What are companies doing with regards to 'My Team'

Aspire Outsourcing encourages its people to have a healthy lifestyle and diet, and promotes fitness and general wellbeing within the workforce. People certainly don't feel that their health is suffering because of their work. Work deadlines are realistic, and people rarely feel that the organisation takes advantage of them. Recruitment might sometimes be viewed as a high-pressure industry, but at Aspire Outsourcing, people don't feel under too much pressure to perform well either.

Aspire Outsourcing encourages its people to have a healthy lifestyle and diet, and promotes fitness and general wellbeing within the workforce. People certainly don't feel that their health is suffering because of their work. Work deadlines are realistic, and people rarely feel that the organisation takes advantage of them. Recruitment might sometimes be viewed as a high-pressure industry, but at Aspire Outsourcing, people don't feel under too much pressure to perform well either.

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Several technical staff with ambition to move into commercial/sales roles have been supported including relocation where required. Managers make it very clear how specific projects and deadlines are connected back to meaningful business objectives that contribute to entire teams bonus. There is a general open culture, anybody can talk to the senior managers about anything and regularly do.

The Leader of the organisation provides an open door to anyone in the business. He is extremely accessible and is genuinely interested in the views and opinions of every member of staff. Perhaps more importantly, he is prepared to act on these views and opinions and always provides feedback.

The most important aspect in this respect is the maintenance of staffing levels. At a time when many organisations have been asking staff to do considerably more, Arena have continued to increase staff counts across the organisation. This means that pressure on individuals is minimised, the likelihood of work related stress is reduced and employees are able to keep a healthy work/life balance. Arena have also moved their North West operation into brand new premises, refurbished major parts of the headquarters building, extended and refreshed the Derbyshire base and drastically improved the North Leeds logistics base. The result is a more spacious, modern and enjoyable working space and atmosphere for the bulk of their employees.

The Aquarius annual conference took place in December 2013, providing an opportunity for all staff to come together, share their experiences and participate in workshops, individual / team awards activities which included laughter yoga, a quiz. In March 2013 we sent six of our staff on a learning trip to Rome where they visited a substance misuse service. They learnt about the services on offer, recieved training, visited local communities and took in the sites of the city.

Aquarius offer a comprehesive range of developmental training throughout the year to support staff in their roles. They have recently invited employees to participate in an NVQ training programme and their first cohort have now commenced work on their qualification through Birmingham Metropolitan College. Aquarius have secured external funding to support this opportunity and staff are able to utilise work time for completion of the required elements.

Having been dedicated supporters of Bolton Lads and Girls Club since 2006, ao.com constantly think up new, innovative ways to do their bit for the local childrens' charity. ao.com recently became a sponsor for the Bolton Atlantic Challenge. Four Bolton businessmen will row 3000 miles across the Atlantic in a bid to raise £250,000 for Bolton Lads and Girls Club's Junior Mentoring Project. Alongside fellow Bolton-based businesses, ao.com have donated £100,000 to become a sponsor of the challenge, which is even more close to their hearts with a member of their very own team on board. Marketing Executive Finn Christo has spent the past two years training for the event which will begin on 2nd December, with the full support of his colleagues and the Senior Team here at ao.com. His dedication to the event made it an easy decision to become a sponsor in order to give back to an extremely worthy local children's charity and back a member of our team all the way.

Despite the rapid growth of ao.com's business and the ever-developing range of products, services and partners, CEO John still manages to remain as close to the business as possible and always makes time to interact with his teams. A passionate charity fundraiser, John set up and continues to drive the brand new Duke of Edinburgh Awards programme for young stars of the business. This ensures the teams have the opportunity to develop their own skills whilst giving back to the local community and beyond. At the end of their first residential, every member of the Duke of Edinburgh programme presented back to John, who provided feedback in order to aid in their personal and professional development. ao.com currently have two groups within the business completing their Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award. Due to their success John now wants to open this up to employee family members. These initiatives are all funded by the business and John continually drives the success of the programme from within.

A small team, drawn from all skill levels, set out to inspire and ignite the business to Be the Difference. There's a major shift going on in the world. From closed to open, protected to connected and aware to active. Added Value needed to be a part of this shift. With three motivations; Be active. Because they welcome hard graft, Added Value got the business to commit to two days for each individual to help a charity of their choice. Be generous. Because they want to build lasting partnerships, Added Value committed to work with their charity partners to help with their challenges. Their involvement has been a massive turning point in their ventures. Be Green. Because small actions can make a big difference, Added Value committed to inspiring behavioural change in the office and their personal life. They have work-shopped with DoNation and TEAM UP to help them define their character, mission statement and tone of voice, which gave the junior employees the chance to develop facilitation skills. 2013 has seen them continue their work with Shooting Star Chase by freshening up one of their local charity shops and paint Bollywood inspired posters to decorate their children's hospice. Other activities have included clearing up a local garden for Samaritans, volunteering for the Teddington River Festival, raising £500 for Comic Relief with fancy dress, £235 for East-End Shed, which offers underprivileged kids to attend drama groups and held an in-office barista coffee shop.

The brand team spent 2 days away in The Kent countryside. "The agenda? Have some fun - they did a vineyard tour, made pizzas – got to know each other, oh and do some work - they did some 2014 planning and developed a new offer to start selling to clients as soon as got back to HQ." The qual team headed into London for a day master class in Analysis Skills. A day of fun energisers like making models of colleagues out of play dough, practising analysis techniques and finished with a well-earned glass of wine. "It was a great session to learn and share ideas. It was also great to be out of the office all together something that doesn't always happen given the life of someone always on fieldwork." "Every month Qual get together for a sharing session. They invite members of other teams to join them to share their recent work or pov on various topics and sometimes have people from outside AV talk to them including hypnosis in research." "After winning a Shine award for their work on the Land Rover account, what better way to spend the winnings than on a night of cocktail flaring and tapas eating. 18 members of the Land Rover account from teams across the business enjoyed a night of cocktail making and drinking followed by dinner. A really fun night and a great reward for all of the hard work on a big and sometimes challenging account."

acdc prides itself on developing relationships with its employees and listening to them. They actively encourage open and honest communication and employee involvement. At acdc they have an open door policy and all their employees are encouraged to raise any suggestions, improvements, ideas or concerns that they may have and bring them to the attention of their Manager during 1-2-1's or via other conversations or email, the Engagement Team via the Engagement email address or Suggestion Box, or the CEO. By actively encouraging suggestions, ideas and listening to their employees a member of the Despatch team came up with an idea to improve the packaging and labelling of their products when being shipped. acdc worked with them to put together a business case for a new piece of machinery including the cost of the machine, new banding tape, training and potential cost savings on implementation. The idea and plan was well received and was implemented. The employee was rewarded and recognised for his efforts and this promoted further ideas and suggestions from other employees.

acdc actively encourage team building events to foster interdepartmental awareness, cross functional departmental activities and improve communication. Examples of different events and sizes include the acdc annual company conference where all employees are taken off site to a nearby hotel for the afternoon and evening and this is fully funded by the company. The format for the conference includes a review of the previous year and a look ahead to the company's key goals and objectives in the forthcoming year. This enables key messages to be communicated consistently to all the employees. At the end of this year's conference acdc held a team activity which involved devising an advert for their lighting products which resulted in greater knowledge sharing, communication and better relationships from this fun team activity. Once the conference and team building activity has ended they provide a buffet, free bar and disco for all employees to enjoy and discuss the afternoon's activities or any other questions or comments they may have in a relaxed, informal environment, which encourages improved communication and awareness, Additional team building activities include the sponsoring of company netball and football teams, an annual Christmas Partly, Family BBQ, Running and Cycling Clubs, various charity events including Movember and the Burnley 10K, as well as Go Karting and other activities. acdc also hold formal team building events for their Senior Managers and leaders of the business to improve teamworking, strategy, direction and communication.

A3D2 hold a Company conference every 6 months that culminates in a party at one of their venues. They take the management teams away on various supplier trips throughout the year. The venues also hold regular team nights out and the company holds two staff parties every year. The General Manager awards held this year in Barcelona where a wonderful opportunity to recognise the management teams hard work over a previous difficult period. A3D2 take the Senior team away to a three day strategy conference. This is made up of fun team building events alongside agreeing and developing the business plan for the coming year. Getting everyone out of the office helps forge working relationships and develop innovation and excellent strategy.

A3D2 hold a Company conference every 6 months that culminates in a party at one of their venues. They take the management teams away on various supplier trips throughout the year. The venues also hold regular team nights out and the company holds two staff parties every year. The General Manager awards held this year in Barcelona where a wonderful opportunity to recognise the management teams hard work over a previous difficult period. A3D2 take the Senior team away to a three day strategy conference. This is made up of fun team building events alongside agreeing and developing the business plan for the coming year. Getting everyone out of the office helps forge working relationships and develop innovation and excellent strategy.

The best example is the internal training programme designed by the Zolfo Cooper training team. After a comprehensive review of their old training plan, which involved interviews with Partners and consultation with staff, the training team made a business case to increase the annual budget for learning and development by a third. Subsequently the suite of internal training courses has been re-designed and comprehensively covers technical skills as well as personal and career development skills. These are bespoke courses which have been designed for and in conjunction with Zolfo Cooper employees across all levels and teams within the Firm. Several of the courses such as Negotiation Skills and Technical Tasters are by self-nomination, therefore employees are encouraged to reflect on their own individual learning needs and attend those that they feel are most beneficial to them.

Managers are required to invest time in offering support and guidance to their team members. They should also provide feedback on a regular basis and ideally straight after the completion of a project. Zolfo Cooper ensure that they have open discussions with staff and objectives are well thought through and follow the SMART principle. Many managers act as mentors to junior members of staff. This means that they provide independent and objective career advice to employees outside the formal Appraisal system.

The company sets aside 1% of pre-tax profits for charitable giving each year and the funding decisions are primarily made by the family council who represent the shareholders. Their focus is on giving back to the communities where they do business and most of the funds allocated to charities based in Scotland which is where the company is registered and is the family home. The company have a matched giving policy and all employees are entitled to apply for matched giving either to match funds raised or for voluntary hours given to a charity. All employees can claim matched giving up to a maximum of £1,000 in any one calendar year.

As well as all the usual ongoing engagement activities, feedback from employee surveys prompted William Grant to form a new team of 24 employees last year representing their global operations and business areas. Their goal was to work together to make WG&S a really fantastic place to work. The team was officially branded the “Best Place To Work” (BPTW) team. Their first priority was to find out from colleagues what they could do to make WGS the “Best Place to Work”. A “Message in a Bottle” campaign was launched where every employee worldwide was sent a bottle shaped form to complete with their ideas and suggestions for improving life at work. To get maximum effect this was posted to individuals home addresses. The response was staggering and the company received a phenomenal 287 suggestions covering all aspects of life at work.