What are companies doing with regards to 'My Manager'

What works really well at the Ultimate Finance Group is the fact that there appears to be no political agenda by any member of staff. If people identify an opportunity the management will review and regularly support employees allowing them to deliver and drive their own personal development. The company seeks to promote from within allowing personnel to develop without leaving to a competitor or third party.

UKAR is committed to the development of their colleagues. Staff well-being is one of four elements which make up their corporate social responsibility charter, alongside their customers, their communities and the environment. They run numerous health and lifestyle initiatives including a comprehensive employee assistance programme; free financial planning advice; slimming groups; gym discounts; Zumba classes; Boxercise classes; and one aspect of colleague wellbeing they are particularly proud of is their close relationship with Heart Research UK. As a result of their focus upon healthy lifestyles , they were delighted when they were awarded Heart Research UK's bronze and silver award as part of the Healthy Heart Mark Employer programme, which was launched via Health Awareness days and almost 500 colleagues had lifestyle checks. They are proud to have received Gold Award accreditation from Heart Research UK following a recent assessment of their healthy lifestyle policies and initiatives. UKAR colleagues have also chosen Heart Research UK as their corporate charity of the year for 2013.

Trustmarque Solutions combine a corporate and individualised approach to employee development, to focus on both immediate and career-focused needs. They are currently supporting a number of employees through professional qualifications which will enable them to progress in their career path, but will also enable contribution at a higher level in their current role. They have also designed a “Solution Sales Professional” programme for all those in account management, which covers both general sales skills and the specifics of selling their services product set; this combination of product and skills training equips individuals to do their current role, but also enables them to progress through a sales career structure. A similar development plan that mirrors this programme is in place for the Commercial Department, combining Partner and Marketing teams in the organisation and numbering 20 employees. A modular programme of training and accreditations will incorporate generic content together with specialist modules (on topics such as video case studies, content generation and digital marketing) for advanced skills development. This provides a structured, needs-driven programme of training and opportunity for development for the entire team.

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.