My Team - Employees' feelings towards their immediate colleagues and how well they work together
My team benefits from a high scoring My Manager factor as the manager is key to creating and sustaining a productive and positive work environment.
An employee’s perceived team will be those they work with on a daily basis.
Responding to the Black Lives Matter campaign Bravissimo create digital listening groups to hear personal accounts of discrimination experienced by employees and has launched a Diversity & Inclusion committee to ensure it is more representative in all it does from its marketing and models, product range, recruitment and team diversity.
Christmas hampers were to every employee to thank them for support and efforts over the past year and retail and customer service teams held a range of events from quiz nights to dress-up & exercise classes to keep teams motivated and positive.
Over the last year Bravissimo's warehouse has recycled 72 tonnes of bailed cardboard, 17.3 tonnes of polythene, and 16.4 tonnes of tissue paper. The Product team have donated leftover textiles in an initiative that has meant local schools have been able to use the materials for Art lessons.
The Senior Leadership Team pitched in to deliver PPE to offices and carers when required to alleviate pressure on branch teams. All branch bosses had daily calls from a member of the SLT at the start of the pandemic offering step-by-step support and guidance and these now take place weekly.
The Bright Care Training Academy has continued to run throughout the pandemic to develop employees, who all have a personal development plan. An in-house performance coach is available to help and support the mental and physical wellbeing of all employees.
Bright Care believes strong teams are formed by people who play together as well as work together so it actively encourages employees to plan social events together knowing that other teams within the organisation will cover this time out for them.
Since its launch three years ago more than 1,300 employees have been through the company's Aspire development programme, which won ‘People Development Programme of the Year' at the Learning Awards in February. Over 950 of those participants have been promoted into the role they wanted.
Employees can nominate staff for a monetary award for “brilliant work” through the employee recognition scheme, ‘Just to Say'. The most exceptional examples are recognised at the annual Consumer Live event, which last year involved 18 livestreams, 68 awards, and was broadcast on BT Sport and hosted by Tess Daly and Rylan Clark-Neal.
The recently launched plastic reduction programme called ‘Get Drastic on Plastic' has set a goal that by 2025, all plastic packaging will be reusable, recyclable, or compostable. BT Consumer encourages customers to return their products so they can be recycled or refurbished.
Departments arrange virtual team meetings on a regular basis and staff have taken part in a range of online social activities. These included coffee mornings, photo competitions and the annual Christmas party which featured various breakout rooms including a quiz, craft workshops, a film and a virtual escape room.
The organisation has three trained mental health first aiders and all employees have access to the meditation and mindfulness Headspace app. Staff are encouraged to speak with their line managers regularly and let them know of any problems working from home.
The organisation has used thermal imaging equipment on its buildings to pinpoint areas of heat lost to maximise the efficiency of any improvement works. Eco-friendly initiatives range from a beehives project to using only fair-trade or rainforest alliance certified coffee and it has switched to reusable glass milk bottles.
Capco runs fortnightly Lunch with Leadership calls to provide business and people updates and to answer employee questions with different leaders leading each call. Virtual quarterly Town Halls celebrate individual and team successes and showcase new initiatives, as well as providing general business news.
Capco has kept staff feeling connected with regular informal team catch-ups and a range of events and activities including quizzes, bingo and a performance from a magician. Employees participated in a team-based running challenge in November, which saw them clock up nearly 20,000km and raise £3,500 for charity.
Last year Capco raised £50,000 for a range of charities including Hackney Foodbank, and Veterans Aid and employees completed 400 hours of volunteering despite the ongoing pandemic. Staff continued to support education and youth empowerment through various initiatives including pro-bono consulting.
Training increased in volume over the past year as an important tool to keep employees engaged in their roles. The company helps to put people through exams and several staff members passed their qualifications in recent months.
Half of Caspian's directors and managers are women, as well as 43% of the staff overall. The company has been nominated for the Women in Insurance awards and in 2020 was the first brokerage to sign the Lloyds of London Inclusivity Pledge.
Caspian introduced paperless documents, using remote training to bring in the e-signature system quickly. Not only did the streamlined process make the company's service greener but improved its service, tripling its Trustpilot review in 2020 compared with 2019.
Senior leaders communicate with all staff on a weekly and monthly basis to share business and market updates in person, if virtually. This includes open and live Q&A and feedback sessions, with full employee participation. An open-door policy has been extended to virtually directly access MD James Hardy and his team.
Prior to the pandemic, CCS Media had already implemented virtual employee group “huddles” every morning that took in direct team members – and with senior leaders periodically joining the calls on a rolling basis. This is replicated throughout the business for management.
The company organises multiple weekly social and wellness initiatives – mindfulness, fitness and social – for employees and their children, who get treats like colouring books sent out. Hampers with a choice of contents are distributed to people's homes for individuals and families to enjoy.
The mission is to be a housing association motivated by Christian and social concern to create places where people want to live, invests in good quality housing and provides affordable support and servicesthat are accessible to those in housing need.
Christian Housing believes in developing its staff internally through individual training or job shadowing. Staff are given the opportunity to “act up” as managers to cover maternity leave or sickness absence. E-learning sessions on GDPR, whistleblowing, business continuity planning and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion are available.
Every month, employees are invited to an ‘All Hands' Zoom meeting with senior managers providing business updates and providing an open forum for questions. Weekly virtual coffee meetings are held for colleagues to chat informally and a staff member runs weekly mindfulness video calls.
To spread some Christmas cheer, the firm held an online Christmas party which involved a wine tasting for employees and their partners. All employees also received a hamper, a John Lewis voucher and a thank you note in appreciation of their hard work in 2020.
To boost morale, get people together and help support each other and share experiences, employees set up a range of fitness, cooking and cake-making clubs. People can drop in to Weekly Cake Tuesday on Teams, an open forum for staff to share news.
Employees volunteered their time to help out in the kitchen at Winchester Churches Nightshelter on a regular basis last year. At Christmas, Clevertouch employees also raised £250 to provide the residents of two moving-on homes with everything they needed for a festive feast.
When Steve Hughes started as chief executive in April 2020 there was no option to meet people face to face so he did it virtually through weekly Zoom coffee breaks, attending team meetings and webinars. By the end of December, he had also Zoomed with people from all 69 branches.
The Society's bonus scheme is based on its performance across measures including member service, people and community engagement and risk management. The scheme recognises that all employees contribute to and should share in the Society's success and they all receive the same percentage of their salary, 10% last year.
A Society dog show which got hundreds of entries and a Whodunnit competition were among the many innovative events that kept employees' spirits high last year. Staff also took part in fancy dress team meetings, quizzes, photo and baking competitions, virtual breakfasts and a book group.
