What are companies doing with regards to 'Personal Growth'

Masternaut offers generous basic salaries which are well above average for its industry sector.Salespeople receive generous commission and bonuses - and have uncapped earnings potential. One-to-one meetings with the MD - Martin Port has a 'management by walking around' style - he establishes a regular dialogue with all staff and offers praise and encouragement to make colleagues feel valued and their achievements recognised. Colleagues can book a 1-2-1 with Martin whenever they want, and this open door policy encourages staff to tell management about their successes and achievements.

Masternaut has spent approximately £25,000 on fun and social events per head in the last year. Some examples of these events are; Family fun day - where all employees and their families were invited. An annual Xmas party which includes a formal reception, dinner and dancing, plus an awards ceremony. Awards are presented to different departments which celebrates and recognises their team success and 'Martin's Den' - an annual Dragon's Den style event where employees can pitch to the board in teams and at the end of the night the most innovative idea wins investment.

Manhattan Associates provide work experience placements for students at local schools. They try to select a local charity to support at christmas time, for example they purchased gifts for underpriviledge children with disabilities. They also collect shampoos and soaps from employee travel and these are distributed to a local womens shelter.

Sales employees are rewarded by meeting quota and going to Presidents Club. There are 5 spaces for other employees to join them nominated by their peers - this year the trip is to Cancun. They provide spot bonuses for those employees who are not eligible to participate in an annual bonus plan, a monetary amount awarded dependant on effort.

The Mace Star awards are in their second year. Employees are given the opportunity to nominate a colleague or a team for a range of award categories. Winners are announced at the annual end of year celebration. Line managers are encouraged, through the Managing People @ Mace programme which this year is focussing on giving feedback, to reward employees informally by ensuring they are thanked for doing a good job and get the recognition that they deserve. Mace believes that this informal approach has a greater positive effect on employee engagement than a formalised system.

The Mace Star awards are in their second year. Employees are given the opportunity to nominate a colleague or a team for a range of award categories. Winners are announced at the annual end of year celebration. Line managers are encouraged, through the Managing People @ Mace programme which this year is focussing on giving feedback, to reward employees informally by ensuring they are thanked for doing a good job and get the recognition that they deserve. Mace believes that this informal approach has a greater positive effect on employee engagement than a formalised system.

As part of their health and well being focus Lloyd's had themed food in their on-site restaurants and seminars on nutrition and health eating. Their restaurants always offer healthy food options which are clearly labelled. There is an Employee Assistance Programme with advice and counselling available. Lloyd's offer external Occupational Health support and Private Medical Insurance to help with costs of any treatment. There is an on-site nurse available for advice. Voluntary health assessments are available which include tests and advice. Health assessments are offered to all employees every two years.

Lloyd's is a founding member of ClimatWise, a group of companies from the insurance sector that have signed up to a set of principles that enable the industry to address climate change issues. Lloyd's is also a member of the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative which is an international grouping of companies seeking to make a positive impact on environmental issues. Through Lloyd's 360 Risk Insight Programme, Lloyd's has engaged in debates on climate change. In addition, Lloyd's manages the building used by hundreds of businesses and individuals that gather to conduct insurance business. Therefore any improvements Lloyd's makes to the building or working practices of the market directly affects many other businesses and employees.

The company sets aside a sum of money each year and matches funds raised by their staff. As a publishing company their aim is to support charities involved in literacy and reading. They work with a local junior school on a reading partnership scheme.

Little Brown Book Group held a dragon boat race in July 2010. The company hold several events for their employees each year.

The employee well being team and pharmacy division have linked up to offer all staff a free health check by a trained pharmacist. In 15 minutes, the pharmacist carries out a variety of key tests including blood sugar, blood pressure, cholesterol monitoring, body mass index assessment and general health advice thus covering all the types of test offered at a well man/woman clinic within the NHS. These tests can help identify serious conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure.

The Society invested nearly £15,000 in the employee association. During this time there were approximately 1000 employee association members. This cost includes the annual dinner which is heavily subsidised by the Society with half of the venue amount being paid as well as all transport costs. This is a total of approx £11000 per year for the annual dinner only. The employee association is run by its employees. As well as the annual dinner, events include darts competition, pub quizzes, trips to Dublin, pantomimes, strictly come dancing live tour, pub concerts, X factor tour, family days to Drayton Manor Park etc. and many more.

L&Q have team and individual rewards for great work towards targets. This includes dining out, theatre tickets, a bottle of wine, flowers, chocolates, book, CD or store voucher. They also hold annual outstanding achievers awards, they receive 2.5% of salary as a bonus for 5% of staff. The staff also receive an attendance award for 100% attendance of one day's additional annual leave and they have professional qualification awards of £100 for a pass and £200 for a pass with distinction.

L&Q encourage their employees to use the firstassist health & wellbeing service which provides an online service to assist their employees to measure and improve their overall health. The online service Fitness2live's include health assessments, weight loss, lifestyle plans and expert training programmes for events ranging from fun runs to corporate triathlons. Members also have access to an extensive library of fitness and nutrition articles and hundreds of healthy recipes. They have an employee assistance programme from first assist in order for our employees to receive access to a 24 hour telephone counselling and legal information service, to support them with a wide range of personal and work related problems in areas such as stress, relationship difficulties, bereavement, anxiety, family worries, alcohol/drug abuse, employment or financial concerns.

Knowledge for Action training activities include Sales approach training, NLP and Dale Carnegie Training.

Knowledge to action have a budget specifically for fun and social events, which have included their Christmas Party and a Summer Polo event. Team recognition is provided in the form of monthly bowling competition and bonuses for hitting targets are provided.

75 employees were able to take part in charitable activities without any financial loss between September 2009 and September 2010. Some of these activities included a Pub Quiz, Golf Day, Running Event, Cycling Tour, Abseiling, Auction and a raffle.

Employee recognition and rewards are areas that Juniper feels passionately about. Juniper's Total Rewards Philosophy is to recognise company performance and individual performance in the compensation package. To that end, Juniper offers a pay and compensation programme that recognises and rewards employees' contributions toward achieving the company's strategic goals and business objectives. They differentiate and pay for performance simply stating the “better the performance, the greater the rewards”. Salary, bonus and long term incentive allocation decisions are based on performance.

The management regularly reviews performance of all staff. Strengths and weaknesses of all individuals are identified. Strategic decisions are then taken to develop and promote particular individuals with special aptitudes to roles and positions, current or emerging. They might be assigned to specific projects which would provide them with the appropriate training and practical experience. Often this is a reciprocal process which dovetails individual aspirations with the needs of the company.

Employees are congratulated by Directors and other team leaders upon achieving any success. The annual bonus award is also based on a clear and transparent system of scoring which is performance based which ensures that staff feel that they are rewarded for their efforts. Worthwhile achievements are also mentioned in the company newsletter, the Intranet and Twitter.