Recent articles
Super recruiter helps to ease shortages
IDEA Services could do with more people like Ghanshyam Diyora. And thanks to him, we have more people like him.
Ghanshyam, a support worker in Dunedin, took on the challenge of recruiting other support workers – encouraged by a $200 incentive every time one of his friends started work at IDEA.
He is from Gujarat, India, and came here in 2019 to study at Otago Polytechnic. He started work with IDEA in July 2021.
Ghani, as he is known by his workmates, encouraged three friends to sign on with IDEA and that was a handy $600 that will no doubt have helped him with his recent shift to Hamilton. All the new support workers are from Gujarat and were living in Dunedin too.
Service Manager Charlotte McCracken says Ghani had been supporting people in a six-person residential home. “It is a very busy house,” she says. “He was always very reliable and always happy to pick up extras as well. I did say to him when he was leaving, ‘Where are we going to get all our staff from?’”
Ghani moved to Hamilton because that is where his fiancée Minal Avaiya is studying. He will be transferring to our Waikato team.
“I’m very passionate about the healthcare profession, so I like to care for people,” he says.
Open days are also being held throughout the country to recruit people to work for IDEA Services.
Staff and people with intellectual disabilities are on hand to talk to potential candidates about the support worker role. A recent open day, in Christchurch in October, attracted 20 people. We’ve also held open days in Tauranga, Rotorua, Whakatāne, Gisborne, Napier, Dannevirke, Palmerston North, Oamaru and Dunedin.
IHC Recruitment Manager Tracy Robertson says the open days are helping to fast-track recruitment, with service managers doing initial screening of candidates. Tracy says it has been fantastic the way the people we support and staff have come together to do the open days. “It’s being part of the solution,” she says.
Caption: Ghanshyam Diyora and fiancée Minal Avaiya.
This story was published in Strong Voices. The magazine is posted free to all IHC members.
Download PDF of Strong Voices issue