What are companies doing with regards to 'My Team'

With a dispersed workplace across many time zones, digital collaboration is becoming a major part of RICS's regular working day. They are pursuing a ‘Digital Workplace' approach throughout the business. Skype for Business has been installed across all computers and is accessible via company mobiles. Video calls - Skype has transformed the support that colleagues receive through screen-sharing and allowing shorter catch ups to happen on demand. Facetime via screens is a great way for RICS to build stronger links across teams, with putting faces to (often very remote) names. Direct messaging – Skype DM capability allows immediate answers within meetings from absent colleagues, and has been used effectively to solicit questions during presentations and online training, allowing more voices to be heard and presentations to run more efficiently. VideoConferencing: VC facilities are in all the company's major offices and all staff can Skype into VC meetings using the BlueJeans bridge. This is great for large meetings with dispersed participants, and is allowing wider participation on big projects. Meetings can also be recorded and replayed later – this approach was used to support a big IT rollout this month with short ‘how-to' videos shared online. Sharepoint is increasingly used to enable project and teams to share information and work collaboratively on single-source documents. In-house ‘TED talks' are available to all teams and projects to host, before colleagues in their London office. They promote greater awareness and understanding of major initiatives. Selected talks now are filmed and will be shared via RICS' new intranet.

Managing Excellence is RICS' internal training programme, which is designed to encourage Managers to talk about their performance with their line manager, to identify strengths and gaps in performance, to create and own their own development plan and build capability as a people manager. The process has been designed to be flexible, so that workshops and other development solutions can be added and updated according to the company's organisational needs. This approach has also allowed RICS to package workshops into 3-4 day modules to be delivered globally, according to the needs of the management teams outside of the UK. They also have Elevate, a leadership development programme that is delivered over three, three-day modules designed for managers to take the next step from managing people to leading teams. It is based on three areas: Leading Self (self-awareness, emotional intelligence), Leading Others (transformational leadership) and Leading the Business (culture, vision and strategy).

Teams are encouraged to use communal areas to boost communication and creativity. Activities such as pool and table tennis are available as well as computer consoles. Benches outside are available for meetings.

Supported cascaded training , Management training in numerous topics is delivered by managers, which results in a greater understanding of the material.

The senior management teams are always out and about in the business on a daily basis engaging with the frontline teams and managers. Bound by the 'manager promises', these are promises that frontline teams wanted the senior team to make as they felt it would improve their relationships and working environment. The executive team keep the company values alive through reviewing progress of their managers on a regular basis and creating development plans and objectives that work towards our overall goal.

The company's impressions star cards are used throughout the business on the frontline, each associate is given a business card on one side are the principles and behaviours and the other a 'loyalty' style stamp space. All senior managers within the business carry a stamp so that when they see brilliant service being delivered it can be recognised instantly on the spot. Completing a star card entitles the associate to a personalised reward. The company also use their annual service awards where we recognise the achievements of our teams.

All of the company managers go through the core management training which is facilitated by experts in the various subjects. Specifically, managers get trained on transitioning into management, situational leadership, giving difficult feedback, coaching, running effective PDP sessions. The company think it's important for their managers to have a common language around management theories and how the company like to manage at Redgate as well as using their own style. New managers are given a training plan and an internal management buddy to talk through their experiences. Managers can join external facilitated peer-learning groups to learn from managers in other business at a similar level. The company run internal dojos on the above topics where managers come together to practice the skills they have learnt on the training. In the past the company has not been clear about what exactly makes a great manager at Redgate, this year they have articulated this from a collaborative workshop involving some managers and have now created a feedback tool that can be used to give managers clear, specific and highly valuable feedback on their performance as a manager. They then have a session with their manager to go through the feedback to recognise their strengths and agree what support they need in areas for improvement. It's a positive tool that encourages developmental feedback and continuous improvement.

The company are working with Form the Future ,a Cambs-wide educational charity to support various educational outreach activities. They have sent volunteers to participate in mock interviews with students at a local secondary school, run a CV writing workshop, and an interactive STEM careers workshop, and invited 20 students to visit Redgate where they'll spend time learning about four different projects. The company has just started to partner with Chesterton Community College to help their head of computing design and deliver a Computer Science curriculum for years 7 to 11. The company is partnering with Simprints, a local non-profit delivering hardware to help healthcare workers identify patients in the developing world, on a week-long project to rewrite some of their key software. The company also has a long-standing relationship with Romsey Mill, a local charity supporting young people and families, and offer them help throughout the year. The company donate their old computers to Afrinspire. There is also a volunteer day where every member of staff can spend one day a year volunteering on any charitable project they like.

The company have Friday drinks each week and end of the month drinks on a Thursday to encourage socialising outside of individual teams. The company as a whole also receive a newsletter from the UK President each week with the latest news and new business wins along with new joiner emails each week from HR. All internal training courses are open to all employees and are delivered on a weekly basis. The company also have work experience initiatives for more junior employees from the regional offices to spend a week in London and East Grinstead to learn more about RAPP and the wider business. The company moved offices in December 2015. The new office covers one floor in an Omnicom building, encouraging more internal interaction but also engagement with sibling agencies. The company also provide free yoga classes and the option to join Bootcamp during lunch or after work. .

The company have Friday drinks each week and end of the month drinks on a Thursday to encourage socialising outside of individual teams. The company as a whole also receive a newsletter from the UK President each week with the latest news and new business wins along with new joiner emails each week from HR. All internal training courses are open to all employees and are delivered on a weekly basis. The company also have work experience initiatives for more junior employees from the regional offices to spend a week in London and East Grinstead to learn more about RAPP and the wider business. The company moved offices in December 2015. The new office covers one floor in an Omnicom building, encouraging more internal interaction but also engagement with sibling agencies. The company also provide free yoga classes and the option to join Bootcamp during lunch or after work. .

Qubit offers a number of options for employee development, and they encourage all employees to take an active role in their own development by discussing career options with their line manager. They offer financial support for training qualifications that are for employee's current or future roles, as well as extra skills they would like to learn. For example, they have sponsored a member of the client team to attend an intensive coding course to further his knowledge of how our client engineer team work and to develop his skill set. Furthermore, the company sponsor several members of the finance team to complete their qualifications .They offered our client team several SQL and tableau sessions. The company is piloting a Lynda.com subscription for use in our marketing team. As well as using external providers, they run weekly internal training on our product updates, competitor information, sales processes and other requested topics. The company also run annual peer to peer appraisals, supplemented with the employee engagement survey tool which offers employees to give feedback to their peers whenever they wish.

Qubit runs a monthly bonus scheme named the Voice it, Own it, Do it Award. The purpose of this is to reward employees for work that goes above and beyond their day to day job role and improves organisational efficiency. This aims to reward those that embody the company values- Voice it, Own it, Do it. There are monthly open nominations, where peers nominate their team mates and detail the reasons for nomination. The winner is decided by senior management and announced company wide in the weekly kick off meeting. The company also share why everyone was nominated to all Qubit offices. The winner is also entitled to a monetary bonus of £1000.

The company has a very clear set of values that provide the foundation of their culture and behaviour. They have been written down and communicated since the company was founded. The values are reinforced from the top by company founder, Ian Hellens, who leads by example and demonstrates them in action at every opportunity, illustrating the difference the values make to their team and their clients. The senior management team spend time with recruitment partners and with candidates during their three stage interview process to ensure every recruit has the right DNA, in other words, that they naturally live the company values with integrity. The senior management team also bring the values to life at the start and end of the four day induction for new joiners, ensuring that the values are at the heart of the organisation from day 1. During the quarterly regional events, the senior management team present awards to members of the team who have demonstrated the values in action. They hold people to account for living the values and encourage the whole team to embed the values in our day to day business.

The company has a very clear set of values that provide the foundation of their culture and behaviour. They have been written down and communicated since the company was founded. The values are reinforced from the top by company founder, Ian Hellens, who leads by example and demonstrates them in action at every opportunity, illustrating the difference the values make to their team and their clients. The senior management team spend time with recruitment partners and with candidates during their three stage interview process to ensure every recruit has the right DNA, in other words, that they naturally live the company values with integrity. The senior management team also bring the values to life at the start and end of the four day induction for new joiners, ensuring that the values are at the heart of the organisation from day 1. During the quarterly regional events, the senior management team present awards to members of the team who have demonstrated the values in action. They hold people to account for living the values and encourage the whole team to embed the values in our day to day business.

All team leaders and managers enter into a specific training programme within the company which is a combination of professional ILM qualifications and in house training. All managers are then encouraged to specialise in their specific area of expertise, such as marketing or finance, so by the time a manager oversees a department, they have a combination of both experience and qualifications. Managers are provided with time off to attend courses and study packages and encouraged to continually share learning and best practice amongst colleagues. There is a strong coaching and mentoring culture within the company, which means that all future team leaders and managers benefit from the experience of those already in post.

The company has always encouraged cross department and team working, with a 'one company culture'. Every week, team members gather at HQ for an information sharing and learning session. This not only gives support to those that are in isolated offices but also ensures that everyone has up to date information and shares best practice and achievements. The company also encourages team away days, so they can focus on the future of their departments and what the plans are for the year ahead. The company try to incorporate some competitive activities too, such as the Property Management away day which had quad biking and clay pigeon shooting activities mixed with some sessions with the Director on the future of the business.

pastingThe Phoenix Car Company culture is steeped in giving something back. To the wider community, charity organisations and supporting worthy causes. £71000 last year is testament to the importance they place on this topic.

The company has understanding and approachable management. They also have attainable targets/ workloads.