Team Cohesion = Performance

A particularly enjoyable social event was the team night out at Batchwood, St Albans in April.

During the last 12 months the Senior Management team have agreed their core values with their staff.

NDS Cool change initiative is a commitment made by the organisation to work towards being carbon neutral. The organisation has invested in reducing power consumption of Set Top Boxes and has installed an IT switch-it-off campaign in all offices. NDS has also invested heavily in high quality video conferencing rooms throughout the world which has dramatically reduced travel requirements between offices, therefore benefiting the reduction of carbon emissions. NDS continues to support various charities not only at a national level but also smaller local charities that are proposed by employees and agreed by the charities committee on an annual basis. Employees have utilised volunteering days to assist these charities and local schools with technical support such as website set up, painting and general maintenance and fundraising events. Employee fundraising is matched by the company whether undertaken at individual, team or organisational level.

NDS Cool change initiative is a commitment made by the organisation to work towards being carbon neutral. The organisation has invested in reducing power consumption of Set Top Boxes and has installed an IT switch-it-off campaign in all offices. NDS has also invested heavily in high quality video conferencing rooms throughout the world which has dramatically reduced travel requirements between offices, therefore benefiting the reduction of carbon emissions. NDS continues to support various charities not only at a national level but also smaller local charities that are proposed by employees and agreed by the charities committee on an annual basis. Employees have utilised volunteering days to assist these charities and local schools with technical support such as website set up, painting and general maintenance and fundraising events. Employee fundraising is matched by the company whether undertaken at individual, team or organisational level.

Mott MacDonald utilises two primary groups to listen to the views of employees. To promote professional excellence, a Young Professional Excellence (YPE) network exists across all of the company's business units. This network creates a learning culture among the company's younger staff. YPE promotes two way communications and ensures that the views of their young professionals are fed back to senior management. As the YPE networks are representative of Mott MacDonald's business units, the Groups can be targeted depending on the nature of the query on which the company is seeking views. The other channel which MacDonald uses is staff councils. These allow effective two-way communication between the company and staff at all levels. In doing so, they provide a forum in which company policy can be explained to staff. They are held on a quarterly basis and minutes are posted on the company's intranet to ensure all staff have access to on going discussions.

Mott MacDonald utilises two primary groups to listen to the views of employees. To promote professional excellence, a Young Professional Excellence (YPE) network exists across all of the company's business units. This network creates a learning culture among the company's younger staff. YPE promotes two way communications and ensures that the views of their young professionals are fed back to senior management. As the YPE networks are representative of Mott MacDonald's business units, the Groups can be targeted depending on the nature of the query on which the company is seeking views. The other channel which MacDonald uses is staff councils. These allow effective two-way communication between the company and staff at all levels. In doing so, they provide a forum in which company policy can be explained to staff. They are held on a quarterly basis and minutes are posted on the company's intranet to ensure all staff have access to on going discussions.

Morningstar have partnered with the City of London and a charity based in the city fringes to provide teenagers in deprived areas with an opportunity to visit a City office, go through a workshop with employees on City careers, practice interviewing, learn more about career paths in a financial company and take part in work experiences and internships potentially leading to a permanent role.

Morningstar's flat non-hierarchical environment, casual culture and open architecture encourages and fosters open communications at all levels of the organisation. The company actively encourages questions, ideas, and debates and state they aren't likely to hire individuals who aren't curious question askers. Morningstar have an open upwards communication policy where employees are invited to write, call or meet senior management regularly. The company organises breakfast sessions with senior management, town hall meetings with their CEO and founder and country meetings, social events and seek employee feedback through several different surveys.

At Metaswitch, a line manager is an individual's Personnel Manager and is responsible for their wellbeing, engagement at work and their career. Weekly status meetings are a key element of this role and it guarantees one-on-one time every week between the manager and employee. Managers are trained to be able to manage their people effectively and this means using careful judgement and thought when making decisions about the employee and agreeing all key decisions with their line.

Metaswitch believe the key to the wellbeing of their employees is their relationship with their manager. The happiest and most productive employees are those treated with respect and fairness and who have clearly defined goals. Each employee is guaranteed one-on-one time with their manager every week and they believe that this is invaluable for their employees' general wellbeing. If they have any concerns or worries, the manager will dedicate as much time as is needed to resolving the issues. Metaswitch also give employees a lot of flexibility with managing their time. They are able to fit their work around their life, so that they are not under any unnecesssary stress. For example, many of their employees in Enfield are in a lunchtime sports club, which has been set up for for Metaswitch employees. There are currently groups for football, rugby, ultimate frisbee, badminton, and many more! Employees play these sports in the local park and then use their changing room and shower facilities on site. They are able to take extended two hour lunch breaks to accommodate these sports and make up the time later.

Mercedes-Benz UK have 600 e-learning programmes on-line for employees to access as well as Ashridge's Virtual Learning which all employee have access to.

With all Mercedes-Benz products there is a 'Blue Efficiency' version that is specifically environmentally friendly. The UK environment benefits from the vast amounts of research that is continually undertaken to ensure vehicles are as environmentally friendly as possible. The company actively allows employees to support National Charity Days e.g. Wear it Pink and Comic Relief.

Mercedes Benz Retail regularly hold road shows for all their staff to ensure they are kept up to date with the business performance and reminders about their core values to ensure that they are all pulling in the same direction. The top line results will be communicated to all staff with the more detailed results being disseminated to each department/site to ensure action plans can be put in place to act upon the feedback where appropriate. Mercedes Benz Retail have always looked at the results and created action plans to address the feedback provided to ensure that employees realise that their feedback is very important and is acted upon.

Mercedes Benz Retail offer their Technicians the opportunity to spend one week's work experience with the Mercedes Benz F1 Grand Prix team.

Medicare First believe the key to ensuring the wellbeing of their employees is to offer a strong inclusive leadership within an atmosphere of professionalism, fairness, respect, fun, friendliness coupled with reward and recognition for a job well done. The open plan office environment and the hands on approach of their senior management team enables them to communicate, understand and work effectively with the employees to demonstrate they are the company's most valuable asset.

In March of this year Medicare First took part in a fund raising event for "Red Nose Day". Employees were requested to wear at least one item of red clothing and contribute to the charity. The day was a great success with some very interesting displays of inventive red items of clothing, some of which could only be displayed momentarily! Good fun was had by all and the money raised went to a very worthwhile cause.

The managers show much greater flexibilty. It is now commonplace for staff to be working from home on some occasions, to be given opportunities to leave the business earlier on a Friday if travelling away for the weekend. The managers create and agree development plans with staff on an annual basis. The managers feedback the vision to their teams and quarterly objectives are created in line with the plan. The managers review competencies with each of their staff at least once a year.

The Christmas Party is a major event in Matchtech's company calendar. At a time when many businesses have been keeping a keen eye on costs, expenditure on staff social activities has been reduced or even cut. Their business has prided itself on maintaining their social activities. Matchtech pay for all their staff and partners to attend the black tie party and awards ceremony. This involves arranging for their staff from their four UK offices and one German office to converge for the occasion at the Guildhall in Southampton. It is the event in the company's social calendar.