My Manager
Personal Growth

Growth Fuels Engagement

Investing in development boosts retention and shows employees they're valued. When employees grow, your organisation thrives.
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Hilltop

During the organisation’s Annual Conference, employees have the opportunity to celebrate everything Hilltop. The Managing Director shares results from the last year and launches the One Page Business Plan, providing insight into where every colleague fits into the plan going forward. Food and drink is provided in a local venue afterwards.
Hilltop provides its employees the opportunity to grow through Personal Development Plans, internal and online training, and government supported schemes (including IOSHH, HACCP, BFCGS, and ILM). Over 150 external courses have been completed by Hilltop colleagues in the past year, increasing retention, engagement, and facilitating over 20 internal promotions.
Hilltop has four foundational elements to its manager development: appraisals and coaching from an internal mentor; learner led training; external training, which can be half-day sessions or government funded, longer courses; and a HR led wellbeing programme, that includes regular catch-ups to make sure the manager feels happy and supported.
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Food & Drink

Wacoal Europe

Wacoal supports local charitable initiatives and women's shelters. Redundant products are sent to Africa to support community projects that provide underwear to women who cannot afford it. It donates to organisations such as The Cowshed, which helps people in times of crisis, such as women fleeing domestic abuse.

The company offers apprenticeships to school-leavers and to increase the skill and knowledge levels of existing staff. It is increasing its investment in employee training and their learning requirements are identified from appraisals.

The company values are "passion, team and work-life balance". Staff are inspired to be passionate about what Wacoal does and believe in its products. They are encouraged to work as a team with a common goal and the culture discourages doing long days or answering emails outside working hours.

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Manufacturing

The Oakland Group

Oakland has a dedicated menopause support policy available. For managers, recognising the symptoms of the menopause is vital to treating an affected employee fairly. This policy includes installing a water cooler, providing desk fans, making rooms for rest available, allowing for more frequent breaks, quiet working spaces, and extended deadlines.

It has recently introduced personal learning budgets for its teams. This provides each employee with a £400 individual learning budget that they can choose to spend on the learning intervention that best meets their development plan. Additionally it offers internal workshops when there is a requirement for tailored training.

As part of its Oakland Gives Back scheme, it matches the amount raised for any employee taking part in charity fundraising. If at the end of the financial year the amount allocated to good causes has not been spent it asks employees to nominate small local charities close to their heart.

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Consultancy

The Cumberland

The Cumberland’s 'Power Hours' programme provides regular opportunities for personal growth, equipping managers with new skills and knowledge. This initiative encourages ongoing learning and skill utilisation, fostering advancement opportunities within the organisation.
The Cumberland’s Straight Talk for People Managers ensures that managers are well-informed, enabling them to confidently lead their teams. This initiative promotes trust, support, and care, strengthening the bond between managers and their teams.
The Cumberland fosters team spirit and a sense of belonging through regular social events such as the annual Christmas party, quiz nights, walks, and shopping trips. These initiatives help cultivate a fun and inclusive work environment.
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Financial Services

Ryder Architecture

The people at Ryder Architecture enjoy annual team trips to expand their knowledge and strengthen bonds, as well as opportunities for international secondments. The organisation captures life beyond work, from charity events to family days, and invest in a culture that is built by its people, for its people.
Ryder Architecture’s internal summit, Blueprint is a unique aspect to the business. Hosted each year, the leadership team shares the practice’s goals for the year, announce promotions, and present awards which recognise great achievements, stand out contributions to the business, and outstanding project work.
Staff are supported through the provision of 80+ hours of training per person, per annum through the Ryder360 Learning Programme, which encompasses all aspects of personal development and covers personal skills. This is to support the continuing professional development of its people, including those working towards charterships.
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Architect & Surveyor

Parogon Group

New starters take part in Parogon Best Starts which focuses on the initial induction and welcome to the company. This continues on to upskilling workshops around key focus areas that are delivered through the Skills Trainers and Restaurant People Development Partner. Employees looking for manager training can then enrol in the Parogon Academy.
Parogon Group’s Leadership Development programme concentrates on how to deal with all elements of the day to day running of the business. It teaches over a full four day programme that has been tailored into a bespoke system covering the four key areas it believes are essential to achieving success: Clarity, Competence, Compliance, and Control.
Everyone at all levels of Parogon Group has an open communication approach to each other. Managing Director, Rich Colclough regularly updates the organisation with videos on important business decisions and various activities happening across departments.
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Leisure & Hospitality

HLM Architects

All managers have received mental health training and stress management training, enabling them to recognise the signs of stress and burnout. This additional level of support recognises that managers may require extra support for their teams and guidance on how to manage difficult conversations, while giving employees the opportunity to have confidential and supportive conversations.
The organisation holds social events, quizzes, drawing classes, dinners, desk yoga, netwalking, and inclusive-tea breaks and it has hosted family events including colouring competitions, shed building, and garden design. It has also introduced Walk Out Wednesdays where employees leave their desks and go on a walk together.
The HLM Academy is designed to enhance progression through a variety of channels to suit different learning preferences. All employees are enrolled from day one. The Academy is uses two frameworks. The Skills framework outlines emotional and technical skills needed. The Behaviour framework sets out core behaviours and how colleagues should engage with each other.
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Architect & Surveyor

Hastings Direct

Hastings Direct offers its employees a range of wellbeing initiatives, including a Colleague Assistance Programme, an in-house therapy app, Smart Health GP services, Menopause cafes, a Hardship Fund, and men’s talking and listening clubs partnering with The Talk Club. It also has 55 Mental Health First Aiders and 75 Wellbeing Champions.
The organisation supports colleagues personal growth whether their choice is to develop in role, progress into other roles in the team, or change ‘career’ within Hastings. It does this by offering employees the opportunity to enrol in professional programmes, apprenticeships, graduate schemes, and internal and external mentoring to on-the-job?training
Hastings Direct has different levels of leadership development, including Operational Leadership Excellence (OLE) – a 12–18-month leadership programme that is focused on building skills, knowledge and confidence to better coach customer facing teams. It also offers Leading 4 Growth – a module-based programme aimed at senior leaders and keeping the group aligned to company strategy.
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Insurance

Benefact Group

All employees have access to private health cover, a 24/7 virtual GP service and a 24/7 employee assistance helpline. The Group has also developed a 'mental health pathway' which links providers together to ensure effective routing to the right professional help first time, no matter who they contact first.
Developing team members is embedded as a core expectation of line managers and regular 1:1 meetings are expected. More formally, the company supports professional subscriptions and CPD, be that in insurance or professional specialisms. It tracks key talents and these processes feed into both the Benefact Emerging Talent Programme and the Benefact Leadership Development Programme.
Benefact Group runs a leadership programme for middle to senior leaders identified through the talent process as having future potential. This is a modular 18 month programme that covers Leadership and Emotional Intelligence, Innovation Tools, Financial Decision Making, Strategic Analysis and Collaborative Working Methods, delivered across 3 residential events.
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Insurance

Digital Cinema Media

DCM has an extensive range of benefits that support and prioritise its staff’s wellbeing. These include monthly access to an independent coach, an Employee Assistance Programme, and as well as GP, mental health, physiotherapy and life and money support via Help@Hand. Everyone also has full access to the MyMindPal app to help handle daily challenges.
The organisation is committed to promoting employees’ growth and development. Once per month, an external coach comes in and anyone across the business can participate in the sessions with them. DCM also has an annual away day for team building and development, and away days to encourage growth and inspiring ideas.
Managerial development is offered via a learning and development partner, You Can Now, which offers classes, talks and sessions to build core skills, as well as access to MasterClass, a set of online classes which enable people to develop personal interests and skills.
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Marketing & Media Agencies

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