News: Performance Management
Survey: Most care workers feel unappreciated
14 January 2008
A new survey has found that many care workers feel unappreciated.
The study of care workers in England by workforce development agency Skills for Care found that they are overwhelmingly happy in their jobs, but more than half do not think their work is appreciated by the general public.
In fact, only 39 per cent felt that their hard work was appreciated.
"The fact that a sizeable majority of the one million people who work in social care in England feel their work is undervalued reinforces the problems we have in making sure their work with some of the most vulnerable people in our society is properly recognised by the general public," said Skills for Care chairman Donald Hoodless.
"We are going to need more and more care workers to meet the needs of an aging population and the general public's negative view of care work means it will be difficult for the sector to recruit people returning to work or young people to replace those staff."
One tried and tested way to monitor how workers feel about their jobs is to ensure that the proper performance management training is offered. If workers have regular review meetings with managers they can air their grievances.
