Card Services
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Services for Business
Care, Compassion
and Commercial Reality
Effectively Managing Your Workforce
Justine Norman, Employment Lawyer
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Key Employment Challenges
o A stringent monitoring and compliance
regime
o Safeguarding issues and the ensuing
suspension of staff, police involvement
and prolonged and complex discipline and
grievance issues.
o Absenteeism, stress related illness and of
course, compassion fatigue
o Recruitment, retention, and training
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How to deal with challenges
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What should your Rules cover?
o Timekeeping
o Absence
o Health and safety
o Care Quality Standards
o Discrimination, bullying and harassment
o Personal appearance
o The types of conduct that might be
considered as 'gross misconduct'
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When Rules are broken
o Don’t forget the power of a quiet word - this is often all that is
required to improve an employee’s conduct or performance.
o Where matters are more serious or where an informal
approach has been tried but is not working, a more formal
procedure may be needed.
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Precautionary Suspension
Incidents that may warrant Precautionary Suspension?
o Under the Influence of drink or drugs
o Violence
o Refusal to follow reasonable instructions
o Dishonesty
o Disregard for Health & Safety
o Criminal Charges
All Precautionary Suspensions are WITH pay.
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Disciplinary Procedure
There should be a disciplinary procedure which is understood and applied by all managers.
The procedure should provide for the minimum:
1. Informal warnings
2. Formal oral warnings
3. Written warnings
4. Suspension
5. Final written warnings.
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Fair Dismissal
o Incapability (skill, aptitude, health and
physical or mental qualities).
o Misconduct
o A legal factor which prevents the
employee from working
o Redundancy
o Retirement
o Some other substantial reason
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Unfair Dismissal
o The employer fails to show in
principal that the reason was one of
the above stated reasons
(substantively unfair)
o A constructive dismissal has taken
place
o The Employer has failed to follow a
fair procedure (procedurally unfair).
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Capability and Conduct
o Capability and conduct should be treated separately.
o It is important to recognise the difference between the two.
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Capability and Conduct
Capability or Culpability
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Capability (‘can’t’)
o Dismissal on grounds of capability will be
for one of three reasons:
o Lack of or loss of an essential qualification
to do the job
o Lack of ability or skill – this can be
repeated minor incompetence or one
serious act of incompetence (poor
performance)
o Lack of capability because of ill health.
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Conduct (‘wont’)
Examples of misconduct:
o Poor timekeeping
o Poor attendance
Examples of gross misconduct:
o Theft
o Fighting, abusive or intimidating behaviour
o Consumption of alcohol while on duty
o Serious breach of Care Quality
Commission Standards
o Your procedure must list the offences you
consider to be gross misconduct in your
organisation.
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Compassion Fatigue
o Compassion fatigue arises when the
burden of caring for others becomes too
much to handle.
o Left unchecked it can lead to increased
absenteeism, errors in judgment,
emotional numbness and difficulty
concentrating.
o Will show itself as either a capability or a
conduct issue
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Recruiting Carers - Practical Steps
o Partner with local community groups and Job centres.
o Encourage your management and leadership teams to network.
o Consider using a community web-based recruitment portal to link you
with local employees.
o Train your existing staff to promote your organisation. Make them “care
champions” who are ambassadors for you. Empowering your staff can
be a huge motivating tool.
o Manage expectations.
o Consider introducing employee referral schemes.
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Recruiting Carers - Practical Steps
o Get input from Service Users and relatives about what they consider
makes a good care worker.
o Assess them for behaviors and values rather than competencies.
- key behaviors : respect, understanding, empathy, kindness and teamwork.
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Motivating Carers
o Myth: the more you pay someone, the more satisfied they are in their
job
o Intrinsic Motivation: self generated factors that make people behave in
a particular way such as a feeling that work is important, having control
over own resources, autonomy (freedom to act) scope and use and
development of skills, interesting challenging work, opportunity to
develop.
o Extrinsic Motivation– includes rewards, increased pay, promotion, or
punishment, disciplinary action, withholding pay. (Extrinsic motivation
can have an immediate and powerful effect – but will not necessarily
last long).
o Make the most of every communication opportunity you have, to
engage, listen, motivate, give praise and provide positive and negative
feedback in a constructive way when required.
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Train your managers
o Regularly review and update Staff Handbooks; ensure managers are
familiar with your staff handbook and understand the reasons behind
your policies and procedures.
o Consider carrying out an annual HR review to identify problems that
keep recurring and areas where good solutions have been found.
o Two simple words will help you avoid a Tribunal : Fairness and
Consistency.
o Your Handbook is your bible. Your managers should be absolutely
familiar with it.
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Conclusion
o Care and Compassion and ensuring your
organisation has a commercial edge need
not be mutually exclusive.
o There are many challenges facing the
Care industry but actively managing your
workforce and investing in it, is not only
common sense but good business sense.
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Thank you
Questions
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