7 tips to help you support staff in health and social care

In any organisation, employees are the ones who underpin success. We know that research has shown employees are more likely to be engaged, loyal and productive if they feel valued, supported and motivated.

So, how can we ensure our teams feel this way?

We’ve got 7 tips to help boost morale and productivity within your teams.

1. Communicate Clearly - First off, creating an environment that facilitates effective communication is key. It’s often helpful to move away from a task mindset to being more people focused, which means we allow ourselves and others to have conversations. Communication doesn’t have to be difficult, and it can be adapted to suit the person you’re talking to. When health and social support workers communicate well with one another, and with patients and families, service users will feel more comfortable and supported. 

   
   

2. Training and Development - Training and development procedures being put in place will allow you to determine if there are any gaps with employee knowledge and skills, and in turn allow you to provide relevant training opportunities to help enhance them. We’ve all been in a situation where we’ve been unable to complete a task due to lack of training, so be the provider who invests in their team. You will see an overall increase to staff retention and morale, and investing in training will allow staff to consider career progression, and make them more confident and comfortable with daily support activities. 

   
   

3. Recognition and Appreciation - This may sound simple, but recognising and appreciating your staff’s efforts can go a long way when it comes to boosting morale. Celebrating accomplishments, no matter how big or small, will make a significant difference in how employees feel about their work and job. Sometimes, just a simple “thank you” or public acknowledgement for a job well done can make someone's day. 

   
   

4. Work Life Balance - In order to promote the wellbeing of your employees, you must show consideration for maintaining a good work life balance. We should strive to offer flexible working arrangements where possible, and remember to encourage our teams to take breaks and annual leave, whilst ensuring you aren’t overloading them with tasks or overtime. 

   
   

5. Empowering your Team - Micromanagement tactics can often reduce creativity in the workplace, and lead to disengagement and poor productivity. It's important to show that you trust your employees to make decisions and take ownership of their own work. Managers need to be able to trust their care staff to complete their jobs with autonomy, but support workers need to be able to reciprocate that trust so theft can safely raise concerns without worrying. Creating a space for continuous feedback and giving employees a voice will help enhance your relationships with colleagues and also help them feel trusted and valued. For the care sector, empowering your team will be a key part of building a highly skilled and satisfied workforce. 

   
   

6. Pay and Benefits - Whilst it’s not always feasible to pay your staff what you’d like to, we can ensure we can offer them worthwhile benefits, such as sick pay, pensions, annual leave, flexible working, career pathways and employee assistance programmes. This isn’t an exhaustive list, there are many other benefit possibilities employers can offer. A good, competitive pay rate partnered with a solid benefits package will help improve staff recruitment and retention and help provide staff with increased opportunity and career growth. 

   
   

7. Feedback - Providing constructive feedback on a regular basis, with a focus on both positive and negative aspects can help employees understand how best to improve and helps them understand future steps. It also allows employers to provide person tailored resources needed for the individual’s development.

The above tips help empower your teams to take charge of their own growth journey, and can work wonders for boosting morale, professional development, job satisfaction and staff retention. We are always striving to empower our teams to be the best that they can be.

Here at The SKA Group Ltd, we have a variety of support worker roles available. Are you looking to start a rewarding career and positively impact someone’s life?

Send over your CV to us via socials or our website, and we’ll see if we can find the perfect care role for you.