Welcome to Kirsty Meets!
Each month I meet key stakeholders and business leaders in the social care sector. This month I met James McCloughlin, Head of Partnerships at Thank and Praise (TAP). I caught up with James to discuss workplace wellbeing and the power of gratitude.
So James, tell us a little about TAP – Thank and Praise?
TAP stands for ‘Thank And Praise’ and is a social thanking platform created in 2019 to enable the public to more easily show their appreciation to keyworkers.
Our mission is to make thanking the norm and to cancel a culture of complaining in order to make keyworkers feel more appreciated.
The well-being of keyworkers is of paramount importance and vital to the success of the social care sector however a survey by the Institute of Health and Social Care Management has revealed that 90% of care professionals don’t believe that they receive the recognition that they deserve.
Why is thanking so important?
Everyone who works for TAP are great believers in the power of gratitude. We know that thanking someone is a simple act and yet it can have a profound impact. It makes people feel good and increases feelings of self-esteem and wellbeing.
Gratitude itself is associated with higher levels of life satisfaction, lowering levels of depression and anxiety, supporting our perceptions of positive relationships and fostering a sense of social connectedness.
However, the positive effect of gratitude is relatively short-lived and for praise to have a long-lasting impact on staff well-being, it needs to be given regularly.
That’s why TAP was created, to make it easier to share messages of thanks, quickly, easily and securely with those people that deserve it.
How does TAP work?
TAP has been designed to make sending a message of thanks to a keyworker really simple and it takes just a minute to do this, whether you’re on TAP’s website or the TAP App.
Reassuringly all messages are moderated for positivity before being shared on our public-facing thanking walls for organisations like the National Association of Care and Support Workers, while TAP App users receive in-app notifications when organisations they follow have been thanked.
TAP’s brand-new app also features a wellbeing section containing feel-good articles, podcasts, videos and top tips designed to support the mental wellbeing of TAP’s community.
How effective is TAP?
TAP is designed to improve the wellbeing of keyworkers through the sharing of messages of thanks and access to a valuable resource of wellbeing content. So, I’m delighted to say that TAP user organisations have told us that when their staff are more regularly thanked, it’s resulted in improved job satisfaction, an enhanced sense of well-being and greater levels of resiliency. All of which support the retention and recruitment of keyworkers.
Paul Featherstone, Founder of National Association of Care and Support Workers gave us the following feedback: “It’s vital that our social care colleagues are properly recognised for the incredible work they do every single day and TAP is an ideal way to achieve this.”
Ensuring that staff feel both recognised and appreciated for the work they do has a positive effect on the way they feel which directly impacts on their mental health and well-being.
When staff are more regularly thanked, it’s resulted in improved job satisfaction, an enhanced sense of well-being and greater levels of resiliency – all of which support the retention and recruitment of keyworkers.”
And finally James, where can we find out a little more about TAP – Thank and Praise?
If you’d like to find out more about TAP, then please visit www.thankandpraise.co.uk where you can download the TAP App.
If you’d like your care organisation to benefit from having its own digital thanking wall, then please contact info@thankandpraise.co.uk
@TAPthankUK