Sophie Legge GM and Barbara Brown HR
Abstract
In an ever changing industry where consumer directed care is about to launch into a new era of customer service, Masonic Care is determined to turn attention away from the past and look to the future. Accepting the challenge to change the world as we’ve known it, together we will channel our people and our services through specific formulated strategies to create a sustainable workforce and a profitable future. Our creed ‘others can match our services but they can’t match our people’ is setting the bar high. To achieve this Masonic Care is developing an evolving sequence of strategies.
In an environment where recruitment and retention is a hot topic for an ageing workforce in this industry, the implementation of a Workforce Development Plan creates a formula that enables selection based on internal (resident and staff) consumer preferences. This provides a three-fold bonus through:
- The inclusion of consumer engagement (residents) in the selection process that ensures their voice is heard and provides valuable perspective on consumer needs.
- The inclusion of role peers, supervisors or managers in the recruitment process ensuring ongoing staff development through mentoring, coaching and sharing of knowledge and skills.
- The third element is crucial to ensure a fair and equitable process is undertaken where consideration for equal opportunity can be demonstrated.
Aligning the organisation’s strategic imperatives with the workforce development plan provides an overlay for Human Resource management. This is achieved through aligning shared goals through the key performance indicators of:
- valuing workers
- providing workplace flexibility
- career development
- work-life balance considerations
- managing our initiatives
This provides a robust framework that delivers effective, timely and contemporary best practise in all arenas of Masonic Care. The key is to keep pushing the strategies forward while embracing the resistance to change.
