At Active Care Group, we place immense value on creating a workplace environment where every colleague feels safe, heard, and supported.
October was Speak Up Month, centred around the theme ‘Listen Up.’ Throughout the month we highlighted the power of listening and the essential role leaders have in encouraging colleagues to voice their thoughts and concerns. Leaders have been providing feedback on our colleague app ECHO on actions they have taken following suggestions or concerns raised by colleagues.
Our Freedom to Speak Up Guardian Davina Dorival has been visiting some of our services throughout October, meeting with colleagues to promote speaking up and encouraging managers to listen and follow up through workshops and training sessions. Davina says “This inspires confidence in our colleagues that their voices are being heard and it also promotes inclusion and an open culture.”
Our services have also been #WearingItGreen on Wednesdays in support of Speak Up month.
Over the past year, our commitment to Speak Up has been unwavering, and the results of our 2024 colleague engagement survey reflect the positive strides we’ve made. An impressive 90% of our colleagues reported knowing how to speak up if they encounter something concerning or upsetting. This is a wonderful achievement, showcasing our collective effort to develop greater psychological safety in our workplace where colleague feel confident to speak up.
For speaking up to grow further in a business, both leadership and team members must be well-informed about the process, its benefits, possible challenges, and available support. A shared understanding of the positive impact that speaking up can have on our organisation is vital.
To support this, we’ve launched several initiatives, including Speak Up and Closed Culture training sessions, Active Care Group inductions for new hires, and a feedback system for managers to gather suggestions for improvement. These efforts have greatly strengthened our practices, boosted confidence in speaking up, and improved our overall process. We still have work to do to develop our speak up culture which includes having Speak Up Champions across our divisions.
Some of our colleagues took part in creating a brand-new Closed Culture video. The video aims to provide examples to our colleagues of what a closed culture is. It raises awareness of the signs to look out for and explains what you should do if you see these signs.
We thank all of our colleagues who have taken part in Speak Up Month and continue to work on making ACG a workplace which makes Speaking Up Business as usual.
