How to engage employees and increase retention rates in organizations

John:
John Chambers, I'm the Technology Innovation lead for Stockport Homes.

Shaked:
What do you think care providers can take from maybe what you do that you engage your staff in such a high level and also engage their staff, their carers in high level to prevent the turnover rate, to increase the retention rates of their company?

John:
Success breeds success. Getting employees to understand what the opportunity for development is all about. You know, you join an organization not just to do a task you join to grow.
Helping people develop, you know, opportunities, inspiration, engagement and just the whole general rich experience behind it.

Shaked:
Providers, they do get the mindset, they do understand that they need to invest more in engaging their staff and so on. What tools they can use, what practices you can recommend on so they can actually engage those staff?

John:
Provide time for that engagement. I know it's obviously driven by efficiency and cost and money at the end of the day, but you factor it in 10% of time for personal development and relationships and where do you fit within the organization.

People are more connected to that organization, allowing that sort of team leader approach to share information where their teams fit within that strategy, fit within that ambition, build that connection even further.

But yeah, we probably allocate 10% of our time on people development and that include direct stuff about monitoring and mentoring, but also bigger team activities, bigger visioning.
We have an annual conference where we bring together for my chief exec, you know, the vision for the next year, bringing some stakeholders about, you know, where the sector is going.

So people do feel connected, not just focusing upon the task.

Shaked:
Once you've got talent, what actions should you take in order to make sure to retain this talent?

John:
We have what we call pathways, so to say we have a hierarchical structure, but obviously we give people opportunities to grow, they do mentoring programs, they're on a very clear pathway.
If they have aspiration to become a leader or a particular technical aspect, we put them on on a planned program with milestones.

But I think it's really giving people, let's say, confidence, that they're more than just the task, they can grow within the organization and we can support them on that journey.

Shaked:
What do you think is unique about you guys? What are your values vision that really helps you to be on the top level of the employee engagement class?

John:
We empower our people to take ownership. We empower people to go and report things
and act upon it. So it's giving people the tools, giving people the opportunity to be a part of that puzzle. That's the bit where we really add value.

We wouldn't be so successful and recognized within the sort of the sector if we didn't really do more than just the task.

Shaked:
One key tip from your experience to a new business owners, operators that want to start their own care agency?

Shaked:
Get funding right.. Make sure that you align task to the skill to the customer and to the vision
People having a real passion and a flair for what they do means that people are much more engaged with the job, much more effective in their job, and more willing to stay and overcome any sort of interim issues.

But, you know, being honest with teams, being honest with the organization, the challenges and the opportunities.