Staff Matters March 8, 2019 Issue 195 Week 36
CARING ABOUT OUR STAFF
OUR SUPERSTARS POSE FOR YARRA TRAMS SHOOT On Wednesday, 27 February our Minchinbury Head Office was transformed into a photo studio! Our clients and residents came from across Sydney Day Programs, Group Homes and SLES sites to be part of our photo shoot for Yarra Trams.
In This Issue 1
Nine clients, residents and SLES trainees came together at Minchinbury to have their photo taken by a professional photographer and to become the stars of our Yarra Trams Community Partnership Program campaign.
Joke of The Week
2
Award Your Business
3
Ready Set Connect Networking
As part of the campaign, we have the unique opportunity to decorate an entire tram with all the vibrant colours, designs and people that make up Afford. Toby, Bruce, Mark, Daryl, Andrew and Lisa from Group Homes, Annaliese and Jarrod from SLES, and Glenn from Mt Druitt Day Program are the stars of our campaign. Their images will be splashed across one of Melbourne's iconic trams in the coming months.
Our Superstars Pose For Yarra Trams Shoot
Central East's Customer Service Awards
New Appointments
4
Reinvesting For Growth Upcoming Events Selfies of The Week
The photo shoot itself took around three hours and included our stars having their photo taken in front of a green screen. We were lucky enough to have Elise from Face Artistry By Elise volunteer her time and amazing make-up skills for our clients on the day, to ensure their star quality shone through. Everyone looked bright and colourful with their Afford polo shirts and hats and their excitement just couldn't be contained! There were smiles all around as everyone realised that their photos would be part of a significant promotion for Afford in Melbourne. Huge thanks to the Marketing Team, for coordinating the photo shoot and all the elements for the day. We're all so excited to see the finished results and to see our clients and Afford brand travelling the tram rails for all to see in Melbourne very soon!
REMINDER
Don’t forget to send your clients’ achievements, good news stories and photos to Marketing@afford.com.au
www.afford.com.au
Staff Matters
STAFF PROFILE NAME: Riana King POSITION: Lifestyle Assistant LOCATION: Ashfield Day Program FAVOURITE SONG? Just Kissed My Baby - The Meters FAVOURITE MOVIE? Amelie FAVOURITE HOBBIES? Drawing, painting, cooking, reading, hiking, camping & gardening FAVOURITE FOODS? Roasted cauliflower, spicy beans, guacamole with pineapple IF YOU COULD BE AN ANIMAL WHAT WOULD YOU BE? A cat WHAT IS YOUR DREAM HOLIDAY DESTINATION? Canada IF YOU HAD THE POWER WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE ABOUT THE WORLD? If I could I would gift everyone with deep empathy for others, animals and the planet IF YOU HAD TO TEACH SOMETHING WHAT WOULD YOU TEACH? I would teach patience SOMETHING NO ONE KNOWS ABOUT ME? I did Highland dancing for 10 years
March 8, 2019 Issue 195
AWARD YOUR BUSINESS
The start of Sydney's Local Business Awards season has begun! After months of refreshing, renewing and re-energising your sites and teams, now is the time to be recognised by the community for all your hard work. Visit www.thebusinessawards. com.au to find out the deadlines for nominations and voting for your region. Awards are a great way to be recognised for the effort that you put into your business to make it stand out above the rest. Being a finalist or winning an award offers great marketing opportunities for your business. Even if you don't win, the awards provide you with an opportunity to assess your business and how you can improve. Jump online now and nominate your business. Contact marketing@afford.com.au to discuss how you can best leverage your nomination and get the most votes!
CENTRAL EAST'S CUSTOMER SERVICE AWARDS
Huge congratulations to our recent Customer Service Award winners! It is so refreshing to hear such positive feedback about each nominee and their commitment to their role at Afford. 1st Place – Darong Kol, Guildford Darong always has a ‘can do’ attitude. Arrives to work with a smile on his face and leaves work even happier which positively affects all the staff and clients. He is the first person on-site to greet parents during client drop-off and the clients are drawn to his happy outgoing personality. 2nd Place – Chonlaros (Bow) Seephoo, Ashfield
P EM
OF
LOYER
CHOICE
Bow does amazing work whenever there is something food related at the site. She coordinates all the food shopping, cooking program and BBQ program. In addition, she fills in for SLA when she is absent. Bow is an exemplary model of customer service, greeting all care givers and clients with a big smile every morning. She is a walking encyclopedia of client’s dietary needs, and has great rapport with many of our clients. Bow contributes to an overall better atmosphere for our clients 3rd Place – Emma Hunter, District Manager Emma personally provides support for her teams and she is always there to help anyone. She has supported QLD North overcome some little challenges and supported the Canley Vale team. Congratulation to all award winners! We are all proud of all that you achieve and your efforts inspire us all to step up and push harder to deliver excellence.
www.afford.com.au
March 8, 2019 Issue 195
Staff Matters READY SET CONNECT NETWORKING
Afford staff in Sydney and Melbourne recently attended Ready-Set-Connect networking events in their local regions. Melbourne Customer Care Manager, Kellie Carrathurs, attended the networking event held in Broadmeadows in Melbourne and Business Development Officers Dunya Lazar and Lilly Devi, attended the Liverpool event. The Ready-Set-Connect networking events are run by One Community to provide attendees with opportunities to meet with representatives from a range of NDIS products and services and make some direct contacts to benefit clients. For Kellie, the networking event was a great opportunity to extend Afford's networks and increase Afford's presence in Melbourne's West. It was positive to hear that many representatives are already aware of Afford services in Melbourne. At the event, Kellie was able to identify with the needs of the local communities of Melbourne's West and develop networks to reach more clients with Afford supports. She made great connections with providers such as Hit100 which provides meals for clients and more. At the Liverpool event, Lilly and Dunya were overwhelmed with the response they received! From the moment they started meeting with providers through to the time they left, they were bombarded with praise for Afford. Those that they met with referred to Afford as the 'world number one provider'! All were very keen to work with Afford and commented that wherever you go you see Afford's beautiful coloured vans everywhere. There was also mention that our Lifestyle Assistants and clients have been noticed out and about in the community and that they are 'so happy, so involved and it looks like they really care about their clients.' Strong relationships were made with Local Area Coordinators and new services to benefit our clients were discovered. Networking is such a powerful tool to support us to evolve and develop our services for clients, particularly in the current NDIS environment
New Appointments We would like to congratulate the following Affordians on their new appointment: • Anna Kaleva – Warehouse Supervisor, Ingleburn • Ljubica Sudar – DES Team Leader, Liverpool • Kajal Odhavji – Occupational Therapist, Melbourne • Belinda Smith – Acting Team Leader, Lurnea
• Rayan El-Baf – DES Consultant, Liverpool • Katherine Parnell – Support Coordinator, Melbourne • Marica Calleja – Acting Senior Lifestyle Assistant, Mt Druitt • Rawvell Miraflor - Receptionist, Minchinbury Head Office • Kimberley Reynard – Speech Pathologist, Queensland • Maureen Brown – National Training & Engagement Manager • Nicole Luland – Recruitment Manager
www.afford.com.au
Staff Matters
March 8, 2019 Issue 195
REINVESTING FOR GROWTH At the recent Manager's Conference in Queensland, Executive Manager of Commercial Development, Christina Emmanouel launched Afford's Reinvestment Program. This program is designed to give you - our valued staff - an insight into the various programs, services, facilities and partnerships that the organisations invests into, to create greater opportunities for our clients and our employees. As a commercially viable not-for-profit, we are in a strong financial position to be able to grow and expand. We have reinvested around $24 million into our services for the expansion of our Group homes portfolio across Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria; a greater focus on the Afford Lifestyle through group homes, Club Afford and Afford Getaways initiatives; and to ensure the continuity of supports for clients from smaller organisations, such as WALCA, Norma Parker Respite and now Redland Respite Care. We are investing in implementing robust training opportunities for our staff when other providers simply don't have the funds to place this great emphasis on driving employee excellence. We are delivering Employer of Choice initiatives such as Afford Rewards and we're able to give back to our staff in recognition of how much we value your commitment to Afford and our clients. With person-centeredness a main focus under the NDIS, we have invested in expanding our vehicle fleet to ensure that every client has the opportunity to enjoy being active in their local community. Our partnerships with the Hawthorn Hawks and Wests Tigers is another way that we are thinking outside-of-the-box to invest in programs that will deliver new life experiences and opportunities for our clients. Afford's Reinvestment Program is crucial in growing our services and supports to ensure we remain competitive in this modern era of the NDIS, while still giving back to our communities and fullfiling our mission.
Reminder!
Manager or DES Manager • If your line manager does not answer your call, leave a message and then call back 10 minutes later
RED ALERTS Reporting Procedure:
• If you cannot get in contact with your line manager, contact any other District Manager
• RED ALERTS include incidents involving death, assault, medication, concern for welfare, missing person, motor vehicle, financial, slips or trips, life threatening or Ombudsman/NDIS Commission reportable incidents
• Refer to your 'Reporting Red Alerts' poster available to all staff on the intranet
Please remember our duty of care for our clients.
• Report RED ALERTS to your District Manager, Factory
SELFIES OF THE WEEK
UPCOMING EVENTS DATE:
EVENT:
1-31
National Epilepsy Month
3-11 March
National Parks Week
13-17 March World's Greatest Shave 15 March
National Day Against Bullying
16-24 March Cultural Diversity Week rah & Tim Selfie Above: Sa the money!! us (Finance) show
Pawsome Se lfie Above: Tasnim Sandford w ith fur bab y, Pearl.
17 March
St Patrick's Day
www.afford.com.au