| “Having a workforce that feels an ownership of the business not only improves our service to our clients but has business benefits too” |
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Company Background
The Worcestershire Care Group was established by Chief Executive Dianne Ewin and her husband in 1987. The company employs around 200 people, has two care homes and also provides a home care service throughout the county. The company has been recognised as an Investor in People longer than any other care organisation in the UK, and it all started in 1992 when the company won a National Training Award. This highlighted the business benefits gained from effective investment in staff development and gave them the motivation to work towards the Investors in People Standard..
The Challenge: Employee Communication
With a large workforce and many employees working shifts and parttime, one of the key objectives was to ensure that everything possible was being done to communicate effectively with all staff. It was vital to Dianne - an experienced nurse - that staff were kept up to-date with developments in the business, as well as ensuring that they were able to input ideas into the running of the business. One of the first exercises undertaken was the circulation of a questionnaire to the whole workforce. The response was a surprise as staff felt that communications within the business could be much improved.
The Results
Armed with the survey results, Dianne developed a communications plan. Key information is now cascaded from managers on a regular basis and every member of staff receives a monthly newsletter with their payslip. In addition, each Home or Care Service team has its own newsletter and 40 of these are produced across the business each year. Another improvement brought about by working with Investors in People was the introduction of a thorough induction process as well as annual appraisals.
Dianne comments: "Following the introduction of the new communications plan we redistributed the questionnaire, and the results showed a huge improvement.” She continues: “We have been delighted with the response from our staff. They have been very participative and much more involved, people feel they now have a voice and can influence the service we give to our customers in a much more positive way.”
Junior members of staff now have more confidence in terms of inputting their ideas and the part-time staff feel more included and are increasingly active in the care home’s regular Strategy Group which meets every two months. The company has also benefited in other ways through the improvement in communication.
Dianne says: "Having a workforce that feels an ownership of the business not only improves our service to our clients but has business benefits too. One of our Homecare workers saw an advertisement for a homecare service for sale and passed this onto me.
We looked into it and eventually bought that business." Since being recognised as an Investor in People, the company has seen an increase in the amount of tenders it has been short-listed for and won from Worcester County Council. The good practice required by the Standard helps the organisation cope with change and increases in workload - in a planned and effective manner. In an industry not known for staff retention, Worcestershire Care Group finds that it has retained higher levels of staff than its competition and it rarely needs to advertise vacancies, as existing staff recommend the company to their friends and family.
Dianne Ewin believes this is explained by the company’s philosophy of staff involvement.
