What are companies doing with regards to 'Personal Growth'

PegasusLife was created to do things differently and to do things better. Their mission, to fundamentally change retirement homes in the UK is not an easy task. Leaving profits to one side, to be successful requires an engaged workforce and a company culture that supports their mission. To that end, all new members of staff get a handbook that explains in detail all of their core values and how everyone at PegasusLife has a part to play in its success. Inspirational quotes that embody their values, from eminent people as diverse as Shakespeare and Jonathan Ive, have been designed into the office environment and can be seen on many of the office walls. PegasusLife's Google+ page has a group called Living the Values, which is an active forum for exchanging ideas, where anyone can post articles or other thinking pieces that support company values. The competencies/values are also part of the appraisal process so everyone is assessed against them at least twice a year. Furthermore, every team day and company gathering is used as an opportunity for the CEO and other key personnel to reconfirm their focus on always having the mission at the forefront of all of all employees minds on a day-to-day basis.

PegasusLife's people are rewarded in ways which are specifically tailored to their roles, giving them the most appropriate and fair approach. So through a combination of mechanisms everyone can see how their contribution is rewarded. The most unique aspect and the one the company are proudest of is their Employee Participation Plan. The Company's philosophy is based on ensuring people share in the long term success of the organisation, because it is through them that their success comes. The Plan is open to everyone and enables people to become stakeholders in their future. Company shares have been allocated to the scheme and employees are invited to contribute a set amount per month (up to £50 which buys them a proportion of the ‘pot'). On the completion of a sale or flotation everyone will then share in the ‘Bonus Pot'. The total size of the Bonus Pot is linked to the performance of the business and the value created upon the exit so people can see that their share in the business is directly linked to their contribution, it is a joint effort on everyone's part. In terms of its effectiveness, the team take a long term approach because they have a stake in the future. They act in the best long term interests of the company, not on short term gains which could have a longer term negative effect on the business.

Parkdean Resorts host multiple conferences each year to allow networking between employees across the business in order to encourage integration and a sense of community. The company Intranet page allows employees to communicate consistently and share company news and information. Posters are displayed around the business to advertise and implement the company values.

Parkdean Resorts host multiple conferences each year to allow networking between employees across the business in order to encourage integration and a sense of community. The company Intranet page allows employees to communicate consistently and share company news and information. Posters are displayed around the business to advertise and implement the company values.

By using animals to represent the PANDORA values, the company provide employees with something tangible to help demonstrate them. They have a figurine called Winnpier who is an amalgamation of all three values: the strong legs and tail from the lion, the large heart and long neck from the giraffe and the wings from the bumble bee. Winniper represents PANDORA's values and the behaviours that they require all their employees to demonstrate. The company launched their values called ‘PANDORA Life' in 2011 through large events within each region of PANDORA. Employees were taken out of the office to a beautiful location where the history of the company and the relevance and importance of its values were explained. PANDORA award prizes to employees for demonstrating the PANDORA Life values in their daily work and also at company events and parties. The values also have been incorporated into the company's Personal Development Reviews and employees must think about how they relate to their particular position. Objectives are then set incorporating the values.

By using animals to represent the PANDORA values, the company provide employees with something tangible to help demonstrate them. They have a figurine called Winnpier who is an amalgamation of all three values: the strong legs and tail from the lion, the large heart and long neck from the giraffe and the wings from the bumble bee. Winniper represents PANDORA's values and the behaviours that they require all their employees to demonstrate. The company launched their values called ‘PANDORA Life' in 2011 through large events within each region of PANDORA. Employees were taken out of the office to a beautiful location where the history of the company and the relevance and importance of its values were explained. PANDORA award prizes to employees for demonstrating the PANDORA Life values in their daily work and also at company events and parties. The values also have been incorporated into the company's Personal Development Reviews and employees must think about how they relate to their particular position. Objectives are then set incorporating the values.

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.