What is your name and job title?
My name's Ben Jones and I'm the Learning and Development Manager
here at Allambi Care.
How did you fend off cabin fever during isolation?
So to avoid cabin fever, I guess I've been trying to do my best as a newborn dad, trying to distinguish between cries and changing nappies, dipping my toes into a little bit of play school and book bears.
But outside of that also just, to keep sane, I guess, listening to my country music, which I cop a bit of slack for and some true crime podcasts.
What do you love about your job?
I absolutely love my role, love my job, love getting the opportunity to come to work every single day, mingle with a different range of amazing people, but also the fact that no two days are exactly the same.
What has the experience taught you about the Allambi Care team?
So the learning and development team's, got a pretty integral part, especially the on-boarding of new staff. We have to walk into rooms and meet and greet people and explain what Allambi is like, as well as training monthly
workshops for diploma course.
This has been incredibly difficult not being able to do that face to face. But one thing we have been able to do is, learn new skills in terms of technology and web based virtual learning, so that lots of sort of things like online webinars, where people aren't cramming for car parks and desk space, and 1.5 metering. So we have had the opportunity to facilitate a lot of virtual training, as well as online platforming.
I guess what I've learnt during this time, is that the key element of
our work, is compliance. We're constantly meeting deadlines and what we need to achieve as agencies and the department dictates a lot of things, but, I think what this has allowed us to do, is actually look outside of our deadlines
and key work is relationships and helping people, that's why we're in the human services sector.
So I think this has been an opportunity for me to stop and reflect on what am I doing, I guess, in my own life to support others, you know, waking up and being home with family more, connecting more, but also seeing frontline staff and asking how things are,
I guess, during the pandemic, which is something you normally don't do.
You're more worried about the Monday meeting, the Wednesday meeting, so just the fact of being able to connect and ask people personally, how is it you're doing? What have you been noticing on the front line?
It's been a really good shift.
We're quite privileged in terms of, having good people around us. But one thing that this is, I guess, shown to me from the learning and development team specifically, is how committed they are to each other and other learners.
In just my team specifically, we've got sort of all staff who are parents, and parents of young children, and the fact that they've been willing to come to work, adapt as needed having, you know, webcam meetings with children, bouncing on their lap or asking to cook breakfast.
The fact that people have just been so adaptable and wanting better outcomes for everybody, has been really refreshing to see.
