Care staff


workplace culture that encourages your staff to exceed expectations, be open and honest, or strive to develop and progress. Our Good and outstanding care guide


found that services with these Care Quality Commission ratings had a culture that was fair, inclusive, and transparent.2 This culture could be seen through factors such as: ensuring managers are open, visible, approachable and empower others; embedding a person- centred culture of fairness, support, and transparency; and ensuring problems and concerns are always a priority and being committed to resolving them. A positive workplace culture starts


with a vision or mission statement for your organisation, and a set of aims and objectives. They give your organisation, and everyone within it, a shared purpose. Outline your workplace values and


what these values look like in practice, so everyone knows how to behave. Our values underpin our vision and purpose, as they guide us in all that we do.


Implementing a positive culture There are processes that you can embed into the day-to-day running of your organisation that can help to create and maintain a positive workplace culture, and in doing so support retention rates of your team. Three key areas of focus include regular supervision, access to learning and development, and enabling people to learn from their mistakes.


1. Regular supervision Providing regular supervisory processes is an important step in supporting a positive workplace culture. Firstly, by providing regular


opportunities for staff members to speak directly with their line managers and leadership team, you are breaking down barriers to open communication and making sure that all managers are visible and approachable. Regular catch-ups also allow team members and managers to discuss the organisational values and reflect on if, and when, team members have been displaying these. It also provides an allocated time for team members to flag any concerns which they have around the workplace culture and for these to be addressed. By speaking regularly with team members, managers can quickly spot


32


any concerns which staff are having and resolve any issues quick - before they get to a stage where the staff member plans to move on.


2. Learning and development opportunities Offering access to good learning and development opportunities is potentially the most key component in creating a positive workplace culture and supporting retention. Research for our Recruitment and


retention in adult social care: secrets of success report found that 94 per cent of social care employers had seen a positive impact on retention through investing in learning and development.3 Providing development opportunities


to your staff makes them feel more valued in their role, as it shows that you value them enough to invest in their learning and development. Feeling valued where you work is an important element in choosing to stay there. As well as showing your staff that they


are important to you, investing in learning and development paves a path for your workforce to grow their career with you rather than away from you. Supporting staff in learning new skills


can create new opportunities for them to progress within your organisation, whether into a managerial role or into a specialist niche. Providing the opportunity to learn new skills also allows staff to add variety to their role – by adopting a new process to manage one of their regular tasks or taking on a new responsibility. Helping staff to develop professionally


will ultimately bolster their skills and confidence, which will make them more


confident, motivated, and proud in their role – all of which means they are likely to stay with you for longer.


3. Enabling people to learn from their mistakes Fostering an environment where your team can make mistakes and learn from these is crucial in building a positive workplace culture. People cannot work effectively or be


happy and comfortable at work if they are too scared of making a mistake. In order to create a culture of honesty and transparency, staff need to know that if they do make a mistake, they can open up about it without fear of retribution. Not only is this vital for your staff wellbeing, but also in ensuring that mistakes do get rectified. Allowing people to be able to make and


learn from mistakes also encourages staff to be willing to try something new and be innovative – something they cannot do if mistakes cannot be admitted to. Like formalised training and development opportunities, allowing your team to try new things and learn from mistakes is a learning opportunity. Of course, this does not mean safe


procedures should not be in place, they must be, but staff need to work in an environment where they know they can be honest when mistakes do happen. Only in allowing this to happen can staff really bring their true selves to work and fully flourish in an environment where they will choose to stay long-term.


Recruiting for values Values-based recruitment is all about focusing on recruiting people whose values match your organisation, and this is a sure-fire way to help build a positive


www.thecarehomeenvironment.com • November 2021


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52