Unless you’ve been living in the dark ages, you should know that fostering a culture of respect and appreciation is vital to retaining care workers and creating a positive work environment in any healthcare company. When employees feel valued and respected, they are more likely to be happy and engaged in their work, leading to better care outcomes for both your company and the person receiving care. Unfortunately, only some care providers I speak to are fully committed to doing what is necessary day-in-day-out to achieve this.
I recently visited ROC Care Group and spent half a day with Sally Bishop (co-owner/director) and ROC’s senior executive team, discussing recruitment and retention. As soon as you walk in the door, you know ROC are different from most care providers. This company has CQC Outstanding at four inspections, Employer of The Year 2022 CYP Awards, “Housing With Care” National Winner 2021 at GBCA, and many more awards to boot.
I agree that you may read this and think it’s not all about awards. But how many of you reading this can boast that you don’t need or use agency staff and have an 87.5% staff retention rate and are pushing hard to get that figure even higher?
Without giving away the game, here are some tips on how to be like ROC and foster a great culture of respect and appreciation in your care company.
One of the simplest ways to show appreciation is to recognise the hard work of your care workers. Make sure to thank them for their work, acknowledge their accomplishments, and celebrate their successes. This can be done through simple gestures like verbal recognition or small tokens of appreciation.
Care workers who feel they have career growth and development opportunities are more likely to feel invested in their work. Provide opportunities for advanced training, continued education, and specialised certifications. This not only helps care workers advance their careers, but also allows them to provide better care to the service users.
Open communication is critical to creating a culture of respect and appreciation. Encourage care workers to share their opinions and ideas and provide opportunities for them to give feedback. This helps to build trust and shows that their input is valued.
Care workers often work long and demanding hours. To promote a healthy work-life balance, do your best to provide a flexible schedule, possible paid time off, and other benefits that allow care workers to take care of themselves and their families.
Care work is often demanding and requires a team effort to provide the best care possible. Encourage teamwork and collaboration by providing opportunities for care workers to work together, share best practices, and support each other.
A safe and healthy work environment is essential to retaining care workers. Provide a clean and safe work environment and ensure that all safety protocols and regulations are followed. This protects your care workers and helps them feel valued and supported.
In summary, creating a culture of respect and appreciation in your company is essential to retaining care workers and improving care outcomes. By recognising hard work, providing opportunities for career growth and development, encouraging open communication, promoting a healthy work-life balance, fostering a sense of teamwork and collaboration, and providing a safe and healthy work environment, you can create a positive work environment that will help you to attract and retain the best care workers.
