What are companies doing with regards to 'Personal Growth'

Robert Dyas have a No Smoking Policy and Smoking is not permitted inside any premises and a lot of Head Office Colleagues will now offer fruit as well as cakes when buying for their birthday! They promote their Retail Trust Helpline as well as encouraging colleagues to approach their Line Manager or HR if they have an ongoing concern. With regards to other mental health issues they refer all cases to their occupational Health provider for advice and support and any colleague who requests time off for private treatment will be given the time requested. Head Office colleagues have a discounted membership at the local Health Centre and they encourage all Colleagues to take regular breaks.

Robert Dyas provide an Operations and Procedures Manual and all requests for support for external management qualifications are considered, Colleagues have had time off for study, time off to attend courses or leave early and also financial support is awarded if the qualification links to the job role i.e. CIPD /CIMA. They have a Senior Store Manager programme with the top 10% of Store Managers and run an Assistant Manager training programme. 360 feedback has been done within the Operations Team (District Managers/Communications and HR). They have recently trained their Ops team in Predictive Index (PI) which they also distributed to all Store Managers.

RLB Academy was set up specifically to focus on development of all the staff to ensure consistency of knowledge, skills and behaviours in whatever role is being performed and to ensure that all their staff are given the training, education and development opportunities they need to enable them to fulfil the requirements of their jobs and to achieve their potential in line with their PDP's. As RLB continues to expand, so do the Academy initiatives to ensure that RLB fulfil the needs of all their people and all their businesses including a drive on service delivery competence this year to exceed client demands in the tough economy.

Rider Levett Bucknall believe in a culture of recognition to ensure that everyone is given verbal and other forms of recognition and reward, which has been established as part of their Behavioural Principles. They benchmark salaries and benefits at least annually to ensure that the employees are offered salaries and benefits in the upper quartile of the industry. RLB continually seek to offer flexible benefits which allow their employees to ensure that they are able to make the most of tax and NI efficient schemes e.g. purchasing bicycles, childcare vouchers etc plus SMART pension scheme which allows Employer NI savings to be paid to their employee's pension pots and interest free loans for season tickets and gym.

Ranstad encourage team work and interaction by holding Christmas Parties, Annual conference Summer Event - outdoor activites- quads,treasure hunt,bbq Charity quiz night Company birthday party networking events Football and netball tournaments.

Ranstad hold Top 100 meetings - 100 managers across the group meet to share knowledge and best practise and Client Account Manager meetings monthly to share knowledge and best practise. Ranstad also provide the following Senior Exuctive programme, Leaders in Action programme and First line managers programme.

On average, employees receive 21 hours per year formal training with an average spend of £500 per employee on training per year. They provide many in house lectures delivered by both staff and other companies which provide short burst updates in emerging techniques and technologies. Underpinning this they have a highly developed training scheme delivering single or multiple day courses in specialist fields, software and health and safety.

At Ramboll UK the MD conducts a Friday morning presentation every month which gives employees the opportunity to ask questions and all offices in the UK are open plan with an open door policy. Their MD has his own page on the intranet which provides regular updates to the organisation as well as having an online Q&A discussion board. Senior management interaction with all levels of employees is a daily occurrence with graduates and all employees throughout the organisation having the opportunity to work directly on projects with senior managers. The MD encourages open communication throughout the business. He has been an employee for almost 20 years and was promoted to MD in 2009. He knows the company and it's employees well and has a very strong working relationship with a number of their employees. Ramboll's MDs approach is one of empowerment and personal development. Staff say he is approachable and has a very casual style about him which encourages employees at all levels to relate to him openly.

Radley Yeldar have a budget specifically for fun and social events. They run a range of away days during the year so that everyone has the opportunity do get out and do something that appeals to them with their colleagues. They hold RY Community Days volunteering in the local community and other activites include: football, cheese tasting, poker and wine tasting And of course the RY Summer and Christmas party. A recent team bulding workshop focused on encouraging people to: Develop greater trust in one another through honest adult feedback, Develop greater degrees of openness and honesty with one another, Use plain honest speaking as a way of building trusting relationships, Recognise the tension between personal performance and team ethos and develop personal strategies to manage the tension.

Radley Yeldar have a budget specifically for fun and social events. They run a range of away days during the year so that everyone has the opportunity do get out and do something that appeals to them with their colleagues. They hold RY Community Days volunteering in the local community and other activites include: football, cheese tasting, poker and wine tasting And of course the RY Summer and Christmas party. A recent team bulding workshop focused on encouraging people to: Develop greater trust in one another through honest adult feedback, Develop greater degrees of openness and honesty with one another, Use plain honest speaking as a way of building trusting relationships, Recognise the tension between personal performance and team ethos and develop personal strategies to manage the tension.

Some examples of the sorts of training activities that Qiagen employees might undertake are courses, mentorship, coaching and online sessions. There is internal coaching/ mentoring for women at work.

Some examples of the sorts of training activities that Qiagen employees might undertake are courses, mentorship, coaching and online sessions. There is internal coaching/ mentoring for women at work.

At QBE the company takes a flexible approach to accommodating requests for time off work, in particular supporting those whose requests are on medical grounds and time off in lieu is offered at manager's discretion. QBE is undertaking a long-term strategy alignment and brand programme which began in 2008 when it embarked on an inside-out approach that saw all UK and European employees attend The Big Difference workshops. The workshops equipped QBE people with the knowledge of who QBE is, where it has come from and where it is going. This continued with The Big Goal where employees were asked to give feedback on how QBE could improve the experiences its key stakeholders have of QBE. This resulted in a number of key initiatives, for example, buying and selling of holiday entitlement.

On average employees receive 8 hours per year of formal training with an average spend per employee on training per year of £550. Examples of the sorts of training activities their employees might undertake are: Technical/Role Specific - e.g. insurance/claims related, Personal/Soft Skills - e.g. effective communications, presentation skills, assertiveness, IT - e.g. system specific, MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Project, Management Skills – various levels of people management development, development around performance management, Professional Studies – support to various professional qualification studies and qualifications across the business and Induction/Cultural – Welcome to QBE and OPENUP QBE Awareness. QBE uses a variety of training delivery methods and their comprehensive website gives easy access for employees to see the overall offering as well as instant access to eLearning or online reading and recorded WebEx sessions on specific subjects.

Salford Software Ltd ensure that employees feel they are rewarded for their efforts with performance related payments, one off financial and non financial recognition awards.

On average employees receive 8 hours per year formal training with an average spend per employee on training per year of £800. Examples of the sorts of training activities that employees at Salford Software Ltd might undertake are professional qualifications with field of expertise plus regular updates on new products or sytems.

Appreciation is instant and communicated company wide via the electronic mail system. Rewards for ideas or innovation are part of the discretionary annual bonus at the end of the year.

Appreciation is instant and communicated company wide via the electronic mail system. Rewards for ideas or innovation are part of the discretionary annual bonus at the end of the year.

Populous sponsor the ABS fun run as well as taking part and were presented by the Company's Award for the most significant contribution to the ABS in the Course of the year 2010. Populous also donate computers to schools and take part in educational days with school children in addition to donating sports equipment to schools.

Populous have live Q&A surgery sessions at staff meetings. They have no cellular offices so all leader/ senior managers are approachable and work in open plan offices alongside employees. They hold regular staff meetings, talks and office parties and events and all new staff are invited to introduce themselves to the board at a board meeting (collectively). Populous believe that they have approachable leaders.