Home care providers listed on Sunday Times 100 'Best Companies' league table

The Sunday Times Best Companies league table has recognised home care providers SweetTree Home Care Services and Home Instead Senior Care as some of the country’s top employers.

SweetTree Home Care Services, a domiciliary care provider, has been ranked 35th on the list of 100 Best Companies, beating off stiff competition from over 1,000 businesses and organisations that were put forward for this year’s list.

Home Instead's Warrington based national office ranked 56th place in the 100 Best Small Companies category.

Best Companies chief executive officer and founder, Jonathan Austin, said: “I would like to congratulate SweetTree and Home Instead on their outstanding achievements. We know that the main challenge for many organisations this year will be talent attraction and retention.

“For organisations like SweetTree that have demonstrated their ability to create an engaged workforce and recognise the importance of caring about their employees, they are in a good position to retain and attract the talent they need.”

The rankings are based on a range of factors including: employee feedback, leadership and management, well-being, personal growth, pay and benefits.

SweetTree ranked second for its training programmes

SweetTree’s employees highly rated the way the company supports their own growth. Of all the organisations listed, the company was ranked second overall for training.

With offices in central London and Richmond, SweetTree provides support at home for individuals with a wide range of care needs. Services include: care for those experiencing age related frailty and more specialist programmes for those with dementia, mental health related illness, learning disabilities, brain injuries, neurological conditions and palliative care needs.

Demand for the company’s specialist services has seen its team increase in excess of 500 employees, including care workers, support workers and office-based staff.

Placing great emphasis on training, the company was the first home care provider in the UK to achieve a highly regarded AIM Awards Quality Mark for its in-house training programmes. It has also been recognised as an Investors in People Gold Standard company.

Barry Sweetbaum, SweetTree’s managing director, commented: “We’re incredible proud to be ranked so highly within the Sunday Times Best Companies league table. Since the company was founded in 2002 we have focused on providing the highest quality care possible for all our clients. At the heart of this has been a commitment to recruiting the best care workers, who are skilled and passionate about what they do.”

Michael Beresford, SweetTree’s learning and development manager, added: “It was fantastic to see that team members really value the training programmes we provide at SweetTree, seeing us ranked second overall for training. As a company, we continue to invest heavily in the ongoing development of all team members through the SweetTree Training Academy.”

Home Instead Senior Care praised for open culture and family feel

Furthermore, Home Instead Senior Care is the only homecare provider to feature in the Sunday Times Top 100 Small Companies list, after receiving praise for the ‘open culture and family feel’ at its national office.

Established by husband and wife entrepreneurs Trevor and Sam Brocklebank, Home Instead is home to the company’s nine-strong senior leadership team, alongside a team of experts that support 175 franchise offices across the country.

Home Instead Senior Care participated in this year’s Best Companies Survey, with scores that placed the provider in the three star tier in the accreditation scheme.

The ranking derives from Home Instead’s report, which highlights that 91 per cent of employees believe the firm makes a difference to their lives as well as service users, while 86 per cent said that working for the provider ‘is anything but boring’.

Employees also revealed that the job provides valuable experience for the future, deadlines are realistic and they do not think they spend too much time working.

Alongside monthly catch-ups to see how employees are getting on, a manager is always on call and people can raise any concerns through the carers' discussion forum.

Around half of Home Instead’s 111 employees are aged over 45, with the majority having cared for relatives or friends in the past, before turning to care as a profession.

Trevor Brocklebank, chief executive of Home Instead Senior Care, said: “We couldn’t deliver excellence in homecare without having excellence in the workplace. Successful companies demonstrate that they value, respect and empower their employees every day.”

A total of 241,361 employees filled out questionnaires for this year’s Sunday Times lists. For more information on the list go to: http://appointments.thesundaytimes.co.uk/article/best100companies/