Our Chief Executive Officer Joanne Balmer shares what the new Mission, Vision and Values mean to her

For me, the mission & vision are a constant reminder of why we do what we do each day.

When we change or implement new things, I always reflect on how that change will help us deliver our mission better and achieve our vision sooner. It helps me to prioritise and focus our efforts and resources to things that matter most. It also helps me when I set team goals and objectives annually for our business plan.

I am proud that our mission, vision and values were developed by our team. It was very important to me that we didn’t try and implement a top down approach to developing them. We had such great input and ideas but most importantly a lot of commonality which meant it was easier for us to identify the key words and values that people felt were important.

Family

The most common was ‘Family’ and so it feels right that this is our very first value. I have worked in both small and large care organisations in the past and working in a small company does not always mean that it will feel as connected as I feel we are at Oakland.

There is a very different culture here, one where I feel people genuinely care about each other and want people to succeed. People are very friendly, welcoming, supportive and are keen to work together to help each other out.

Integrity

Our second value, Integrity – being trustworthy & transparent is also very important to me. I have always believed in people doing what they say they will do. In my work life this means delivering work on time because if I don’t, it will hold other people’s work up. It means being honest and providing constructive feedback to people.

On transparency, it means holding our hands up when things go wrong and being honest about how we might have done things better. This is very important if we receive complaints where honesty, a meaningful apology and dedication to improve is always the best approach.

Respect

Our third value is Respect. We respect each other and treat people with dignity. Those are the things that make us a family, celebrating the good things together and supporting each other through the tough times.

Exceptional

Finally, exceeding expectations! – Going the extra mile is something I see our team doing daily. I see wonderful stories from all the homes and sometimes receive letters from relatives out of the blue with praise for our team.

Celebrating success is key to providing recognition to people and helping to grow our culture. I like to do this by writing letters to people who have gone above and beyond, recognising dedication of service with long service awards, celebrating achievements on social media and celebrating success formally through awards.

This year we have been shortlisted in 3 prestigious LaingBuisson Awards, a Knight Frank Award and we have yet to receive the shortlist for the National Care Awards which are all fantastic achievements and a credit to our teams.

Take a look at our new organisation Mission, Vision and Values below: