Norfolk manager celebrates 20 years with family-run company

A Norfolk home care company manager is marking two decades of leading from the front to ensure  both staff and service users are prioritised at all times, including during the difficult pandemic years.

​There have been huge changes in home care during Jo Tier’s career, but committed staff and the core values of a family-run company have remained at the heart of her role with Extra Hands.

Jo is celebrating being a manager for the family run company for two decades, but has been part of the industry for 34 years and still loves her role ensuring that quality of care comes first and ensuring the team makes a difference to people’s lives.

And it was the Covid years that still stand out for Jo as, while everyone else locked themselves in, the carers continued to work during a time of huge uncertainty and ensured the service users were both safe and supported.

“We were all completely in the dark about how this thing would play out, but we just did the best we could and got on with the job!”

A true EastEnder, Jo hails from Stepney and went to school in Tower Hamlets, but admits that she was without any real ambition when she left.

“I worked at an insurance company in central London through a Youth Training Scheme and they offered me a permanent position. I very quickly realised that commuting by train every day was certainly not for me. I then moved onto floristry and attended college in Tottenham - I was told I was very creative and talented with flowers!” she said.

When her first son was a toddler, Jo started working in a care home and found her true vocation.

“I absolutely loved it, I worked my way up to senior carer, and then a registered manager and studied at Enfield College to get a care management qualification.”

She moved to Cromer having had a second son and ‘stumbled on’ Extra Hands advertising for a manager for the Broadland office in Horsham St Faith and decided to apply to the family-owned business which also has an office in Heacham.

Moving away from the front line was strange at first, but Jo thrived on the challenges of managing and has never looked back.

“During my years in domiciliary care, I have seen so many changes, some good, some bad. I am very thankful that I work for a company that puts quality first because that’s how I like to work, putting people before profit.

“We are blessed to have such a committed team of care staff, many of whom have been with Extra Hands for many years. We want to recruit the same kind of people; honest, committed and caring - these are the key qualities.

“It’s important to value staff, they are our biggest asset. The training at Extra Hands is exceptional and we are always looking at how we can improve for our service user and care staff. I’m lucky to have a great, committed training manager working alongside me.”

Changes in technology have changed the world of domiciliary care as it has every other profession and communication above all else has benefited greatly, and Jo said Extra Has was an early adopter of the advances.

“I have a great team and I feel they respect my values and what I want to achieve for the people we support. Extra Hands, being family owned, makes the difference between valuing people and seeing you as a number, we are all so much more than that here.”