What are companies doing with regards to 'My Manager'

A memorable event is the annual weekend away, where in the past have visited Malta, Portugal, Jersey and Spain. In September last year they took the whole company away for the weekend to Chewton Glenn hotel in Hampshire. This is of course optional and they had an attendance of 120 people last year. The hotel is a beautiful 5 star hotel set in the New Forest where they hired the whole complex for 2 nights. The weekend included transport to the venue from London, a team building treasure hunt on Friday afternoon, a BBQ in the evening, a company meeting on Saturday morning followed by more team building events, personal time where people had options to do activities such as falconry, golf buggy racing, massages, swimming, archery followed by an evening three course meal and disco. It was a fabulous weekend enjoyed by all and they have received great feedback. They allocate £100 to this event on an annual basis and are very proud to be able to provide this for their employees.

The company has created a new operational management team (OMT) that now runs the business on a day to day basis. The OMT has been created from staff promoted within the business. Any quality issues that arise from people, processes and systems are handled by the team. The major benefit to all staff is faster and more accurate decision making; this has increased both employee engagement and satisfaction. Charles Davis leads by example. He is passionate and committed to the company and its employees; employees respect him and his 'open door' policy ensures they also find it easy to approach him both professionally and socially.

The clinical team have recently been given the opportunity to take part in a facilitated event which enabled them to explore what affect their actions and behaviours had on each other in a safe environment. It was agreed what sort of team they wanted to be and they created a list of actions and behaviours that would enable them to achieve this.

This year the company has organised and paid for: Go-Karting, Cocktail making and most recently Silly-Sports day on the Hampstead Heath and they also hold regular monthly ping-pong tournaments. Earlier this year TBG Digital held a Macmillan coffee morning. Everyone was encouraged to bring in a home baked cake or biscuits. The response rate was excellent and the winner of the best home baked entry won a small prize. The office was decorated in Macmillan green. The donations from the staff were generous and the coffee morning was a huge hit, it generated a real buzz in the office and of course, there was lots of recipe swapping going on.

The company has both a football and netball team and provides sponsorship to these teams for kit etc. They provide the ability through their IT systems to work from home to facilitate flexibility for employees to take home deliveries or who have travel difficulties. Last winter, employees worked from home during the snowfall rather than risk travelling to the office and those stranded at the office were taxied home by the MD in his 4x4.

A large proportion of Swanswell's executive team have previously worked in front line roles so they are clear about the expectations and pressures on front line team members. The organisation encourages team members to shadow others, especially at induction stage, to ensure a shared understanding of what everyone does, this is especially used for support and head office team members who may not have worked in this arena before. In addition, the corporate induction day is a really important opportunity for team members to learn about what others do and for the senior team and organisation as a whole to learn. All new team members attend these events. Swanswell offers a number of routes for support to understand the pressures and workloads team members have. Flexi time is offered for team members to work when pre-arranged with an executive team member. Occupational health and wellbeing support is available for all team members with a regular occupational health service and a confidential employee assistance programme. Access to a specialist stress management consultant for confidential support is also available within the organisation and Swanswell's give monthly clinical supervision for front line team members and regular performance reviews with line managers for all team members.

The senior management team at Sutton Housing Partnership has taken on board feedback that they are not sufficiently visible to staff and have made a conscious effort to become more visibly involved in the business through spending a day working in a particular area of the business. Their chief executive recently spent a day answering phones in their customer care team. They are also working more closely with the heads of function to enable them to become more involved in the strategic planning process, which in turn supports succession planning.

The Supply Group have a 'break out' area which has table tennis, free vending machines, basketball and football goals. This encourages employees to exercise and have a well-deserved break.

Stride Treglown have a green committee that is engaged with One Planet Living which helps them understand how to make the business more efficient and how best to advise clients of environmental matters. Following the One Plant Model, they focus their efforts on; carbon reduction; waste; transport; use of sustainable material; fair trade; food; water and health and wellbeing.