Employer of the Year!

Every now and then we consider it important to acknowledge the work that our team are doing in a formal way, by entering valuable awards that can publicly recognise their Outstanding efforts.

One such fleet of awards are those led by our local Exmouth Chamber of Commerce, who aim to promote connection between the business community and to boost the profile of those making an exceptional effort in their own sectors.

Exmouth Chamber of Commerce formed in 1896 and their annual Exmouth Business Awards aim to celebrate the achievements of local businesses that are either located within the town or like ourselves, have an audience in the area. Their work is widespread and vital and connects individuals and organisations across the area in order to create new relationships, boost employment and create business.

Our particular nomination was within the Employer of the Year Category, and we are delighted to report, that we won!

With regards to this achievement and on behalf of the Exmouth Chamber of Commerce, Chair, Laura Woodward-Drake, commented:

“Employer of the year is a fantastic category to uplift business owners and managers for their hard work in creating a community. All finalists were great examples of positive workplaces and a clear consciousness from the business to go above and beyond to support their teams.”

“Having read the judges’ comments on Home Instead Exeter & East Devon, it was clear that their application highlighted the efforts they go to attract, train and support staff. All involved at Home Instead should be very proud of the community they have created.”

At Home Instead Exeter & East Devon this past year has actually seen our officially Outstanding team grow by over 10 percent. When we ‘take stock’ and look back, it’s clear just what amazing work has been done…

We have extended our ‘reach’ in every way, to highlight the fantastic work of our Care Professionals, and the opportunities that the social care sector can offer. Our Marketing campaigns have championed the talents of our team across local and national press, we have extended our Community Talks project, conducting over 40 free workshops in the last year, and have grown our social media activity and audience to offer advice and to shine a light on our Care Professional team, with our Facebook posts reaching over 200k people in the last year alone (click HERE to visit our popular page).

Our Team have rated us as a 5 Star Employer again following an independent survey from WorkBuzz. We secured national press coverage raising the profile of outstanding care and of two of our most ‘senior’ colleagues, being the amazing Judi (80) and Vivienne (73), as part of National Older Workers Week.

We encouraged those looking for care and careers to ‘discover why we are different’ because we really feel that we are! Social care doesn’t always receive the praise or positive press that it deserves, and our goal has been to showcase the value of allowing time to provide truly relationship led care. We wanted to shine a spotlight on the dedication and diversity of our team, the career opportunities that social care can offer and to also demonstrate that our local community is a caring one where later life wellbeing really matters, by engaging with the public and local organisations.

For our team during this past year alone, we have formed our Walk & Talk group, Book Club, Social Committee and Menopause Meetups project, all with wellbeing in mind.

We have become the first West Country home care employer to make the ‘Age-Friendly Employer’ pledge and have committed to becoming a ‘Disability Confident Employer’ encouraging colleagues and future candidates to ‘Tell us what you need to succeed.’

We have introduced paid birthday leave for every team member and regarding menopause, with a predominantly female team, we know this subject really matters. So, we have brought this topic to the forefront of leadership discussions and as an employer, Owner/MD Vanessa McGlade has contributed articles to the Homecare Association Magazine (Sept 23), and participated as speaker at the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Conference 2023. Vanessa has also been invited to provide feedback to the Devon ICB regarding the provision of menopause related services in our region, which is a real privilege.

We are also extremely proud that currently, over 20 percent of our team are studying care sector qualifications, fully funded via our Personalised Career Pathways scheme. This encourages those that wish to specialise in areas of Dementia, End of Life or Parkinson’s disease or to simply develop their skillset in a supported way, to forward their local care career. You can find out more about this initiative HERE.

We congratulate our very worthy co-nominees for their own success and give sincere thanks to the Chamber of Commerce for a fantastic awards evening and for their ongoing work in connecting our local business community, which is invaluable. Click HERE for further information regarding this welcoming local business network.

If you would like to discover why we are different, don’t hesitate! Contact our Recruitment Team today on 01395 200600, take a look at our current opportunities HERE, or follow us on Facebook HERE for daily updates.