Team Cohesion = Performance

In retail Pets at Home have a structured training programme which will take colleagues from part time roles through to Store Manager and beyond! The company's success at internal promotions is very strong. Using the Area Manager population as an example, 20 out of 22 Area Managers were promoted from Store Manager. Pets at Home have the advantage of being able to offer an alternative career path to their colleagues who want to become qualified pet groomers. The company takes their retail colleagues through Pets at Home's 'Power to your Paws' programme, that gives them all of the required technical skills they need to become professional pet groomers. Pets at Home's development programmes play a vital part in the company's commercial growth, as they would not be able to continue to expand at the rapid rate they are without the internal candidates coming up through the ranks to become Store, Deputy and Assistant Managers, full time colleagues, Grooming Salon Managers and Stylists.

In retail Pets at Home have a structured training programme which will take colleagues from part time roles through to Store Manager and beyond! The company's success at internal promotions is very strong. Using the Area Manager population as an example, 20 out of 22 Area Managers were promoted from Store Manager. Pets at Home have the advantage of being able to offer an alternative career path to their colleagues who want to become qualified pet groomers. The company takes their retail colleagues through Pets at Home's 'Power to your Paws' programme, that gives them all of the required technical skills they need to become professional pet groomers. Pets at Home's development programmes play a vital part in the company's commercial growth, as they would not be able to continue to expand at the rapid rate they are without the internal candidates coming up through the ranks to become Store, Deputy and Assistant Managers, full time colleagues, Grooming Salon Managers and Stylists.

All staff within the company have a structured training programme that is evaluated under the company's ISO accreditation. The company's structured training programme has been further developed over the past 12 months. Operational staff are encouraged to undertake their NVQ qualifications and in the past 12 months in excess of 10 operational staff have completed their NVQ Level 2, and have chosen to progress to Level 3. Individuals are fully supported and work time is set aside for them to complete their modules to ensure work-life balance in maintained. Sales/Recruitment staff now undertake not only the company's bespoke structured training programme, but the company have also set aside a budget for individual coaching. The individual coaching is on topics chosen by the individual and his/her manager during their monthly business reviews and has proven to be highly successful.

Pertemps Professional Staffing Network Limited has a training programme that has been rolled out and further developed over the past year. The programme trains managers around setting goals, coaching and recognising the importance of being a leader and role model.

In January 2012, People 1st hosted a belated Christmas celebration in Northern Ireland. The trip coincided with the launch of the organisation's customer service training programme, WorldHost, in Northern Ireland. This provided an opportunity not only to give all their teams the chance to see the shape of the market in one of the devolved nations, but also to celebrate the challenges and changes met by the organisation during 2011. People 1st flew all employees to Belfast and all flights and overnight accommodation in Belfast were paid for by the company. The celebration was organised by their Northern Ireland team and included a drinks reception at the hotel, a live comedy performance by award-winning Belfast comedienne Nuala McKeever, followed by a three-course dinner. While the Christmas celebration was an extremely social and enjoyable occasion, it presented many opportunities for learning and networking. Members of the senior management team and department representatives participated in the launch of WorldHost, and all other staff members were able to learn about the programme in the context of the market in Northern Ireland.

The Ministry of Innovation (MOI) is a group of representatives from across the company that meets every six weeks to empower employees to discuss issues and ways to make the company a better place to work. The MOI receives feedback and ideas from around the company, as well as Best Companies survey results, and develops initiatives to improve areas including staff well-being and engagement, office look and feel, social events and the overall employee experience. Last year, it focused particularly on well-being, leading to the introduction of the Summertime Working Scheme and Giving Something Back, and conducted focus groups with other staff members on both topics. One resulting initiative was the promotion of their 'Charitable Chums', where staff members promote the work or activities they undertake to peers and colleagues. Social events and activities organised by the MOI at the quarterly learning and information days have ensured that People 1st's family ethic has remained strong throughout the changes they have faced. Each MOI meeting is attended by the CEO/COO to ensure decision makers are informed and that proposed initiatives have both the support of employees and senior management. It also gives employees an opportunity to ask questions to the organisation's leaders, which are then fed back to wider teams.

To enhance the well-being of employees the organisation includes staff in decisions, listens to their suggestions, supports regular activities of the Staff Representative Group, puts emphasis on safe working, and creats good working environments, management and practices.

The organisation have a good job evaluation process. They also have other pay options, appraisals, and a performance management process. They regularly review job descriptions and carry out employee appraisals and
monitor staff wellbeing by reviewing work loads. In addition, they have a well established communication flow, for example, staff rep groups. They also have regular staff meetings and a staff survey.

Last summer, the Payzone social committee decided to organise an Olympic themed BBQ. The BBQ was designed as a fun and completely free event for all. Emails were sent to the business prior to the BBQ to create a buzz, whilst keeping some aspects a surprise for the evening. An outside catering company was hired to provide the food and the Social Committee was in charge of everything else buying in drinks, games, prizes and decorations. The outside of the office was decorated with Olympic banners, bunting, flags and balloons and games were set up around the area. Games were set up for all to play and carried prizes and got everyone interacting with others from around the business. A highlight of the night was the managers' triathlon with 14 of the management team battling it out to be crowned champion, whilst being cheered on by their teams. The evening was a definite success with the majority of the business in attendance.

Managers and Team Leaders performance is measured against the company's PACE values. The Personal and Caring values require the managers to provide evidence of how they have supported their team members to achieve both their personal objectives, and their individual development objectives. Additional support is available from the HR team to ensure that managers and team leaders feel fully supported when dealing with difficult or sensitive performance issues.

One thing the senior management team have done this year is give employees a real chance to give their personal view about what sort of place they want to work in over the next five years. Employee responses are really shaping what the charity will look and feel like in the future. They are creating new Mission, Vision and Values for the charity; they wanted them to be real world, and not marketing jargon. So the people with the best views were the staff and customers. The first stage of engagement was to ask staff what they thought of their current Vision and Values. This was done by a brand consultancy. This feedback was taken to their staff conferences, where they created a memorable, interactive process asking staff to share their opinions on potential new Values. Everyone from the charity had their say about the sort of organisation they wanted to work for in the future. The session concluded with each employee voting for the ten words or phrases that best described the Trust. 500 votes later and the exercise in employee engagement resulted in new Values for Papworth Trust. The result was an honest picture of what employees thought.

Their staff and management conferences this year have produced really good feedback from employees about how they can improve culture and customer service. Of their total headcount, they had 350+ employees attend one of the three staff conferences. The afternoon session in all three conferences, including the management conference, enabled employees to discuss with colleagues what should be on their agenda for improving customer service and how they work together to achieve it. The ideas that employees came up with were collated and a report sent to the Leadership Team for agreement on short and long term actions. Their communications with employees following the conferences have kept them informed of progress as they requested. A full report of the events will be uploaded onto the intranet.

Palletforce have recently introduced health benefits through Paycare which includes an employee assistance program. The company also have an onsite gym and a personal trainer who comes in once a week, employees can take an hour out of work time to attend the gym with the trainer.

Palletforce launched its Employee Recognition Scheme in 2011, which aims to get all employees involved in recognising each other for the work staff do either at Palletforce or outside of work. Employees can nominate each other and are recognised by the company's CEO and their achievements are published in internal newsletters and on Palletforce's intranet. The company also launched their long service awards which see employees awarded for milestones starting at 10 years.

Their managers encourage a mentoring relationship outside of their own relationship with an employee. Their managers always make sure that they set aside time for regular, individual catch ups with each of their team members. They also have methods in place to regularly feedback any information from departmental meetings to their employees. Their managers place a strong emphasis on focus groups and encourage all employees to get involved in order to share their ideas for improvement.

Ogilvy place a great emphasis on providing the best training and see nurturing the knowledge and development of their people as a priority. An example of this is their overall approach to the company's Learning and Development programme. This is designed to support company objectives as set out in their business plans, and incorporates the relevant training that supports the competencies and professional skills they value. A core feature of their approach to Learning and Development is that they place the onus on the individual to take primary responsibility for their own development, and then to support this through a clear learning path. The learning path is there to aid career development and succession planning and they underpin this by offering a breadth of opportunities available in an agile way so that everyone, no matter what level or department they work in, has access to some key development that meets their individual needs.