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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
The organisation sets clear restaurant KPI's with General Manager's agreement and rewards through a profit related bonus scheme available to all restaurant employees. Managers cascade targets to their team through team briefs and a daily follow ups, rewarding and recognising achievements. They hold appraisals twice yearly on all staff, reviewing actions and agreeing focus areas for development. They hold coffee chats and one to ones coupled with an open door policy which encourages feedback and two way communication. Managers also motivate staff with daily meetings to encourage and set the scene for every shift. Every manager sees their restaurant as a theatre and the team as the actors when they are open.
The organisation sets clear restaurant KPI's with General Manager's agreement and rewards through a profit related bonus scheme available to all restaurant employees. Managers cascade targets to their team through team briefs and a daily follow ups, rewarding and recognising achievements. They hold appraisals twice yearly on all staff, reviewing actions and agreeing focus areas for development. They hold coffee chats and one to ones coupled with an open door policy which encourages feedback and two way communication. Managers also motivate staff with daily meetings to encourage and set the scene for every shift. Every manager sees their restaurant as a theatre and the team as the actors when they are open.
As well as providing free fruit and reduced cost gym memberships to employees, Wolters Kluwer has launched 'My Benefits'; a flexible benefits programme designed to fit in with employee's lifestyles. Covering Health & Wellbeing, the programme includes Dental Insurance, Health Assessments, Private Medical Insurance, a Medical Cash Plan and a cycle to work scheme. They also provide a free and confidential Employee Assistance Programme (EAP). This service offers expert advice, information, specialist counselling and support for employees and their immediate family. The service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week and can provide wide ranging information and guidance on topics such as buying a new home, having children, relationships, managing money, retirement personal and family crisis and staying healthy to name but a few.
The Executive and Senior Management Team have actively improved communication methods to engage employees with the Company's mission and values. Cathy Wolfe, CEO, and the senior managers deliver regular road shows at the two main head office sites in the UK. At these they give a business update on the different businesses, outline the main priorities for the present and future and offer employees the opportunity to ask questions to the Executive and Senior Management Team. In addition to these employee road shows the organisation has developed monthly newsletters and blogs from senior managers to keep employees up to date with business activity. These newsletters are also used for more informal updates such as introduction to new starters in the business, announcement or marriages or births and so forth. There has also been the recent addition of social media communication tools. Yammer has proven to be a successful way of engaging employees to have informal business conversations with colleagues from across the business. The Senior Management Team proactively encourages these online conversations.
Over the last 12 months, the Senior Management Team has been broadened and now includes a representative from all parts of the organisation and meetings are held monthly. This has enhanced communications between departments and also from the top down and has been driven by a desire to make sure that everyone in the business is informed about the decisions that are being made and developments within the business. The chairman, Tom Bloxham MBE is committed to hard work, fresh ideas and building relationships and he is well known and respected across the company for these reasons. He is open and available to all staff. One of the things he always tells new recruits is that no question is trivial and if a question is important to them then it is important to him. From his open door policy, induction presentations, staff lunches or quarterly staff meetings, he is open to ideas, feedback, criticism and questions.
In 2008, they set up the Urban Splash Charitable Trust. The overall ambition for the trust is to be involved with local organisations and charities that are poorly funded. It was set up to fund projects related to deprived communities, the arts and urban regeneration. The trust is funded from the profits of the Urban Splash Group. At the moment, the main activity of the trust is the operation of a scheme whereby each member of staff can nominate his or her favourite charity to receive a donation of up to £100 in any one year. Staff often request help with sponsored events in which they are personally taking part.
Trend Control runs an "Attitude Apprenticeship Scheme" that currently has 65 apprentices enrolled and 60 Apprentices graduated. They are undertaking training to become a Building Energy Management Engineer. Trend Control employs a scheme manager and a scheme administrator to devise the training schemes, oversee apprentice progress, providing mentoring where necessary. This is the only scheme of its kind in the industry. The scheme is available to everyone in Trend Control and they have had a number of internal employees, several from the factory who have joined the scheme and have developed into qualified engineers.
Managers often mentor high performing employees from other departments in the business, providing support guidance and a sounding board to support employee development. As part of the Enhancing Service Excellence training, Trend Control run an additional module for managers called "crediting". This is where they train managers on how to recognise their employees with words so that they can understand the impact their work has had on others and the wider business.
The Toolbank News Letter which is sent out every 3-4 months in the year has worked really well as employees are constantly informing them of any fund raising they have been doing, welcoming new staff, congratulating colleagues on their nuptials or new arrivals. The news letter has allowed employees to get involved and the feedback from employees has been that the news letter has been very well received as it is great to know what is going on in the other branches.
The Toolbank News Letter which is sent out every 3-4 months in the year has worked really well as employees are constantly informing them of any fund raising they have been doing, welcoming new staff, congratulating colleagues on their nuptials or new arrivals. The news letter has allowed employees to get involved and the feedback from employees has been that the news letter has been very well received as it is great to know what is going on in the other branches.
The company provide staff with access to gyms at a discounted rate via PruHealth, their medical insurance provider. They have enrolled their company in the PruHealth ‘well-being' programme, through which staff can accrue points for living a healthier life-style. Staff can use these points to get discounts for holidays, cinemas, etc. The company also have a relationship with Occupational Health professionals and if appropriate will refer staff to these professionals at company expense (for example, to assist staffing in receiving specialist assistance relating to difficult-to-diagnose medical conditions).
The company organises bi-weekly 'retrospective' meetings where employees collectively look at what they have been working on - what went well, what could be improved and any other areas that employees would like to discuss. The company gives quarterly Core Values awards to staff members who demonstrate behaviours that are consistent with their Core Values.
Sterling Insurance Group operates a bonus plan for all of its employees. The bonus plan is based on two factors, company profitability and an employee's individual performance.
Sterling Insurance Group operates a bonus plan for all of its employees. The bonus plan is based on two factors, company profitability and an employee's individual performance.
Managers at Skrill hold bi-weekly performance reviews, personal introductions based on skills, regular team lunches, bi-weekly feedback sessions, weekly team meetings and weekly team reports in order to support, encourage and develop staff members.
Once a month Skrill has a "Beer & Chips" event in each office where new joiners and new departments are invited to take part in the "CEO Hot Chair", giving them opportunity to ask the company's leaders any kind of questions.
Roke's "Next Generation" programme sets out to inspire the next generation of engineers and scientists through direct contact with experts developing exciting new technology. Part of this scheme involved a ‘teach the teachers' session where teachers from across Hampshire were invited to Roke to be trained in new engineering techniques so these could be passed onto students.
Roke has a Sports & Social club which offers access to wide variety of sporting activities. Onsite, Roke has a gym, tennis court and sports field. The Sports & Social club organises an annual rounders tournament, summer tennis league, yoga, Pilates and circuit exercise classes. Mountain bikes have also been purchased to allow employees to cycle at lunchtimes. Most recently, Roke has hired a personal trainer to help improve the fitness of their employees by having a weekly training sessions and offering advice on healthy eating. With regards to health, all employees can have access to the Company Counsellor/Occupational Health and the majority of employees are entitled to non-contributory BUPA (options of single, couple or family cover available). Health Assessments are available for Senior Management.
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