Care workers are some of the most important but also often vulnerable professionals in our society. With critical shortages in pretty much all areas, retention has become a concern for care industry employers across the board.
One of the most important things that employers can do in order to increase retention rates is to provide their workers with a safe, stable work environment. From actually effective risk assessments to ongoing support, these are a few key tactics to ensuring staff security in the care industry.
A comprehensive approach to risk assessment
To keep your staff safe, you first need to understand what it is that they need to be protected from. This can vary immensely across different care settings, and you need to make sure that your approach to risk assessment doesn’t become static, or assume that certain threats will be present while others will not.
Look at all sorts of risks, from violence and abuse from often volatile, vulnerable patients, to the risks associated with handling all sorts of chemicals and biohazards.
Have the care workers fill out their own risk assessments as well, to minimise the risk that anything is missed. While responsibility for risks might often ultimately fall on those who work in offices, it’s only people who spend their time engaged in actual care work that will know what’s going on.
PPE + training
In many cases, you’ll need to provide your staff with both PPE and ongoing access to safety training in order to protect them from a range of different threats.
Training can be on everything from safe sharps disposal and spill cleanups, to how to properly respond to incidents that they’re unable to deal with personally.
Training will need to be regularly repeated, and you need to make sure that it remains maximally relevant to the actual day-to-day roles your staff are carrying out.
Background checks
Due to the fact that background checks are a legal safeguarding requirement in most care settings, some employers just conduct them for the sake of it, overlooking their positive impact on staff security.
Using background check services like Personnel Checks does more than just pull up the odd criminal record. It helps to ensure that everyone in the workplace is properly qualified, hasn’t lied about their ability to operate as part of a care team, and won’t put their colleagues at risk.
Ongoing support
Lastly, employers need to make sure that they’re providing their care work staff with adequate support. That could include everything from access to mental health services to additional time off if staff have to cover excessive shifts and work overtime. This support could be critical to allowing staff to stay in the role in the long run, and it will be a lot cheaper than hiring agency staff.
Staff security in care work settings can be quite complex, and it’s not something that employers can afford to overlook. Make sure that you’re focusing on the issues that are actually present in your workplace, and repeat risk assessment and training processes as necessary.
