More bad news for the care sector?
It’s big, getting bigger and improves our standard of living every day but why all the bad news?
It is one of the fastest growing sectors in our economy which will affect all of us sooner or later. It has a dedicated workforce committed to its clients. This is the care sector – employer of over 1 million people and tasked with one of the most demanding challenges in our society, caring for us. But why is it that we only hear about what goes wrong?
This year I attended the National Care Federation’s Managers conference. The event was well organised by a professional team who provided an engaging mix of guest speakers and seminars. As a speaker at one of the seminars I had a great opportunity to hear first hand about the major issues that particularly affected recruitment and retention of staff in the care sector and generally impacted on their organisations. High on the list was the poor media coverage that the sector receives.
Now on the face of it I hear a big “yup that figures”, but why do we think this? Looking at the facts we are talking about a sector which employs 5% of working people and is growing exponentially with the aging population. A sector which has dedicated staff who genuinely care about their wards. A sector which actually reflects some of the best values and aspects of our much maligned nanny state.
So why is there so little good news? Well good news doesn’t sell papers for one thing. But, I would hasten to add, lots of organisations do get good press, especially if they are being altruistic, which this sector is by definition. Could it be that the care sector is too modest? Even though it is full of dedicated and committed people, are they hiding their light under a giant bushel? The answer has to be yes. However with a growing need to find and retain staff, now more than ever, we need good media.
Now where can we get these good news stories? Well how about in the lives that are improved everyday? How about in the independence and dignity afforded to people who have earned our respect? There are numerous daily acts of kindness and quiet heroism that are not acknowledged and given the acclaim that they deserve. Stories can also be found in the partnerships between suppliers where trade press as well as more generic channels, will be able to find and publish good stories.
The perfect opportunity for this type of coverage is in recruitment programmes. Hiring organisations or their agents constantly place expensive adverts which thousands sometimes millions view. This is obviously a great opportunity to spread the word about your organisation’s good works. However there is an even more overlooked opportunity within the actual recruitment process itself. The information sent to candidates, the customer service afforded them, the open days and inductions, all act as a channel for sending positive messages out to the public. One man who has had direct experience of the positive benefits of such recruitment drives is Siva Singh of Training Synergy: “Our Kickstart programme within the care sector is a perfect opportunity for us to present our client’s goals and achievements. Candidates for these programmes want to know they are joining an organisation they can be proud to be a part of”.
Siva sees recruitment as a marketing opportunity and dedicates the right time to both successful and unsuccessful candidates throughout each stage of the process, from initial advert to job placement. By using it as a channel to pump out positive information, a creative recruitment drive can really help each individual care organisation and eventually the sector as a whole.
David Field
David Field joined The Synergy Group in 1998 with Daniel Hanlon to establish the Training division. After graduating from Cardiff University with an Honours Degree in Business Administration in 1996, David specialised in IT services for the public sector. In 1998 David joined The Synergy Group as a senior consultant and rapidly rose to the role of Director. Over the next six years David co-developed the strategy for moving the training division from a small enterprise to the UK’s 15th largest IT training provider. David is a Fellow of the Institute of IT Training and a member of the British Computer Society.
Blog date
29 November 2007
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