What are companies doing with regards to 'My Team'

The company's mission statement and values are communicated in everything they do. They include these when recruiting for employees, and include this in their induction pack which is issued to employees when they first start with at BSD. As they implement these straight away when the employee starts with BSD - they find these are always embedded with the employees and are always communicated inside BSD and outside with their clients. They also have a staff intranet where this is collated and used to evidence this.

BSD encourage all employees to develop and enhance their CPD all the time, they regularly send employees on courses to enhance their professional knowledge including degrees, HNC, HNDs and such, all paid for by BSD. They also encourage employees to develop their interests outside the business, and they encourage this through charity involvement, they run events throughout the year which allows employees to enhance their skills and abilities and therefore supporting employee development, allowing them, for example, to improve communication skills. BSD also run regular CPD events with clients, enabling the employees to see other aspects of building services design, gather with other companies on the way they work, and bring innovations together

The ‘Make it Happen' attitude is seen in all areas of the business and it is never just one stakeholder taking priority. The Stool model is lived by everyone and engages the team to have a full understanding of what is expected of them. Any decisions the management team make need to be for the good of all three legs of the stool. Through this the management have created a caring and engaged team that deliver great service whilst having fun and making money. This is reflected in the great feedback Brooklands receive from guests regarding the team, low staff turnover for the industry and reaching management budget five years in a row. The management are very hands on and offer an open door policy to all staff. This year Brooklands even went against the industry trend and budgeted to pay all of their team players the National Living Wage, regardless of if they met the criteria. The team are quite often heard saying 'we are the Brooklands Family' and this is great to hear. Marco also meets every prospective employee before they start by leading the daily dash meeting, doing an introduction at the team player monthly induction and running the ‘Make it Happen' workshops for all new starters. He walks the property on a daily basis and even cooked the BBQ with chef for the team event. He also judged the Brooklands Bake off, but felt quite sick after tasting over 30 cakes! He'll even do weekend cover, where he can be found serving behind the bar and doing the pass in 1907, demonstrating to all of the team that they're are in this together and that leadership can take on various different forms to be successful.

The ‘Make it Happen' attitude is seen in all areas of the business and it is never just one stakeholder taking priority. The Stool model is lived by everyone and engages the team to have a full understanding of what is expected of them. Any decisions the management team make need to be for the good of all three legs of the stool. Through this the management have created a caring and engaged team that deliver great service whilst having fun and making money. This is reflected in the great feedback Brooklands receive from guests regarding the team, low staff turnover for the industry and reaching management budget five years in a row. The management are very hands on and offer an open door policy to all staff. This year Brooklands even went against the industry trend and budgeted to pay all of their team players the National Living Wage, regardless of if they met the criteria. The team are quite often heard saying 'we are the Brooklands Family' and this is great to hear. Marco also meets every prospective employee before they start by leading the daily dash meeting, doing an introduction at the team player monthly induction and running the ‘Make it Happen' workshops for all new starters. He walks the property on a daily basis and even cooked the BBQ with chef for the team event. He also judged the Brooklands Bake off, but felt quite sick after tasting over 30 cakes! He'll even do weekend cover, where he can be found serving behind the bar and doing the pass in 1907, demonstrating to all of the team that they're are in this together and that leadership can take on various different forms to be successful.

Each quarter, managers get the chance to nominate eight employees that they feel have exceeded expectations within a chosen value. The selected eight employees then get to decide between four reward day options ranging from a balloon ride and dinner in London to a golf lesson and spa afternoon. These employees will take the day out of the office to do this and will be paid as usual. All staff are set around six objectives that are reviewed throughout the year. Employees will be scored against their performance against these objectives. A bonus is provided to employees at the end of the financial year depending on their personal scores and company performance. Each month they welcome all employees to nominate a colleague that they feel has displayed one or more of their four values. Nominations are submitted via a Perspex post box (one located in each office). All nominations are collated and reviewed and four winners are chosen, each will receive a £50 voucher of their choosing and are congratulated in the monthly newsletter.

Each quarter, managers get the chance to nominate eight employees that they feel have exceeded expectations within a chosen value. The selected eight employees then get to decide between four reward day options ranging from a balloon ride and dinner in London to a golf lesson and spa afternoon. These employees will take the day out of the office to do this and will be paid as usual. All staff are set around six objectives that are reviewed throughout the year. Employees will be scored against their performance against these objectives. A bonus is provided to employees at the end of the financial year depending on their personal scores and company performance. Each month they welcome all employees to nominate a colleague that they feel has displayed one or more of their four values. Nominations are submitted via a Perspex post box (one located in each office). All nominations are collated and reviewed and four winners are chosen, each will receive a £50 voucher of their choosing and are congratulated in the monthly newsletter.

BI Worldwide are presently leading the way through a process of refreshing the values and agreeing, through workshops with employees, what behaviours are driven by each of the values. This will ensure full engagement with the behaviours once they are launched. Furthermore this activity is being led by the MD. On a more regular basis, the company's mission, values and vision are embedded in all internal communications, all in-house training and in all briefings delivered by the Managing Director. Employees demonstrating the core values are rewarded through the internal reward recognition scheme, which itself is overtly aligned to the values. Examples of the above are the Internal Intranet, New Starter Inductions, Company Meetings, ENGAGE emails and Questionnaires.

BI Worldwide are presently leading the way through a process of refreshing the values and agreeing, through workshops with employees, what behaviours are driven by each of the values. This will ensure full engagement with the behaviours once they are launched. Furthermore this activity is being led by the MD. On a more regular basis, the company's mission, values and vision are embedded in all internal communications, all in-house training and in all briefings delivered by the Managing Director. Employees demonstrating the core values are rewarded through the internal reward recognition scheme, which itself is overtly aligned to the values. Examples of the above are the Internal Intranet, New Starter Inductions, Company Meetings, ENGAGE emails and Questionnaires.

The Firm has a Recognition Scheme which enables managers to reward employees instantly to recognise exceptional work they have done. Awards can be given for a range of reasons such as working on a specific project, recognising hard work through a busy period, providing exceptional service to a client or making a significant contribution to the department. The scheme is designed to be flexible so managers can either give vouchers between £10 to £200, or they can purchase a gift such as pay for dinner for two, home furnishings or champagne. The other point that makes the scheme unique is that it also provides for peer to peer recognition. So a peer can nominate another peer to recognise support, hard work or exceptional contribution they have made. It is designed to be informal and more of a thank you, so a gift up to £50 can be given in the form of flowers, chocolates or wine. As part of the scheme, the nominator gives the award and the Firm branded thank you card directly to the individual, and thanks them for their contribution. The reason it is particularly effective and unique is because awards can be given at any time throughout the year, there are a range of awards that can be given and also the presentation and card are designed to have the personal touch so the individual feels appreciated for their contribution

Recent fundraising initiatives for Baker and McKenzie's two office charities include a Boss in the Box Challenge, quiz night, inter-departmental walking challenge, 4 participants in the London Marathon, a 10k run, Christmas Jumper Day, abseil and a Bake Off. A Volunteer Day is offered to all staff. Departments are encouraged to use their day either as an individual or as part of a team. Recent group initiatives include a day of boat maintenance with Ahoy!, a day of building refurbishment with City Gateway, and a day of garden maintenance at Richard House. The company organise an extensive pro bono legal advice programme - regular clients include Save the Children, UNHCR, NSPCC, Breast Cancer Care, Oxfam, ARK (Absolute Return for Kids). Around 30 staff are involved in regular school-based volunteering and lunchtime volunteering with homeless charity The Connection at St Martin's. The company provide office space to Amicus (UK charity campaigning for justice for US prisoners on Death Row) and also participate in pro bono legal research and casework for the charity. They also support the Albert Kennedy Trust Youth, a homelessness charity supporting LGBT young people in crisis through sponsoring their annual youth conference. This attracts many and provides a mix of skills development workshops, networking and education to help increase confidence and employability. To ensure internal opportunities are actively promoted to disabled young people. In conjunction with the company's Career Ready partnership, they offered a six-week placement to an A-Level student with muscular dystrophy and covered the cost of a carer to travel to London each day. The scheme has significantly enhanced this young person's career aspirations and employability.

Last October B3Living launched a new annual staff award scheme. The organisation designed a campaign where they asked staff to nominate one another for a “B3Inspiring Award”. After a consultation exercise the Board have recently reaffirmed B3Living's values of being collaborative, respectful, creative, reliable and excellent. They have decided to use these as the categories to be clear that these are the behaviours they prize and want to encourage staff to model. With 50 nominations a team of Senior Managers selected 15 winners. These winners were announced at the staff conference and were presented with a certificate and gift vouchers by the Chair, as well as a special winners pin badge by Anneka Rice. The pin badges are worn with pride on lanyards and have quickly become coveted items! As the winners were announced at an event in front of the entire staffing group the applause and cheers that they got lifted the roof. It proved to be an uplifting and motivational way of rewarding star staff members for their exceptional performance against organisation values.

Last year B3Living rolled out a Resilience programme. This was open to all staff and focused on the proactive side of stress management. It includes a “strengthscope”, a strengths assessment which ascertained the key personality traits or activities that employees were energised by or had the capacity to become great at. Examples included emotional control, detail orientation and collaboration. There was also a one day Resilience Training course covering topics like managing your mindset, controlling the controllables, stretching yourself, using your strengths and being aware of stress. Where possible B3Living invite in guest speakers to address staff on the topic of wellbeing, as well as inviting brave colleagues who are willing to share their personal experiences. All staff are also invited to attend a course on Mental Health First Aid to help them identify when a colleague or a resident might be suffering from mental health issues and how they might go about supporting the individual.

Since 2010 Axiom has taken part in the Housing Diversity Network's (HDN) Mentoring Programme. The HDN Mentoring Programme was originally set up in 2002 due to a need for a better pipeline for minorities into leadership positions in the housing sector. Over 25 employees have benefited from taking part in the programme, which has helped them develop as individuals through one-to-one mentoring sessions, group workshops and events. The HDN have reported that from the 2015-16 cohort of mentees, 15% were promoted during the time they were involved in the programme. There is no eligibility criteria; the programme is open to anyone who feels they would benefit from extra support to reach their own objectives. The workshops cover a range of topics with the aim of broadening knowledge of the housing sector, as well as developing a self-awareness of themselves through psychometric profiling. Axiom's CEO is a real advocate of the programme and as well as encouraging employees to take this development opportunity he participates each year as a Mentor and is involved in delivering workshops.

Through a review of Personal Development Plans and the Senior Management Team identifying potential Managers in the Association, Axiom engaged the services of a local Consultant to deliver an Introduction to Leadership and Management programme. The aim of the programme was to assist participants in gaining the basic knowledge required by a Manager, to develop basic leadership and management skills and to apply the learning to the participant's job so they become more effective. At the end of the programme all participants were given the opportunity to attend one-to-one coaching sessions with the Consultant to identify any particular areas they would like further help to develop and set goals for the next stage in their personal development. Over a two-year period, the Association has helped 20 employees to develop their management skills. At the beginning of each year every employee is set individual and corporate objectives that are reviewed on a regular basis at one-to-one meetings with their Manager. At regular intervals throughout the year The Board Of Management are also given an overview of the Department Plans and progress made in each area of the business.

This year Axicom launched their ‘Leadership Development Programme', which aims to recognise and develop the pivotal role their Leaders play across the organisation. The annual programme covers topics ranging from developing a leadership mind-set and being a good agency role model to improving personal and team effectiveness, to name but a few. External coaching sessions are also offered to the Leadership Team and the internal HR team are constantly on hand to provide support, guidance and assistance to them. AxiCom is a meritocratic environment and is consistently rewarding all of their employees, not just Managers, for their great work and achievements. Performance across the business is measured through Personal Development Plans. Whether an employee or Manager, staff are appraised formally once a year and are continually set challenging objectives in consultation with their own Line Managers through ongoing quarterly review meetings. From a management point of view, AxiCom measure performance through setting challenging KPIs against AxiCom's overall business objectives. These are set by the UK MD and CEO, who personally sit with the Senior Managers to discuss and plan their career progression and performance against the business strategy. The UK MD runs a weekly leadership meeting where Senior Leaders within each practice get together to discuss how they are tracking against our targets, recruitment needs and ensuring people who are in the pipeline for promotions are on track and have the support they need in order to achieve this.

To ensure regular team interaction and communication, AxiCom host a lively monthly company meeting at the local boutique cinema. They even provide a yummy breakfast to enjoy whilst the meeting takes place! The meeting is used to showcase the great work each team has been doing that month and to update all on the company's European offices to ensure the communications that are cascaded are not just regarding the UK. AxiCom often invite guest speakers to the monthly company meetings to ignite debate, curiosity and ideas amongst staff. The CEO and UK MD use this monthly slot to ensure the company's vision and long-term strategy is continuously articulated and understood. AxiCom's Global Cohn & Wolfe Group CEO also attends around once a year to cascade the Group vision and strategy. As a company AxiCom promote lots of interaction in the meeting for people to ask questions and seek any clarity that is needed. After the meeting staff have a chance to socialise and discuss what they have learned.

During 2015 Atkins introduced the Group CEO bonus scheme, which is designed to recognise exceptional effort and contribution by an individual to the business. In any given year there are a handful of really stand-out contributions that individuals make to the business that go above and beyond what is required of them. Whilst most such contributions are picked up by the bonus schemes the company have in place, there are sometimes individuals who do something so special that further recognition is appropriate. For example, they may develop an innovative solution to a client's problem which has brought external recognition or they may have produced a world class piece of thought leadership. The scheme is largely honorific in nature, with a personal letter from the CEO to reinforce the importance of the employees abilities and contributions to Atkins' continued success. The individual also receives a cash bonus to a maximum individual value of £3k and in 2016 there were 37 CEO bonuses awarded.

During 2015 Atkins introduced the Group CEO bonus scheme, which is designed to recognise exceptional effort and contribution by an individual to the business. In any given year there are a handful of really stand-out contributions that individuals make to the business that go above and beyond what is required of them. Whilst most such contributions are picked up by the bonus schemes the company have in place, there are sometimes individuals who do something so special that further recognition is appropriate. For example, they may develop an innovative solution to a client's problem which has brought external recognition or they may have produced a world class piece of thought leadership. The scheme is largely honorific in nature, with a personal letter from the CEO to reinforce the importance of the employees abilities and contributions to Atkins' continued success. The individual also receives a cash bonus to a maximum individual value of £3k and in 2016 there were 37 CEO bonuses awarded.

Aspect Capital work with a company called the Access Project. They are a charity who connect GCSE and A-Level students in London with people who can give them one on one tutoring for an hour a week. Aspect have about six people who regularly provide Maths and Science support to students from the King Solomon Academy on the Edgware Road. Their staff also regularly volunteer to help out with wrapping presents, serving food and manning stalls at St John's Hospice's Christmas and Summer fayres. Aspect Capital and it's employees raise money for a number of charities annually and on an ad-hoc basis. Charities that they have raised money for this year include Access Project, Sands, St John's Wood Hospice and the British Lung Foundation to name just a few. After a company survey about charity the company found that employees were particularly interested in raising money for medical research and so they company set out to donate to the Francis Crick Institute, a Cancer Research centre in near their offices in London.

Although the senior management team are always looking to meet the business goals, they don't compromise the corporate values in order to achieve them. This is regularly demonstrated, whether it be not hiring someone who wouldn't fit with the values of Aspect, doing day trips to far-flung destinations to help out a member of the Sales team at a particularly challenging meeting or getting involved in any of the community and charity events. Aspect's Board members regularly sit in the Staff Hub to have lunch with the wider company and ensure they are listening to issues and they each host two Director Breakfasts every year, these breakfasts are designed to provide an opportunity for staff to ask questions in a comfortable environment. There are usually around 10 attendees. The CTO, Anthony, randomly selects support tasks to take on in order to help out the IT team when they're busy and keep his skills fresh. Anthony has an open door policy, he chairs the weekly Company meeting, gives quarterly updates on progress against the business plan to the whole company and endeavours to introduce himself to new joiners as soon after they start work at Aspect. They also rope in him to push the beer trolley round the office a couple of times a year.