We’ve discussed the difference that employee engagement in the hospitality industry makes, but there’s another industry in which engagement is deeply felt by customers. In fact, it makes an enormous difference in their quality of life – health care.
One of our clients, Purley Park Trust, is a charity that runs eight care homes, daycare facilities, and support at-home care for people with learning disabilities. The trust supports around 80 people in its local community of Purley on Thames.
Recently, Purley Park Trust was featured in The Care Home Environment magazine for how they use Engagement Multiplier to keep staff engaged and passionate about what they do. Chief executive Larry Grady says,
“If anyone in the sector asked me about investing in employee engagement and whether it was worth it, my question to them would be, can you afford not to? When we are focused on looking after vulnerable people, it’s essential to understand how engaged are the people responsible for caring for them.”
As a non-profit, Purley Park Trust is thrifty with its resources. They spend little money on marketing, relying on personal recommendations, which means that the quality of care doesn’t just affect those who are cared for – it directly impacts their bottom line. As the trust states on its homepage:
“This fits our philosophy that getting it right is much more important than spending valuable resources on advertising and marketing.”
Getting it right, in terms of care, requires constant effort and vigilance on the part of every staff member, which makes having an employee engagement program absolutely necessary. This isn’t news to Grady – he’s tried other engagement programs in the past.
“Prior to using Engagement Multiplier, we used to run an annual staff engagement survey – which wasn’t really working for us. What I found most frustrating was the time it would take for us to receive the information back, analyze the results and then plan what to do next.”
Our 90-day survey cycle has proven much more effective, and more efficient, than an annual survey. But perhaps even more importantly, it’s given the staff the ability to communicate their ideas and suggestions directly to Grady. He says:
“Of course, there is the initial anxiety, as a business leader asking for feedback – do I really want to know? But by being brave and creating an open culture, we now give everyone a voice, understand what is really going on in the Trust and resolve issues before they really begin to surface.”
Purley Park Trust does so much for their community. The staff is, in many ways, responsible for the sense of well-being and quality of life of their charges. The engagement that employees feel on a daily basis trickles down to every person they encounter, which, as it turns out, is the best kind of marketing money can’t buy. Another great example of the competitive advantage of having an Engaged Organization.
