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Ever Care Competitor Analysis
Ever Care Competitor Analysis
Due to the demand of ethics and a dominant brand image, the healthcare industry (in the social care and domiciliary sectors) has become among the most competitive industries in the current global business environment. It is one of the most essential businesses in the economic and social wellbeing of a nation. The sector is also supported by its large size and co-dependence involving the broader healthcare sector which forms one of every citizen’s basic rights. This is one of the few industries where demand for services has remained strong and consistent throughout time. It is a sector that continued to thrive even in the midst of the ongoing COVID-19 global pandemic. Helping Hands and Bluebird, two huge organizations, are fierce competitors for EverCare in the domiciliary sector. While quality of service and health-care system expenses are closely related to the strategic objective and goals of these companies, they are also considered factors of consumer satisfaction. These elements provide a platform to be the largest sources of competitive advantage in the social care industry and the domiciliary sector in particular. The main points of competitiveness include the training programs, quality of products and services, customer orientation, value proposition, and endorsement by recognized bodies in the UK.
Helping Hands Analysis
Helping Hands provides expert health care and medical support to every adult of all ages in need of social care, regardless of health and medical needs. The support provided is geared towards ensuring that people have the best opportunity to live self-sufficiently in their homes. The company’s selling point is a personal connection with its clientele. For instance, it has a value proposition of working with a client and their family to create workable client needs and preferences, establish a tailored care package that is specific to a client, and provide 24-hour support. Due to the increase in competition in the domiciliary sector in the global scene, Helping Hands also has created family values as a part of its mission, vision, and core values in order to appeal more to its target market. It markets itself as an endorsed private home care provider with family values.
Starting out as a local family-owned establishment in 1989, Helping Hands demonstrates a recognition of the value placed on the relationship between people in the family setup. The most important marketing and value proposition aspect is centered on family values. Those same family values still exist and influence every aspect of Helping Hands today, as they did all those years ago before the company became among the largest and most regarded home care providers in the United Kingdom. Upon joining the Helping Hands team, new workers get a series of orientation courses that prepare them to deliver excellent client care. They are treated as members of the family at every step of the process, ensuring that they are completely sold into the idea of a family-oriented system and organizational structure and culture. Training improves the overall performance of a firm (Khan, Khan, & Khan, 2011; Dos Santos, 2019). Therefore, the commitment to family, and an organisational culture founded on the basics of family life are the main selling points at Helping Hands, inculcated into the organizational culture, management, training, and service delivery.
In terms of its services and employees, Helping Hands boasts of a large network of experts and facilities that enables the organization to attract the best talent. Home carers at Helping Hands are carefully selected because of their demonstrated compassion for others and their ability to uphold the high-quality standards established by the internal employee training guidelines that adhere to the Care Quality Commission. This is further developed by having multiple locations in the country to ensure faster and localized delivery of services. In matters quality, Helping Hands is endorsed by a majority of recognized firms in the UK including the United Kingdom Home Care Association (UKHCA), the Dementia Action Alliance (DAA), the Spinal Injuries Association (SIA), and the United Kingdom Acquired Brain Injury Forum (UKABIF). Helping Hands also sells itself as a quality company that is regulated rated, and inspected regularly by the CQC as well as the Care Inspectorate Wales. Lastly, Helping Hands has put in place the most recent procedures and best practices intended at helping to prevent the contraction and spread of COVID-19. In this, the organization has trained its staff on handling any reported cases, including early detection and prevention measures.
Bluebird Analysis
Bluebird has a different value proposition in comparison to EverCare and Helping Hands. The company supports its clientele to keep their preferred lifestyle. It has a customer-centric system that allows the client receiving care to retain control of their choices and preferences in line with their health and medical needs. Bluebird provides its customers with the support and home care needs that are completely controlled by the receiver of care, regarding their desires on type of health program, the location, and the time. Bluebird is a company that specializes in dealing with consumers and their families that require in-home care. It provides a one-of-a-kind service of individualized care services ranging from check-in appointments to full-time live-in support. The selling point of the company is its fully integrated system that is customer focused in every sense.
In terms of home care and the support required, Blue Bird keeps the customer in control. The value proposition is that the customer must always retain control of what they desire and the company must work towards meeting these demands 100%. Regarding specialist care, Bluebird understands the need for extra care and 24-hour support. Other competitive products and services that the organization provides to its customers include but are not limited to: assistive technologies, homecare services, palliative care, dementia care, learning disability support, bariatric care, end- of life care, and mental disabilities care.
The organization culture at Bluebird uses a customer-focused structure as a foundation for its organizational culture, training needs, and general value proposition to its customers. Bluebird, like the majority of businesses today, takes advantage of industry trends, new ideas, and consumer and company needs to develop goods and services that people want to buy and recommend to their friends and family (Reddy et al., 2018). While there are numerous aspects and stakeholders to examine when operating a social care business, Bluebird prefers to operate as a customer-focused company that responds to the needs and desires of its clients. The approach aids the company in establishing a loyal consumer base (Dewnarain, Ramkissoon, & Mavondo, 2019). Customers are more likely to buy from organizations that they believe take their requirements into account when developing products and services. Customers are also more likely to return to organizations that prioritize customer service training for their employees. The organization also uses current scientific evidence and proposed measures to prevent and report all COVID-19 cases. In all its branches, Bluebird uses its employees to provide best care for its customers, thus using trust to build an organizational culture and strength.
References
Bluebird Care. (2022). Home: About Us. Available at https://www.bluebirdcare.co.uk/
Dewnarain, S., Ramkissoon, H., & Mavondo, F. (2019). Social customer relationship management: An integrated conceptual framework. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 28(2), 172-188.
Dos Santos, L. M. (2019). Rural public health workforce training and development: the performance of an undergraduate internship programme in a rural hospital and healthcare centre. International journal of environmental research and public health, 16(7), 1259.
Helping Hands. (2022). Home Care: About Us. Available at https://www.helpinghandshomecare.co.uk/Khan, R. A. G., Khan, F. A., & Khan, M. A. (2011). Impact of training and development on organizational performance. Global journal of management and business research, 11(7).
Reddy, P., Onitskansky, E., Singhal, S., & Velamoor, S. (2018). Why the evolving healthcare services and technology market matters. McKinsey & Company, 12.
Discuss the main factors influencing the effectiveness of online learning.
Discuss the main factors influencing the effectiveness of online learning.
Introduction
Over the last decade, and especially with the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a significant trend toward the use of computer applications that facilitate learning and education. Computers are just now beginning to be utilized in schools, but this is a trend that is expected to continue. This has begun to manifest itself in a variety of ways, including the teaching of computer skills and the use of the Internet in education. E-learning is already a reality, with the purpose of teaching students in a manner that is both beneficial and efficient. It does this via the use of highly sophisticated computer systems designed expressly for that purpose. Ultimately, the perceived ease of use of e-learning platforms, strategies and schedules, the methods employed by online instructors, and student characteristics and prior e-learning experience are all critical and primary factors that influence the effectiveness of online learning.
Body Paragraph 1 Main Idea: Perceived Ease of Use
Students perform better in class when they believe the platform they are utilizing to study online is simple to use. Online learning platforms are designed with the aims of knowledge exchange and education in mind. Because we now live in a global culture, utilizing technology to study, get knowledge, and educate oneself is a daily must. These sources are simple to use and identify, making it much simpler to distribute knowledge. Several studies have shown that the usability, availability, and speed of transmission of mobile devices and online media are all critical components of the learning process. Because of the ease of access, online learning has become more flexible, yielding positive effects ( Rahmi, Birgoren, & Aktepe, 2018). Students’ perceptions of how beneficial e-courses were impacted by factors such as their overall impression, how comparable e-courses were to regular classroom training, and how attentive their teachers were. According to Elkaseh, Wong, and Fung (2016), how easily students utilize online learning platforms is closely connected to how well they do in school and how much they prefer online courses over conventional classroom settings. In online classes, reported ease of use, perceived usefulness, and perceived engagement are all determinants of student success and the overall effectiveness of online learning (Abdullah, Ward, & Ahmed, 2016). To summarize, perceived ease of use, perceived utility, and perceived interactivity are all factors that determine effectiveness of teaching and learning approaches since perceived ease of use is connected to how beneficial online learning is.
Body Paragraph 2 Main Idea: Approaches and strategies taken by online instructors
The function of the instructor is crucial whether a student is studying online or in a classroom environment. The degree to which students are satisfied with their online education will largely rely on the attitude of the teachers, their knowledge, their understanding of instructional design, their ability to plan activities, and their interpersonal skills. The most crucial element in determining how effectively online learning functions is the level of interaction between professors and students. It was discovered that one of the most important predictors of how effectively students learn online is interaction between the learner and the teacher and between the learner and the content. The findings indicate that interaction between students and professors and the effectiveness of online learning are strongly and favorably related. For online learning to be successful, many teaching methods must be used. For instance, educators must learn how to manage an online discussion without the normal visual and auditory signals (Nguyen, 2015). They do this by assessing the level of student engagement and formulating guidelines. Professional development and mentorship are becoming more and more crucial since technology is evolving so fast and because online training may make individuals feel alone. Online learning employs learner-centered tactics, while conventional education employs teacher-centered strategies. By incorporating pedagogical techniques, professional expertise, a degree of science and technology application, the capacity to construct and integrate various concepts, and practices, higher education online course material production may aid students in learning more effectively ( Delen & Liew, 2016). Students are more likely to be interested and take initiative when online teachers provide engaging course content, which in turn influences how well they do academically. This feature facilitates students’ learning of problem-solving techniques as well as analytical and critical thinking skills.
Body Paragraph 3 Main Idea: Student Characteristics and prior e-learning experience
Learners are better able to assimilate new material when they believe in their own educational potential. The belief that students can learn whatever is being taught to them is also important for their development. This is among the most crucial elements that make e-learning successful. The idea that some students may be better prepared than others to profit from e-learning has consistently drawn research. Numerous studies have been done to find out how personal characteristics like age and gender affect how well e-learning works ( Noesgaard & Ørngreen, 2015). The results of a recent study done by Torun (2020) revealed that when new technology and teaching methods are introduced as well as when more work is required, pupils have a propensity to struggle with learning. Due to this situation, students who are new to online learning may get irritated, which might negatively affect both their learning and the success and effectiveness of online education as a whole. The degree to which a student is already used to the format is one of the key elements that defines how successful they will be with online learning (Sun et al., 2008). The students’ prior experiences would play a part in deciding whether or not they would see ICT learning tools as beneficial and straightforward. The possibility that students will continue their education with following online courses increases with their degree of comfort with the online learning process and with the environment.
Conclusion
This discussion posits that the perceived ease of use of e-learning platforms, techniques, and timetables, the methods adopted by online instructors, as well as student characteristics and previous experience with e-learning, are all important and key aspects that determine the success of online learning. Students do better academically in the classroom when they believe the online learning environment they are utilizing to prepare for courses is easy to use. Two of the main drivers for the creation of online learning environments are the spread of knowledge and the progress of education. It is crucial to regularly utilize technical resources in order to learn new things, educate oneself, and do research since we now live in a global culture. The teacher’s involvement is crucial whether a student participates in their education in a regular classroom environment or via the usage of an online learning platform. Students’ satisfaction with their education from online courses will be greatly influenced by the attitude of the instructors, as well as their expertise and grasp of instructional design, ability to arrange activities, and interpersonal skills. The degree to which a student is used to the utilized format is one of the most crucial elements that will define their level of success with online education. The students’ prior experiences will have an impact on whether or not they consider ICT learning tools to be beneficial and simple to use.
References
Abdullah, F., Ward, R., & Ahmed, E. (2016). Investigating the influence of the most commonly used external variables of TAM on students’ Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU) and Perceived Usefulness (PU) of e-portfolios. Computers in human behavior, 63, 75-90.
Delen, E., & Liew, J. (2016). The use of interactive environments to promote self-regulation in online learning: A literature review. European Journal of Contemporary Education, 15(1), 24-33.
Elkaseh, A. M., Wong, K. W., & Fung, C. C. (2016). Perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness of social media for e-learning in Libyan higher education: A structural equation modeling analysis. International Journal of Information and Education Technology, 6(3), 192.
Nguyen, T. (2015). The effectiveness of online learning: Beyond no significant difference and future horizons. MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 11(2), 309-319.
Noesgaard, S. S., & Ørngreen, R. (2015). The Effectiveness of ELearning: An Explorative and Integrative Review of the Definitions, Methodologies and Factors that Promote eLearning Effectiveness. Electronic Journal of E-learning, 13(4), pp277-289.
Rahmi, B. A. K. I., Birgoren, B., & Aktepe, A. (2018). A meta analysis of factors affecting perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use in the adoption of e-learning systems. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education, 19(4), 4-42.
Sun, P. C., Tsai, R. J., Finger, G., Chen, Y. Y., & Yeh, D. (2008). What drives a successful e-Learning? An empirical investigation of the critical factors influencing learner satisfaction. Computers & education, 50(4), 1183-1202.
Torun, E. D. (2020). Online distance learning in higher education: E-learning readiness as a predictor of academic achievement. Open Praxis, 12(2), 191-208.
Current Opportunities and Challenges for Active Citizenship in Australia for Young People
Current Opportunities and Challenges for Active Citizenship in Australia for Young People
Young people in Australia are often lauded as the future’s ray of hope, as the ones who would protect democratic institutions and advocate for improvements in social and environmental policies, among other things. They are exposed to a pervasive risk discourse as well as a variety of procedures that are geared to regulate and manage them rather than to learn from or empower them. Australia’s current culture, like that of the rest of the Western world, is heavily influenced by popular culture and the media (Chadwick, Dennis, & Smith, 2015, p.22). Traditions and social structures that formerly influenced individual experience and identity have practically evaporated. While it is still believed that one’s identity is inherited and derived from one’s role, family, or social status, identity has come to be understood as the consequence of a self-created, autonomous, individualistic, and introspective process. Even as young Australians continue to find their life purpose and identity, they are becoming more ignorant in maters relating to governance due to poor political involvement. The role of institutions such as the government in enhancing the civic participation of young people is increasingly hampered by factors such as poor use of digital platforms and restrictive policies that do not openly support their active citizenship desires.
One key challenge is that young people lack interest in politics and have low knowledge of governance prompting very low levels of civic participation. Parliament of Australia (1999) note that a majority of Australians, especially young people, do not have political knowledge. Low levels of interest in governance and poor knowledge of politics are associated with poor government strategies to enhance active citizenship (Laughland-Booÿ & Ghazarian, 2020, p.191). For example, young people are culturally programmed to avoid political involvement, even in critical issues such as the recent Australian climate issues resulting in wildfires and the effects of COVID-19. As a consequence, young people are increasingly depicted as being threatened by the outside world, which is troubling. In the media, they are shown as being in immediate risk (Hyland-Wood et al., 2021, p.3). As possible risk sources, they are seen to hold the key to the future, whether in a positive or negative light.
Another major challenge facing young people is that the media and society has stereotyped them as high risk, disinterested, and completely disconnected from societal affairs. As a consequence, Cranley et al. (2018, p.177) found that this narrative has allowed current and past regimes in governance to ignore young people’s need for participation. For example, in the wake of COVID-19, the participation of young people in matters relating to governance was very low as noted by Churchill (2021, p.784), despite young people being less affected by the coronavirus compared to older adults. It has also created an attitude amongst young people and a culture of minimal political participation. The young have always been subjected to both good and negative stereotypes. On one hand, young people are often seen as a source of future hope. On the other hand, people believe that young people are a possible danger to the future of the country. As a result, modeling perceived threats provided by young people and supporting steps to minimize such risks have become normal practice for policies that have an impact on young people’s lives, such as educational policy.
Key ways to ensure active participation of young people in governance and politics in Australia is through information, engagement, inspiring them, and ensuring that they remain present by actively involving them via localized social media channels. Here, policies must remain open to listening to young people’s views. A recent example of how this would work is the way New Zealand youths have engaged young people in determining whether the legal voting age should be lowered to 16 (Eichhorn & Bergh, 2021, p.508). Such discussions should transition to Australia in order to have more civic participation. An opportunity emerges through digital platforms, for example via government websites, Facebook pages, and open forums. Young people are present through social digital platforms (Cranley et al., 2018, p.178). The government, in its role to inspire, engage, and ensure participation, must engage young people using digital media. By regulating disinformation, misinformation, and fake news, the government will increase information reach for young people and engage them to an active status.
Another opportunity emerges in the availability of information through critical education policy and best practices. Cranley et al. (2018, p.178) reports that there is a widespread notion that young people are unaware of their country’s governance policies, resulting in a slew of inquiries about their civic and political conduct, as well as their views and aptitudes for civic participation. Several studies have shown that youth are disengaged and uninterested, that they lack key civic and political knowledge, and that they contribute less to society than older citizens (Parliament of Australia, 1999; Ozalp & Ćufurović, 2021, p.237; Yeung et al., 2008, p.66). When it comes to solving this apparent democratic deficit, education is often mentioned as a possible solution and a key opportunity. Therefore, civic education is a requirement in order for the Australian government to enable active citizenship from its youthful population.
Governments’ attempts to forestall future threats to democracy and other comparable processes must include building the civic participation skills of young people. Recent efforts such as the Youth Policy Framework by the Department of Education Skills and Employment (2022) to support young people in navigating life must be adopted into governance and civic participation. There is considerable concern about civic stability and cohesion, the fragility of democratic regimes, and the general public’s lack of political participation on the part of young citizens (Yeung et al., 2008, p.67). A variety of factors have contributed to this trend, including issues of inclusion in Australia, climate change risks, deterioration of economic stability, among other challenges (Peterson & Bentley, 2017, p.43). Individual democratic engagement is a crucial component of current public policy in Australia as well as in other regions of the globe.
In conclusion, considerable government policies on citizenship education, as well as means to put those policies into effect, have been created in Australia and comparable countries during the past decade, as well as steps to put those policies into effect. The bulk of this activity is still motivated by the belief that schools must do more to address young people’s apathy, despite a wealth of data demonstrating that they are everything but apathetic about their lives. This discussion adds social digital platforms to the key opportunities that the government should employ to ensure better participation of young people in Australian politics and governance.
References
Chadwick, A., Dennis, J., & Smith, A. P. (2015). Politics in the age of hybrid media: Power, systems, and media logics. In The Routledge companion to social media and politics (pp. 7-22). Routledge.
Churchill, B. (2021). COVID‐19 and the immediate impact on young people and employment in Australia: A gendered analysis. Gender, Work & Organization, 28(2), 783-794. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7675267/
Cranley, L., Johnson, G., Robinson, C., & O’Connor, D. (2018). Belonging, being and becoming active citizens. Asia Pacific Journal of Advanced Business and Social Studies, 4(1), 176-82. Available at https://apiar.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/1_ICAR_Nov_BRR706_Bus-1-7.pdfDepartment of Education Skills and Employment. (2022). Australia’s Youth Policy Framework. Australian Government. Available at https://www.dese.gov.au/australias-youth-policy-framework
Eichhorn, J., & Bergh, J. (2021). Lowering the voting age to 16 in practice: Processes and outcomes compared. Parliamentary Affairs, 74(3), 507-521.
Hyland-Wood, B., Gardner, J., Leask, J., & Ecker, U. K. (2021). Toward effective government communication strategies in the era of COVID-19. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 8(1), 1-11.
Laughland-Booÿ, J., & Ghazarian, Z. (2020). Young People and Politics in Australia: an Introduction. Journal of Applied Youth Studies, 3(3), 189-192. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s43151-020-00025-1
Ozalp, M., & Ćufurović, M. (2021). Religion, Belonging, and Active Citizenship: A Systematic Review of Literature on Muslim Youth in Australia. Religions, 12(4), 237. Available at https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/12/4/237/pdfParliament of Australia (March 23, 1999). Creating the Active Citizen? Recent Developments in Civics Education. Available at https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/rp9899/99RP15
Peterson, A., & Bentley, B. (2017). A case for cautious optimism? Active citizenship and the Australian civics and citizenship curriculum. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 37(1), 42-54. Available at https://doi.org/10.1080/02188791.2016.1142424
Yeung, P. H., Passmore, A. E., & Packer, T. L. (2008). Active citizens or passive recipients: How Australian young adults with cerebral palsy define citizenship. Journal of Intellectual and Developmental Disability, 33(1), 65-75. Available at https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.931.7100&rep=rep1&type=pdf