What are companies doing with regards to 'Personal Growth'

The company has an office in India and has opened up secondments to the UK based teams whereby volunteers are able to visit the India office to meet their colleagues, who ordinarily would only be interacted with via telephone, email or video conference. Though that communication takes place many times a day, there is not a replacement for face to face relationship building. The secondment opportunity was open to all levels and all departments, and in fact, the majority of the secondments are very junior level. There is currently a project being undertaken where new functions are being opened up in the India office, and a broad range of employees are travelling to the India office to share their knowledge and working practice and to meet their overseas colleagues face to face. In addition, cross functional meetings have improved knowledge sharing, best practice deployment as well as better working relationships. This is something they will continue to develop as it has been hugely rewarding and successful.

Core principles are communicated through email using examples of individuals who have demonstrated them, as well as having them on posters throughout all their offices. Although they do not have one defined vision/mission, their plans for the future have been communicated to employees through the annual sales conference and through their Friday night meetings.

To help in the company's recruitment efforts and as an added incentive for their employee referral programme, they offered an all-expenses paid weekend trip to Ibiza for an employee and 1 guest for a successful recommendation. Each month senior management recommend their team's 'innovator of the month' to recognise their efforts to go above and beyond. In the summer the company put all the winners names year to date into a hat and drew 4 names who were sent to the Home House Summer Festival for an all-expenses paid trip. The company also offer spot bonuses to mid-level/ junior team members who they feel have made a significant contribution to the business outside of their key responsibilities e.g. as a reward for new business leads or work on projects which are so outstanding they end up being nominated for an industry award. An added perk of working on an award-winning piece of work is attendance to a glamorous awards dinner.

Hanover regularly sends their employees on secondments, in order that they can learn a more holistic view of their role. Currently they have a number of people working on short to medium-term secondments within their clients, e.g one of our Account Directors has just completed a 6 month secondment with Sky. He spent Mon - Weds every week at their office, working with the government affairs team on projects worked on by their agency. He has learned so much as a result of his being 'on the other side' and in a few weeks will be delivering a Lunch & Learn to his colleagues to share his experience. Every 2 months the company also send junior members of the team to their office in Brussels, where they learn about EU politics, get a tour of the European Parliament buildings, meet clients locally and build relationships with their colleagues in this office. Social activities are woven into the schedule and they stay in a furnished apartment within minutes of the office, and sightseeing trips are also offered to those who are not familiar with the city.

Guidance Marine Ltd has a profit related bonus scheme which is up to 4% half yearly. This is paid dependent on the individual employees performance and also that of Guidance Marine Ltd. This scheme reflects the company's intention to share their success amongst their employees.

The company provides a company-wide health shield plan that is available to all staff. Health Shield is an award winning friendly society and market leading provider of health cash plans and health and wellbeing benefits. The cash plan can be used by children of the employees and includes benefits such as: food and entertainment, gifts, dental, optical, shopping etc.

First thing every Monday morning at Genesis Associates an activity is carried out based on interaction and communication, this could be a quiz, a team drawing activity or a team model building activity. The company run frequent individual team building events including dinners, lunches and team incentive rewards. At Genesis Associates they have inter-team competitions such as the ‘Premier League', based on performance as a team, a Premier League ranking is updated on a weekly basis with the top team being rewarded, this encourages team members at Genesis Associates to work together in order to achieve a weekly goal. There is external and internal training in place to help employees achieve as best as they can. At Genesis Associates they have away days where the whole office will undergo training or skill development in an alternative location, they mix up all of the teams to ensure full office integration. The company like to go Go-karting where employees are put into teams of 2 from different sectors of the business for a mini tournament, this encourages team communication and interaction. There is a reward and recognition group- this provides employees from different areas of the business the opportunity to interact and work together. At Genesis Associates they use the feedback from meetings to generate projects for employees to work on in small teams, helping again to integrate employees from different areas of the business enhancing cross team interaction and communication.

At Genesis Associates they have a competency based assessment for their employees to gain promotions. The company work to a meritocratic policy whereby management promotions and opportunities are awarded based on performance and competency based assessment. Each applicant for management has the chance to demonstrate their applicable competencies towards a position, and all employees are eligible to apply for this role. If an employee does not currently possess required competencies for a promotion, then an action plan is developed so they have a detailed plan of what is required in order to get there. At Genesis Associates both internal and external training is provided to management level employees, from coaching on how to carry out reviews of performance with team members, through to external training such as enabling change, on how to become a top performing manager which was delivered to both existing and up and coming management. There is ongoing coaching and mentoring provided from director level, with reviews of performance and action plans based on improvements/skill development. Genesis Associates hold a networking event that 4 different managers will attend on a monthly basis to gain insight and guidance on their future role in leadership.

The company's Vision, Mission and Values are communicated to their internal employees through: On boarding packs, posters and office branding, Intranet and internal newsletters. They also reinforce their values to their clients through client presentations and also communicate their values through their website. The aim is for their colleagues to live and breathe these values and one of the reasons the business was created 10 years ago was to give people the tools to be successful in an ethically, people-centric environment.

First thing every morning the Managing Director runs a daily sales meeting in the middle of the London office. During this meeting all account managers give updates on what they are working on and an overview of important roles they are recruiting for. This encourages all the sales teams to help each other out with roles and share news about clients they are engaging with.

The company focus on clear, open communication that is delivered through a number of methods from traditional management meetings to addressing the whole company every Monday morning and Friday afternoon. Every month and quarter they hold a detailed and fun monthly/quarterly ‘wrap up' and ‘kick off' of the next month/quarter ahead. These company-wide meetings will include awards, recognition of top performance and presentations on key aspects they need to focus on for the following month. All information is documented and presented in a pdf pack so anyone not available for the meetings has access to the details. The company is also fortunate to have our walls covered in white boards and television screens that constantly update the business on the day-to-day news, successes, rewards and our core values throughout the day.

The company focus on clear, open communication that is delivered through a number of methods from traditional management meetings to addressing the whole company every Monday morning and Friday afternoon. Every month and quarter they hold a detailed and fun monthly/quarterly ‘wrap up' and ‘kick off' of the next month/quarter ahead. These company-wide meetings will include awards, recognition of top performance and presentations on key aspects they need to focus on for the following month. All information is documented and presented in a pdf pack so anyone not available for the meetings has access to the details. The company is also fortunate to have our walls covered in white boards and television screens that constantly update the business on the day-to-day news, successes, rewards and our core values throughout the day.

All line managers in Egress undergo regular one to one mentoring by the HR Manager. These sessions complement the ‘on the job' coaching sessions in Performance Management, Recruitment and Retention. Additionally, all managers receive monthly direct feedback from their function's C-level executive, as they are a small company, the flat management structure allows them to do this with high frequency. The business is growing fast and as such, opportunities for personal growth – particularly at the mid-manager level – are constantly arising. They do not recruit mid-managers from outside the business, preferring to promote from within and give existing team members the chance to start their managerial careers in a familiar environment.

Whilst some of the company employees have fixed desks, a significant number are encouraged to sit where they like in the office - which is primarily an open plan design with a hot desking infrastructure. For example, rather than having the sales and technical services teams sit in defined spaces, offering them the flexibility to sit next to peers who are working on the same projects means employees collaborate better and produce better results for the business and their customers. In the software development teams – they have recently implemented a version of Scrum (an iterative agile method for managing product development). This has improved communication and resulted in significant improvements to the development process and the quality of the software produced, whilst reducing the time required to produce a customer ready version of the software.

Through their Citygate academy, they have a structured development path for managers to show clearly how they can progress to the next level in their career. They are coached and supported by their managers and are put through structured development modules. There are many examples of employees who have progress and taken the next step in their career with Citygate.

They have created their own City Gate Sales Academy. The Academy of Excellence will help ensure they promote a consistent message and best practice across the entire group while creating and maintaining the best possible standards in customer service. In doing this, they will unlock their people's potential, giving them the best tools to succeed and positively influence and shape their careers. With an emphasis on accuracy and quality, the aim of their academy is to deliver a “world class” customer experience, training their teams in such a way that they can also display their own individual personalities. Every sales person in the company has been enrolled into their academy. They have been issued with their own academy learning folder which contains all of the relevant information and the modules they are required to complete to progress in their careers with Citygate. All new starters are issue with the Academy folder on their first day and their file will grow with them as they attend and complete each of the modules / stages contained within the academy. The modules are designed to allow career progress from sales executive to sales management. The learning journey is a mixture of on e-learning, on job coaching, classroom style training and off site training at the national learning centre.

CGL implements a number of initiatives to support managers, and to provide development opportunities in the context of the CGL Career Paths. At project junior management level, implementation of formal team structures and clarity of roles and expectations have been set out, and allow the managers to operate within a common framework. They are supported by guidance from senior managers and through the company's quality management procedures. For newly chartered staff, CGL has developed a Management Training Programme, in conjunction with the Chartered Management Institute, which gives these aspiring middle managers an in-depth insight into the practice of management in a live environment. This is a cross office initiative, which has benefits in enhancing communications at this mid-level. The outcome of the programme is a Certificate in Management and Leadership. Line managers from each of the offices gather on a quarterly basis for formal competence training interventions from an external trainer. This is also a forum for peer discussion and mutual support. Senior staff similarly undergoes competence training, and are encouraged to gain accreditation of their management experience through application for Chartered Manager status. Board members participate in formal IoD training programmes for their roles. The Board has a programme of inviting senior managers to participate in meetings. All of this development is set within an environment of twice yearly appraisals, regular updates, mentoring and coaching relationships and feedback surveys which allow a culture of continuous improvement.

CGL implements a number of initiatives to support managers, and to provide development opportunities in the context of the CGL Career Paths. At project junior management level, implementation of formal team structures and clarity of roles and expectations have been set out, and allow the managers to operate within a common framework. They are supported by guidance from senior managers and through the company's quality management procedures. For newly chartered staff, CGL has developed a Management Training Programme, in conjunction with the Chartered Management Institute, which gives these aspiring middle managers an in-depth insight into the practice of management in a live environment. This is a cross office initiative, which has benefits in enhancing communications at this mid-level. The outcome of the programme is a Certificate in Management and Leadership. Line managers from each of the offices gather on a quarterly basis for formal competence training interventions from an external trainer. This is also a forum for peer discussion and mutual support. Senior staff similarly undergoes competence training, and are encouraged to gain accreditation of their management experience through application for Chartered Manager status. Board members participate in formal IoD training programmes for their roles. The Board has a programme of inviting senior managers to participate in meetings. All of this development is set within an environment of twice yearly appraisals, regular updates, mentoring and coaching relationships and feedback surveys which allow a culture of continuous improvement.