At Excelcare, there are many opportunities for team members to learn and progress, gaining new roles and opportunities. Here is the story of Aditee Naik, and her journey from part-time Receptionist to Home Manager.
Aditee joined the Excelcare family as a part-time Receptionist for Windmill Lodge Care Home in London. At the beginning, she mostly covered reception over the weekends, but this soon extended to weekday cover as she stepped up to cover team members’ maternity and emergency leave. She says “I was very lucky and thankful that I had even the part time hours as it was just after the 2008 recession and there weren’t too many jobs going around.”
Aditee felt at home at Excelcare right from the start, citing the “unquestionable positive energy and resilience embedded in the Excelcare culture, with residents being at the centre of everything they do” as one of her favourite things about coming to work. She also loves “The enthusiasm to learn from lessons and change for the better”, and this has shown strongly throughout her time here. The more shifts that Aditee took on, the more the team at the home noticed her can-do attitude and exemplary work. Over time, more administrative duties and responsibilities were passed onto her, and her title was soon changed to Administrative Assistant.
In late 2011, a new position of Business Manager opened up at Peartree Care Home in London, and Aditee readily applied. After a series of interviews, concluding with a final interview with the CEO and Head of Care, Aditee was offered the job, and started her new role in early 2012.
During her time as Business Manager, Aditee took on many new and important responsibilities. One of the moments she remembers most vividly is when she was temporarily in charge of London Regional Recruitment. This included sourcing and interviewing nurses and carers for all of the care homes in the region.
At Excelcare, we are constantly growing and evaluating our strategy to ensure that we are providing the best care possible for the people living in our homes. This can often lead to a restructuring of roles and positions in the homes and in our Support Office. After a refresh in 2017, Aditee’s role at Peartree Care Home was transformed from Business Manager to Home Manager and has remained this way since.
Over the years following her MBA degree, Aditee has broadened her skillset through a variety of different training courses on offer at Excelcare and is still learning and growing now. This training has led to an impressive set of qualifications, and now Aditee is an appointed Fire Marshall, First Aider, level 3 Health and Safety trained, has undertaken the PRINCE 2 Foundation Course and is currently studying for a level 5 qualification in Leadership in Healthcare. In her time managing Peartree, she has also been through re-accreditations in Gold Standard Framework End of Life Care three times and has been successful every time. Therefore, it is no surprise that she was nominated by her team members for the Great British Care Awards in the Registered Home Manager Category in 2019!
However, for Aditee, her learning is not limited to training courses. While talking about her time with us, she said “I have been most fortunate to have worked with some wonderful managers during my time with the company. Right from my first manager when I was a receptionist, to working and interacting with Senior Management. I have been greatly influenced and learned from all styles and cultures of management. I have also learnt so much from all the team members that I have worked with during my time in Windmill Lodge Care Home and Peartree Care Home.”
Aditee advises anyone who is looking to learn and grow at Excelcare to open their heart and life to the changes and possibilities, and to never give up. “So long as you work hard, everything else will sort itself out.”