifestyle questionnaire; a physical examination; a consultation with a doctor or health adviser; the opportunity to ask questions and discuss concerns. Many test results are available on the day and a personalised health report and action plan with practical advice to help minimise health risks is produced. BUPA has been extended to a wider number of colleagues (benefit grade C1 and above) and offers private medical insurance which aims to fund medical treatment required. The company offers a discount Gym Membership at one of the leading leisure clubs in the UK, David Lloyd. This is to try and encourage colleagues to keep fit and maintain a healthy lifestyle. They also have a walking club set up where colleagues get together and walk into town at lunchtime. This is encouraged internally to ensure colleagues are taking a sufficient lunch hour and interacting outside the workplace. In every regional office they have a Sports & Social Committee set up. It is the responsibility of the committee members to plan and organise a range of sport and social activities. They also have a Wellbeing Section on their Intranet – this includes workout advice, healthy recipes, tips to alleviate stress.

At Metapack they are very keen on raising the leadership and people management capability and aligning the MetaPack leadership framework to the new vision and growth strategy. They have set up a programme called the ‘MetaPack Leadership Academy' where the focus is on: strategy, managing change, values and behaviour, influence and communication, planning and organising, structure and process, teamwork and motivation, metrics, results and awards.