Home Opinion A passion for putting people first – Gemma Howells, Head of People & Culture, M&D Care

A passion for putting people first – Gemma Howells, Head of People & Culture, M&D Care

by Kirsty Kirsty

At M&D Care we are committed to the continuous improvement of its people and understands the essential need to be innovative in its approach to how the company recruits and retains its staff.

I was drawn to M&D Care by their passion for people and focus for providing exceptional care and support. Since joining the company in 2020, we have worked tirelessly to transform this critical area of the business. Championing employee engagement and helping shape and promote our company’s core values, whilst delivering innovative talent acquisition. Towards the end of 2021 we re-aligned the company structure to better fit our long term vision, expanding the remit of the People and Culture team to enhance performance in key areas, notably within recruitment and retention.

Since the inception of M&D Care in 2007, the company has learnt what is important to its staff, the people supported, families and commissioners, which has only deepened its commitment to making a difference. The people we support are at the heart of what we do and our aim is to provide specialist support and understanding in order for them to get the very best out of every day. To make this happen, we need employees who are share our values and who are willing to learn and develop, show enthusiasm and compassion with a commitment to delivering outstanding care.

An integral part of our people-first culture is treating people with respect and ensuring everyone has a sense of belonging. Placing people at the heart of everything we do is essential, but also listening and hearing their voices is vital. It’s imperative that we are passionate about the culture of our business and remain innovative in our approach. It’s this passion that inspires others and enables us to embrace our values and ensure they permeate through the core of all that we do.

During the challenging and unprecedented times of the pandemic, the care sector, and its workers have shone under a much welcomed spotlight, demonstrating outstanding dedication and capacity of innovation, inspiring us to further invest in the retention of our workers. We also used the opportunity to raise awareness of working in this great sector and attract those with no experience, whom may not have considered a career in care before. As well as getting involved in national career campaigns, M&D Care created its own dedicated value based ‘new to care’ campaign. The campaign was hugely successful and we believe our workforce has been enriched because of it. Our employees are a diverse, inclusive and talented team of individuals with varying skills, who share the same goal to make a difference to the lives of the most vulnerable people within our communities.

We always feel extremely privileged for the role we play in making a difference for those we support and helping to shape individual career journeys for our employees. We are exceptionally proud of our recent recognition as the National Learning Disability & Autism awards, winning the Employer of Year award. It’s been fantastic to see everyone’s hard work being recognised on such a large platform.

In the words of the LDA award judges: “M&D Care have adopted an ethos of valuing, retaining and developing staff, to provide person centred care and support. Despite the recent challenges for the sector, they have adopted innovative ways to nurture growth and develop the business.”

M&D Care is dedicated to ensuring that the voices of its employees and the people supported are heard and will continue to showcase the amazing contributions support workers make to the lives of the most vulnerable people in our communities.

Image depicts Gemma Howells, Head of People & Culture, M&D Care

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