Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1498223
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 30 APRIL 2023 11 11 COMMERCIAL two on sick leave is a no go for us and we need to replace, so finan- cial sustainability is a challenge. Personally, I think that the big- gest challenge we've faced these past few years is the coronavirus pandemic. CareMalta Group was the first company that decided to go into a lockdown. We were criticised for it, but soon after, everyone followed and we didn't decide to go into a lockdown just for the sake of it, it was scientifi- cally decided because that was the best way to get through it. During that period, we were very close to our staff and residents as well. The lockdown was an extended family for our residents, even though it was very tough as their relatives were away from them and they practically could not see them, only through an online platform. We stayed very close to them and we made ourselves available more than ever and I believe that that is how we managed to overcome it as a team. Another challenge is safety. We invest a lot of money - hundreds of thousands to safeguard both our residents and staff and as a group, we have our health and safety officer who continuously goes around our facilities training our people in case of incidents, fires, floods etc and how to deal with these circumstances. Your brand's characteristics include "Compassion, Engagement, and Professionalism". How do you feel CareMalta actively practices these in everyday operations? I must say that these three char- acteristics or values are part of what we call iCare. CareMalta Group, like any other business nowadays, employs persons from across the world. We have people from a wide range of nationalities, who all speak different languages and with different cultures but we speak one language at CareMalta Group and that is iCare. It's a service attitude, in which we train people on how to behave in our homes and facilities. Com- passion, practically, is recognising first and foremost that our resi- dents are valued. When you real- ise or recognise that our residents are vulnerable people and can be dealing with physical or mental/ emotional challenges like any oth- er person, you can train your staff to be compassionate. What does it mean to be compassionate? You need to empathise and practically respond to their needs with kind- ness and understanding. If you understand and be kind, you can respond to their needs. Engagement is critical in our sector because the staff needs to be engaged for our resident's mental and emotional well-be- ing. We organise a range of social events and activities and we en- courage our residents to partici- pate. Many activities nowadays are being attended by hundreds of residents. For Christmas, we organised a lunch and had 180 residents attend and during a sports day event, we had around 150 residents. So yes, they do par- ticipate and the staff help to or- ganise them and get them ready. We also encourage the families and friends to participate when- ever they can. Professionalism first and fore- most - we have to respect the res- ident's privacy and dignity – that is how we can be professional and maintain very critical confidenti- ality. We also have our profession- al codes of conduct and we expect our staff to adhere to the codes of conduct both of CareMalta Group and of Vassallo Group. We have a system of internal audits which are separate from the external ones in which we can grade our homes and give service awards based on the results they achieve. We distributed these awards in February and all of our homes reached gold or silver quality of service which shows a certain level of quality and profes- sionalism as well. We also ask for feedback from residents, relatives and staff so that we make sure we are meeting their needs and expectations. It's useless thinking that we are meeting their expecta- tions without even knowing what their expectations are. In the time you have been CEO, what strengths and weaknesses have you observed and how have you been able to improve and continue to successfully operate to ensure it is a rewarding and beneficial experience for the employees, residents, and families of those in your care? I'll start with the weaknesses because they are the easiest to speak about. Unfortunately, on a personal level and in business, the biggest weakness is staff turn- over. It doesn't mean that our staff is our weakness, the staff, is one of our strengths, but staff turnover is a weakness just like in any other business. As I said, we try to overcome it through con- tinuous training and by building a culture of continuous improve- ment, development and a culture of communication. We also com- pare our salary structures and try to be ahead of the market rather than just matching the market. Technology is another weak- ness as it has advanced rapidly, however, when it comes to this sector, I believe that it's not just faced by our company but also a nationwide challenge. Being that it's a service and that there is a human element, we tend to go away from technology. I must say, however, that this new ex- ecutive team is embracing in- novation completely and we are currently working on a fully dig- italised system. By the end of this year, we will start implementing full digitalisation in all of our pro- cesses. Will that mean that we will reduce the human element? No. Whatever we will automate, we will and whatever can be dig- italised, we will digitalise but the human element will remain there for sure. Another weakness is our residents' satisfaction, which is very subjective and I believe it must be a weakness and it has to remain a weakness because it does keep us on our toes to con- stantly improve our services. So yes, we do continue to seek and ask for feedback because that is the only way we will know how to improve our services. In terms of strengths, I must mention our high-quality care and as I said before, care is non-nego- tiable at CareMalta Group. We believe that if there is anything that can be negotiated when it comes to care, we do not negoti- ate. There's a good reputation of care at CareMalta so we expect staff to not tamper with our repu- tation. So that is definitely our big- gest strength. Additionally, the ex- perience that CareMalta obtains is another strength. Celebrating 30 years with hopefully another 30 to come, what are you most looking forward to for the company's future? I look forward to taking Care- Malta, which would be the first nursing home, into a fully digital- ised and automated system. That is one thing that is quite immi- nent now that we're starting to implement it. I also look forward to expanding our services and di- versifying even more. Through HILA, we already diversify our services so obviously, we are working even harder to continue diversifying and expanding hope- fully to Gozo. We are greatly working on main- taining the improvement of our staff retention be it through better financial packages, or non-finan- cial packages and by also offering career advancements to our staff and professional development. We also look forward to maybe one day, expanding overseas. I personally as James, want CareMalta Group stronger, healthier and bigger. Every CEO left CareMalta stronger and big- ger than the previous CEO. How- ever, I want CareMalta Group to continue changing and develop- ing for the better, always mindful of the residents, the relatives and our staff while also keeping in mind and at heart, our values. 30th anniversary