What are companies doing with regards to 'My Team'

Senior management are required to adhere to TotalMobile's core 'People Values'. These are 6 behaviours that were identified as being core to the success of the business. The company recognise that while skills are important to the organisation, so too are the behaviours and attitudes that their people exhibit, in every position. The company refer to these as the ‘HOW' in terms of how they achieve their objectives, not just ‘WHAT' they achieve. The 6 values include how: They need smart people with the right attitude, they are all committed to continuous learning and improvement, and they support their people through the performance culture. Reward people for excellence and are socially responsible To reinforce the importance of the values, the Top Team of senior managers took part in a video which promoted the values and explained their importance. Senior managers and staff are measured against adherence to these through the performance review process. Where there are not being exhibited, then an action plan is agreed to address the shortcoming. In addition to this all managers must exhibit separate 'management and leadership values which include: I support staff and manage their performance, I make decisions effectively, I empower staff to come up with solutions to problems, I behave with integrity and treat people fairly and consistently, I treat people with respect and with empathy, I am approachable. Again, these are reviewed during performance reviews and remedial action taken where necessary.

Senior management are required to adhere to TotalMobile's core 'People Values'. These are 6 behaviours that were identified as being core to the success of the business. The company recognise that while skills are important to the organisation, so too are the behaviours and attitudes that their people exhibit, in every position. The company refer to these as the ‘HOW' in terms of how they achieve their objectives, not just ‘WHAT' they achieve. The 6 values include how: They need smart people with the right attitude, they are all committed to continuous learning and improvement, and they support their people through the performance culture. Reward people for excellence and are socially responsible To reinforce the importance of the values, the Top Team of senior managers took part in a video which promoted the values and explained their importance. Senior managers and staff are measured against adherence to these through the performance review process. Where there are not being exhibited, then an action plan is agreed to address the shortcoming. In addition to this all managers must exhibit separate 'management and leadership values which include: I support staff and manage their performance, I make decisions effectively, I empower staff to come up with solutions to problems, I behave with integrity and treat people fairly and consistently, I treat people with respect and with empathy, I am approachable. Again, these are reviewed during performance reviews and remedial action taken where necessary.

The company invest in external training and ensure they have the tools needed to drive sales and get the most from their teams. Managers have regular reviews and clear objectives to ensure clarity and success day to day. The company celebrate all successes within their brand.

The company offer site massages for staff and more flexible working options including more home working when needed.

At Thomas, they practice what they preach, they are in the business of developing people, and this is also our number one focus with employees. The people development programme, My Thomas Development, uses assessments to support the development of their employees, and ensures that managers are consistently holding 1-1 meetings and reviews. The company offer secondments with other departments or international partners, fund external training, and runt their own internal training courses, which are created in response to development needs. A whopping 25 of the 118 employees have been promoted this year alone, which is testament to the quality of the development programme.

The company values were created through an exercise at the company-wide conference at the beginning of 2014. The company elicited from staff personal values that were common to the majority of employees and used those as a basis for re-writing their company values. Through inclusion and clear communication, our staff are now able to live the Thomas values through their work. These values formed the basis of the company awards categories, and have been introduced to all performance review templates. The company recently held a 2 day strategy meeting to plan their strategy moving forwards. They have significantly increased their ambitions for the future, changing their target from £50 million to £250 million.

The company don't do anything innovative but the general level the of support they provide their employees with is fairly unique for the sector.

The company work with their Senior Associates each year who are the talent for the future and each year they decide upon and run a project within the firm which is linked to strategic objectives. It is a great way to develop their leadership and project skills whilst delivering on important employee engagement initiatives. For example in 2013/2014 they ran a campaign called your voice where they held lunch time sessions with the staff without management present and gathered feedback and ideas for improving recognition. These results were presented to the leadership team and many of those ideas have been implemented in 2014/2015.

The company run regular "off sites" for teams in the business. For example, once a quarter the Internal Comms team organises an IT team offsite. This will involve all 100+ members of staff from IT. The event usually takes place in the purpose built auditorium and in the staff restaurant and takes a full afternoon. Typically it includes: Information share - members of various team or project groups will present short updates on their project and share learnings. The company survey staff before the event and ask them to put forward topics that they would like to know more about. They also have non IT speakers, such as the MDs of the business units, who will come and talk about their plans for their business. Ideas generation - the teams will split into groups to brainstorm a particular topic and will then present back Team building - usually some sort of game-based team. The company deliberately engineer the teams to bring together people who don't work together day-to-day. Social, each event ends with beer / wine and pizza being served in the staff restaurant. At the end there is a follow up with another survey to assess the event.

For many years Think Money Group has been a Platinum payroll giving provider. However, this year the company decided to move away from Charities Aid Foundation to a new scheme administrator, Give All. There are three main advantages: Give All doesn't charge a fee so all donations make it to the charities; Give All operates entirely online and staff can administer their own accounts and, finally, Give All distributes money to charity with 48 hours rather than weeks. To make the move the company have to get staff to sign up to Give All. The company automatically set up their accounts with Give All - all they needed to do is to login, confirm their charities and confirm their donation amounts. 82% of staff did just that - matching the number that donated on the old system. In fact the company asked staff to increase their donations and many did - so they now give more than ever each month. After many years of supporting Seashell Trust in Manchester staff voted for a new local charity this year - Cash For Kids. Through Cash For Kids the company can support deprived children across Greater Manchester.

Managers hold monthly 1-2-1 meetings with their employees where learning and development is discussed. Employees are able to request financial support for training which will enhance their knowledge and skill set for their role. The company also offer in house training such as the company induction, email management and training specific to roles and divisions in which attendance is mandatory for all employees.

Managers hold monthly 1-2-1 meetings with their employees where learning and development is discussed. Employees are able to request financial support for training which will enhance their knowledge and skill set for their role. The company also offer in house training such as the company induction, email management and training specific to roles and divisions in which attendance is mandatory for all employees.

Location swapping between the Leeds, York and Harrogate offices is a very effective practice that the company undertake with their staff. Each month a selection of members from each sales team swap seats with a colleague in a different location for between a day and a week. This system of locations swapping has multiple benefits including; spreading best practice; increasing interaction between teams; challenging the ‘norms' that are created at each location by showing a different way to do something and creating meaningful relationships with colleagues that otherwise would only ever happen on email or at team gatherings. This practice also removes barriers of communication, because staff have worked alongside the people they are talking to, enabling a smoother flow of information. This practice also applies to managers, with members of the account management team working from each of the locations for at least one day per month. This allows the sales team to see/feel/hear what happens with the new customers that they bring on, as well as increasing the flow of feedback to and from the sales team and the account management team.

Business director Adam Walsh is responsible for developing and coaching managers via their personal ‘road maps'. He makes sure that those managing non-commercial departments fully understand how their work impacts on the wider business performance and in the achievement of the main business goal of £5m profit target by 2018. Adam is mentoring Nicholle Anderson and Steven Kershaw, customer service and credit manager respectively, with the aim of further developing their commercial awareness. To this end, they are involved in budget and profitability discussions and they also contribute to the development of the general business plan. TRFC is committed to investing in external training for their team and they collaborate with leading institutions. Three managers have been accredited this year as members of the Institute of Leadership and Management. The programme focuses on how coaching can improve an individual's performance and confidence by harnessing their own knowledge.

The Regatta Group prides itself on the level of internal promotions with the majority of management positions being from within the business. New and existing managers are able to go on a bespoke programme called Journey to Management Excellence. This has been specially designed to give managers (or refresh) the knowledge of certain tools that will help them manage their teams better. The programme has been positively received by all the managers that have been through it. Senior managers act as mentors for new and less experienced managers which has had positive results. The company also conduct internal training, topics so far this year have included managing change, having difficult conversations and setting objectives.

As well as the initiative details in section 5.5 the Company offers free fruit in logistics and head office, there are health checks available through local council gyms and we provide prostate and breast screening to employees in their 40s who would not qualify for NHS screening. Company walks are an opportunity for people to exercise in work time. The onsite restaurant cooks healthy meals every day with calorie count and fat content published so that people can make informed choices.

Team interaction and communication is very much an intrinsic part of day-to-day company life. The company have always recognised the importance of getting everyone together so have built a forum for this around Friday lunchtime. Every week free food and drink is provided for everyone in the reception area. As well as sharing lunch together they use this opportunity to update employees on news: To celebrate new business wins; to recognise those that have gone ‘Above&Beyond'; to share work. But most importantly to keep everyone updated. The company believe the best teams are built when there's total transparency. Communication is key to this whether to celebrate success or to ‘dig deep' and move on from a more challenging experience. In addition, training sessions will typically bring people from across the agency together. The company host fortnightly 'Well Red' sessions for the whole agency where industry professionals come in to share their areas of knowledge & expertise. Other training sessions vary from all company day sessions to smaller bits of training typically attended by between 3 and 10 employees. Less formally there are two company parties each year: The Summer Party and Christmas Party. The second would typically be expected, but the first is the company's opportunity to give something back.

We want to be recognised for our inventive and charitable contribution to the community-boosting the morale of employees, the pride of clients and the respect of peers. Since January 2014 we have raised £27,130, smashing our 2 year ambition of £20,000! Through our “80 Days To Change The World” initiative, we will have given 600 hours of our time by the end of the year to support young people faced with difficulties, to give them the best start in life. This has included creating advertising and PR campaigns for Whizz-Kidz and Asylum Aid as well as volunteering with “Hackney Pirates”, to develop young people's literacy skills and confidence within the local community. This year, we have continued to reduce the spend on our agency “Friday Fun” lunches, breakfasts and drinks by £1 per person, per week, helping to give an extra £60 a week to our nominated charities. Our agency Tuck Shop recently celebrated its first anniversary and since its launch in August 2014, we have chomped through 4000 chocolate bars, ice creams and packets of crisps to raise £1,000 for our chosen charity! On 11th October 2015, 8 employees took part in the Royal Parks Half Marathon in aid of Ambitious About Autism and are on target to raise over £5,000 for the charity. A silent auction and quiz has also been set up by employees to raise an additional £1,000 for the cause.

The whole reward and recognition package at Havebury includes a wide range of benefits. These are written up in an A-Z guide so that everyone is clear on what is provided. In addition to flexitime, these included: above average holiday allowance (26 days excluding Bank Holidays, with an additional 4 days for 5 years of service); the facility to buy or sell days holiday (up to 5 days per year) to enable more flexible management of time off work; cashback scheme through Havebury Saver within a wide range of stores, enabling staff to make savings of up to £1,000 per year and to maximise their income/salary; Simplyhealth health insurance scheme (which includes an employee assistance scheme, access to face to face counselling sessions and health screening); flu vaccinations available on a voluntary basis to all staff to reduce the risk/exposure to flu related absence; reduced membership to local gyms to encourage wellbeing and healthier living; lone worker scheme (through a pendant that dials a support number for employees while they're at work or carrying out work related duties); occupational health reviews as needed; social events fund; and 3-6 month sabbaticals after 5 years of service enabling staff to take a sabbatical.

In December 2014, Havebury was celebrating being awarded Investors in People Silver accreditation. The assessment demonstrated that Havebury met all the requirements for the Investors in People award. They achieved a silver accreditation after going beyond the required standard to meet an additional 87 indicators from the wider Investors in People framework. The assessor comments positively on the ongoing commitment to developing their employees skills and their focus on customer service. “There is a range of opportunities for everyone to develop leadership capabilities. Potential managers have access to management development activities and there are opportunities to act up in a role, lead on improvement projects and lead on a specialist area and share expertise with others, everyone is very committed and dedicated to Havebury's overall purpose and priorities and was keen to help in whatever way they could to support improvements. They are extremely proud to work here.”