Personal Growth - How employees feel about training and their future prospects
When it comes to Personal Growth, focusing on providing growth and development opportunities will make people feel invested in as individuals, so are more likely then to feel better about the Fair Deal factor.
%20LIMITED_CompanyLogo.jpg)
GPS's Learning and Development Programme offers one to one coaching and mentorship for all managers. Breakfast Brainstorms and Lunch and Learns are available to all and bimonthly virtual presentations keep everyone in the loop. Through its emerging leaders programme participants receive the Star Manager level 4 certificate.
Company healthcare, assistance plans and financial wellbeing sessions help its workforce keep well. Nobody was obliged to return to the office full time once its doors opened and flexible working is supported. Home office equipment was offered to all staff during the pandemic to ensure their physical wellbeing.
A signatory of the Women in Finance Charter, GPS is dedicated to promoting female talent in the sector. Men are also supported and last November staff raised money for mental health charities by taking part in Movember. Virtual breakfasts and blog posts also helped spread awareness of men's health issues.
It was paramount for the company to maintain a regular training rhythm during the pandemic and digital learning made sessions more flexible. The company ran an onboarding session with the education team to allow new starters to understand better the history, culture and products.
The firm also increased the frequency of 1-1 catch ups, introduced a virtual Covid hub with key information on mental health and wellbeing including managing yourself and others and it also launched a Facebook page to share additional social activity.
For 16 years ghd has supported Breast Cancer Charities globally and has helped raise $20 million through annual limited-edition collections and awareness campaigns. It no longer uses silica gel within its supply chain, replacing it with a non-toxic, chemical free and is fully biodegradable.
Development opportunities include the Leading the Way and Momentum management programmes and apprenticeships to develop new talent. Recent training has included how to effectively manage and support remote teams, a mental fitness training workshop, safety training and courses in competition law and anti-bribery.
During the pandemic the Fulcrum family swung into action with daily wellbeing calls to every employee, helping colleagues stay in contact by encouraging virtual cuppas and lunch dates, TikTok challenges and online competitions. Line mangers also had weekly 1-2-1s with everyone in their team.
During the pandemic Fulcrum prioritised and provided enhanced services to those helping combat Covid-19. This included speeding up utility connections for new homes for NHS workers, helping a hand sanitiser manufacturer scale up production quickly and helping a new NHS laundry open faster.
Managing directors encouraged staff to take lunch breaks and gave everyone an afternoon off to relax and do something fun instead of working. Each member of the leadership team also headed up a team in the 24 days of advent challenge completing 24 minutes of physical activity every day.
The bonus scheme is based on company performance and individual performance against personal objectives. As 2020 was such great year, everyone achieved more than 100% of their bonus with the managing directors giving everyone another 10% to recognise the great efforts and achievements during such an extraordinary year.
As well as carrying on with the normal work-based coaching and development during the pandemic, the firm boosted staff skills in Excel, project management and innovation and launched a management training programme. Freixenet Copestick also provides a weekly recruitment update to showcase opportunities across the company.
The council offers internships, work experience placements and apprenticeships, which can lead to a full-time job. It recently initiated a scheme with the University of Kent to develop a talent pipeline for the planning department and successfully recruited newcomers into graduate planning roles.
The organisational development team has delivered a full learning and development programme over the course of the pandemic, opting to embrace online methods and rolling out Zoom and Skype training. Managers asked for feedback and found that many people preferred the virtual learning experience.
Staff can get discounts at hundreds of retailers and hospitality venues through a Reward Gateway account. Winners of the authority's popular quarterly recognition scheme, who are nominated by colleagues for their commitment to key values such as Customer First, also receive £25 vouchers.
Staff get three working days a year to spend on learning and development and last year this was expanded to include volunteering. Farewill also runs remote Friday 5s where people sign up to talk for five minutes about something they have learned that week.
Farewill has sent staff care packages with goodies including desk plants and exotic teas to make working from home a little more fun. A number of non-work social channels have also been introduced on topics from photography and video-games to food and meditation along with film and book clubs.
Farewill has introduced virtual coffee roulettes using an app so team members can have regular coffee meetings with people across the organisation and the Hallway chat app notifies staff to take breaks during the day to encourage water cooler conversations.
The organisation showed its work family it cared during the pandemic with paid days off to recognise the contribution they had made, thank you days focussed on fun and wellbeing plus treat bags accompanied by a note of appreciation from Chief Executive, Marcia Sinfield.
FHA has always invested significantly in training and development even in challenging periods and last year it introduced a Leading Change Programme, open to all while 30 staff took up the opportunity to increase their skills and qualifications through apprenticeship programmes.
Teams have had coffee mornings, quizzes and opportunities to just talk about how they are feeling with support from Time to Change Champions and they have been encouraged to take a walk during their breaks to appreciate nature with WhatsApp groups featuring different activities and beautiful views from across Wales.
Training has been ongoing throughout the pandemic and has included virtual continuing professional development sessions, seminars, Lessons Learnt and best practice workshops. EDGE has focussed on sharing short lessons delivered by different disciplines, sectors and individual team members and all employees have been actively encouraged to identify topics for training.
A 120 day free subscription to Peloton was offered during the national lockdown, giving staff access to online classes from yoga to boot camp. Social activities from WhatsApp office group chat/jokes, to virtual quizzes, running and cycling, virtual after work drinks and breakfast clubs have helped boost health and wellbeing.
In addition to fundraising, staff are involved in a range of community and volunteering activities. During the pandemic, one member of staff volunteered for night shifts as part of the team constructing The NHS Nightingale Hospital in Birmingham and another served as a sergeant in The Special Constabulary.
The management team has weekly meetings to discuss all operational aspects of the business including the impact of Covid. In April, the company appointed an education and training lead who works across the whole organisation assessing and addressing development needs.
The business likes to send physical things through the post to remind people that it appreciates them. This includes small birthday presents, quarterly deliveries of a director-chosen gift – a bottle of wine, chocolate, beauty products, dependant on individual preferences. Several sets of hand-packed care boxes also went out.
Development was ongoing for all staff during the pandemic and was, in fact, strengthened to levels higher than previous years. This included training with the company's tooling partners; LinkedIn Learning; in-house courses; lunch-and-learn sessions; and staff obtaining formal qualifications such as Six Sigma and Prince 2 certification.
The leadership team's calm, positive and transparent handling of the challenges created by the pandemic instilled camaraderie among staff and inspired peer to peer support. Staff were encouraged to maintain contact with the leadership team and each other and to get involved in social events including weekly coffee catch-ups.
DRS hosts regular events including team lunches and sent employees thank you hampers in recognition of their hard work. Regular thanks and recognition is given in weekly 1-2-1s, quarterly reviews and annual appraisals. Perks include free massages, a discount app and corporate gym memberships.
DRS funds additional qualification and training which has recently included German lessons to help an employee with negotiations in Germany and a diploma in resourcing and talent planning for another member of the team. Soft skill courses also contribute to personal and professional development.
Looking for more information on our solutions? Let us know how we can help and the right member of our team will be in touch shortly.
