What are companies doing with regards to 'My Team'

Benfield's Chief Executive operates with a very strong desire to see the Values of the company living and breathing across the company. He has an infectious manner and his family values are delivered and received in a very inclusive and warm way. He always acts with integrity and respect to the company values serving the broader company purpose, which sets out objectives for all stakeholders of the business. He has demonstrated this through extensive consultations with every member of staff, which is demanding in terms of time, and in a way that seeks to break down the barriers that management hierarchy can sometimes create.

In July 2014, all Dealerships and Head Office at Benfield were asked to hold a social evening with their teams to discuss their dealership results. Firstly to understand the results, but also for the group to put forward suggestions to overcome the issues being raised. The main purpose of the evening was for each dealership to create an Action Plan which would have the biggest impact for them at a local level. Examples of actions included more flexible working - early starts/late finishes, to address work/life balance issues. Benfield are only 3 months into the Action Plans and this year's survey results will hopefully reflect a more engaged workforce. They intend to follow this same process when their 2015 results are available.

BDRC Continental has held a variety of team building events. These have included a Christmas Party; a summer day out and charity work with their favourite charity.

BDRC Continental has held a variety of team building events. These have included a Christmas Party; a summer day out and charity work with their favourite charity.

8 out 11 of Bazaarvoice's managers in the UK have been promoted internally into their roles - they did not join Bazaarvoice as managers. This means there is a great understanding within the management team of the needs of the team members and their clients in line with their core values as a business. Also each manager is held accountable on each of their values and they should demonstrate qualities in their work aligned to these. This also applies to recruitment and the people they hire. Each candidate should be left with a very clear impression of the values of Bazaarvoice and how they implement that into day to day work. Candidates are all assessed based closely on their values as well as their core competencies.

As a result of strong performance across the teams in June 2014 the entire UK team from Bazaarvoice travelled to their headquarters in Austin, Texas for a global ‘All Hands' meeting which mixed receiving company updates with recognition of people, celebrating and socialising. As well as this day long event, the team were able to stay a whole working week to spend time in the US office collaborating with colleagues from around the world.

In their last companywide team building event the whole company was put into teams randomly so that teams were mixed with people who don't normally work together on a daily basis. Each team were given iPads and an array of props and asked to create a short film entitled 'A Day in the Life of a Badooer', with a view to winning the grand prize and a self-styled Oscar award. After a couple of frantic hours running round, filming and editing, there was a film screening and prize giving, followed by dinner, drinks, music and dancing well into the night! Since then, they have concentrated on departmental team builds to foster good relationships within teams. These have included taxi treasure hunts around London, Go Ape zip-lining and Hint Hunt (a fun live escape game where you get locked in a room and have 60 minutes to solve the clues and get out!)

A really good example would be the training scheme they have in place for the Finance team. They encourage employees in the finance team to undertake professional qualifications such as CIMA (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants). Currently three employees in their finance team are studying such qualifications. I think this really shows that they encourage employees to better themselves and that they are happy to invest in employees so that they can flourish in their roles.

It is Asons family mentality that is the glue in supporting their employees' development, which can become in effect before their employment with Asons. They offer work experience for high school, college and university students, which can then be progressed through their graduate scheme which they aim to place every graduate with a permanent position. Every employee undergoes an induction, and is then given weekly training and support from management throughout their employment. Asons also encourage their staff to pro-actively develop their skills and encourage internal progression through their management development programme and training contracts that they offer on a quarterly basis. Asons have re-launched their training programme this year, including their mascot "Trainer-Tron", centralising all training resources, producing relevant and engaging training material and resources for each area of the business. Every employee also has access to their internal training system that allows them to view their Training Card that is bespoke to the individual when they start with Asons, highlighting any training needs that are outstanding and allows their employees to request training that they want. Asons have different difficulty levels of training: beginners, intermediate and advanced, that help fast-track their learning and aid them in feeling more confident with their work.

Talking to the people. As a family orientated firm, the directors have recruited their senior people on the basis that they will be able to engage with their employees and positively impact their day to day working lives. As strong and effective communicators, they hold ‘morning huddles' and weekly ‘team briefs' that set up the day with a positive outlook and share key information to provide employees with a feeling of management transparency. Asons truly believe that their new management structure has provided employees with a means to engage with the firm.

Senior Managers and Directors are available and accessible, listening to ideas and feedback and genuinely doing something about it. Face to face feedback and collation of more ideas via the we are ASK Italian engagement tour. You can never over communicate, continuing to evolve their communication processes, checking how to reach all employees by testing new communication channels and asking what works and what doesn't for their teams. Striving to increase their green credentials and sustainability and telling everyone what they have achieved. Focussing on what they do well including team events, team and individual development, non hierarchical inclusive culture personal contact in restaurants, making time for everyone. They have a clear career path, they continue to make it as visual as possible. Adding in new elements regularly to the ASK Italian journey, to keep it fresh and providing opportunities for promotion.

The ASK Italian Journey has had a major impact on our business results and HR metrics as well as employee development and engagement. The Journey is open to everyone and it provides an opportunity for self-driven learning and career progression from waiter to operations manager and from kitchen assistant to chef trainer. The journey provides clarity around the responsibilities, knowledge and skills required for every role, with training before graduating into a role or taking up a promotion. This year they have added further development modules to the journey for managers to develop as area support trainers and a special programme called Spotlight that prepares managers for high volume sites and managing large teams. The journey is enhanced by a bespoke 12 month leadership development programme for high potential head chefs, a bespoke 12 month leadership programme for high potential restaurant managers, and leadership development for their operations managers and senior department heads. In addition they use Myers Briggs for team building and developing collaborative working across all functions.

The most distinctive way Asidua's leader engages colleagues in their organisation is through empowerment, encouragement and open communication. Asidua management team have a focus on empowering and engaging employees hence highlighting commitment to the values of the organisation.

Asidua works closely with the Simon Community in order to help the homeless. This includes raising funds and also providing gifts such as scarves, hats, gloves etc. for distribution. The company promotes a 'switch-off' policy for all electrical equipment not in use and energy efficient practices are included in all employee induction programmes. Equipment such as the photocopier, printers etc. have low power stand-by or sleep features enabled. The purchase of energy efficient equipment is kept under ongoing review and considered at the time of purchase in line with business needs. Asidua has also undertaken a server consolidation programme to switch off servers which are either older and inefficient or no longer required.

Building the leadership capacity and capability within the organisation. This has been a key priority for the last two years. The organisation is in the process of developing a leadership competency framework for managers and this will be used to assess all managers to identify key strengths and development areas. Each manager will then receive a development plan for the next 12 months. Directors will be working closely with managers to ensure that development activities are undertaken.

The leader of the organisation attends each directorates team meeting to talk about the delivery plan. The leader has an open door policy. The leader attends all Corporate Induction Training sessions to talk about the key objectives of the organisation. The leaders meets with all new staff individually for half an hour. The leader takes a keen interest in staff and presents certificates to staff who have undertaken training or achieved a qualification, and most recently presented the winners of the fitness challenge. The leader delivers breakfast briefings.

The last Friday of every month is a dress down day for charity when all staff donate £1 to that month's nominated charity. Employees are able to make nominations for a charity of their choice. The Group match whatever money is raised across each of the Group's locations. No upper limit has been placed on this initiative. The Group have also matched money being raised by individuals for various charities of their choice outside of work.

The senior management team actively look for ways to embrace and show their dedication and commitment to the staff and Group as a whole. The Executive Team have an open door policy and many chose to regularly work out in the open plan space so they are visible and approachable to staff. Further the Executive Team meet monthly to discuss the business and the current big topics, following these meetings the Executive communicate to all staff via e-newsletter and in team meetings on what was discussed, celebrating the successes as well as advising any actions being taken to address issues. Further, the Executive supports the Best Companies initiatives by getting involved/participating in the desk hops, email free days and meeting free week. Recently a ‘Meet the Directors' induction day took place in October. All new entrants who joined the Group this financial year were invited to the all-day event in Head Office. The initiative was hosted by the CEO and involved a number of presentations by the Directors and Executive Team. The aim of the day was for the Directors to meet the new entrants and for the new starters to gain more information about the different Director's roles and responsibilities and the parts of the business that they are responsible for. It is an initiative that the Group are keen to undertake twice a year so that new starters get the opportunity to let the Directors know what it feels like to be a new entrant.

Arrow Global has a multi-tiered learning and development framework, which starts at core skill training, progresses through tailored training and top talent development, and peaks with executive development. In addition, internal knowledge sharing is key, the company runs a series of lunchtime master classes where leaders from different teams across the business give an overview of their area of responsibility to employees from other areas. The free lunch provided is a bonus. They also offer team specific breakfasts, mini master classes where technical skills/best practice is shared.

On the company's recent floatation on the London Stock Exchange, all employees received a grant of free shares in the company, giving them a vested interest in the future success of the organisation.