Seeing the rewards

Seeing the rewards: The People strategy making an impact at Maria Mallaband Care Group

Maria Mallaband Care Group (MMCG) has developed and implemented a new recruitment and retention strategy, making impactful changes in every area. We speak to Susan Jones, Chief People Officer and Farouk Mangera, MMCG Director of HR Operations, about what they’ve done and the difference it’s making.

Following the pandemic, and the company’s 25 anniversary year, Maria Mallaband Care Group took time to review and reset its strategy, focusing on core values and purpose. At the helm was Susan Jones, who joined the company as Chief People Officer two years ago to develop the strategy and drive colleague engagement and retention, joined shortly afterwards by Farouk Mangera, MMCG Director of HR Operations.

Their work has focussed on five core areas: Talent attraction, Learning and Development, Reward and Recognition, Internal Communications, and Colleague engagement.

Explains Susan Jones: “Our ultimate aim is to make MMCG a great place to work. To do that, we took a step back to review the whole life cycle of our colleagues. How do we attract people into the organisation? And support them when they arrive? How do we engage them with the benefits? And support their development? And look after them through their lifecycle as a colleague, including maternity leave, illness, family life? How do we value them throughout? Those questions led us on a journey of change over the past 12 months.”

The changes made are already yielding big results, including a 10% net increase in the workforce and a reduction in the attrition rate of almost 15%, with clear benefits for the standards of care offered in homes.

Talent attraction

Recruitment has traditionally been quite challenging in social care, so MMCG has worked on talent attraction locally, and an oversees recruitment programme, which has successfully attracted 100s nurses to the UK over the past two years. MMCG offers all overseas recruits wraparound support to guide them through the necessary assessments to get their UK pin, and pastoral support to make sure they settle in well. In the UK, talent attraction has included bringing recruitment in house to improve the candidate experience and making the application process more efficient. Even greater flexible working has been another focus over the past year, including a new pilot scheme for new hires which invited them to come to the recruitment process with the hours they want to work in mind, with each home working to accommodate them if possible.

Explains Susan: “We are carving a new path here, focussed on meeting the needs of our colleagues, and in doing so we have opened up a care home career to many more people with a wealth of passion and talents to offer.”

Learning and Development

Learning and development is another key area of focus and investment. “We’re really proud of our house development programme,” explained Susan. “A particular success story has been the group’s Trainee Nursing Associate programme, which has grown every year since it began in 2019.

“That is part of a wider offer of apprenticeships starting at Level 2 and going all the way up to master’s degree level."

There is also the Care Practitioners programme, an internal CPD programme which develops care practitioners who can bridge the gap between Senior Carers and Nurses, and the ‘Future Leaders’ programme, created with department heads and managers in mind.

And last year purpose-built ‘Maria’s Training Suite’ was opened at the group’s Leeds headquarters to provide a learning and development hub for teams across the estate, including for ‘Induction for All’ session for all new starters.

Rewards and benefits

Making rewards and benefits more relevant, more engaging and more generous has been an important piece of the puzzle for Susan and Farouk. They began with a new tailored rewards platform, available through the colleague hub, offering a suite of discounts for colleagues across a range of retail, leisure and hospitality providers, alongside a host of new resources.

Explained Farouk Mangera: “We’ve introduced a range of webinars and guidance around physical, mental and financial health – we’ve really tried to focus on wellbeing across the board.”

Another key area has been in the employee assistance programme, delivered in partnership with healthcare insurance company Simply Health, adds Farouk: “We’ve invested heavily to improve the Simply Health offer – a completely free benefit for all colleagues - upgrading the level of cover for every single colleague, including our new starters.

“It makes a difference to the key health costs, like the optician, the dentist, the physiotherapist, as well as offering 24-hour virtual GP service and a counselling service.

“And we now include any dependents living with the employee up to the age of 24. We wanted to take account of what’s going on beyond and behind our colleagues – their children and dependents, their day-to-day cost of living - because if we can help them with those things, we can improve their overall wellbeing.”

MMCG will be introducing from April 2023 enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption leave, well beyond the statutory payment rates.

As well as boosting the existing offer, MMCG has brought in some brand-new rewards such as a salary sacrifice car lease scheme and a ‘Cycle 2 Work’ bike scheme. Set to launch in April are new Long Service Awards, which see colleagues rewarded after their 5th year, and for every five years’ additional service, with a certificate, a cash voucher and an extra one-off day off.

Adds Susan: “Celebrating colleagues’ contributions is something we’re always keen to do, whether that’s through our annual MMCG Awards or our celebrations for International Nurses Day and our own internal Carers Day.

“The Long Service Awards are another great way to recognise team members and reward their commitment and experience.”

Teaming up with health insurance provider BHSF (Birmingham Hospital Saturday Fund) MMCG is also offering new benefits, including access to affordable life assurance, accident cover and cancer cover. There is also subsidised sick pay insurance, with MMCG covering half the monthly premiums.

In addition, MMCG has introduced a welcome bonus of up to £1500 for some homes, and a ‘refer a friend’ scheme which could see recipients gaining up to £1500, along with EarlyPay, which gives staff the option to access some of their salary ahead of payday.

Internal Communications and colleague engagement

The final thread in the strategy has been improving communication and engagement with current colleagues, sharing positive news, activities and success stories through regular newsletter and social media platforms, as well as running internal competitions, often celebrating special events in the home, for example with themed displays and festive cake challenges.

The HR team also regularly gathers views and experiences from colleagues through focus groups and the new annual colleague engagement survey launched last year.

Said Farouk: “The information and feedback we’re gathering is invaluable in helping us understand what’s going really well, and where any challenges still are, so we can further improve the experience of colleagues, and ensure they’re thriving and want to stay with us throughout their careers.

“And we have many more exciting initiatives coming through – we’re exploring new benefits, new learning opportunities, and providing more tools and resources to support line managers to become great people managers.”

Added Susan: “We are so proud to be part of MMCG and to lead this work, which has been incredibly well supported and funded throughout.

“As a Leadership team we are striving to create the right environment and culture so that everyone can thrive and excel. We want MMCG to be a place where everyone can be the best version of themselves – because when that is the case, that is when we deliver the best possible care, which is absolutely our core mission at all times.

“This process is an ongoing journey, but with the result we have so far, we’re confident that we’re winning hearts and minds, and we will continue to ensure our colleagues really believe that this is a great place to work.”

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