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First Class Employee Badge

The first class employee badge was been introduced to encourage service standards amongst staff.  Individuals are nominated for the award and must meet a number of criteria:

• History of good attendance
• Exceeding the minimum service standards
• Maximum of ten day sickness in the last rolling year

Both the team supervisor and a majority of team members must support nominations.  Final approval for the award is then given by the Pride Committee and is worn as a badge on the receiver’s uniform.  This gives employees a standard to aim for and recognition for their achievements

Minimum service standards are defined for all operational staff and include:

• Vehicle appearance and safety
• Disability awareness
• Operational performance
• Work flexibility

These are linked to both the appraisal process and the first class employee award.  This enables team leaders to monitor performance to standards.

Learning Representatives

In agreement with the Transport & General Workers Union the organisation has committed itself to supporting a culture of continual learning throughout the organisation.  They have appointed their first learning representative who has the following responsibilities:

• To communicate information about life long learning
• To undertake the necessary training to gain accreditation as a learning representative
• To keep an up to date view of life long learning initiatives
• To support and encourage members to undertake activities
• To represent the views of members to managers about life long learning initiatives and activities.

Key Performance Indicators

Organisational Key Performance Indicators are published at the beginning of each financial year and these are immediately delegated to middle managers.  Members of the management team will then have both individual and joint KPI’s: examples of the latter are reducing sickness levels and developing new business.  Team leaders then receive refined KPI’s which are relevant to their function.  The planning group then produce a monthly report on achievements and these are displayed on the notice board, at team meetings and in the newsletter.

This has both helped develop relationships with Union representatives and raised the profile of learning within the organisation.

One objective of the organisation has been to improve levels of attendance.  It has introduced a return to work interview for all staff absences and the employees are informed about the time of this on their return.  Supervisors are notified of all absences by the planning department and a record is kept of the return to work interview.  If the reasons for absence are unsatisfactory, employees are encouraged to attend a 165 meeting, which offers counselling in their area of difficulty.  On completion of this an employee improvement plan is completed giving

• Details of the interview
• A follow up review date
• Targets to meet

The improvement plan allows for comments on any improvements or problems during the monitoring period.  Supervisors have received guidance on both return to work interviews and 165 meetings:  managers have attended several meetings and given feedback to supervisors.  A consultant has also been brought in to facilitate discussions with staff and help improve both procedures and individual approaches.  Attendance level in all teams is monitored as a KPI and major improvements have resulted in this area.

Adventure Training

Adventure training is used to redresh peole after iferent assignments.  Application procedures are streamlined through the introduction of electronic documents.  Applications are risk banded and high-risk proposals are presented to a panel including a subject expert and an adventure-training specialist.  Evaluation reports are encouraged on all programmes graded at Level III. Teams are  encouraged to use expeditions to obtain qualifications in various types of proficiencies.  The provision of expeditions, which focus more on welfare have been intoroduced, which place less emphasis on performance and more on reflection and rehabilitation.

Project Review

During a project a manager put a template on the local area network so that team members could make entries onto the document during the event.  Following the project many staff were interviewed on a one to one basis to establish their views.  All the actions from the report were then integrated into a management action plan, which included:

• Issues identified
• Lead person responsible
• Comments
• Deadline

These were then integrated into monthly management meetings and included in the mangement planning process

Code Of Practice For Managing Teams:

We encourage teams to assess themselves on different levels

1. There is a clearly defined purpose or mission for the team, which includes

• Specific goals or objectives
• Measurement criteria

2. Roles within the team are distributed between:

• The needs of the business or profession
• Tasks that need to be performed
• Attention to individuals both inside and outside the team

3. Work is regularly reviewed in terms of the four categories:

• Personal tasks
• Shared tasks
• Personal responsibility
• Shared responsibility

4. Feedback is given which recognises individual’s contribution to the team and work is redistributed in a way that takes account of:

• Their work load
• Their interests
• How they have performed in the four work categories

5. Communication is designed to underpin the team process:

• The purpose of meetings determines who is invited along with the size, duration and structure of the meeting
• Meetings do not serve mixed purposes.
• The way in which meetings are arranged and conducted builds the self-confidence, the image and reputation of the team.
• Other communication mechanisms are complementary to the fabric of meetings.
• Team members keep each other informed

6. Process are established within the team which contribute to effective and satisfying work.  These are:

• Recorded
• Adapted to different situations
• Used for coaching team members
• Owned by specific team members
• Adapted in the light of experience

7. Learning is encouraged within the team which

• Improves the competence of the team
• Reflects individual preferences
• Stimulates the team

The team need to assess themselves on a regular basis and sets targets for improvement.

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