What are companies doing with regards to 'Personal Growth'

Employees can apply to study for the Certificate in Football Management - FA Edition. This has proved very popular and the organisation recently sponsored 23 FA employees, 9 international people and 2 from the counties. The HR team complete a review of their core learning and development needs across The FA Group. They identified a number of key training requirements as follows: handling difficult people and conversations, negotiating and influencing skills, advanced project management, essential skills for team members and managing your wellbeing, effective minute taking, unleash your creativity, advanced handling difficult people and conversations, personal effectiveness and managing your wellbeing, recruitment and interview training, disciplinary, grievance and formal performance training.

Employees can apply to study for the Certificate in Football Management - FA Edition. This has proved very popular and the organisation recently sponsored 23 FA employees, 9 international people and 2 from the counties. The HR team complete a review of their core learning and development needs across The FA Group. They identified a number of key training requirements as follows: handling difficult people and conversations, negotiating and influencing skills, advanced project management, essential skills for team members and managing your wellbeing, effective minute taking, unleash your creativity, advanced handling difficult people and conversations, personal effectiveness and managing your wellbeing, recruitment and interview training, disciplinary, grievance and formal performance training.

To recognise the hard work of Stateside Foods workforce, the company holds a Family Fun Day for all employees and their extended families each year. The day is held at Bolton Arena, a local sports facility and employees are treated to fun activities and a BBQ lunch free of charge. The event is well attended year on year and the feedback is always excellent with employees really appreciating the opportunity to meet with their colleagues' families and socialise. The event is great for young children, as the company provides lots of entertainment such as a climbing wall, inflatable activities, football shoot-outs and face-painting. The workforce are always keen to hear about the dates for the next fun day and planning and preparation for next year's event will begin soon! Stateside Foods also recently rewarded their Employees of the Month with an all-expenses paid trip to London to see Lee Evans at the O2. The Employees of the Month were able to take their partners away to this event to celebrate their hard work and commitment to the Stateside Foods behaviours.

Stateside Foods has a strong record of developing its people and identifying high potential employees for further progression. The company work to an internal recruitment target of 80% and many of their senior team have progressed through the Company from entry level roles. Many managers are often promoted for their technical ability and it is important to ensure that Stateside Food's managers are supported with training in management skills, to ensure that they are equipped to succeed in a management role. To achieve this, all managers participate in a Leadership Development program, externally accredited by the Institute of Leadership and Management. Between each module, delegates are required to apply their learning within their departments and take opportunities to develop their new skills. The most effective aspect of the course is the modules 5 workshop; during which participants are given the opportunity to role play some key management conversations supported by the Directors, who attend to play the role of the 'employee'. The event is conducted in a light hearted manner but managers always ensure that they prepare thoroughly for this module, so that they are able to practice their new skills effectively. Feedback has been extremely positive from all participants to date.

The biggest company event of the year is the two day company away day which this year took place at Centre Parks, Suffolk, when they closed the office and all 479 employees attend. The Away Day provides a fantastic opportunity to bring everyone together to update them on the latest news in the agency. This year they also had a specific focus on inspiring creativity and creating the environment for creativity to thrive as they prepare to move into a new building in 2015.

They are constantly looking at ways to develop their industry leading learning and development programme. This year they introduced Myers Briggs Type Indicator team sessions into the business. These sessions are about supporting individual growth and ensuring that teams gain a greater understanding of working styles and to ensure further cohesion and harmony in their work. They have taken over a 100 people through the sessions. These are facilitated by the Regional HR Director and Head of Learning and Development, both of whom are qualified MBTI practitioners and bring their own experience and creativity to the sessions. They developed the programme from an initial half a day workshop exploring preference type to a full day session that explores the impact of the different preferences on one another at work. These sessions have been invaluable as they have taken senior teams, client teams and board members through these practical, fun and experiential workshops. This is some of the feedback received “I found it very interesting not just learning about my own typology but also about my peers. I will definitely have some new added perspectives now when managing my team and pitching ideas.”

Spark44 hold an annual Summer Event and this year they arranged a ‘sports days' themed event at a country house in Oxfordshire for the London and Birmingham Offices. Separated into teams, people tried their hands at everything from egg and spoon races to backwards jeep driving. The day culminated in a BBQ. They also held a company party including both UK offices providing transport and accommodation in London for the Birmingham team.

Employees at Spark44 are asked to contribute their ideas of what the company values should be, and then their values were defined using the feedback and thoughts.

They continuously encourage staff to let them know of any other benefits they may like and how they can improve the ones they have. They have increased the amount of football the staff can play during the week and introduced discounted yoga sessions earlier in the year. They have recently expanded into a new office and this will allow them to create a dedicated chill out area with, pool/snooker, games, chess, computer consoles and general space to relax for staff.

Once all the feedback is in, management will sit down and go through all the ideas that have been put forward. These are then divided up into the relevant teams and that team head is then responsible for implementing their teams ideas. They produce documents that can be viewed by staff across the company so they can see the progress being made. A list is put up on the internal intranet so staff can see in real time what has been achieved and what is still to be done.

They had a summer team event where all clinics had to work as a team to put together a band and perform. Everyone had a lot of fun and enjoyed themselves.

The buddy system allows employees to buddy up with a more experienced member of the team to learn more and to have a mentor. Both parties are able to learn and develop their skills. They also invest £1500 per physio for their CPD training in order to develop themselves.

A pub bell. Someone suggested that they were not around when everyone went off to the pub so they now announce it on Yammer and have bought a ship bell, so they ring the bell when they go to the pub on a Friday!

Flu jabs are offered, return to work discussions and in one case they offered a taxi for someone to get in and back from work. They provide fresh fruit every day in the office and sustainably sourced drinks. They also have access to the health care scheme.

The best example of how their organisation supports employee development is through their award winning Graduate scheme. Savills recently came first, for the third year running, in the Property category of the 'Graduate Employers of Choice' at The Times Graduate Recruitment Awards. Their graduate recruitment programme identifies exceptional candidates who represent a core investment in the future of their business.

A long service award was introduced when employees attained 10 years service and for every 5 year milestone reached after that. This was in the form of additional 5 days holiday which could be taken anytime during the anniversary year,

Proxama allow their employees to learn in all elements of their work, not just formal training but peer knowledge sharing and keeping technical experts in the business who are great at mentoring.

Proxama had an all staff 'Away Afternoon' in December 2013. This included strategy updates, training, networking, team building and collaborating on business decisions.

Junior consultants are given rewards such as tailor made suits, watches and pens when they achieve certain milestones in their career. This has proven particularly successful allowing them to feel successful and to have visible reminders of their success. These rewards are very sought after. They have also run incentives for colleagues around additional training and enhanced training personal budgets for individuals which have proven popular.

Junior consultants are given rewards such as tailor made suits, watches and pens when they achieve certain milestones in their career. This has proven particularly successful allowing them to feel successful and to have visible reminders of their success. These rewards are very sought after. They have also run incentives for colleagues around additional training and enhanced training personal budgets for individuals which have proven popular.