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.
Employee development is supported through Paid Training Active Succession planning, in which 4 out of the 5 general managers and 3 out of the 5 head chefs have worked their way up through the ranks to these senior positions. They have a rising stars initiative where they develop and train individuals at junior level who have been identified as having the potential to grow into their future managers. 60 senior and middle managers have completed an inventory of individual work attitude, motivation and behaviours assessment and as a result have then had a personal development and training plan specifically designed around their needs and skills shortages. From this process around 20 management development training modules have been drafted and are open to all people within the organisation, regardless of their position level. There are training journeys in place for each and every position level in the business with a series of core and developmental training modules which act as steps on the ladder to their next promotion. Such courses are run with sufficient frequency on the monthly training calendar so that everyone can take their journey at their own pace.
Employee development is supported through Paid Training Active Succession planning, in which 4 out of the 5 general managers and 3 out of the 5 head chefs have worked their way up through the ranks to these senior positions. They have a rising stars initiative where they develop and train individuals at junior level who have been identified as having the potential to grow into their future managers. 60 senior and middle managers have completed an inventory of individual work attitude, motivation and behaviours assessment and as a result have then had a personal development and training plan specifically designed around their needs and skills shortages. From this process around 20 management development training modules have been drafted and are open to all people within the organisation, regardless of their position level. There are training journeys in place for each and every position level in the business with a series of core and developmental training modules which act as steps on the ladder to their next promotion. Such courses are run with sufficient frequency on the monthly training calendar so that everyone can take their journey at their own pace.
The organisation seeks to reward employees through supplier and cultural trips on an annual basis where approximately 160 staff have the opportunity to go on overseas trips to places such as France, The Netherlands, Italy and The Czech Republic, to meet at first hand the producers of the food and beverages that they prepare and serve in the restaurants and hotels. This is a highly prized reward and has numerous benefits: it feeds the passion their staff have for their product; it increases their product knowledge; it engages them in a relaxed and social environment with other staff from other locations that they perhaps do not know; allows them to learn from each other; fosters friendships and team spirit and it creates opportunities for career advancement, exposing staff to possibilities in the other restaurants. The trips are highly prized. Staff are nominated by their Heads of Department and decisions on the final nominations are made by the Directors.
The Buzzacott Stuart Defries Memorial Fund (the Fund) – in 2003, the Partners set up a charitable trust in memory of a former Partner, Stuart Defries, who was killed in a tragic accident. Volunteering initiatives and community programmes under the auspices of the Fund. These include The Access Project, which helps bright but disadvantaged teenagers to improve grades and access to university, New Horizon programmes for NEET youngsters and a local primary school reading programme. One-off volunteering activities/team events this year included activities with KidsCo, with a local football summer school and with a city farm. The Fund also awards grants every year to charities, chiefly supporting disadvantaged communities in boroughs bordering the City, with a particular focus on children and young people and also through the staff suggestion and matched giving scheme.
Instant recognition: Employees are nominated for and awarded a bottle of champagne or a gift voucher for exceptional performance contribution, in particular living the Firm's values. Awards are communicated on the intranet.
Instant recognition: Employees are nominated for and awarded a bottle of champagne or a gift voucher for exceptional performance contribution, in particular living the Firm's values. Awards are communicated on the intranet.
Everyone across the agency impacts on the success of their business, whether cost-savings, improving cash flow or creating award-winning work, so each month individuals can nominate themselves for the Impact of the Month Award. The board short-lists the best nominations, they then present their work to the rest of the company at the first Monday morning meeting of the month. Each member of staff is given a voting sheet with a list of the nominations so that they are all able to vote on a winner of each category. At the following Monday morning meeting the winners of each category are announced, and presented with retail vouchers from one of the Co-Founders. This contributes to the Star of the Month. Each month the Board vote for the Star of the Month. Star of the Month recognises employees from across the agency who have gone “above and beyond “to achieve success at work. At the end of the year, each month's winner's name is placed into the Star of the Year draw to win a chance to work in the international office of an Oriella PR network partner for two weeks. Previous winners have chosen Australia, India and San Francisco.
Everyone across the agency impacts on the success of their business, whether cost-savings, improving cash flow or creating award-winning work, so each month individuals can nominate themselves for the Impact of the Month Award. The board short-lists the best nominations, they then present their work to the rest of the company at the first Monday morning meeting of the month. Each member of staff is given a voting sheet with a list of the nominations so that they are all able to vote on a winner of each category. At the following Monday morning meeting the winners of each category are announced, and presented with retail vouchers from one of the Co-Founders. This contributes to the Star of the Month. Each month the Board vote for the Star of the Month. Star of the Month recognises employees from across the agency who have gone “above and beyond “to achieve success at work. At the end of the year, each month's winner's name is placed into the Star of the Year draw to win a chance to work in the international office of an Oriella PR network partner for two weeks. Previous winners have chosen Australia, India and San Francisco.
Brands2Life encourages an open, honest and collaborative agency culture. None of the directors, including the co-founders, have offices. The office is one open plan space which means an open door policy is in place at all times, enabling staff to feel they can approach and collaborate with the co-founders at any time. The co-founders believe that they should lead by example and from the front. They take weekly company meetings, still work on client accounts, participate in company events and always take a vested interest in everyone's careers no matter what level. They hold quarterly review meeting sessions with the Board to enable them to be kept informed about the performance of all staff. In addition to this they also run training sessions and company introductions for all new starters. Both co-founders take the Q&A session with all levels twice a year because they want to hear first-hand from people how they feel about the company. If everyone has had a tough busy month it is not unheard of for them to arrange surprise lunches to thank everyone for their hard work.
blu eCigs have a fairly relaxed environment, which means their employees feel able to offer feedback and regularly suggest ideas openly and they do this in a variety of ways. They conduct SurveyMonkey online questionnaires, encourage people to send ideas using their postbox and make the most of iPad technology. Every Friday, when they meet at the end of the day for a blether over a glass of wine or beer, they have an informal Q&A session, opening the postbox and answering the questions posed on the postcards. Originally they only had a few questions asked, but it's really snowballed with people wanting to find out anything from how much money they made that week to what the weather's going to be like at the weekend. blu eCig's SurveyMonkey questionnaires generate a great response too, and whenever they're unsure of the right direction to take, such as where to book for the Christmas night out, they put it to the vote. They are a democracy after all! At their September all-staff, they used iPads for staff to vote on questions posed throughout the session. This was the basis for a competition and kept the audience alive and engaged throughout the entire day.
blu eCigs changed “you time” to “blu time.” As a thank you, they give each employee £100 to spend on themselves as part of their new wellbeing scheme. This money, which will be awarded every year, can be put towards anything that keeps people healthy and happy. This could be anything from playing sports, cooking classes, yoga or dance lessons. They also provide a healthcare scheme for employees offering gym memberships throughout the UK as part of their private healthcare account.
blu eCigs changed “you time” to “blu time.” As a thank you, they give each employee £100 to spend on themselves as part of their new wellbeing scheme. This money, which will be awarded every year, can be put towards anything that keeps people healthy and happy. This could be anything from playing sports, cooking classes, yoga or dance lessons. They also provide a healthcare scheme for employees offering gym memberships throughout the UK as part of their private healthcare account.
Employees have the opportunity to feedback at monthly staff meetings and company off site events. As well as this individual teams welcome direct feedback. In addition, there are regular e-mails seeking feedback as well as annual employee surveys.
Employees have the opportunity to feedback at monthly staff meetings and company off site events. As well as this individual teams welcome direct feedback. In addition, there are regular e-mails seeking feedback as well as annual employee surveys.
They have put together a group which comprises people at all levels within the investment team to focus on the specific development needs of their investment professionals. This group is in the process of consulting directly with all members of the investment team about what they consider to be their individual training needs and the needs of others.
In their last companywide team building event the whole company was put into teams randomly so that teams were mixed with people who don't normally work together on a daily basis. Each team were given iPads and an array of props and asked to create a short film entitled 'A Day in the Life of a Badooer', with a view to winning the grand prize and a self-styled Oscar award. After a couple of frantic hours running round, filming and editing, there was a film screening and prize giving, followed by dinner, drinks, music and dancing well into the night! Since then, they have concentrated on departmental team builds to foster good relationships within teams. These have included taxi treasure hunts around London, Go Ape zip-lining and Hint Hunt (a fun live escape game where you get locked in a room and have 60 minutes to solve the clues and get out!)
A really good example would be the training scheme they have in place for the Finance team. They encourage employees in the finance team to undertake professional qualifications such as CIMA (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants). Currently three employees in their finance team are studying such qualifications. I think this really shows that they encourage employees to better themselves and that they are happy to invest in employees so that they can flourish in their roles.
A really good example would be the training scheme they have in place for the Finance team. They encourage employees in the finance team to undertake professional qualifications such as CIMA (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants). Currently three employees in their finance team are studying such qualifications. I think this really shows that they encourage employees to better themselves and that they are happy to invest in employees so that they can flourish in their roles.
Building the leadership capacity and capability within the organisation. This has been a key priority for the last two years. The organisation is in the process of developing a leadership competency framework for managers and this will be used to assess all managers to identify key strengths and development areas. Each manager will then receive a development plan for the next 12 months. Directors will be working closely with managers to ensure that development activities are undertaken.
The leader of the organisation attends each directorates team meeting to talk about the delivery plan. The leader has an open door policy. The leader attends all Corporate Induction Training sessions to talk about the key objectives of the organisation. The leaders meets with all new staff individually for half an hour. The leader takes a keen interest in staff and presents certificates to staff who have undertaken training or achieved a qualification, and most recently presented the winners of the fitness challenge. The leader delivers breakfast briefings.
The leader of the organisation attends each directorates team meeting to talk about the delivery plan. The leader has an open door policy. The leader attends all Corporate Induction Training sessions to talk about the key objectives of the organisation. The leaders meets with all new staff individually for half an hour. The leader takes a keen interest in staff and presents certificates to staff who have undertaken training or achieved a qualification, and most recently presented the winners of the fitness challenge. The leader delivers breakfast briefings.
Arrows Group's values rely on total company commitment to being United, Open, and Bespoke. All Arrows Group managers, including Directors, work on the floor of the refurbished open plan offices, making themselves available at any time for their teams. This physically displays their intentions to ensure Arrow Group is completely open internally. Their employees benefit from such accessibility to managers by tapping into their knowledge when they need it, so they can deal with any challenges they face, personally or professionally. Management also lead from the front, in terms of commitment and timekeeping, ensuring they set the tone at the top that their teams can incorporate into their daily habits. Managers are also managed by behaviour and productivity to ensure they are leading by example. They achieve this through daily ‘stand ups' each morning with their teams. The stand ups are short meetings, typically 15 minutes, for teams to update each other on their key priorities, any issues they might face, and sharing any expertise that helps others overcome challenges.
Arrows Group held its inaugural Arrows Group Sales Conference in October, bringing together the current and future leaders from all offices. The overall aim of this conference was to revisit the group strategy, explore best practices across the business and gain some in depth feedback from each division around how they are doing and how Arrow Group can improve. The event focussed on representing everyone within the company and the majority of the work done on the day was designed to take away practice improvements that were shared with everyone, so all colleagues can participate in building a world-class company. One of many reasons for appointing Greg Searle as Board Advisor for Coaching and Development, was to ensure Arrow Group could use his expertise in eliciting maximum engagement from employees to achieve the company's vision. One method involved offsite sessions for two days with team leaders, spending time with them to share the company's vision and performance goals, and encouraging participants to commit to actions and processes that contribute to these goals. These were then fed back for review against ongoing initiatives. The company's Personal Development Plans provide the primary route for a tailored approach to developing Arrow Group's employees' careers. Feedback is a critical component to the PDPs, ensuring the employee has a voice in their career path, and how their career contributes to the company's success. Feedback is gathered by each manager, and implementation is assessed in terms of practicality, relevance, and scope.
Arrows Group held its inaugural Arrows Group Sales Conference in October, bringing together the current and future leaders from all offices. The overall aim of this conference was to revisit the group strategy, explore best practices across the business and gain some in depth feedback from each division around how they are doing and how Arrow Group can improve. The event focussed on representing everyone within the company and the majority of the work done on the day was designed to take away practice improvements that were shared with everyone, so all colleagues can participate in building a world-class company. One of many reasons for appointing Greg Searle as Board Advisor for Coaching and Development, was to ensure Arrow Group could use his expertise in eliciting maximum engagement from employees to achieve the company's vision. One method involved offsite sessions for two days with team leaders, spending time with them to share the company's vision and performance goals, and encouraging participants to commit to actions and processes that contribute to these goals. These were then fed back for review against ongoing initiatives. The company's Personal Development Plans provide the primary route for a tailored approach to developing Arrow Group's employees' careers. Feedback is a critical component to the PDPs, ensuring the employee has a voice in their career path, and how their career contributes to the company's success. Feedback is gathered by each manager, and implementation is assessed in terms of practicality, relevance, and scope.
As a direct result of feedback from staff that they wanted an area where they could go and sit and eat away from their desks and also to take breaks, AKA have invested in additional floor space and turned one of the floors into a 'Diner' where staff can go to prepare lunch, eat and socialise. As a result of staff feedback they have undertaken a significant redecoration operation of the entire office and in some departments have involved a staff committee to lead and make suggestions for the design and feel of their department.
AKA have a full company meeting on a monthly basis where Adam the Group Chief Executive addresses all the staff with updates on new and existing business and also progress on key business objectives and information sharing. At their Annual Management presentation to the full company there is a Q&A session with Adam. Questions are submitted anonymously and asked of him sight unseen, as well as taking questions from the floor. They have an open plan office and Adam frequently walks around the full company, as well as operating an open door policy. Every 3 moths they have a drinks reception for all new staff which is hosted by Adam, where he and the board meet new starters
AKA have a full company meeting on a monthly basis where Adam the Group Chief Executive addresses all the staff with updates on new and existing business and also progress on key business objectives and information sharing. At their Annual Management presentation to the full company there is a Q&A session with Adam. Questions are submitted anonymously and asked of him sight unseen, as well as taking questions from the floor. They have an open plan office and Adam frequently walks around the full company, as well as operating an open door policy. Every 3 moths they have a drinks reception for all new staff which is hosted by Adam, where he and the board meet new starters
AgilityWorks have annual training budgets of £2500 for every employee and encourage training and development at all levels. They encourage employees to book training courses to ensure they use their allocated budget.
AgilityWorks have annual training budgets of £2500 for every employee and encourage training and development at all levels. They encourage employees to book training courses to ensure they use their allocated budget.
AgilityWorks have annual training budgets of £2500 for every employee and encourage training and development at all levels. They encourage employees to book training courses to ensure they use their allocated budget.
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