What are companies doing with regards to 'My Team'

Staff at DLKW Lowe were involved in helping decide what the company's values should be and have been included from day one. Staff meetings were used as a forum to discuss the company's values. The values of the company are now communicated during the induction process for new employees and also in the language used throughout the company day in and day out.

The senior management team at DLKW Lowe demonstrate the company's values through their behaviour and always use the company's terminology in all staff meetings. They also award staff who continually demonstrate the company's values in their day to day working lives.

Following the appointment of their new Head of Talent, the company began with a major overhaul of the entirety of the learning and development offering. A new company-wide appraisal process and associated documentation was rolled out, in line with the commencement of the new fiscal year. This allowed their L&D team to conduct a full training needs analysis across the company. Their training partner, with Head of Talent, launched a “new starter training programme” for onboarding all new employees. Their mid-level / Senior Consultants were offered a newly designed “advanced sales training course” to enhance and develop their skills, and maximise their potential. Having previously had all management training delivered by external partners, they were able to bring this offering in house and are in the process of delivering a new “Leadership Development Programme” to the entirety of their Management team. They have also assessed and redesigned their promotional process to guarantee transparency and parity at all levels. Their existing competency documents were reviewed and redesigned to ensure complete clarity of expectations for all staff for the level they are currently operating at, but also to convey to them what needs to be done in order to achieve promotion. With this increased investment they are able to create and execute a full L&D strategy, whilst simultaneously being able to create bespoke training packages in house.

Following the appointment of their new Head of Talent, the company began with a major overhaul of the entirety of the learning and development offering. A new company-wide appraisal process and associated documentation was rolled out, in line with the commencement of the new fiscal year. This allowed their L&D team to conduct a full training needs analysis across the company. Their training partner, with Head of Talent, launched a “new starter training programme” for onboarding all new employees. Their mid-level / Senior Consultants were offered a newly designed “advanced sales training course” to enhance and develop their skills, and maximise their potential. Having previously had all management training delivered by external partners, they were able to bring this offering in house and are in the process of delivering a new “Leadership Development Programme” to the entirety of their Management team. They have also assessed and redesigned their promotional process to guarantee transparency and parity at all levels. Their existing competency documents were reviewed and redesigned to ensure complete clarity of expectations for all staff for the level they are currently operating at, but also to convey to them what needs to be done in order to achieve promotion. With this increased investment they are able to create and execute a full L&D strategy, whilst simultaneously being able to create bespoke training packages in house.

All new team members go through an induction process where they are introduced to the values by an executive team member. These values are reinforced in company collateral, and they are even encrypted on the office tea/coffee mugs. Their mission, vision, strategic objectives and critical success factors are reinforced at the All Hands Quarterly Team Meeting and in company collateral, including large posters displayed in the office. As their values are so crucial to their business they have incorporated them into their Performance Management Process. It is important to the company that they not only understand what their employee achieved but also how.

Within their Software Development and Product Management practices, they engage with Agile work stream structures, managing work on a team basis, using sprints, work planning and retrospective reviews – which help them manage the constant flow of demand coming into these teams, and helps them turn that work around more quickly and efficiently vs. a linear Waterfall approach.

Medigold provide their staff with many wellbeing initiatives including wellness days, smoking cessation, flu jabs, mini medicals, on-site clinician access, a dedicated wellness website, regular health promotion (on noticeboards and walkways), stress awareness, counselling and physio.

Medigold provide their staff with many wellbeing initiatives including wellness days, smoking cessation, flu jabs, mini medicals, on-site clinician access, a dedicated wellness website, regular health promotion (on noticeboards and walkways), stress awareness, counselling and physio.

Innovation and continuous improvement are really important to Maximus. The company prides itself on being a business where everyone is encouraged to feedback and suggest changes to processes and working practices. In the past few months Maximus have launched an interactive crowd sourcing platform - Idea Lab. This online system allows all staff members to give their opinions on specific strategic “challenges” and post their own ideas for new initiatives for others to vote on. MAXVoice is the employee representative forum which has recently been the conduit for a variety of changes in the company, including the introduction of new employee benefits. Maximus have developed a delivery model called Progress to Success which provides a structure and the tools to support all operational employees carry out their roles effectively. Team Leaders in all sites act as ‘super users' of this programme and ensure their teams are fully trained and supported in using the model.

This year Maximus launched a new campaign called MAX Living to promote health and wellbeing. Every month all staff are emailed an online magazine which provide fun facts to stay healthy and a challenge for everyone to take part in that will have a big impact on health and wellbeing (e.g. a wall chart to monitor whether you are drinking a minimum of 8 glasses of water a day; a ‘pedometer challenge' competition to see which team can walk/run the greatest number of steps). The aim of MAX Living is to raise awareness of work/health related issues, such as workspace posture and mental wellbeing. They have encouraged teams to be more active by allowing them to take an extended lunch hour once a week to take part in a wellbeing activity (anything from a walk around the park to completing a fitness DVD in the office). Following feedback that teams enjoyed a one-off ‘Fruity Friday' MAX Living challenge, every office now has an allocated weekly fruit budget.

This year Marshall's have celebrated and raised awareness of a number of different wellbeing campaigns. February: Heart Disease Awareness month May: National Walking Month June: Men's Health Week July/August: Sun Awareness September: Know your numbers, Blood pressure October: Leukaemia We have offered different initiatives to accompany these campaign such as mini health mots. This year Marshalls also offered all of its employees the opportunity to have a flu jab, this is something that had never previously been offered at Marshalls.

This year Marshall's have celebrated and raised awareness of a number of different wellbeing campaigns. February: Heart Disease Awareness month May: National Walking Month June: Men's Health Week July/August: Sun Awareness September: Know your numbers, Blood pressure October: Leukaemia We have offered different initiatives to accompany these campaign such as mini health mots. This year Marshalls also offered all of its employees the opportunity to have a flu jab, this is something that had never previously been offered at Marshalls.

At the end of each project the project team host a 'learning lunch' sharing the project's details and learning's from the project. The team celebrate each new project win by a bang on the gong and follow up with a company-wide email with information on what the project is about, value and a thank you to the team who helped to win the work.

Each employee is given a personal development budget which they can spend on whatever they like. This is an annual budget and employee's have spent their budget on a variety of things from drama classes to increase confidence. Life coach, HR training, IT coding, event planning, Prince 2 project management, singing and dance lessons and various software courses

All of the Senior Management team have been internally recruited or promoted. That is testament to robust recruitment, engagement and the approach they use in developing and supporting their staff. Each senior manager and other non-senior managers have external mentors to help develop them individually. The SMT have coaches who meet with them every six weeks and the HR Director also holds a Coaching qualification and coaches other managers across the business. Ultimately people leave managers not businesses and the company understand that the way they manage has an undeniable effect on the engagement of their staff and subsequently their performance. Developing managers is key to that. The company like to believe they recruit the best people and truly believe they deserve to be managed in the best way possible, the best way for them so they have in place a set of management behaviours that they recruit, develop and appraise against. The company is very transparent so having a common understanding to what's required in terms of competency, skills and attitude is key. Every quarter they hold a manager's quarterly review session off site where each manager shares their achievements against targets and upcoming challenges. The company's CEO will often hand out rewards, prizes and thank you's too in these reviews. Many of the managers work flexibly too, to help promote a better work life balance.

The company hold the Investors in People Health & Wellbeing Good Practice and the Simply Health Healthy workplace award. Health & Wellbeing is integral to the company's culture and sits firmly at the heart of their strategy. The company offer health & wellbeing activities and have policies and practices that support people's wellbeing. There is a strong emphasis on ensuring people enjoy their time at work and be as healthy as they can be. The company offer free membership to Simply Health, a health cash back plan, where employees can claim up to 100% back on a host of medical treatments, that include dental, physiotherapy, osteopathy, homeopathy, chiropody, counselling and gym membership. The company hold an annual health & wellbeing week at work where many activities are provided, free healthy snacks and salad lunches and a team building social. This approach has led to very low staff turnover and very low absence levels, leaving the workforce engaged, committed, happy and healthy. Managers take an active interest in their team's wellbeing and that forms a firm part of the people management culture.

They provide an on-site subsidised gym, pamper room, subsidised Starbucks, subsidised canteen, with healthy food options, a prayer room and a facilities helpdesk, which arranges services with external parties, such as dry cleaning and shoe repairs. Employees also benefit from an on-site M&S shop which sells a wide variety of food items, wine, cards and gifts. They have a Sports and Social Committee, who coordinate sports clubs, trips, employee discounts and guest vendors, who are invited to sell their products on site. As well as securing priority tickets for local music arenas, they negotiate discounts and this year employees have benefited from over 1500 discounted Chester Zoo tickets, over 6000 discounted cinema tickets and will have access to 350 discounted pantomime tickets. M&S Bank is committed to ensuring their employees feel valued and respected. They have two employee- led networks (Outstanding and RESPECT) which aim to promote an inclusive, open and supportive working environment for all. Employees also have the option to tailor a range of benefits to complement their lifestyle and enhance their wellbeing. For example, employees can opt to buy or sell holidays, as well as opt for an enhanced healthcare package. The majority of benefits are tax efficient. As part of their engagement strategy, they also offer employees the opportunity to attend local events with their friends and families at a subsidised cost for example, race days at Chester Racecourse, local firework displays and polo matches. In 2015 1,220 employees, friends and family have attended these events.

They provide an on-site subsidised gym, pamper room, subsidised Starbucks, subsidised canteen, with healthy food options, a prayer room and a facilities helpdesk, which arranges services with external parties, such as dry cleaning and shoe repairs. Employees also benefit from an on-site M&S shop which sells a wide variety of food items, wine, cards and gifts. They have a Sports and Social Committee, who coordinate sports clubs, trips, employee discounts and guest vendors, who are invited to sell their products on site. As well as securing priority tickets for local music arenas, they negotiate discounts and this year employees have benefited from over 1500 discounted Chester Zoo tickets, over 6000 discounted cinema tickets and will have access to 350 discounted pantomime tickets. M&S Bank is committed to ensuring their employees feel valued and respected. They have two employee- led networks (Outstanding and RESPECT) which aim to promote an inclusive, open and supportive working environment for all. Employees also have the option to tailor a range of benefits to complement their lifestyle and enhance their wellbeing. For example, employees can opt to buy or sell holidays, as well as opt for an enhanced healthcare package. The majority of benefits are tax efficient. As part of their engagement strategy, they also offer employees the opportunity to attend local events with their friends and families at a subsidised cost for example, race days at Chester Racecourse, local firework displays and polo matches. In 2015 1,220 employees, friends and family have attended these events.