The Comfort Keepers Carer of the Year event is coming up on 10th December. This is when we celebrate the work of all our professional carers and applaud those who go on to win awards. This is the third year for our Carer of the Year awards.
If you would like to learn more about our Carer of the Year awards event, how it is judged, how people are nominated and more, do read on.
1. How can carers enter the awards?
Carers don’t need to enter, the managers in each of our 17 offices nominate a carer from their office. Clients also have the opportunity to nominate a carer during their bi-annual client satisfaction survey and many of our clients do so. The 17 carers are then narrowed down to four, with one from each region which is a difficult task for the operations managers! The four regions are the Dublin offices, the Kildare and Ardee offices, the Limerick / Galway / Clare and North Tipperary offices, and the Wicklow and Cork offices. The 17 representatives have been announced and they are being judged at the moment.
2. What is the aim / mission of the awards?
The Comfort Keepers Carer of the Year awards aims to celebrate and reward our carers who are particularly excellent at their job.
3. Are all carers eligible to enter?
Yes, all carers are eligible to be selected.
4. What is the judging criteria? How can a carer demonstrate their ability to be ‘carer of the year’?
Carers are judged on measures such as their punctuality, their flexibility and helpfulness, their reliability at logging in electronically as they arrive and leave clients’ houses. We also take our clients’ feedback into consideration with the client satisifaction survey being an extremely important document. The public health nurse also provides feedback on each carer too. As you can see, there are many measures to be taken into account when identifying a representative from each office.
5. What does winning the awards mean for the carers – in terms of personal / professional development?
The winning care, as well as the runners up, benefit in terms of personal reward and professional development. Aside from the personal achievement, they each win a voucher. They can list it as an achievement on their curriculum vitae and they can develop their career to progress to a reviewer or mentor role.
6. Does it create huge excitement and buzz?
Yes, it does, we have 17 presentations, one in each of the offices. Sometimes they are featured in local newspapers and on local radio. It’s huge excitement for everyone – carers, managers and co-ordinators and of course, we have the big event in Dublin on the 10th December
We will bring you news of the winners and runners up after 10th December with a feature on each of them. If you have been thinking of becoming a carer for some time, what are you waiting for? Check out our vacancies and you never know, you may be nominated for the ‘carer of the year’ next year.
