By Rebecca Pearson, General Manager, Bupa Care Services, Bupa Global, India & UK
In our sector, people are at the heart of everything we do. We look after some of the most vulnerable people in society and this requires a strong, committed workforce. At the same time, market conditions and increasing living costs mean it’s even more important to support our people with good mental, physical and financial health to promote good all-round wellbeing.
The good news is that there are many ways that we can make a difference to the lives of our people. This starts with asking and listening to their feedback. This should form the basis of any plan to support wellbeing.
A wellbeing strategy might include finding innovative new technologies that ease administrative pressure on frontline teams, ways to promote connections and creating a sense of belonging. Or it might mean creating pathways for long-lasting careers and adapting benefits schemes to suit peoples’ need.
Digital solutions have the potential to transform the way care is provided, which can also drive job satisfaction. We know that caring is often a vocation for people in aged care, so it’s up to us to provide tools that mean they can spend more time with residents; whether through electronic care records that help reduce paperwork, digitising compliance processes, or piloting the latest apps, games and communication tools for cognitive memory.
We know that people who feel valued and recognised stay in their workplace for longer, so boosting engagement should be in every employer’s workforce strategy. Where providers have a network of homes, this can create camaraderie and opportunities for learning and growth, underpinned by technology.
A highly interactive intranet can go a long way to driving engagement, incentivising teams to get involved. A social media-style intranet can be used as a living, breathing hub where people can share ideas, gain recognition and crowd-source solutions. And on the ground, supporting this with a network of engagement champions who play a hands on role in motivating their colleagues to share updates and experiences can help ensure our homes are great places to work.
To help people stay committed to a career in care, showcasing opportunities for career progression is essential. For example, we know our people want to gain new skills and are hungry to learn, so we offer apprenticeships and training courses, and even run our own programme supporting our talented people from overseas to achieve their UK Nurse PIN.
With mental and physical health high on the agenda it’s also important to support people in staying healthy and happy at work. In fact, the latest Bupa Wellbeing Index data shows that a third of employees (33%) believe their employers have a responsibility to support their health and wellbeing, and more than half (53%) say they are more likely to choose to work for an organisation which offers good health and wellbeing benefits.
At Bupa Care Services, our people told us that they wanted more support with their physical and mental health at times that worked around their shifts, so we devised new medical benefits to provide more physiotherapy and mental health support, GP and nurse helpline access available around the clock as well as vital services such as cancer checks, menopause support and our Bupa health assessments.
And to help with everyday cashflow, we provide early access to wages, as well as annual travel loans, free pensions advice and blue light discounts to help our people balance the challenges of work and life.
Ultimately, we know our sector has a lot to offer, and through driving innovation in wellbeing we can support our people to have happy, healthy, long lasting careers with us.
