My Manager - How employees feel about and communicate with their direct manager
The quality of direct line management really impacts engagement, after all the latest stats suggest that 7 out of 10 people leave their manager and not their organisation.
Great managers should be selling the direction and vision of the organisation, helping others see how their role impacts the bigger picture, ultimately influencing the factor My Company. Good Managers recognise the importance of growing and developing their people, which means the My Manager factor also has a significant impact on the factor Personal Growth.
When it comes to My Team, great managers build great teams, but world class managers also focus on connecting teams throughout the organisation. Managers can heavily influence the Wellbeing factor by helping to positively restore a work/life balance, managing employee workload and recognising that employees have a life outside of work
Our mission and vision is communicated via our Induction Process for new starters, via the Staff Update twice a year and it is displayed on notice boards. Success is measured via KPIs.
Our mission and vision is communicated via our Induction Process for new starters, via the Staff Update twice a year and it is displayed on notice boards. Success is measured via KPIs.
Aster's internal training offer via The Academy provides a comprehensive range of short training courses that are open to all employees. Much of the training is delivered by Internal Trainers. They have at least 40 active trainers at any one time. They support this group by providing the necessary skills training. In addition their team of internal coaches are there to provide coaching to any individual that requires it. This team went through rigorous selection and training and keep their skills up to date. This year 38 individuals have had coaching sessions. The company have run mentoring workshops and provide a mentor/mentee workbook for those that wish to pursue a mentoring relationship. Their internal L&D team are available to support team development needs across the business, and last year supported 35 team events, by either facilitating events or advising managers on options. This kind of support is critical for a business such as Aster's where there have been large-scale changes to teams and ways of working. The L&D team have access to a range of tools to support these kind of events, such as Belbins Self-Perception Inventory and Insights Colour model. Their annual apprentice programme allows them to bring up to 12 young people into the business each year. They work with managers to make sure their skills are retained by the business. This programme has been running since 2010 and is now well-embedded into what they do.
Aster's internal training offer via The Academy provides a comprehensive range of short training courses that are open to all employees. Much of the training is delivered by Internal Trainers. They have at least 40 active trainers at any one time. They support this group by providing the necessary skills training. In addition their team of internal coaches are there to provide coaching to any individual that requires it. This team went through rigorous selection and training and keep their skills up to date. This year 38 individuals have had coaching sessions. The company have run mentoring workshops and provide a mentor/mentee workbook for those that wish to pursue a mentoring relationship. Their internal L&D team are available to support team development needs across the business, and last year supported 35 team events, by either facilitating events or advising managers on options. This kind of support is critical for a business such as Aster's where there have been large-scale changes to teams and ways of working. The L&D team have access to a range of tools to support these kind of events, such as Belbins Self-Perception Inventory and Insights Colour model. Their annual apprentice programme allows them to bring up to 12 young people into the business each year. They work with managers to make sure their skills are retained by the business. This programme has been running since 2010 and is now well-embedded into what they do.
The company ensures that a minimum of 1% of pre-tax profits are donated to charity. They are also a partner of the bloodhound land speed record and support the STEM project (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). They also support and are a partner to the Yorkshire Air Ambulance and Hull FC Foundation which gives support to Young Adults to get them ready for employment. All staff can have up to 2 paid days per year for CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) and all colleagues are encouraged to participate. They also hold an annual family fun day where they participate in an activity and actively encourage colleagues to raise money for their chosen charity, in the past they have taken part in a Dragon Boat Race and an It's a knock out challenge.
The senior management team are active in the recognition and reward of staff across multiple levels and locations. When they observe values and good practices they are able to nominate by awarding wow points, these usually equate to the value of £10.00 or in the use of our Values Man. Values Man is a visible recognition scheme where the company encourage everyone to recognise outstanding work or the demonstration of our core values. Senior managers also encourage colleagues to recognise each other in the use of the Value Man or the My Arco platform in the form of badges.
On 5 February 2015, the company led a major employee engagement initiative in support of Time to Change's ‘Time to Talk' Day. They have set up a mental health steering committee to support this activity with representatives from across the business. UK American Express employees were encouraged to support the campaign by taking 5 minutes to have a conversation about mental health, either in one-to-ones, or in team meetings. Email calls to action to all employees were distributed, printed materials were provided in the communal areas, plus a one minute video was provided as a conversation starter. At the same time, they promoted their ‘Healthy Minds' employee assistance programme as a go-to resource for emotional wellbeing, so that employees could share information about the resources available. Employees were asked to bank their conversations via a data collection tool. The aim for the public campaign was 24 hours of conversations across the country. The day at the company started with the HR leadership team focusing on the topic at its leadership day programme. A road show event in key operation locations saw hundreds of meaningful interactions, and the Occupational Health team dedicated the day to mental wellbeing activities. Employees across American Express UK took up the challenge, banking a total of 26 hours and 45 minutes' worth of conversations about mental health, exceeding the target set by the campaign. As a result the company has sought to normalise the conversation around mental health.
The Reward Blue programme enables all employees to recognise colleagues no matter which business unit they work in, grade or location. Employees can praise effort, reward results and celebrate loyalty. Employees can be nominated for Reward Blue points that can be redeemed through the Reward Blue catalogue to buy gifts and high street shopping vouchers. Every year March is ‘Employee Appreciation Month'. Senior Leaders encourage their employees to consider how they can celebrate everyday accomplishments at work. In addition Blue Looks Good on You was held on March 18, and employees were asked to wear their best blue clothes to show their support for recognition. Pinnacle Reward programs are uniquely designed by business unit Senior Leaders to recognise outstanding achievements and the extraordinary people who made them happen. Chairman's Award for Innovation program honours teams worldwide who have developed new or improved products, processes or services that have had a measurable impact on business results. It is the premier program for recognising employees around the world who exemplify the innovative spirit that is a core element of the heritage Customer Service Award which recognises two categories of excellence: employees who provided a single act of outstanding service over the past year and employees who demonstrate consistent excellence over five years or more. The Working Parents and Care Givers programme has been set up for employees to nominate a colleague who manages to make their career and family fit into their life and inspires them. Ten winners are chosen to receive 10,000 reward blue points.
To celebrate great teamwork throughout the year they hold a Summer BBQ for everyone based at our Head Office. This involves the Operations team, some of the Marketing team, the Admin teams and the Directors and lasts most of the day. People take part in various challenges and get to compete in group events like the egg and spoon race. Overall winners receive a shield, individual winners receive trophies and prizes (gifts vouchers) are awarded at the end of the day. This has become a great Institution in the company and highly motivational.
To celebrate great teamwork throughout the year they hold a Summer BBQ for everyone based at our Head Office. This involves the Operations team, some of the Marketing team, the Admin teams and the Directors and lasts most of the day. People take part in various challenges and get to compete in group events like the egg and spoon race. Overall winners receive a shield, individual winners receive trophies and prizes (gifts vouchers) are awarded at the end of the day. This has become a great Institution in the company and highly motivational.
The development and implementation of a core skills programme, integral to the development of Managers for the future of the company. An outside company is used to give their Management Team regular external residential training to focus their Management Abilities and enhance Team Performance.
The development and implementation of a core skills programme, integral to the development of Managers for the future of the company. An outside company is used to give their Management Team regular external residential training to focus their Management Abilities and enhance Team Performance.
Payroll Giving to Zurich Community Trust is on a pound for pound basis with no upper limit. Office based or individual fundraising by employees for the Zurich Community Trust is matched 100% with no upper limit. Team fundraising for nominated external charities is matched 50% and capped at £10,000 per event. Individual fundraising for nominated charities is matched 50% and capped at £500 per event. Children of staff fundraising is pound for pound and capped at £50. National charity days such as Red Nose Day or Children in Need are also matched 50% with no cap.
Zurich recognises its employees are best placed to identify and rectify issues within the business and have in place a range of processes to allow their concerns to be heard and dealt with. One of the key innovations is the introduction of the 3Cs – Concern, Cause and Countermeasure. This allows colleagues to raise any issues they have, with for example their working practices or working environment and if they can, suggest solutions. Each issue is held on a central database which tracks their progress and highlights any trends affecting areas of the business. Once an issue is raised it is discussed in weekly meetings and the colleague raising the issue is then empowered to implement the solution. If this is not possible it may be passed to a manager or further up for a solution. Zurich also places great emphasis on the results of the Best Companies survey. The effectiveness of these changes are then monitored through feedback and mini surveys. In addition, some departments have set up Quality Circles to facilitate the changes highlighted by the employee survey on a more micro level. The Circle is made up of managers and employee representatives and solutions are communicated back and monitored by Circle.
We Are Social share the UK and Global vision with the whole agency and have given real understanding of what the key changes were going to be to staff to ensure they achieve this. The company ensure that the global senior management team physically meet twice a year at summits to ensure they all have an opinion and are part of the vision/strategy/how to execute it all.
We Are Social's have an annual Winter Conference and ski trip. All EU offices head to Austria for 3 days, paid for by the agency. The company has quarterly social events; Miami Vice yacht party, who wants to be a WAS-illionaire quiz night (for charity) and an annual Lovebox festival afternoon. The whole agency is provided with festival tickets and refreshments. They have a Christmas party which has a 1920's theme, with make-up artists, hairdressers, casino, agency wide secret santa, awards ceremonies, a photobooth & breakfast the following morning.
One of the distinctive features about Vax's culture is its team unity and spirit. This is evident in both the way they do business together and how they have fun together away from the office. Vax's flagship event last year was their “Family Fun Day” where colleagues, families and pets alike joined together for a day out in the sun! Held at Studley Castle in Warwickshire, Vax wanted to provide an opportunity for people to mingle in a beautiful setting whilst also satisfying the energy that their employees have through a competitive game or two! Held on a Sunday (not a usual working day for many) Vax colleagues came from far and wide to enjoy the free barbeque and each other's company. After a few hours of excited chatter and laughter, it was time to let the games commence. Not only were there fairground stalls where the little, or let's be honest, big ones could win a cuddly toy but there was the grand finale “It's a Knockout”. The core value “we push the boundaries with BIG TARGETS” is at the heart of Vax employees, making the company ambitious by nature, so it was no surprise that when put into teams, the camaraderie commenced to beat the competition! Vax pulled together to succeed using their skills, techniques, enthusiasm and collaboration, all whilst getting a little bit wet on the journey. A great day was had by all and we all came back to work with an invigorated team spirit!
Vax's senior team demonstrate their commitment to the values by essentially role-modelling them and recognising those employees who display them. They talk about “Pushing the boundaries with big targets”. Vax had a very recent internet sale where they achieved 4 times their target. This was achievable because all of the senior team engaged the workforce in this; created banter and fun around the sale, blogging on their Hive social enterprise site and creating a huge amount of passion and energy that radiated through the business. Not only that, but the senior team “took responsibility” for the incredible workload achieving such big targets would place on their warehouse operations, therefore the UK board Directors all volunteered themselves to work in the warehouse during the busy time, and volunteered their teams also. Directed by the Warehouse supervisors, the Directors labelled boxes, boxed orders and prepared pallets for distribution. There can't be many companies where the Directors all take responsibility for the impact of their decisions and personally help those functions impacted. There is an ingrained culture of being straightforward at Vax and senior manager's role model this by challenging openly. There are some great examples of this taking place recently on the company's Hive system, whereby senior managers will openly question something that doesn't work as well as it could in the business, or particular products they need to review and will put the question out there openly for people to comment on how they can fix an issue.
Supporting school breakfasts with donations, sponsoring local sports activities, apprenticeship schemes and Toureen ensure local people in all regions their sites are based in, have the chance to work on Toureen Projects. They also supported a community outreach activity for a local school they were working on. They built a 'skip garden' for the students so they were able to grow, nurture and harvest organic produce on the school grounds. They sank the skip into the ground and built a walkway around it using recycled materials.
Supporting school breakfasts with donations, sponsoring local sports activities, apprenticeship schemes and Toureen ensure local people in all regions their sites are based in, have the chance to work on Toureen Projects. They also supported a community outreach activity for a local school they were working on. They built a 'skip garden' for the students so they were able to grow, nurture and harvest organic produce on the school grounds. They sank the skip into the ground and built a walkway around it using recycled materials.
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