Why Investors in People matters at Precious Homes

Precious Homes is all about people. We do what we do to support people to achieve their goals – that includes our teams as well as the people that we support across the organisation.

Our current IIP Silver Accreditation is a symbol of our commitment to making Precious Homes a good place to work, investing in our people and processes to continuously improve the way that we work. We caught up with Founder Mitesh Dhanak and CEO Fergal Cawley to find out more about what IIP means to the team at Precious Homes.

It is our teams that make Precious Homes special. In my view, they are our biggest asset. Without their passion and commitment, we would never be able to support some of the most complex clients in social care.
Mitesh – Chairman & Founder

Why is IIP so important to Precious Homes and our teams?

Mitesh: It is our teams that make Precious Homes special. In my view, they are our biggest asset. Therefore it is incumbent on us to nurture, support and invest in them so that they can deliver a first-class service to our clients whilst growing professionally and progressing their careers.

Fergal: I couldn’t agree more. Our business is all about people and our team are at the centre of what we do. IIP is a standard that we can use to measure ourselves against. It gives us an external, expert view and benchmark to ensure we are looking after our teams well. But doing a good job isn’t enough, we want to be recognised as Platinum by doing great things for our people.

What impact has the accreditation had on the company to date?

Fergal: To date, the accreditation process has given us a Board level strategic aim: to do more and be better for our people. The accreditation process has a core focus on continuous improvement to make sure we create a culture that focuses on leading, supporting and improving to make Precious a great place to work.

Mitesh: As Fergal says, having the accreditation improves our internal processes and systems to ensure we are looking after our teams as effectively as possible. To gain the accreditation, we have to show a culture of trust and empowerment, of recognition, and of investing in people to create a better working environment – we therefore hope the IIP accreditation will help us to attract and retain team members.
 

The IIP slogan is “Make work better” – what are we doing to make work better for the teams at Precious Homes?

Mitesh: At a strategic level it’s in our vision statement that people are at the centre of what we do. Gaining and subsequently retaining the accreditation demonstrates that we value our team‘s views in decision-making around people management.

Fergal: Practically speaking, in the last year or so we have increased our level of communication, we have focused on wellbeing and mental health, and we have board members regularly visiting services and speaking with our people either individually or in team meetings to gather their feedback.

Our ultimate goal is to create a great place to work where we are doing wonderful things for and with our people. We want to create a reputation that attracts and retains the best talent in the sector.
Fergal – CEO

Why is IIP important to our stakeholders?

Mitesh: IIP helps us to demonstrate to local authorities, families and professionals we engage with that we are an organisation that has been through a rigorous process and have proven systems in place around people management. The fact that we’ve been audited by a third party using a rigorous set of criteria offers reassurance and builds trust.

Fergal: Absolutely, the fact that it is independent is key. As well as telling us how good a job we are doing looking after our people, it also helps our teams, service users, funders and others see how we compare to other providers.

What investments have been made in the IIP process?

Fergal: Our senior team has spent a significant amount of our time focussing on how we can use the IIP process as a means to capture/review/learn/tweak/improve in a continuous cycle. Following on from the last review and feedback surveys from our team we have enhanced our communications, our feedback mechanisms, our employee support tools and teams and our learning and development pathways. Making sure we are gathering and acting on employee feedback is vital to the process.

What are your aims for the future in terms of IIP?

Mitesh: Attaining the Platinum IIP accreditation!

Fergal: As Mitesh says, we aim to continue the IIP journey we started a few years ago, continue to invest in our team and processes, and progress to gaining the Platinum accreditation. Our ultimate goal is to create a great place to work where we are doing wonderful things and this reputation attracts and retains the best talent in the sector at Precious Homes.