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In
the last 2 years Black Sun has invested heavily in the leadership team,
providing Leadership training for all Team Leaders, resulting in an external trainer
spending 2 days a year at Black Sun for intensive leadership/account leadership
training. The Company has also produced a guide for all Team Leaders ‘Making
our Business Better: A Guide to Exceptional Management at Black Sun’ which
provides a raft of tips and information on how to manage staff, appraise staff,
build relationships and become a better mentor and coach. Their Team Leaders
also frequently meet with their line managers (the senior management team),
either on a weekly or regular basis for catch ups.
My Team
Black Sun have a range of communications tools and activities to boost
team interaction. These include:- Black Sun’s communications tool, ‘Shine’,
which allows all employees to remain up to date with general news on ‘what’s
happening’ around the business (including projects, new business, awards, and
company news including new starters and employee promotions). This tool is
particularly effective in the London and international offices remaining in
touch with one another. All teams also have their own budgets for team
development/social events. These budgets are primarily used to celebrate
successes and are used for different events such as team lunches or other
social activities such as bowling nights. Black Sun also hosts a range of
social events including the very popular Company Bake Off, annual Tennis
Tournament, Christmas Party, drinks evenings every month called ‘Thirst
Friday’, Friday Breakfast every week, and other social events such as the
annual Company Forum. The Company is passionate about enhancing employee
knowledge and encourages regular knowledge sharing sessions, where employees
can discuss a particular project they have worked on or a seminar or training
session they have attended. The Company also meets monthly for a general
Company Update led by the CEO where news from across the business is shared.
Finally, Black Sun’s employee notice board is kept up to date with a range of
internal communications including ‘Pat on the Back notices’ (thank you notes
from clients), news on upcoming social events, formal employee recognitions and
recruitment opportunities to name but a few.
Fair Deal
Towards the end of 2014, Black Sun began the journey of reviewing how
the company recognises and rewards employee achievements with the purpose of
finding a more comprehensive and inclusive method of recognising and rewarding
employee achievements in a growing business. This evolved into the development
of a programme of internal communications activities called ‘Shine’. Part of
this programme included the creation of a bespoke communications tool, a
corporate social network, which included the ability to publicly recognise and
reward employees. This system was designed for employees, team leaders and
senior management to nominate or highlight employees’ achievements, not just
for doing a good job, but a great job with behaviours that align to the company
values – such as going the extra mile, supporting or helping a colleague, doing
inspiring work or bringing a new and valuable idea to the business. At the
monthly company update, the top 3 monthly ‘achievers’ are then publicly
recognised by the CEO for their efforts by winning the monthly ‘Star’ award,
which is an award where employees win an adventure of their choosing, paid for
by the company. The company also maintains a monthly leader board of all posted
recognitions on the staff notice board as another way of reinforcing and
publicly recognising outstanding achievements. More recently, Black Sun
commissioned a set of portraits and illustrative drawings of a range of
employees who have embodied the Black Sun values and won monthly ‘Star’ awards.
These drawings have been hung around the business to reinforce the outstanding
achievements made by employees from across the business.
Learn more about the 8 factors of workplace engagementhere