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.
The Howard de Walden Estate promotes training and development within the wide-ranging roles in the property company, including tiers of management. Support is also available for further education where applicable to the role and the individual employee.
Daily and weekly meetings kept teams bonded in the past year using cloud technology that the company already had in place. Team members also got together online to boost morale with virtual cocktail evenings and a book club.
A personal trainer kept employees on their toes with weekly workouts, recipes and advice for staying healthy during lockdown. Excellent health benefits for staff at The Howard Walden Estate include 24-hour access to mental health advisers.
Thrive Homes switched quickly to being a remote business last March. The Chief Executive, Elspeth Mackenzie, took to the internal social network OneThrive to provide business updates and advice on public health guidelines. Workplace by Facebook was also used to keep staff informed.
The Lumina Spark programme is used to develop people's understanding of themselves and others. It provides tools to constructively share, challenge, debate and give feedback, and to enhance emotional intelligence when interacting with colleagues and customers. Managers draw on its insights in the growth of their teams.
Inspired by a two-minute video from New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern, managers took part in a 15-second challenge, #PrideinThrive. Each of them filmed themselves talking about what they were most proud of and grateful for. The clips were posted on the firm's internal social network.
Every second Wednesday, staff have the afternoon off to work on personal development projects alone or in groups. They show off their projects in a regular video series and monthly newsletter. Each employee also has £300 to spend on courses and resources on the online learning platform Learnably, launched in December 2020.
One of the lessons of lockdown was that the more people communicated outside their day job, the more productive collaborations they had on important projects. Mediatonic recognised its teams had different rhythms and stopped organising fun events such as quizzes and tea breaks in favour of empowering groups to host events of their own design.
Mediatonic is a founding partner for Safe in Our World's new campaign, #LevelUpMentalHealth, which seeks to unite the gaming industry to support both players and developers who may be struggling silently with their mental health. The company has also set aside money to support two charities fighting racial inequality in the UK.
UKCloud is committed to supporting employees' development, ensuring that it is tailored towards each staff member's specific ambitions and career path. A buddy system for new recruits provides a career mentor for people as they embark on a five-week programme of on-the-job training.
Colleagues found new and interesting virtual ways to use their social budget – £75 per head every quarter – while operating remotely. UKCloud believes this initiative has been pivotal in helping to maintain strong team interaction during a challenging year.
A Health and Wellbeing Week in January 2021 promoted practical strategies for feeling better. Senior leaders got behind the initiative, encouraging staff to exercise during the cold winter months. They have also been active in continuing to break down the stigma associated with mental health.
Recent staff socials have ranged from a Ukrainian cookery class to scavenger hunts, with some wine and chocolate tasting thrown in. The events were run remotely using funds ring-fenced early in the pandemic. Exercise hasn't been forgotten and a professional yoga instructor and personal trainer run classes online at lunchtime.
Daily stand-up virtual meetings allow teams to discuss the day ahead while enjoying their morning coffee. These 15-20 minute calls also provide the opportunity to start the day with a human connection and the chance to ask colleagues for advice on work issues.
An environmentally preferred purchasing policy encourages employees to be mindful of the way in which they manage their travel, purchase office equipment and stationery and manage their home office. Company offices have been equipped with energy trackers, all waste is recycled and use of recycled and non-toxic products is encouraged.
William Blair's Global Inclusion Council, created in 2017, is an advisory group of colleagues responsible for defining the firm's inclusion strategy and priorities to create a workplace where people are encouraged to bring their individual perspectives and experiences to work to drive greater creativity.
During the pandemic, it was important to keep employees up-to-date and to promote team bonding. William Blair launched a microsite dedicated to Covid-19 updates and a special edition of the firm's global electronic newsletter, Inside William Blair@Home.
Each employee received a food voucher that could be used for home deliveries while working from home. The company has a strong employee assistance programme to support every member of the workforce. Laptops were issued to all staff to enable the team to work from home over the past year.
Senior managers use Facetime to call and talk to individual employees, especially those in thee vulnerable category, to check in with them. The feedback was that the calls were enjoyed by staff and a good way to get to know managers better.
Every individual goes through People Performance Management and measured on how they go about their job and what they do. They are graded against Development Needed, Achieving Standards and Exceeding Expectations and their salary and benefits package is linked. Development Needed grades are given a personal development plan.
Teamwork is important to First Contact and staff are encouraged to take part in charitable ventures, including supporting St George's Crypt, which offers help to homeless people, Westways Open Arms, drop in facilities for those in need, and a beach clean-up near Scarborough.
The first company-wide virtual learning summit was such a hit it that senior leaders kicked off a whole month of learning, bug hunting and phishing for National Cybersecurity Awareness Month. Employees could learn something new and show off their skills in a challenge – and won swag for participating.
To strengthen team bonds while working remotely, Auth0 has tried out new ways for people to interact to beat isolation. One successful aid used by employees has been Donut, a Slack tool randomly connecting three people for a meeting to get to know each other.
Employees at Auth0 have the option of donating money or volunteer hours to causes close to their heart. Throughout the pandemic, when so many people in the community were struggling, Auth0 gave its software product free to organisations on the front line fighting the effects of the coronavirus.
Having a mechanism for employees to anonymously ask questions and for every question to be answered during its townhall meeting reflects Hamlyn Williams' principle of transparency. Employees are also regularly encouraged to share their feedback and concerns through their managers and speaking to the human resources team.
The pandemic has brought the UK team closer together with employees reaching out to colleagues who they wouldn't usually spend time with, exchanging messages and best practice. Video calls have also helped building global relationships and camaraderie through sharing good news stories and introducing new starters.
Hamlyn Williams rewards staff with benefits including medical, dental and vision insurance, free vacation between Christmas & New Year, a 40 hour working week which finishes at 3:30pm on Fridays as well as an in-house training programme and clear promotion targets.
To give employee an engagement a boost during lockdown staff created videos of themselves covering the famous Beatles song Here Comes the Sun and competed in a virtual Olympics. When the videos were premiered Prestige sent everyone popcorn to enjoy as they watched them.
Staff have a well-equipped breakout room to unwind in, complete with a newly stocked games console, ping pong table, air hockey and an arcade games machine. At the weekly online quiz a name was picked at random from a hat to decide who would be quizmaster next, a tradition that Prestige has kept.
For every pound of weight that employees lost during an eight-week fitness programme this year, Prestige Telecom donated £5 to charity. Senior managers and directors also took part in a ration challenge, in which they ate the same food a Syrian refugee is allocated, to help Concern Worldwide raise over £1.5m.
