Staff development, incentives and retention; why Amber is a great employer.

Lauren Benbow.  April 2022.

Since opening its doors in 2014, Amber Family has always tried to ensure that they offer our families many opportunities to learn and grow with plenty of support.  We have seen so many lovely success stories of families leaving Amber and moving on to live independently as a family, taking with them lots of memories and new skills they have gathered from their time with us. The same level of support and encouragement is afforded to the staff team too. It is in everyone’s best interests for us all to feel supported, fulfilled and indeed, enthusiastic, at work.

The role of Amber is to complete an assessment of the parenting ability and how they have evidenced their capability. So, as a support worker at Amber Family, it is up to us to ensure that we are documenting and logging all occasions when this has been achieved or if there is ongoing support required.

Amber Family invest heavily in the development and upskilling of their staff to ensure they all feel confident and able. Working with some of our families can be quite daunting and there are never two families the same, which means that every working day at Amber is completely different! Therefore, being pretty adaptable and flexible in our approach is all part of the role. This is not always easy to explain to new staff until they have completed their first few shifts.

Everyone is offered the opportunity to complete an NVQ, minimum level 3, but a lot of our staff have opted for level 5. We have trained 4 current staff in baby massage & baby yoga and we have four staff currently undertaking Social Work degrees. We have a staff member completing their forensic psychologist’s training, as well as 3 staff training as domestic abuse Gateways practitioners. All of this is funded by Amber Family, and the opportunities are endless! We have training booked for the next few months of Safeguarding Officer Training, Mental Health First Aid and a Restorative Practice 5-day workshop. Investment in Amber’s staff team is one of the top priorities for the business.

Some of the incentives of working here include a Perkbox membership, where each week we are treated to a monthly cinema ticket, a cup of coffee from Nero or a sausage roll from Greggs. This also gives access to great discounts and features a recognition platform, where someone is recognised (and rewarded!) each week, on ‘Perkbox Friday’. This is coupled with cheeky little perks including …. free parking, a relaxed dress code, free tea and coffee, regular staff nights out and events like a treasure hunt or awards evening. Prizes at these events have included smart speakers, TVs, holidays and cold, hard cash! This all makes for a pretty great place to work.

We pride ourselves on a low staff turnover, with some of our current staff having been with the company since day 1! More often than not, we tend to recruit because the business is expanding, and not because of people leaving. All staff are given the option to have monthly supervision sessions where they can offload any thoughts and concerns, ideas or suggestions. We call these a ‘little chat’ and then once a year, there is a ‘big chat’ where it is discussed about future plans or aspirations within the business. We aim for this to go some way toward a happy workforce, where we take ideas on board, and deal with any concerns quickly, as we don’t want anyone feeling unhappy to come to work!

Our low turnover is a testament to the development opportunities and incentives that we offer. We asked a few staff recently what they enjoy most about their jobs and were met with responses such as ‘amazing team spirit’, ‘I enjoy how rewarding the job can be’, ‘I have found Amber a really happy and positive place to work’, ‘I think it’s really lovely working for a company that appreciates and treats their staff well. I look forward to coming to work each shift which is not something I’ve felt for a long time before starting at Amber’.

We may be biased, but we think that Amber is the best place to work, so why not drop us an email to see if we are recruiting? We are always interested to hear from potential future employees!