What are companies doing with regards to 'Personal Growth'

Company social events are a regular feature. Addiction Worldwide hold Friday drinks every week, when they all get together at the end of the day to chat over a few beers. Their monthly staff meeting always adjourns to a local pub, and turns into a social event. Recently they decorated the building with cobwebs and pumpkins for Halloween, most people dressed up and the day ended in a party. They also have a well-supported softball team. They are hardworking, highly motivated individuals who genuinely enjoy each other's company. People will often hear of staff members who go on holiday together and spend time together out of office hours. Fun and playfulness are key to a culture that is creative and encourages innovation and socialising is a lovely by-product of this. Social events are not limited to the 'junior' or 'younger' members of staff. The long standing, more senior members of staff are not afraid to get stuck in either.

Addiction Worldwide is fast paced and often has intense periods of working, so they have to be communicating, observing and listening to what is happening throughout the organisation. They work on the basis of 'Ask forgiveness not permission'. Feedback is an integral part of their culture, which is something they bring in from the interview stage. They are an entrepreneurial, creative company which employs people who want and indeed need to share ideas on a daily basis. To that end there is no suggestion box or other 'one fits all' way of capturing all of this. Instead they make sure that every single member of staff knows that they will be listened to and answered. It is integrated into their DNA .

They have a passionate belief in supporting their colleagues and have faced numerous challenges since the merger of the two heritage businesses, each with their own training methods and practices. To further develop their customer service training, they knew they needed to radically change the way they developed the capability of their practice colleagues adopting not just a ‘Best of Both' but a ‘Better than Both' approach to the challenge. Historically D&A had operated a compulsory NVQ programme for all of its practice colleagues whilst Boots had adopted a less structured but customer-led approach. To best support their colleagues the decision was taken to retain the formal NVQ approach. They also decided to make the programmes increasingly flexible and fit for purpose in a fast moving sector. So last year they made the Level 2 NVQ apprenticeship programme compulsory for all new joins - 400 new apprentices each year with capacity to flex up to over 600, and to ensure a consistent training experience for all learners whether full time or part time, government funded or non funded. In the last year, with the mission to ensure successful take up of the NVQ programme, they have opened five new satellite or regional training centres across the country. These have been carefully sited to ensure that all colleagues are within reasonable travelling distance of a centre, and that their Optical Consultant population do not have to stay overnight. This is particularly important given the number of part-time colleagues and colleagues with families, for whom residential training is extremely difficult. The company have invested large amounts in facilities, equipment and staff for these centres and they have all been created with colleagues' personal needs in mind. They want to ensure all of their colleagues have the knowledge they need to succeed in their role and the opportunity to develop themselves personally while at work, and the apprenticeship programme is just one example of that.

They have a passionate belief in supporting their colleagues and have faced numerous challenges since the merger of the two heritage businesses, each with their own training methods and practices. To further develop their customer service training, they knew they needed to radically change the way they developed the capability of their practice colleagues adopting not just a ‘Best of Both' but a ‘Better than Both' approach to the challenge. Historically D&A had operated a compulsory NVQ programme for all of its practice colleagues whilst Boots had adopted a less structured but customer-led approach. To best support their colleagues the decision was taken to retain the formal NVQ approach. They also decided to make the programmes increasingly flexible and fit for purpose in a fast moving sector. So last year they made the Level 2 NVQ apprenticeship programme compulsory for all new joins - 400 new apprentices each year with capacity to flex up to over 600, and to ensure a consistent training experience for all learners whether full time or part time, government funded or non funded. In the last year, with the mission to ensure successful take up of the NVQ programme, they have opened five new satellite or regional training centres across the country. These have been carefully sited to ensure that all colleagues are within reasonable travelling distance of a centre, and that their Optical Consultant population do not have to stay overnight. This is particularly important given the number of part-time colleagues and colleagues with families, for whom residential training is extremely difficult. The company have invested large amounts in facilities, equipment and staff for these centres and they have all been created with colleagues' personal needs in mind. They want to ensure all of their colleagues have the knowledge they need to succeed in their role and the opportunity to develop themselves personally while at work, and the apprenticeship programme is just one example of that.

Blue Rubicon place a huge emphasis on the sharing of knowledge and thirst for knowledge within their culture – facilitating and encouraging this at the most senior level of the company. This is reflected in knowledge sharing forums that have been part of their DNA for over a decade: Their Thursday lunchtime ‘brown bags' are open to the whole company to come and learn from inspiring internal and external speakers over lunch. The company constantly look for ways to extend this principle to provide new and exciting opportunities for employees – and this was behind the launch last year of Blue Rubicon's ‘Exchange'. This has been established with three different types of agencies within the marketing sphere including advertising and experiential, to provide opportunities for their people to exchange ideas and knowledge. In a formal way this involves shared training on a wide range of topics. On an informal level, the Exchange provides a network of peer to peer contacts to act as sounding boards, test ideas out on, invite to brainstorms and simply create new inspiration and shared knowledge. The Exchange also provides opportunities for mentoring with very experienced senior people from across the marketing mix to explore personal development from a broad perspective

The company recognised the need to re-visit some of the fundamentals of their 5 year business plan: the market had changed significantly, they had been through a tough year financially and needed to re-ignite some of the passion employees felt about working for Blue Rubicon. They consulted and engaged everyone in this process – and ultimately re-shaped a bolder and ambitious growth plan for the next 5 years. This was presented by the senior management to the whole agency where we were clear about: Where the company was headed and why, Identifying the opportunities for individuals to have personal progression. As a result this inspired debate across the agency – at the Q&A session and during the following days. Specific feedback was sent directly to their CEO and included: “Thank you for today's presentation – I found it really inspiring. It's really exciting to be part of an agency with such bold ambitions!”

As well as having an employee assistance programme in place, employees are able to have massages during their working day. The firm also offer access to a doctor and occupational health specialists. A full workstation assessment programme is also in place.

As well as having an employee assistance programme in place, employees are able to have massages during their working day. The firm also offer access to a doctor and occupational health specialists. A full workstation assessment programme is also in place.

All employees from Senior Account Manager level and above attend the BCL Academy Line Manager Training.

All employees from Senior Account Manager level and above attend the BCL Academy Line Manager Training.

In 2010, Barlows entered and won the Sheffield Chamber of Commerce Business Awards Invest in Skills category. To celebrate their sucess all employees were invited to attend an awards ceremony.

To initiate employee engagement, new employees will be given a structured induction over two weeks from arrival at Barlows. Their personal development process provides a two-way framework that balances a structured approach with flexibility and informality. It is also intended to integrate a process of employee and company improvement into the everyday running of the business by improving hard and soft skills, addressing behaviour and liking roles to the company mission. The company also share their knowledge and skills in the workplace through coaching and mentoring, workplace secondments and collaborative planning. All have an immediate impact on business results.

An open and caring attitude of the company to staff health, welfare, safety and care. Avidity IP do the basic things very well (as an office based business), such as the office environment, facilities and ergonomics (seating, IT equipment, ergonomics). Also their policy of keeping capacity always reduces stress on employees. Some of the smaller things which are done every day include: Methodical office and kitchen cleaning, decontamination of door handles and work surfaces, thorough kitchen cleaning. Additionally the company provide annual Eye checks and care, and Flu Jabs.

Bonus based on profit performance of the firm.

Arena Media aim to create as many opportunities as possible to share ideas, encourage feedback and most importantly to listen. The company actively encourages each employee to ‘make a difference' as set out in their mission statement. One good example of this is the Arena's Dragon Den, which they introduced last year. Staff were invited to persuade the Dragons, a panel made up of staff at various levels, to part with their cash - a chunk of the charity budget for a charity they felt was most deserving. It was a way for them to ‘make a difference' and 50 employees chose to take part. To ensure they live up to their proposition, Arena Media carried out several workshops to discuss what Further, Faster means to individuals and departments, as well as generating ideas. Keeping the groups small and making it informal has given everyone a voice at all levels. Attendance at the workshops was very high, as people recognised it was their chance to get involved in shaping how the business is run.

Arena Media aim to create as many opportunities as possible to share ideas, encourage feedback and most importantly to listen. The company actively encourages each employee to ‘make a difference' as set out in their mission statement. One good example of this is the Arena's Dragon Den, which they introduced last year. Staff were invited to persuade the Dragons, a panel made up of staff at various levels, to part with their cash - a chunk of the charity budget for a charity they felt was most deserving. It was a way for them to ‘make a difference' and 50 employees chose to take part. To ensure they live up to their proposition, Arena Media carried out several workshops to discuss what Further, Faster means to individuals and departments, as well as generating ideas. Keeping the groups small and making it informal has given everyone a voice at all levels. Attendance at the workshops was very high, as people recognised it was their chance to get involved in shaping how the business is run.

Aquamarine Power believes everyone's voice should be heard, whether it's coming up with a new idea or feeling able to challenge the status quo. As part of their commitment to genuinely listen to staff, Aquamarine Power has conducted bi-annual anonymous staff surveys for three years. This has proved a highly effective way of listening to staff and has allowed the company to make business improvements based on staff feedback. Participation in the staff surveys has consistently been between 95 and 100% which demonstrates the value staff place on this opportunity to give their views. In addition to their surveys, the company also hold regular focus groups and workshops to explore issues raised within the survey in more detail. They also listen to staff queries, which can be raised anonymously at their All Staff Update – a monthly get-together, which encourages two-way communication and is the cornerstone of their staff engagement strategy.

CSR is integral to the unique culture at Aquamarine Power where they ensure their staff can thrive and have fun while making a significant contribution to the wider community and socio-economic climate. 100% of employees were proud of the CSR activities the company was involved in according to the Staff Survey in December 2010. Since then they have strived to improve CSR on an internal, local and global scale; building partnerships with RSPB, Engineering Aid and the Marine Conservation Society, funded a six-month internship to establish a robust model to analyse their carbon footprint and life cycle analysis and setting the standard for wave energy site consenting with focus on community consultation. Aquamarine Power has a broad framework of activities involving sport, social activity, environmental initiatives, charitable and community contributions, and supplier partnerships. They promote charitable working by supporting staff to take paid time off to do voluntary work.

Nutritionist sessions are arranged by the company where staff can discuss their diet and ways to improve it. The company provides flu vaccinations for any staff who want it in the run-up to winter. They have a Dunhill Den - a 5th floor "common room" environment with TV, table football, music, fruit, food and drink available all through the day.

The Positive Leadership Objective focuses the managers into the important elements of communicating with their teams. The company have in place a robust and detailed annual appraisal process which is reviewed with staff at half year intervals. All Senior Managers and the HR department are accessible and integrated within the organisation - attending meetings and informal events to listen to and engage with staff from all parts of the business. They have recently initiated a "GoodToGreat" email address for staff to feed back and provide suggestions for improvement.