What are companies doing with regards to 'My Manager'

2013 was Multiply's 10th anniversary and to celebrate this they took all their employees away for an overnight stay at Aberfeldy. The theme was a pagan ritual ceremony and each employee had a specially chosen, bespoke outfit waiting for them in their room on arrival. Their team from London flew up to join this too and the whole company had a fantastic evening of entertainment and celebration. This event took several months to plan and was packed with unique and personal touches. All costs were fully covered by Multiply and the event was a fantastic success. They have various other team building events including a yearly Company Update BBQ in the summer which brings the whole agency together in either London or Edinburgh. They have also recently installed their own bespoke bar in the basement, and they have ‘down time Friday' to encourage everyone to get together for a Friday refreshment.

Each summer the company holds a themed summer party. This year it was based around the Football World Cup finals. The company provided food, drinks and a variety of entertainments and competitions throughout the day with colleagues positively encouraged to get involved. In the weeks leading up, they also launched a fantasy world cup league competition with prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd places - nearly 60 staff took part. This year they were able to provide Segway's for colleagues to "try out" along with some more familiar "games", such as "test your strength", "hoop the ducks", and "crazy golf". On the day employees were encouraged to wear casual clothes and were welcome to sport their favourite football teams' shirts if they wanted to. The party featured a face-painting artist, table football and a penalty shootout competition. On the day a fish and chip lunch was provided and a healthy alternative, and soft drinks. The divisions of the company get fully immersed in the activities of the day, and competition between the various departments can get quite fierce. A full range of photos are provided after the event, and a general round up of the day's activities are fed back via the Buzz platforms.

Employee development is key to delivering Midas Vision and the roll out of the CLEAR programme supports their long term commitment to developing their staff. Core elements of the CLEAR programme include: Bespoke management and leadership training delivered to operational, commercial and business support staff , Performance Development Review (PDR) training, Introduction of monthly 1-2-1 meetings between staff and their line managers to discuss progress and development needs – known as CLEAR Catch Ups, Training initiatives covering customer service workshops, commercial excellence workshops and team-specific training aimed at improving team effectiveness and performance. The CLEAR programme, which, is cascaded throughout the business is also supported by the introduction of quarterly People Reviews with the senior managers of each division, ensuring that employee development is discussed on a regular basis at a high level and development themes identified in addition to the TNA conducted as part of our annual PDR (appraisal) process.

Each department within London Square has a weekly team meeting in which all members of staff are encouraged to feedback their ideas and suggestions. The divisional director is then given the opportunity to present these ideas to other departments for feedback at the weekly management team. Each department also has a blackboard where they can chalk up jokes, thoughts and anecdotes, with a quote from the divisional director, giving them the opportunity to share these on a daily basis with the rest of their team. Every day, the team, including the Chief Executive, eat together if they are in the office at Wagamama-style tables in the dining room or play table tennis together outside, giving staff the opportunity to discuss their ideas with other members of the company. The open plan office has a relaxed open door policy so staff can approach any member of the company when they need to, including directors in their offices, to share ideas or seek counsel.

Installation of the water machines, The Colour run event and health and fitness Occupation Health are all part of wellbeing in Leven Energy Services Limited.

Kinetic Partners is very good at giving employees the development they desire. People are trusted on projects that stretch them all the time and therefore learn a lot. They are coached/monitored by extremely strong leaders. Kinetic also provide more structured training through their KP Academy which focuses on online training and individual skill sets required to succeed in their industry. Training has included: sales and business development, leadership, excel, word and more industry specific training courses. Kinetic are a great company for knowledge sharing as well and regularly have ‘lunch and learn' sessions to ensure that everyone within the firm has a sound knowledge of their global service offering. Kinetic also hold regular sessions on latest legislation and developments within each service line. Kinetic expect their employees to be proactive in their development and include a PDP in their appraisal process where leaders need to ensure that their teams are stretched by setting objectives that enable both short and medium term personal development goals to be realised. Kinetic's online training portal is accessible to everyone and they encourage the team to spend 2 hours minimum each month on personal development which is linked to the achievement of their objectives as detailed above. Their planned global training matrix will map every level in their organisation and the training required to achieve job success. This will also be a great tool where employees can see how, and in what areas, they need to develop in order to progress in their careers.

The senior management team are directly contactable on a day to day basis by anyone in the organisation. They aim to live by the values which means they value everyone equally and everyone is included. Everyone has a right to express themselves and be respected for who they are and they can influence the way the organisation works. Also each Senior manager has a team who they are nominated to link with in a back to the floor style and celebrate successes or raise issues at senior level.

Being very proactive in supporting company-wide events, for example the Jelf Sales Conference and Central Services Conferences. The conferences give employees the chance to meet and network with their colleagues, sharing ideas, opinions and best practice.In 2014 these events also gave employees the opportunity to put forward suggestions to improve various practices within the company through a "Dragon's Den" workshop. As a result there is a clear action plan of initiatives sponsored by the Group Executive Board, many of which have already been implemented.

The International Tennis Federation's culture encourages a healthy work/life balance with flexibility offered around sickness and recovery periods, working time flexibility if needed and support from managers at all levels around physical activities, particularly taking part in lunchtime sporting activities. A daily lunch allowance is provided to all employees for use at on site restaurant facilities or a sandwich ordering service which encourages healthy eating, with a wide variety of both hot and cold food options plus other healthy options such as fruit available. Sports facilities are available onsite, some free and some subsidised, and include use of tennis courts, gym, swimming pool and fitness classes. Their location also encourages activities as they are a few minutes from Richmond Park. Employee safety and wellbeing is taken extremely seriously and a taxi is provided to transport employees to the nearest mainline station at the end of each working day, which is particularly helpful during the darker winter months. 24-hour security is provided around the office which is reassuring for those working or visiting out of standard office hours, a common occurrence within an international organisation. The International Tennis Federation also offer a free employee assistance prorgamme, full medical checks - at some levels and they have in the past paid separately for private counselling or therapy for team members.

As one of our core values is to be human, they ensure that the way in which they live the values is done so in a human way too. All new team members attend induction sessions from departments across the agency, allowing them to meet the wider team and get a better understanding as to how the agency runs day-to-day. They run a new starters lunch that also includes a long serving team member, with their CEO and CFO so that new team members can meet the senior team members in a relaxed, yet exciting venue. They get together as a whole agency every quarter to spend time together and hold quarterly company meetings as well as regular team meetings with their direct team. One such event was their Momentum roadshow lead by their global president where teams worked on various client problems alongside team members they never usually work together day to day.