30 Jan 2023

Announcing our HR Agony Aunt

Submit your most pressing HR questions to our very own agony aunt Sonia Rai, founder and director of Nectar HR, to get valuable free advice.

Human resources, or people management, is one of the most important factors in a care home’s success. Strong processes help you to attract and retain good staff, protect your residents, and be confident you’ll get a good rating when the CQC knock on the door.

But HR can be overlooked due to a lack of time and resource. Ultimately, this makes it harder to hire the right people, costs you money due to high turnover, and even leaves you at risk of breaking the law.

HR can be a sensitive topic, so we have partnered with Sonia Rai, founder and director of Nectar HR, to launch an anonymous HR Agony Aunt column. Sonia is a leading HR advisor with lots of experience in the care sector, and you can ask her advice for free! Just click here to submit your anonymous questions.

According to Sonia, some of the biggest issues in care settings include staff contracts that are not fit for purpose and “won’t stand up in a tribunal”, as well as a lack of consistency in hiring standards. Without a formal scoring process, care homes open themselves up to claims of discrimination.

Sonia is a leading HR advisor with lots of experience in the care sector, and you can ask her advice for free!

Another obvious problem is the recruitment crisis, meaning that managers are desperate to hire enough staff. Unfortunately, this desperation can put people off joining a home – and not only that, but when they do, the onboarding processes could often be more welcoming. Investing some time in onboarding staff properly and making them feel valued can have a big impact on retention. “A lot of providers in social care are missing a trick by missing that human bit”, says Sonia.

If you have questions about recruitment, retention, ensuring you’re operating legally, or any other HR topics, submit your questions here and we’ll publish the answers on this site.

And while you’re at it, book your free ticket to join us at NEC Birmingham on 30 June – 01 July! Sonia will be speaking on a brilliant HR panel with Neil Eastwood of Care Friends, and speakers from the Better Hiring Institute, discussing pressing HR issues including: