Member Article

Leaders of Europe’s largest care provider take on grassroots roles as part of leadership initiative

The leaders of Korian Group, Europe’s largest provider of home care for the elderly, together with their UK colleagues took part in a new initiative this week aimed at improving understanding between care home staff and the group’s senior leaders.

The ‘Day in the Life of’ care leadership initiative saw senior executives from Korian join forces with colleagues from Korian’s UK subsidiary, Berkley Care Group take on a series of roles among Berkley’s portfolio of eight luxury care homes. Roles ranged from care, catering, maintenance and activities.

The scheme is aimed at ensuring staff at Berkley’s head office have a full understanding of exactly what it takes to provide high quality care across Berkley’s portfolio of homes.

Leading the Korian team were Charles-Antoine Pinel, Korian’s CEO of new business and strategy and Cyril Gros, Senior Procurement Manager. They were joined by Andrew Winstanley, Chief Executive of Berkley Care Group and other head office staff.

Charles-Antoine spent the day as sous chef working in Reading-based Shinfield View’s kitchen, while Cyril was assigned to the home’s laundry and cleaning team. Andrew Winstanley meanwhile spent the day repairing bathroom facilities at Berkley’s Leycester House care home in Warwick. He was joined by Berkley’s HR advisor Laurence Feather, and PA to the CEO, Vanessa Aldridge, in getting to grips with the day-to-day running of the home, spending time with the home’s bar and bistro staff, and the home’s senior care team, who deliver high quality care to residents with a variety needs, including those requiring specialist dementia care.

Commenting on the initiative, Berkley Care Group’s CEO, Andrew Winstanley, said:

“This initiative has served only to reaffirm how proud I am to lead such a brilliant group. It is vital that those of us leading Berkley Care Group as it grows know what it’s like to live and work in our homes. Whilst we regularly visit our homes, we don’t always get first-hand experience of the vital roles that are integral to our group’s continued success.

“There is no better way to understand what it’s like to work as a carer, bistro assistant, or as part of the maintenance team than to spend a day working alongside them. I’m grateful to the team at Leycester House for welcoming Laurence, Vanessa and me into their ranks, knocking us into shape, and showing us what it takes to deliver the outstanding levels of care we aim to provide throughout our portfolio.

We’ve also been delighted to receive the support of Korian for the initiative. We’re grateful for the opportunity to be able to welcome Charles-Antoine and Cyril into the group’s homes and show them just how much effort goes into running our homes to such a high standard.“

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Beatrice Irvine .