Career Opportunities at Anchor, as told by Lauren

We spoke with Lauren Smith, Resident Wellbeing Lead about her career path since joining Anchor in 2012. 

Lauren’s journey shows the amazing range of roles on offer at Anchor and how you can combine your experience and skills to progress in an incredibly rewarding career. 

Having joined Anchor as a volunteer with no experience of working in housing or care for older people, Lauren, like many others was looking to find her calling. 

Lauren not only found a passion for helping older people love living in later life, she has also used Anchor’s career development opportunities to build a career to be proud of.

Read Lauren’s story below:

I first volunteered with Anchor ten years ago at Ashcroft care home in Bradford. I wasn’t sure which direction I wanted to take my career in so my Mum, Deputy Manager at Ashcroft, encouraged me to volunteer in a care home to explore where my passions lie. 

Being a volunteer really opened my eyes and made me understand how much our residents trust us to take care of them, keep them engaged and entertained. It really did inspire me to pursue my career in care  with Anchor. 

I made some great connections with the residents, learning about their past, their jobs and lives and what they enjoyed doing. One lady in particular, Betty, never failed to make me laugh, she was such a character. 

I had no previous experience of working with older people, but I took the plunge and applied for a role in the Customer Centre. I was successful and began working in the Customer Relations team as an Advisor handling complaints and supporting local managers to handle anti-social behaviour. I worked in Customer Relations for four years before deciding that I wanted to explore more of the organisation, so I applied for a role in the Resident Involvement team. 

The resident involvement team actively encourages our residents to get involved in any way they can to help us improve the performance of services provided to residents

Resident Involvement opened so many doors for me, allowing me to meet residents face-to-face and I got to see first-hand the impact that my colleagues were having on people’s lives. It also gave me the opportunity to listen and act on resident’s feedback and empower them to have their say. 

My time in Resident Involvement was fantastic, it really provided me with the skills I needed to apply myself. I was recently appointed (June 2022) as the new Resident Wellbeing Lead - I absolutely love my job. 

I love the colleagues and residents I work with, and I love what Anchor stands for as an organisation. It is so fulfilling to know that your work is having a positive impact on the lives of those living at Anchor. 

Anchor provides a fantastic Learning and Development programme called Leadership Pathways, along with lots of self-led learning to support colleagues like myself to progress my career.

Our in-house Learning and Development team are committed to supporting colleagues across all departments to help them be the best they can be. I am also grateful to have had the opportunity to work with an amazing colleague who has been mentoring me for the last seven months. 

Having a mentor was not something I had thought about, but the opportunity came at a crucial time in my career path. She was able to give me the opportunity to explore what my path looked like and supported me to be the best version of myself.

I would like to think I will have a long-term career here and would certainly encourage anyone whose looking for a career in care or housing for older people to seek out opportunities within Anchor, there is so much room for growth and opportunities to develop your career.

Lauren’s career journey is a great example of the opportunities available to our colleagues and the support you will receive when working with us to continually learn and progress your career! View all of the current opportunities we have on offer on our careers site here