Care Home Provider Brighterkind Wins At CIPD People Management Awards
Care home provider brighterkind wins award for HR/L&D team of the year at this year’s CIPD People Management Awards.
The CIPD People Management Awards celebrate and reward the outstanding achievements and contributions made by HR and L&D professionals.
Brighterkind has built an extensive Learning and Development (L&D) team and positive culture with substantial investment beginning in 2016. Key to its investment was the recruitment of more than 200 volunteers spread across all 70 brighterkind homes, self-titled ‘Pacesetters’. This team delivers key cultural messages in short, activity-based learning activities in each home. Activities include competitions and special events such as team breakfasts, quotes of the day and ‘team member of the month’ awards which help employees ‘Love Every Day’. This is a unique approach within the care sector which stands out for its fun and energetic approach.
The ‘Pacesetters’ volunteer programme has become a hive of support. Trainers regularly share training guides and stories from their learning events on a Facebook group. This has since been dubbed the most successful L&D initiative and has resulted in two pacesetters moving into L&D roles.
Since its implementation, annual team surveys have returned a 12 per cent increase in positive comments towards L&D while its employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) has increased from -3.6 in 2016 to 19.8 in 2018. Similarly, brighterkind’s Net Promoter Score went from 12.9 in 2016 to a “world-class” 50.01 in 2018.
Discussing brighterkind’s award presentation, the judging team commented, “We loved this – you could feel the passion. It hasn’t chased trends and instead has gone out and asked its workforce what it wanted – actively listening and empowering them. All of this was based on sound strategic thinking and closely aligned to business strategy.”
brighterkind encourages leadership training for all roles, which is delivered by the L&D team as well as internal and external experts. In the last two years, 80% of managers underwent specialist training.
The team is frequently rewarded for its positive work ethic. Previous celebrations include a trip to Legoland and award gala dinners. By looking after the team in this way, brighterkind ensures it provides extraordinary care for residents which leads to improved regulator ratings and occupancy levels.