How gratitude can transform the social care workplace

We all appreciate the constant and painstaking efforts our social care workers go to ensure care is delivered to ensure we and our loved ones are kept safe and healthy. They work tirelessly, providing clinical and domiciliary care; often becoming part of the family helping to maintain the mental well-being of our nearest and dearest.

We know the social care sector is in the middle of the greatest crisis the sector has ever faced. Staffing levels are lower and set to be reduced even further. What can we do to ensure that the social care sector endures and survives into the future?

Attracting new workers to social care is something that is being addressed within the sector. Creating clear career paths, raising the profile of care workers and increasing wages are all part of the equation.

From the outside, it is important that we play our part, we can reduce staff turnover and make their working environment a better, more fulfilling and happier place through the power of gratitude.

By taking the time to thank these wonderful Unsung Heroes, even if it is after the event we can bring a smile to their faces. We can make sure that their efforts do not go unnoticed. Gratitude really does make a difference. If we can make gratitude part of our regular daily routine, we will spread smiles around the world and make it a more positive place.

We can go even further, expressing gratitude peer to peer, thanking our colleagues is an essential building block to creating a happy team. We can ensure that everyone feels valued if we continue to express gratitude. By building happy appreciative teams, we can help to reduce staff turnover, team members will be more reluctant to break up the bond that has been formed between the co-workers and no-one wants to leave a successful team.

In addition to reducing staff turnover we can use gratitude to add contentment and job satisfaction to the job description. We can make the social care sector more attractive to jobseekers; if they believe they will be joining a team which looks after its members, an environment that is both productive and supportive.

In these current troubled times, we have become even more aware of the role that these key workers play in our lives. We have become more appreciative, however we need to continue to keep gratitude at the forefront of our minds, and carry on spreading positivity, which will not only make our world a more positive place, it will also make the social care sector more enticing, and by attracting new employees and losing less members of our valued team, we can play our part in making sure our care sector not only survives, but thrives and prospers in the future.

You can listen to our latest TAP Social Care Radio Show here: https://soundcloud.com/thankandpraise/social-care-show-november-2021/