What are companies doing with regards to 'Personal Growth'

As an open and transparent business, Omni utilises an array of working practices to boost team interaction - including weekly and monthly meetings across all business units. The most notable example of this is the weekly Account Manager meetings which are dedicated to providing employees the opportunity to raise operational and workplace challenges they're currently experiencing within a supportive forum. Once an issue has been raised, and a round of questions posed, each Account Manager is given an opportunity to suggest a solution in a bid to reach a successful outcome. Omni believes that inclusive initiatives such as this not only create new two-way channels of communication within a team, but also builds trust among employees and ultimately enhances employee engagement and productivity.

As an open and transparent business, Omni utilises an array of working practices to boost team interaction - including weekly and monthly meetings across all business units. The most notable example of this is the weekly Account Manager meetings which are dedicated to providing employees the opportunity to raise operational and workplace challenges they're currently experiencing within a supportive forum. Once an issue has been raised, and a round of questions posed, each Account Manager is given an opportunity to suggest a solution in a bid to reach a successful outcome. Omni believes that inclusive initiatives such as this not only create new two-way channels of communication within a team, but also builds trust among employees and ultimately enhances employee engagement and productivity.

Company Show and Tell + Beer & Lightening sessions take place fortnightly on a Friday afternoon. The sessions promote a culture of shared learning and enhance internal communication across departments whilst enjoying a cold beer and snacks. Development and Operations teams present news around completed features, product updates and roadmap progress as well as new ideas, technologies and learning from conferences and personal self development. Sales and Marketing teams share emerging industry trends, competitor analysis and customer case-studies. HR , Finance and other support functions hold regular slots to provide insight on new-initiatives and processes. A monthly podcast was introduced to pull together interesting stories, interviews and the latest news and updates from across the business - essentially something to bridge the gap between the quarterly company meeting and day to day communications. The most popular podcast to date included an interview with NewVoiceMedia's founder and CTO Ashley Unitt who shared why he started the company and his visions for the future.

Company Show and Tell + Beer & Lightening sessions take place fortnightly on a Friday afternoon. The sessions promote a culture of shared learning and enhance internal communication across departments whilst enjoying a cold beer and snacks. Development and Operations teams present news around completed features, product updates and roadmap progress as well as new ideas, technologies and learning from conferences and personal self development. Sales and Marketing teams share emerging industry trends, competitor analysis and customer case-studies. HR , Finance and other support functions hold regular slots to provide insight on new-initiatives and processes. A monthly podcast was introduced to pull together interesting stories, interviews and the latest news and updates from across the business - essentially something to bridge the gap between the quarterly company meeting and day to day communications. The most popular podcast to date included an interview with NewVoiceMedia's founder and CTO Ashley Unitt who shared why he started the company and his visions for the future.

The company have invested in a bespoke leadership development programme "Talent Unlimited", in order to develop the skills of senior leadership team. The programme focuses on authenticity and both technical and behavioural skills to enhance individual capability. All managers are provided with appraisal training, focusing on the appraisal process but more importantly, how to deliver an effective appraisal so that individuals leave the meeting feeling motivated regardless of the topics covered. In addition to this, they have also recently invested in line - management training, this is for current line manager and those likely to be promoted in the near future into a managerial role. This is to ensure they have the required capabilities before taking on the responsibility. The course covers recognising everyone as an individual whilst highlighting the importance of treating everyone fairly, delegation, motivation and how and when to have difficult conversations.

They have run internal comms campaigns and postcard desk drops to reiterate the mission, vision and company values. They also feature in appraisal forms to ensure that employees are living and breathing our shared goals.

Staff at DLKW Lowe were involved in helping decide what the company's values should be and have been included from day one. Staff meetings were used as a forum to discuss the company's values. The values of the company are now communicated during the induction process for new employees and also in the language used throughout the company day in and day out.

The senior management team at DLKW Lowe demonstrate the company's values through their behaviour and always use the company's terminology in all staff meetings. They also award staff who continually demonstrate the company's values in their day to day working lives.

At the end of each project the project team host a 'learning lunch' sharing the project's details and learning's from the project. The team celebrate each new project win by a bang on the gong and follow up with a company-wide email with information on what the project is about, value and a thank you to the team who helped to win the work.

At the end of each project the project team host a 'learning lunch' sharing the project's details and learning's from the project. The team celebrate each new project win by a bang on the gong and follow up with a company-wide email with information on what the project is about, value and a thank you to the team who helped to win the work.

Monthly the company award a spot prize, a bottle of bubbly and a £50 voucher based on feedback they receive. The company recognise nominees as well as winners. The Managers will thank people outside this process too. The CEO also pushes the “beer trolley” round on a Friday afternoon to thank everyone for their efforts or take teams out for lunch if they've completed a particular project or delivered a client event. Most Fridays the company have a company credit card behind the bar at their local pub. Additionally each team has a team entertainment/reward budget. It's up to the team how they spend this; it may be for a project well done or maybe because they have all been working really hard on something or maybe to welcome a new recruit, it's really up to them. On top of the generous benefits package they have an annual discretionary bonus. This is open to everyone who has 6 months service or more and is a set % of their salary to ensure an equitable and fair approach. It's based upon the financial performance of the Company not the individual. The company have also introduced a Christmas bonus too. This isn't about performance or length of service. This is about recognising that everyone needs a thank you at this festive time of year. Everyone gets exactly the same amount, regardless of service, salary, position.

All of the Senior Management team have been internally recruited or promoted. That is testament to robust recruitment, engagement and the approach they use in developing and supporting their staff. Each senior manager and other non-senior managers have external mentors to help develop them individually. The SMT have coaches who meet with them every six weeks and the HR Director also holds a Coaching qualification and coaches other managers across the business. Ultimately people leave managers not businesses and the company understand that the way they manage has an undeniable effect on the engagement of their staff and subsequently their performance. Developing managers is key to that. The company like to believe they recruit the best people and truly believe they deserve to be managed in the best way possible, the best way for them so they have in place a set of management behaviours that they recruit, develop and appraise against. The company is very transparent so having a common understanding to what's required in terms of competency, skills and attitude is key. Every quarter they hold a manager's quarterly review session off site where each manager shares their achievements against targets and upcoming challenges. The company's CEO will often hand out rewards, prizes and thank you's too in these reviews. Many of the managers work flexibly too, to help promote a better work life balance.

Their quality housing standards are displayed across all their sites and clearly sets their commitment to providing high quality accommodation and support to the young people accessing their service. Additionally, over the last five years the organisation has made a substantial investment in their property portfolio on the basis that every young person should have a safe place to live, free from abuse, neglect and discrimination. This investment has totalled circa £5million and has been generated via grant applications, fundraising and use of reserves. In making the decision to invest these funds, the management team has demonstrated both its commitment to the core values of the organisation and their belief that young people should have access to high quality provision. In achieving this standard the organisation has ensured that every accommodation unit within their two main sites (84) has en suite washroom facilities as well as access to a communal kitchen and communal leisure space. Empower: The senior management team ensure that every young person has access to education, training and work opportunities as well as leisure opportunities to enhance their life experiences. Enrich: The senior management team have supported a number of young people to gain both local, regional and international experiences as well as opportunities to participate in activities that could have been viewed as beyond their financial means.

As well as regular informal 1-2-1 meetings, Line Managers also conduct formal performance review meetings with their staff 3 times per year. During these meetings staff have the opportunity to discuss training, development and support needs, including successes, challenges, and grading's for Key Performance Indicator's (KPI's) and organisational core competencies . Other performance supporting documentation includes performance development and improvement plans and work programmes. The organisation's core competency framework aids recruitment (person specifications); performance management (performance reviews) and employee development. They deliver their own mandatory training programme (including personal safety, competency, equality & diversity and health & safety), alongside arranging job specific training. There are opportunities for secondments into other areas of the business, as well as with other partnering agencies. Where a training needs analysis has been carried out and a qualification in a specific area is desirable, the organisation covers the costs involved in the course as well as enables the employee's time off for study leave and exams Other examples of staff development include career progression routes, whereby staff are encouraged and supported in working towards promotion to senior positions and by them also actively applying for vacancies within the organisation. Employees also have opportunities to upskill their numeracy and literacy grades and several have participated in on the job NVQ Information Advice & Guidance qualifications, therefore enhancing their skills in this area.

The company have a strong culture of learning within the organisation which is built into their cultural values. Their aim is to deliver unique and tailored learning and development opportunities to all levels of their teams. The have a structured training programmes for all levels joining their teams to the teach knowledge and skills required. The company regularly refresh the knowledge of their restaurants teams through their ‘passion sessions' which are designed to refresh existing team and inspire newer employees. These complement the daily ‘pre-shift meetings'. The aim of both is to keep restaurant team's level of knowledge to the required standard but also to keep maintain the passion and culture for excellence. Organised trips to suppliers eg farms, markets, butchers etc, helps develop knowledge, which can be passed onto the rest of the team. This year's focus has been growing their own chef talent. The company now offer apprenticeships to unskilled chef candidates which include an NVQ 2 qualification is professional cookery. NVQs are also offered to existing chefs who would like to further develop their skills. The company are launching a ‘chef olympics' to allow talented chefs to stretch their cooking and creative skills. Jamie's successfully delivering monthly ‘Foodspiration' sessions, run by their most senior chefs for the junior chefs. They are taught new skills and knowledge on subjects not related to our menu e.g. french sauces, butchery. To ensure chef development is continual we have a unique, practical appraisal system to appeal to chefs ways of learning.

The company have a strong culture of learning within the organisation which is built into their cultural values. Their aim is to deliver unique and tailored learning and development opportunities to all levels of their teams. The have a structured training programmes for all levels joining their teams to the teach knowledge and skills required. The company regularly refresh the knowledge of their restaurants teams through their ‘passion sessions' which are designed to refresh existing team and inspire newer employees. These complement the daily ‘pre-shift meetings'. The aim of both is to keep restaurant team's level of knowledge to the required standard but also to keep maintain the passion and culture for excellence. Organised trips to suppliers eg farms, markets, butchers etc, helps develop knowledge, which can be passed onto the rest of the team. This year's focus has been growing their own chef talent. The company now offer apprenticeships to unskilled chef candidates which include an NVQ 2 qualification is professional cookery. NVQs are also offered to existing chefs who would like to further develop their skills. The company are launching a ‘chef olympics' to allow talented chefs to stretch their cooking and creative skills. Jamie's successfully delivering monthly ‘Foodspiration' sessions, run by their most senior chefs for the junior chefs. They are taught new skills and knowledge on subjects not related to our menu e.g. french sauces, butchery. To ensure chef development is continual we have a unique, practical appraisal system to appeal to chefs ways of learning.

The company have department specific recognition programs. for example in support they have engineer of the quarter and engineer of the year awards who get recognition and rewards for their efforts.

The company communicate via their own communication platform: Pure cloud. This is a system by which they can chat and call and look for specific skills of their employees. The company have a very relaxed and open environment in the office.

MGROUP has a unique and innovative appraisal system which incorporates 360 degree feedback. Staff and managers are able to appraise how the previous year has gone and put together a plan for the year ahead. They use a matrix-based system that measures each individual aspect of the role being appraised (including its skills), and ask staff if they have anything they want to improve on. This process creates a growth plan for every employee, technical or otherwise. Development needs are agreed between the employee and their line manager, and are then communicated to HR to allow them to be built into the annual resourcing plan. This allows employees to be trained to maintain excellence and also provides access for employees to any aspirational or cross-platform development that will help to further their career goals. In this way, they are able to support a wide range of career and development goals, including Microsoft certifications, shadowing, in-house and external training, membership of professional bodies and even part-time college and university courses. On average, each employee has 20 days of professional development per year logged in our timesheet system. There are also regular quarterly reviews to alter and update employee training plans where necessary, making each plan a responsive, constantly evolving document. They encourage staff to meet monthly with their professional development manager to review their ongoing activities. They have also added 'post-project feedback' where employees can give and receive feedback at the end of a project so that individual contributions can be recognised before moving on to the next project.

IMGROUP have introduced the OpenSpaces format, an exciting and unique new methodology that gives employees the space to create new ideas and helps make IMGROUP a better and more innovative place to work. OpenSpaces happens on a quarterly basis, in which employees are invited to submit workplace challenges in advance. Challenges might include, for example, ‘how to improve the office space' or ‘how to improve project management methodology'. An afternoon is put to one side for the event, and each individual who has submitted a challenge with potential to be converted into a development area (as judged by a combination of their peers and senior leadership team members) takes a space in the office and is joined by other colleagues who are interested in the idea to brainstorm on the challenge. Colleagues can join in on multiple sessions. At the end of each session selected individuals take ownership on moving the idea forward, with time deliberately set aside in the working week to encourage this process. For a less formal submission of ideas for improvement, there is also a Suggestions Box in the main London office which can be used anonymously. Innovation and collaboration across teams and hierarchies is further encouraged by the completely open-plan layout of the office. IMGROUP also runs employee engagement surveys. They are recognised as an Investors in People employer and recently won the Investors in People Silver Award after a representative sample of their staff were interviewed about their experiences. Only 6% of companies in the scheme have attained this accolade. They also received recommendations for improvement from the Investors in People survey, many of which they are currently acting to address.