When a person is entering a stage in their life when they are not able to properly look after themselves, they will often seek the services of care homes.
Care homes are used to look after elderly residents and provide them with the care and attention that they need. Being able to provide them with a level of comfort and safety is important for ensuring the success of any care home, but it is a lot harder than it looks.
Taking responsibility for looking after other human beings can be a daunting task for anyone, especially somebody that doesn’t know what they are doing. In an industry that focuses on caring for people, you need to make sure that the hands responsible are good hands.
With that being said, we’ve decided to look at exactly how important the training of employees is in the care home industry.
Improved Service
One of the biggest benefits of providing sufficient training for your staff is the improved service of care that your employees will be able to give.
In the care industry, the quality of life of the residents should be the number one priority.
When working in a care home, it is your job to make sure that the residents are being well looked after and that they are receiving the help that they need. Looking after a person and taking full responsibility for their day to day life is not an easy task, and experience and training is essential for providing the highest quality of care.
An inexperienced worker will not be able to provide residents with the attention and care that they need, leading to dissatisfaction and even poor quality of life for the residents. As we enter the later stages of our lives, our bodies start to act differently and it’s not uncommon to need regular attention and care given.
Leaving a resident with an inexperienced worker who doesn’t correctly know how to look after them could lead to the resident becoming unwell or even injuring themselves. When looking after someone in the later stage of their life, it’s important to have experienced, friendly workers that residents can trust.
Allowing workers to learn the appropriate skills needed for caring for elderly people is crucial, and failing to do so could lead to disastrous consequences.
You are there to support these people and make sure that they are being cared for appropriately, so being able to provide a high quality service benefits everyone involved.
Boost In Morale
Providing a warm, friendly and caring environment for the residents is another key factor to a successful care home, so employee morale is something to take into consideration.
Working in the care industry is a job that can be quite tasking but rewarding, and anyone who’s worked a day in a care home can back up this theory. Knowing that they are able to provide a great quality of care gives employees the confidence they need to enjoy their job, but an under-developed employee is going to struggle.
Members of staff that are having to “pick up the slack” for other employees are likely to become frustrated with the extra workload and this could lead to an increase in employee dissatisfaction. Keeping employees happy and making sure that every member of staff is pulling their weight is essential for producing a happy working environment.
By taking the time to train staff up and invest in improving their skills, you will see a big boost in morale and an increase in productivity in the workplace. Providing this training will show employees that their job satisfaction is being considered, and that can never be a bad thing.
Avoids High Turnover
As we’ve previously mentioned, a lack of suitable skills or increased workload can lead to job dissatisfaction and could be the catalyst to leaving for another job.
When it comes to the staff in a care home, it’s always preferable to keep the same team around for a long time. The comfort of residents around staff is a very important factor in the running of a care home, and keeping a familiar team will make them feel more comfortable around them and allow them to trust them more. Not only that, but it is much more costly for a business to recruit than it is to retain.
The workload that comes with looking after elderly people can be quite overwhelming if unprepared, so this lack of confidence will likely lead to an employee considering a different career path.
Keeping a hold of staff should be a priority for any care home, and providing sufficient training will go a long way in helping you to retain employees.
Maximises Staff Potential
You’d probably be surprised by the effect that providing employees with a platform to better themselves can have.
Giving an employee little to no opportunities for progression and promotions will leave them feeling like they do not have a career with the company, and might be the deciding factor to someone leaving their position in the care home.
Encouraging progression will push employees to work harder to better themselves, and you could even see them becoming a part of the management team at some point down the line.
Improved CQC Rating
Having an experienced and well trained team of employees will lead to a better quality of service, which in turn will improve your CQC rating.
A CQC rating is something that is given by the Care Quality Commission, who is the independent regulator of health and social care in England. The rating given by the CQC can help people to compare services and make choices about which care home is best suited for them.
This means that achieving the highest rating possible should be a priority, and a bad rating will reflect poorly on your care home.
The questions that help the CQC when rating care homes are as follows:
– Are they safe?
– Are they effective?
– Are they caring?
– Are they responsive to people’s needs?
– Are they well-led?
These are the 5 key questions that they use when inspecting the care homes, and are used to identify any areas that need improvement. Ensuring that the staff in your care home are fully trained and can perform efficiently in all aspects of the job will be sure to improve your CQC rating, giving it a better reputation.
Summary
Making sure that any member of staff in your team has received a sufficient amount of training will always go a long way in generally improving the quality of your care home, from the service provided to the long term success of the business.
People often underestimate the amount of time and attention that is needed to care for residents, so learning the appropriate skills needed for the task is very important.
Here at Wurkplace, we provide cost effective, time efficient online training courses to make sure that employees are performing the best they can and to ensure a safe working environment for everyone involved.
If you’d like to learn more about the services we provide, please get in touch today.
As a Managing Director at Wurkplace since May 2010, Karen has extensive HR, employment law and health and Safety experience from working within the private sector.
She also boasts experience of working in the public sector including local authority, fire service, police, schools, colleges, charities, NHS.