My Company - The level of engagement employees feel with their job and organisation
My Company is what we call an ‘output’ factor, it focuses on people’s ‘love’ and ‘pride’ in working for your organisation.
Now unfortunately you can’t directly make people feel these emotions, but when all of the other seven factors are doing well, people will be far more likely to experience that love and pride ultimately improving the My Company factor as a result.
A dedicated Health and Wellbeing Manager ensures people are kept up to date with the latest resources in MSC’s employee portal, with information on health and wellbeing to keep individuals and their families well, along with access to private medical healthcare and personal counselling support.
All managers at MSC have the option to receive executive leadership coaching from an external development partner. There’s also a partnership with a Diversity and Inclusion organisation which sees all managers undergo an extensive training programme in this area. An internal intranet site houses extensive developmental reading material and tools to support managers.
MSC’s approach is about recognising team collaborative in an inclusive way. This means success is celebrated as a whole, with everyone’s contributions acknowledged. It regularly holds celebrations for a diverse range of events, including National Employee Appreciation Day, where all employees received a personalised chocolate gift to their home, thanking them for their contribution.
A staff forum network, known as ‘Gateway Together’, exists to raise awareness of diversity and inclusion in the workplace. Designed to promote a constantly evolving positive and inclusive culture, it has led to a number of events initiatives including Eid celebrations, Pride, Men’s Health, Black History Month, and International Women’s Week.
Gateway’s office refurbishment included a new recycling system, as well as other initiatives that focused on a commitment to mitigating its impact on the environment. These include LED lighting, the use of hybrid vehicles and electric charging points, as well as a ‘Cycle to Work’ scheme and a bike loan initiative.
Collaboration and inclusion activities consist of weekly team briefings internally, as well as a number of external team bonding activities. These include taking part in virtual ‘escape rooms’, as well as the establishment of a ‘Birthday Month Club’ to encourage celebration across different teams.
Nine homes are ranked “outstanding” by the Care Quality Commission and Barchester has been placed in the Top 20 Large Care Home Groups on carehome.co.uk for four consecutive years. In-house Barchester Care Awards recognise excellenct performance in teams across the company's 236 homes and six mental health hospitals.
With training crucial to safe operations, training specialists were instructed on Zoom and Kahoot to use whiteboards, breakout rooms and polls to keep their courses intact online. An Advanced Carer programme was adopted with 400 people accessing training, including giving medication, in case of a qualified nurse shortage.
Employees share in the commercial success of their care home/hospital through an annual profit share scheme. A Rewarding Excellence scheme financially recognises the contribution of every employee in receiving a good or excellent regulatory rating. More than 1,000 key nursing staff had their NMC membership fee paid.
A mini MBA programme is a bespoke training scheme, created with London Business School, in which 20-25 future leaders take a two-week residential course to develop their leadership style and understand their future role in the agency, in terms of building internal and external relationships and acquiring enhanced management skills.
The agency has launched a BBH Parent Network, an advice site with its own interactive feed for working parents to connect and share tips and advice based on their own experiences of working from home. BBH Satellite was launched to connect colleagues living in the same area for non-work-related chats.
With many new recruits joining remotely, the People Team created a Virtual Onboarding Programme to help new employees to settle in their new roles despite not physically meeting their line manager or future colleagues. They were also paired with BBH ‘buddies' to assist their integration.
A new interaction and communication platform, called Connect, has been created to bring all managers together virtually. This allows them to contribute and discuss business priorities, but also provides a “safe space” for them to discuss challenges and support each other.
Best Companies survey feedback indicated that staff wanted better organisational clarity and an understanding of how each team contributed to Benenden's objectives. In response, each employee now receives a document that includes strategic objectives, key results areas, key performance indicators and each department's objectives for the year.
Benenden's sponsorship of York City Football Club Foundation helped the Sporting Memories group, set up for older fans of the club, to hold vital social get-togethers online after the pandemic started. The Benenden Health Community Fund supported projects including food banks and cookery workshops for young people.
The joint managing partners held regular webinars during the pandemic to keep all members of the team updated on the business and other topics, such as Covid safety. Staff were able to raise questions, anonymously if they preferred, and the managing partners made sure every question was answered.
Communication pods were set up after the pandemic started to ensure staff kept in contact with their teams and allow managers to check, informally, how everyone was doing. This helped managers to identify people who were struggling to work from home and put in place measures to support them.
BHP provided online pilates classes for staff working at home. It also introduced a fortnightly mindfulness/meditation session, delivered on Zoom by a wellbeing professional. This was held during work hours, and recorded for use later by staff who could not join in because of other commitments.
