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
All staff at Provide have an annual Performance and Development Review when a personal development plan is agreed and implemented. This applies to all their staff across all pay bands, clinical and non clinical. A 6 monthly review is held to review progress with objectives and personal development plans. A range of internal and external training opportunities are available and an annual learning prospectus is produced for staff. A strategic learning and development group is in place whose main purpose is to ensure that learning & development across Provide supports the safe and effective delivery of health care to all their customers and patients and also supports the vision and values of the organisation. A blended learning approach is in place so that staff can learn and update their training in different ways. E learning is in place and can be used for the majority of essential training updates as well as CPD and clinical updates. Monthly lunch and learn sessions are held, using in house specialists or external speakers for a range of topics and updates.
In the last year the company have focused on building relationships between Senior and Middle Managers. In June they held a very successful event called Appreciating Managers where they facilitated lively debate between peer managers on what they valued and what could be improved to make their working lives better. They were also asked what they would like to be appreciated for and a letter was subsequently sent to the delegates by their own manager thanking them for this. As part of the workshop, teams were given a cake, icing, glitter and other decorations and asked to compete against each other to decorate the best cake before eating it at tea break. This exercise was highly successful in getting managers to work together and getting people talking to colleagues they did not know well.
Their managing director does his utmost to engage with staff at all levels in a friendly manner. He's not afraid of being the butt of a joke & their regularly published internal newsletter (PowerNews) often leads with a terrible picture of Darren.
Since their last engagement survey Powertecnique have implemented a dress down Friday policy to allow staff a more casual day in the office. This has improved morale without negatively affecting productivity. A win win! They are also currently in the process of investigating improved private health & pension offerings for their staff. A company wide pay review is also due to be commenced as pay was raised as a concern from the latest survey.
Junior consultants are given rewards such as tailor made suits, watches and pens when they achieve certain milestones in their career. This has proven particularly successful allowing them to feel successful and to have visible reminders of their success. These rewards are very sought after. They have also run incentives for colleagues around additional training and enhanced training personal budgets for individuals which have proven popular.
Potensis's internal coaching is very strong. New starters receive 6 months of training and development with a buddy/mentor, formal training, training assignments, weekly reviews and personal projects. This scheme has been really well received by their new starters and has allowed them to hire people with no previous recruitment experience.
The company work closely with a local college as part of a local government initiative called 'Step Up Programme'. This involves presentations to students, workshops and work experience for students aged 16 - 18 they have been involved in this scheme for the last two years. The company are also involved with local universities and attend Graduate Recruitment Fayres across the UK.
Line Managers often take their teams out for meals on completion of very hectic work schedules. A young lady in her mid 20's has been part of their talent management programme for the last 6 years and on completion of Part III Architect Programme the company has awarded her with a promotion as well as a bouquet of flowers and article in the Group wide company magazine. One Employee who won substantial work for the company was awarded a fully paid weekend away with his spouse.
Plastribution has recently moved into new larger open plan offices, which has provided employees with the chance to take relaxing breaks in their working environment, create meals, obtain snacks and free squash in the adjoining kitchen and enjoy a light, warm and well ventilated workplace.
A suggestion for an in-work tuck shop – this has now been now implemented and snacks are available via an honesty box in the offices kitchen. Creation of social committee to coordinate events and activities on behalf of employees. Supported time for charity, social commitments.
The company have a suite of Management Development Programmes to assist their existing and aspiring managers and supervisors in developing skills and knowledge to equip them for current and future managerial roles. Two programmes are accredited with the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM), and tailored to aligned them with their managerial competencies and values. Their third programme is a bespoke modular Leadership Development Programme, coupled with 360 Degree feedback before and after with coaching and support provided. Considerable time is invested for studying, day release, and coaching over a 5 month period for each Programme. Celebrations are held at the end of each programme, with the presentation of certificates and a monetary recognition reward.
Their organisation's Primary Purpose of Opening Doors, Enhancing Lives has a variety of medium term priorities driven by Delivery Outcomes for the Community. These are categorised under 2 key themes, one of which is Enhancing Resources and Governance to ensure they deliver high quality, cost effective and efficient services. One of their key Business Plan priorities therefore focuses on Value for Money and Boosting Productivity. Examples include: Homeworking introduced for 20+ staff to allow better quality of life, saving time and mileage costs going unnecessarily to hot-desking facilities. An app was written to access their HR system to enable mobile users to request holidays and see their wage slips using a tablet and personal computers – removing the need for paper copies and needing to login from a work PC. Automated the collation of information on ‘Notices Seeking Possession' saving 1hr a week compiling stats for housing. A new process agreed with British Gas to immediately transfer gas and electricity supply to BG when a property becomes void, thereby ensuring utility supplies are working allowing work to be carried out immediately on the property by their contactors. This ensures quicker entry and turnaround of void properties, avoids time wasting chasing to get utility supplies transferred.
Founding partner has set up Labs workshops for all analysts to mentor and develop talent. Senior management don't ask anything of their teams that they would not do themselves. Senior Management encourage work across departments and readily share their resources across depts. for the greater good of the company.
OrderDynamics provide Time Out Tuesday's - a complimentary massage service for all staff every Tuesday in the office. They also provide complimentary fresh fruit smoothies all year round made on site. They provide a keeping fit allowance that's not just a Gym subsidy. It's an allowance of £25 each month that employees can use towards anything they do which makes them feel healthy - taking the kids swimming, paying for Boris Bike fees, even towards their family fresh veg & fruit bill each month. We pay 50% of onsite Yoga class fees.
The company have in place a 'Spot Bonus Award Policy'. This is awarded by management on a special basis when employees have made a particularly noteworthy contribution, above and beyond the call of duty. This programme provides managers with a valuable tool to motivate, reward and recognise those employees who distinguish themselves through extra efforts. Significant short-term contributions earns a bonus of £200. A Significant medium/longer-term contribution earns the employee £300-500. A special recognition award to sustained leadership performance over a considerable timeframe, and/or the accomplishment of mission critical, company-wide projects of a major scale is awarded with £1000. To achieve maximum recognition and motivational value, managers are encouraged to provide the employee with a letter of commendation, which will be included in the employee's HR file. They also have a colleague recognition programme; colleagues can nominate an individual or team who has made a measurable contribution to the company; if successful, every quarter a nominated individual wins £1000, or if a team, £2000.
OpenBet supports employee development via a plethora of activities, such as, Brown Bag sessions to share knowledge across the organisation, workshops for hands on programming activities, supervised Google hangouts with subject matter experts at hand to explain specific subjects and topics, internal and external training sessions on soft skills, managerial skills as well as methodologies and technical skills. Traditional classroom training is used in conjunction with e-learning activities and remote teaching via conference systems and remote internet meetings. Training plans are developed for specific roles within the organisation to help new comers or people being promoted internally, handle their new role within OpenBet.
As a contract catering company, Olive is committed to healthy eating and offering healthy eating choices to their customers and staff. In 2012,Olive signed up to the Department of Health's Responsibility Deal pledge to reduce the salt in the food they produce. As part of this pledge they have put together communication packages to educate both their employees and their customers about the dangers of excessive salt levels in food and the benefits of reducing salt usage. Their Operations teams also periodically run Healthy Eating Awareness days at their sites which enable their customers to learn more about general nutrition and health awareness.
In July 2014 Olive Catering Services employed their first ever L & D Manager. Their role is to support business retention and growth by identifying and designing L & D solutions that are focused on the achievement of the business and people strategy. By investing in this new internal role they aim to further demonstrate their ongoing commitment to people development.
Nicoll Curtin's leadership team knows that the best ideas can come from anywhere in the business so they are committed to learning from everyone and implementing great ideas irrespective of where they have come from. The leadership team reviews any ideas that come through and communicates them with the business. Work hard, work together. The Senior Management team understands why their business is successful and it's because of who they hire and how they develop their consultants. Their MD and Sales Director sit with the teams on a daily basis and operate an open desk policy, meaning anyone can go up to them and ask questions. They sit on the floor and hot desk throughout the teams which demonstrates how involved they really are.
Team building is incredibly important at Nicoll Curtin. As a company they have an incredibly strong culture and people genuinely are surprised by how positively like-minded their colleagues are to themselves. Their teams are always initiating their own team building nights with a yearly budget each team leader is given, but getting the whole company together is important. Each summer they fly in their Zurich office and shut down the office for the afternoon and organise a group programme which gets people from all parts of the office working together. Last summer they rented out a space in Victoria Park and had a company organise a giant Olympics course where teams competed in 6 challenges and one crowned the winner. Feedback was exceptional on the event, not only because of the investment into the calibre of activities but the fact that staff developed great relationships with new people in the business across floors and between their global offices. Following that event, their summer party takes place in the evening at a top dinner destination in the city and it is all funded by the business and something the staff talk all year about. Another initiative Nicoll Curtin has started is called Project Outstanding whereby a team is nominated at the quarterly town hall to spend £500 in any way they want in order to make the business more outstanding. The teams hold brainstorming sessions and come up with their idea which they present to the business at the next quarterly town hall, and pass along the baton.
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