What are companies doing with regards to 'My Team'

The company have a 'Your Rewards' programme which pulls together the whole range of benefits offered by Provide. There is a website detailing over 8000 discounts and savings that staff can access on retail and leisure services, supported by a glossy A5 booklet giving discount codes. This has been helpful in engaging staff who do not have ready access to IT. The booklet is handed out at Corporate Induction where details of the scheme are communicated. The programme also details contractual benefits and explains the options staff have around the range of pension and assurance benefits they offer. It includes details of the Credit Union membership they have put in place for staff and their Employee Assistance Programme which offers legal and consumer advice as well as counselling services. The site also promotes healthy lifestyle initiatives run by their own in house teams.

In the last year the company have focused on building relationships between Senior and Middle Managers. In June they held a very successful event called Appreciating Managers where they facilitated lively debate between peer managers on what they valued and what could be improved to make their working lives better. They were also asked what they would like to be appreciated for and a letter was subsequently sent to the delegates by their own manager thanking them for this. As part of the workshop, teams were given a cake, icing, glitter and other decorations and asked to compete against each other to decorate the best cake before eating it at tea break. This exercise was highly successful in getting managers to work together and getting people talking to colleagues they did not know well.

In order to enhance the wellbeing of their employees, PM Group display posters from their Health & Safety Department which are displayed on all office and site notice boards and the intranet.

The company work closely with a local college as part of a local government initiative called 'Step Up Programme'. This involves presentations to students, workshops and work experience for students aged 16 - 18 they have been involved in this scheme for the last two years. The company are also involved with local universities and attend Graduate Recruitment Fayres across the UK.

Plastribution has recently moved into new larger open plan offices, which has provided employees with the chance to take relaxing breaks in their working environment, create meals, obtain snacks and free squash in the adjoining kitchen and enjoy a light, warm and well ventilated workplace.

A suggestion for an in-work tuck shop – this has now been now implemented and snacks are available via an honesty box in the offices kitchen. Creation of social committee to coordinate events and activities on behalf of employees. Supported time for charity, social commitments.

Penrose have an Employee Assistance Programme that is available to all staff 24/7 and refer to Occupational Health when a condition arises that prevents an employee from working to their full potential. Penrose encourage staff to make healthy choices by offering cycle to work interest free loans and environmental choices by encouraging using public transport (they no longer offer company cars).

Penrose have an Employee Assistance Programme that is available to all staff 24/7 and refer to Occupational Health when a condition arises that prevents an employee from working to their full potential. Penrose encourage staff to make healthy choices by offering cycle to work interest free loans and environmental choices by encouraging using public transport (they no longer offer company cars).

The SMT demonstrate all of their values on a daily basis by thanking people when a piece of work is outstanding, by questioning what they do to always find a better way in their processes and by always putting the customers first and explaining why this is to the wider audience. One example of displaying their values was that this year the senior management team of the Trust engaged staff by holding listening sessions as to how they could make the Trust a better place to work. They did this by sharing the results of Best Companies for last year and reviewing what great things had been achieved and by looking at what they could do different/better to make it a better workplace. They did this by choosing the top 3 scoring factors per employment group and reviewing the bottom 3 thus celebrating what that employment group is great at and reviewing what areas are required for improvement. This seemed to work well as it involved front line managers sharing this message with their teams which gave them autonomy and gravitas to show they believe and want to make the Trust a better place to work. This displays 'question what we do to find a better way' whilst also celebrating successes of last years achievements.

The SMT demonstrate all of their values on a daily basis by thanking people when a piece of work is outstanding, by questioning what they do to always find a better way in their processes and by always putting the customers first and explaining why this is to the wider audience. One example of displaying their values was that this year the senior management team of the Trust engaged staff by holding listening sessions as to how they could make the Trust a better place to work. They did this by sharing the results of Best Companies for last year and reviewing what great things had been achieved and by looking at what they could do different/better to make it a better workplace. They did this by choosing the top 3 scoring factors per employment group and reviewing the bottom 3 thus celebrating what that employment group is great at and reviewing what areas are required for improvement. This seemed to work well as it involved front line managers sharing this message with their teams which gave them autonomy and gravitas to show they believe and want to make the Trust a better place to work. This displays 'question what we do to find a better way' whilst also celebrating successes of last years achievements.

Overbury have various channels for feedback and continuous improvement. The most direct is through Delivering Exceptional Experience Tours. These are run fortnightly and give members of staff an opportunity to visit their sites and see how sites are being managed and run. The tours facilitate and promote the sharing of ideas and best practice. Another important source of feedback comes from their clients. Customer Experience Questionnaires (CEQs) are completed on every job and the feedback is shared across the business so others can see what the client has liked and not liked. Ideas can be filtered to management through team meetings, forum meetings or in ad hoc one to ones. Culturally they consider themselves to be an open organisation where innovation and challenge are encouraged. This is manifested physically in the open plan nature of each of their offices.

Delivery teams are rewarded on customer feedback and perfect delivery metrics as well as annual recognition awards. In addition to an annual pay review pay is constantly being monitored and adjusted to reflect the market and individual staff members contribution.

Optimum utilises an employees innovation reward scheme which they feel encourages their employees to work in a proactive and innovative manner. Employees are asked to email their ideas for ways of improving their services to a central email address and every 3 months these are collated and viewed by the senior management team. Any of these ideas which are deemed practical to be utilised and rolled out by the business wins the employee who suggested the innovation a prize of £150 of vouchers of their choice. There are also site incentive schemes put in place such as Employee of the Month and individual rewards for going above and beyond.

Following last year's engagement survey Optimum implemented the following: increased frequency of social functions to improve engagement, increase in senior management attendance at team meetings to ensure their visibility to all levels of staff, concentrated on making an open door policy environment in areas of the company that scored lower than expected to give an opportunity to discuss areas of concern, added an additional section to the company newsletter which names individual's in the business who have been commended either by peers of by customers to give recognition of their achievements. In addition, this year was Optimum's 25th anniversary and so as a celebration of this they gave each member of staff a ‘birthday' present of a watch and also made a presentation to their longest serving employee of a certificate and £200 worth of holiday vouchers.

OpenBet supports employee development via a plethora of activities, such as, Brown Bag sessions to share knowledge across the organisation, workshops for hands on programming activities, supervised Google hangouts with subject matter experts at hand to explain specific subjects and topics, internal and external training sessions on soft skills, managerial skills as well as methodologies and technical skills. Traditional classroom training is used in conjunction with e-learning activities and remote teaching via conference systems and remote internet meetings. Training plans are developed for specific roles within the organisation to help new comers or people being promoted internally, handle their new role within OpenBet.

OpenBet supports employee development via a plethora of activities, such as, Brown Bag sessions to share knowledge across the organisation, workshops for hands on programming activities, supervised Google hangouts with subject matter experts at hand to explain specific subjects and topics, internal and external training sessions on soft skills, managerial skills as well as methodologies and technical skills. Traditional classroom training is used in conjunction with e-learning activities and remote teaching via conference systems and remote internet meetings. Training plans are developed for specific roles within the organisation to help new comers or people being promoted internally, handle their new role within OpenBet.

The company doesn't have bag carriers and their senior managers put in a shift – all of the senior managers are working in the business, understanding what their teams are doing, their clients are buying and the wider industry is offering. They are normally first there, last to leave and leading the team by example. The company is a sleeves rolled up organisation and everyone there will get involved to help out those around them – that starts with their management and flows down through the organisation.

As they have grown it's inevitably harder to keep an ear to the ground and understand how everyone in the company is really feeling. They have also recognised that it's harder for newer or perhaps younger people in the team to feel confident giving them their ideas or telling them what they really think. To provide an anonymous platform for people to give the company their ideas and point of view, and to allow them to keep a finger on the pulse of how people are feeling they signed up for a service called Tiny Pulse. It's a micro survey service for internal engagement, a single question is sent out weekly to all staff and in a couple of minutes they can answer that, recognise some of the people they want to thank (Cheers for Peers) and give any ideas and suggestions. Sign up and participation is voluntary, though they regularly promote the initiative to raise awareness, and 89% of the team are signed up. Each week half to three quarters of those people tend to take part.

As a contract catering company, Olive is committed to healthy eating and offering healthy eating choices to their customers and staff. In 2012,Olive signed up to the Department of Health's Responsibility Deal pledge to reduce the salt in the food they produce. As part of this pledge they have put together communication packages to educate both their employees and their customers about the dangers of excessive salt levels in food and the benefits of reducing salt usage. Their Operations teams also periodically run Healthy Eating Awareness days at their sites which enable their customers to learn more about general nutrition and health awareness.

In July 2014 Olive Catering Services employed their first ever L & D Manager. Their role is to support business retention and growth by identifying and designing L & D solutions that are focused on the achievement of the business and people strategy. By investing in this new internal role they aim to further demonstrate their ongoing commitment to people development.