What are companies doing with regards to 'Personal Growth'

Every year Oxera hold a two-day Core Academy induction event for all new starters. They cover a session on ‘The Oxera Way' and the actual vision of the company. These sessions are presented by the company Partners, who explain the mission and vision of the company and how they plan to achieve and maintain them over the coming years through a five-year plan. There are always opportunities to ask questions and network with partners and Senior Management throughout the course of the event. Oxera also hold a Trade Fair each year, which is a company-wide information-sharing event. This is held offsite and everybody is invited to attend. It is a chance to find out more about the company's mission, vision and values in a fun and informative way.

Oxera provide a number of training courses run internally at all levels of the business. This ensures that the content is relevant and applicable to the delegates and that the information can be applied back to the workplace they operate within. Any questions or queries after the courses can also be directed back to the presenters as and when required. Oxera also encourage one-to-one training, which is provided by the highest level experts within the company. One of the pre-requisites in becoming a Senior Consultant at Oxera is Line Management experience. The company prepare consultants for this by allowing them the opportunity to line manage an intern or work experience person for a short period of time. They also hold a number of recruitment events which they encourage the consultants to take part in to develop their presentation, networking and interpersonal skills.

My Vet Ltd monitor all cases referred to specialists and then encourage staff to develop areas of expertise in-house to ensure that pets can be treated within the hospital. More experienced vets arrange a regular informal meeting to discuss cases and learn from them to help the more recently qualified vets. Vets and nurses attend regular in-house meetings with suppliers and specialists to learn about new products and treatments.

The company runs a branch Quality of Service award every quarter based on scores from client feedback forms, a mystery caller and spot checks for cleanliness and tidiness. The winning branches in each region are recognised with awards which are closely followed and create healthy competition between branches in each region.

The overall reward package at Moorhouse is unique because it is completely open and transparent. Salaries are set according to market rates, at the same level for everyone in a grade peer group and are published and available to all staff. Salary rises are awarded to all staff in the grade according to changes in market levels or to specific individuals on promotion to the next grade. New recruits are hired at the same salary as everyone else in their grade peer group. There are four bonus schemes. All employees are eligible for two bonus payments. The first is the Company bonus which incentivises collaboration by rewarding the business performance of Moorhouse. The second is the Personal bonus which recognises individual achievement by rewarding performance against objectives. Two further bonus schemes are in place for eligible staff. The Sales bonus which rewards contributions to business development to those involved in the sale of new client engagements. The Utilisation bonus rewards consultants for billable hours. The policies and processes around the four bonus scheme are published and distributed to all eligible employees. Potential bonus awards are clearly communicated at the start of the financial year so that everyone understands how their contribution will be linked to their reward. Individual eligibility is accessed and communicated at six month intervals through the performance review process. Bonuses are paid every six months, so reward is linked to achievement in a timely manner.

Moorhouse's people are their biggest asset. They are committed to building and nurturing talent, and harnessing their ambition to be the best they can be. They believe that this commitment stands them apart from their competitors. They have introduced a new competency framework based on the Zenger Folkman Extraordinary Leader model. This explains behaviours expected across the competencies for each grade. This complements their grade descriptions and the business metrics. The alignment and ‘common language' of competencies and expected behaviours, grade descriptions and business metrics help them to better develop people and help them understand how to realise their full potential. They offer a comprehensive structured learning and development programme. There is a Manager Development Programme and the Leadership Development Programme. These programmes are based on the Zenger Folkman Extraordinary Performer and Extraordinary Leader frameworks and are at the forefront of non-linear and strengths based development. They work with ‘RADA in Business' and have created a set of courses that take an innovative approach to developing people in areas such as powerful presentations, personal brand, impact and storytelling. The Moorhouse Academy is a programme of structured learning and broad skills development focussed on business fundamentals, managing programmes, industry insight and other consulting skills. It is essential capability development for their people.

All of the experienced employees of Merkle Periscopix are encouraged to get involved in delivering staff training, both to new joiners and for ongoing career development. Over 70% of staff with over twelve months' experience are involved in these sessions. In addition to staff training, the company has a mentoring and buddy scheme. Mentoring is taken very seriously within Merkle Periscopix and offers people a coach and guide to help them with technical on-the-job training. More importantly mentors offer employees career guidance, helping them to learn the company's best practice policy.

They actively encourage staff to makes friends within the office as this is where they spend a great majority of their time. To aid this process, they have a Social Committee who are responsible for planning internal events which take place every month including a Summer Weekend away and a Christmas Party, as well as Dodgeball, Bowling, Rounders and more. In addition to these out of working hours' activities, Merkle Periscopix have a snooker table and table tennis table in the games room in the office with a league table set up to encourage communication and friendly competition between employees. Monthly 'Food Fridays' and weekly 'Four Thirsty Fridays' provide the perfect opportunity for employees to catch up with one another and wind down from their busy week. The success is proven in the fact that so many employees socialise together outside of work.

This year MEC introduced ‘Town Hall' sessions to boost team interaction and communication. As part of the staff survey feedback employees provided the company with, it was clear that they get a great deal of value and enjoyment from the all staff ‘MEC in Motion' company meeting sessions. However, they asked for more regular company updates as the MEC in Motion meetings are 3 months apart and things move quickly around here. The Management Board thought quite hard about the best way to do this, not wanting to resort to email communication as the obvious route. As a result, they introduced Town Hall. This is a new update session held in the open office space covering off any pressing agency, industry, client and people news. No slides or fanfare, just senior people from the management team updating people on important and interesting news, real time. They also introduced Collaboration Coffees as part of their initiative to embed behaviours and improve perceptions of approachability of the Management Board, again responding to staff survey feedback. This is an opportunity for anyone at any level to sit down for a coffee and informally talk about the agency, obtain career advice, tips on leadership or anything else they wish to discuss. MEC ask people to share their Collaboration Coffee time with everyone on the MEC social media channels.

MEC offer learning and development opportunities at all levels throughout the organisation to appeal to all learning styles, from soft skill practical training in presentation and negotiation skills, to e-learning training on digital technical skills, to experiential learning through charity opportunities, language lessons and Thrive projects. They take their commitment to learning seriously in terms of budget investment and time, to ensure MEC offers opportunities to thrive. MEC have a focus on everyone educating each other, whether that's through Big Breakfast where teams share pitch work in an informal setting, or the annual EXPO, a day when the agency stops for a series of talks and workshops on different pieces of work, tech or learnings. Creative champions who attended ‘Upping Your Elvis' creativity training last year continue to run sessions for the agency on creativity and creative brainstorming. They want to ensure that everyone gets the opportunity to learn and develop their skills no matter what level they are. Everyone gets the opportunity to sit a variety of IPA qualifications and they offer leadership training at all levels throughout the agency. Graduates and apprentices have a full training programme to complement their journey with the company, which kicks off with an experiential team building exercise on the streets of London. MEC's management team spent a week at a residential course earlier this year learning advanced sales and influencing techniques to help them work better with clients.

Maxus know that communication and interacting are fundamental to their success. At Maxus they celebrate collaborative working. Their Agile Working policy drives collaboration in their day-to-day operations, encouraging people to move frequently around the office, working with different people. When they designed their new office, they built a Tannoy system into walls of the building. It's so fundamental to their culture that much of the interior design is envisioned around the pipes that power it. Whenever they have an all-staff announcement, rather than sending an impersonal email that clogs up everyone's inbox, they use the tannoy. It ensures that announcements are heard, and immediately triggers a series of conversations about the news, because everyone hears at the same time. To surface to the whole agency all the valuable stuff being talked about daily amongst Maxus' teams, they launched their weekly ‘Maxus Mind' bulletin. Every week they crowd-source from staff all their topics of conversation, and then publish them as a bulletin that is re-circulated to the entire agency. It ensures that no-one misses out on a topic of conversation, and provides an ongoing source of important industry news. And they supplement all of this with their Monthly Agency Meetings, followed by drinks. They find that these forums, compulsory for all staff, are essential for sharing news and creating a sense of community and togetherness. Plus, socialising together afterwards gives everyone a chance to catch up and build strong friendships outside the office.

Maxus believes strongly in professional and personal growth for employees. Their Never Stand Still programme offers a suite of initiatives for their staff under three core pillars; “For Work, For Life and For Growth". As part of the “For Growth” activity, they introduced an annual pot of money called the Growth Fund. The Growth Fund is their commitment to supporting employees in their own professional and personal development, offering sponsorship up to £250. The fund could be used flexibly for personal development and subsidise or pay for anything from a professional qualification to driving lessons or a wine tasting course. In 2016, to help inspire people to take advantage of the fund, Maxus facilitated a number of sessions including hosting language classes and a coding course in their offices. The fund is available on an annual basis for all employees with 12 months' service. Whilst Maxus ensure that the growth fund is ultimately supporting personal or professional growth, it is completely up to the employee to decide how they want to spend it. Maxus also offers professional coaching to all employees - coaching can be used for both personal and professional growth. From a professional development perspective, Maxus offer a suite of learning opportunities. In 2016, the focus has been on creativity and they hosted a number of sessions and events focused on creative excellence. Culminating in a week of activities across the agency, from internal subject matter experts giving talks to external companies showcasing their inspiring stories.

Maris have a monthly beauty treatment day, where a meeting room is taken over and staff can sign up for a free massage, a haircut or a manicure, it has proved to be a great way for staff to take 20 minutes out of their busy day to unwind. When the sign up list is put up staff always react excitedly and the list is full very quickly. They also provide a monthly lunch to employees. A local restaurant or food stall is selected, vouchers are printed and handed to staff to go and collect their free lunch. They give staff their birthday as a day's holiday, or a day within their birthday month. In addition, they close down between Christmas and New Year which is free time off for employees. The in house coffee shop, FOAM, provides fresh fruit, cereals, a daily snack and teas and coffees and is a unique and relaxing environment where staff can take a break at any time during the day. The office environment is also very comfortable with AC, plenty of natural light, comfortable seating and showers and lockers. Once a year employees are taken on holiday and gifted the time off. Any employee in a time of need is fully supported, Maris have paid for medical bills for four employees this year who have faced challenges. This year they decided to offer free health checks to employees where they brought in a doctor for a few days to examine vitals and discuss any issues with employees.

Maris have a monthly beauty treatment day, where a meeting room is taken over and staff can sign up for a free massage, a haircut or a manicure, it has proved to be a great way for staff to take 20 minutes out of their busy day to unwind. When the sign up list is put up staff always react excitedly and the list is full very quickly. They also provide a monthly lunch to employees. A local restaurant or food stall is selected, vouchers are printed and handed to staff to go and collect their free lunch. They give staff their birthday as a day's holiday, or a day within their birthday month. In addition, they close down between Christmas and New Year which is free time off for employees. The in house coffee shop, FOAM, provides fresh fruit, cereals, a daily snack and teas and coffees and is a unique and relaxing environment where staff can take a break at any time during the day. The office environment is also very comfortable with AC, plenty of natural light, comfortable seating and showers and lockers. Once a year employees are taken on holiday and gifted the time off. Any employee in a time of need is fully supported, Maris have paid for medical bills for four employees this year who have faced challenges. This year they decided to offer free health checks to employees where they brought in a doctor for a few days to examine vitals and discuss any issues with employees.

At the start of 2015 m/Six launched their "Beer Mats" programme. Every employee has been given twelve cards which they can award to anyone who has gone the extra mile for them. The mats can be redeemed for a free coffee or drink at the pub and this has allowed people to be recognised for their hard work. It has also afforded m/SIXers a new way to interact with one another, strengthen bonds between teams and individuals and to spread some positive vibes across the whole agency.

m/SIX understand that to attract and retain talent their people need to come first. By ensuring their people are happy, motivated and challenged they come to work inspired to create better work for their clients. The company put a lot of thought into developing a benefits package that promotes a collaborative work culture and strikes the right work life balance. Just some of the other benefits, processes and fun things that everyone working at m/SIX enjoys include Running Club, Monday Night Football, 3pm finish on a Friday during the Summer months, Childcare vouchers, an Employee Assistance, Life Assurance, Health Insurance, Private Medical Insurance, Season ticket loans, Free eye tests and Partner Discounts with companies like Apple and Majestic Wines. There are also Personal Finance Clinics, Film and Food nights and even a Book Club.

Each Local Care Force office actively look to support their community and the people that they work with. As many of their customers are charities they regularly work with their fundraising teams and are actively involved in numerous money-raising events. Every employee takes part in days like Jeans for Genes, Alzheimer's Day and many others and, in addition to numerous 10k & 5k runs/walks, they have been involved in the following activities in the last 12 months. One of their team went to Kenya to help build a school and Local Care Force donated clothing, stationary and raised money. The Sales Director did the London Marathon to fund a kitchen build for Together for Mental Wellbeing and will be doing another Marathon this year! They got hands-on to help a service user (a person they support in the community) recreate their garden. In 2016 16 of the Local Care Force team completed Total Warrior event for Hospitallier St John of God. They held a Christmas afternoon tea for their Nurses, with the president of the Royal college of Nursing in attendance to raise money for her charity but also for the Leeds flood damage. A team of Managers did a night rave-run. More recently, the company have supported an ex-employee to raise money for a family member who needs rare cancer treatment in Germany. Finally, in 2017 25 of the team have booked to do the tougher Lake District Total Warrior course, 8 to do Leeds Total Warrior, 3 to do tough mudder all for charity and 10 doing Gung ho for Love hope Trust.

Local Care Force constantly look to motivate their employees – the vision is that everyone looks forward to coming to work! They appreciate their team, thank them when they work late and continually express their gratitude and appreciation. They have a shift pattern to help avoid rush hour, help with child care and allow staff to go to the gym. A number of incentives run throughout the year, including activities to incentivise those who aren't targeted or on bonuses. Innovative Incentives for the administration team are taken just as seriously. A recent example is Bingo cards with customer-service related tasks to complete for prizes like luxury hotel stays, bar tabs, a parking pass and team meals out. There are often days dedicated to a given task like quality assurance or new business, where the team are given a week to plan, with prizes worth making a serious effort for, including recently an all-expenses paid holiday to Barcelona! The eventual winner of the holiday to Barcelona took a colleague with him to help celebrate his success, a real testament to Local Care Force's ethos of being friends and not just colleagues. The Management Team are dedicated to praising those who work hard, when a record or target is hit or someone simply goes over and above. The Management Team reward their entire team with a paid lunch or a meal after work to promote morale and strong relationships. Any praise is also emailed company wide, with the team positively commenting each time.

Lightsource moved from its former base at Old Bailey to a new custom-built office space to accommodate its in-house team. The fast-paced and dynamic nature of the solar industry means that team interaction is key to the company's success. The open plan office space of more than 30,000 sq ft allows for quick and easy communication between teams, including the Senior Management Team, ensuring everyone can work together closely in order to meet often tough deadlines. But the work hard/play hard ethos is echoed in the Lightsource Social environment. The offices large breakout areas, complete with retro arcade games and table football, are where you'll find table football tournaments in full-swing or maybe one of the Senior Management trying to hit top spot on Pac-man! Open and honest interaction between staff and teams is led by the CEO, who hosts regular company update events for all staff. These updates include the latest news on a business front, upcoming events and candid Q&A sessions, where all staff are encouraged to ask any question they like with the promise of an open and truthful answer from the Senior Management Team.

Lightsource moved from its former base at Old Bailey to a new custom-built office space to accommodate its in-house team. The fast-paced and dynamic nature of the solar industry means that team interaction is key to the company's success. The open plan office space of more than 30,000 sq ft allows for quick and easy communication between teams, including the Senior Management Team, ensuring everyone can work together closely in order to meet often tough deadlines. But the work hard/play hard ethos is echoed in the Lightsource Social environment. The offices large breakout areas, complete with retro arcade games and table football, are where you'll find table football tournaments in full-swing or maybe one of the Senior Management trying to hit top spot on Pac-man! Open and honest interaction between staff and teams is led by the CEO, who hosts regular company update events for all staff. These updates include the latest news on a business front, upcoming events and candid Q&A sessions, where all staff are encouraged to ask any question they like with the promise of an open and truthful answer from the Senior Management Team.