Gellibrand’s Top Five Ingredients for Great Support Workers

The characteristics Gellibrand has found support workers need to be successful in their roles.

Gellibrand Support Services has supported people with a disability for more than forty years. One reason we get positive feedback from our clients and families is because we employ support workers who are the right fit for working with Gellibrand’s valued clients.

We feel we know instinctively what being the right fit means, but we decided to ask around Gellibrand and find out just what the top-five ingredients are for a great support worker.

We spoke to a wide mix of people within – and even outside – Gellibrand. They included Client Liaison, families, support workers, Day Service providers, Support Coordinators, and Quality Assurance Officers.

While our top five are listed and described below, there are, of course, other characteristics that make professional support workers successful in their roles – so look out for some of those at the end of our top five.

1.?????? Empathy/Listening

Empathy and the ability to listen go together and were found to be vital for great support workers. It’s clear that people with empathetic personalities are well-suited to being support workers and they are also good listeners. Some quotes from those we talked to:

“You can't teach people to have compassion and to respect people…that's ingrained in someone.”

“You can always go into a shift with what you think is a good idea about what would be fun for someone else, but you have to take a step back and listen.”

“I know I can’t put myself in clients’ shoes because that's obviously impossible, but I try to understand how I would want to be supported in a similar situation.”

2.?????? Adaptability

All clients are obviously different, which means every shift can be different. Great support workers know how to hold plans loosely, aware that anything can happen on a shift. Clients’ moods and health – amongst many other variables – mean adaptability is vital:

“Adaptability allows support workers to respond to varying circumstances, such as adjusting care plans, handling emergencies, or working with individuals who have diverse preferences and challenges.”

“Things don't always go according to plans. You just have to take it as it is and make the best of what you have on a shift.”

“It’s important to have the ability to balance when to step in and offer support and when to step aside and provide the client space to be independent.”

3.?????? Patience

Those surveyed were clear on the importance of patience. Great support workers are willing and able to stay calm and, as a part of their empathy and listening, they have a strong capacity to wait for clients to do and say what they need to in their own time:

“It’s about knowing the client, knowing the client's capabilities and abilities.”

“Being a support worker, I've really had to learn to just slow down. So, instead of expecting a task to be done in the time that it would take me to do a task, it can quite often take upwards of three times as long.”

“Patience ensures we remain calm, avoid frustration, and provide consistent support, allowing individuals to achieve their goals at their own pace, whilst putting the client in the driver's seat.”

4.?????? Communication

Communication came up high for our respondents and they felt that great support workers were able to communicate effectively with a broad range of people, including clients, other team members, external service providers, and family members:

“They should have good communication with family members. And this includes communicating when they need help in supporting a client.”

“It’s about making sure you give clients options and that you understand some clients will want lots of suggestions, some people might want minimal suggestions.”

“When looking at employing support workers, if someone can walk into a room and say hi to everybody in the room, that's a really clear indication they have the ability to converse across a cross-section of people.”

5.?????? Reliability and Integrity

These two couldn’t be split in terms of how respondents rated them and it’s clear the characteristics go hand-in-hand:

“A great support worker will always act with integrity, honesty – and transparency is key to a long, meaningful partnership.”

“As a support worker, integrity is about owning up to your mistakes, being honest – so then you can get help to improve for next time.”

“Individuals relying on support workers often depend on consistent and dependable assistance for daily tasks, medical needs, or emotional support. Reliability?builds trust and ensures that the person's routine and care are not disrupted, which is crucial for their wellbeing.”

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So, there are Gellibrand’s Top Five Ingredients for Great Support Workers. Of course, these weren’t the only attributes our respondents named.

They also noted the importance of being a team player, pursuing excellence, and taking pride in your work, with one interviewee saying how valuable were support workers who “use their initiative to make a difference”. Resilience was also highly rated, along with that all-important ability to be punctual.

Closely related to communication, the ability to engage clients was seen as vital: “It’s about building rapport, which depends on the person you're supporting and being aware of who they are.” Another respondent mentioned that great support workers are “knowledgeable about services that can connect clients with opportunities that promote their social inclusion and community participation.”

We believe the more support workers in an organisation who have our Top Five ingredients – plus plenty of the others – the more likely they will receive comments like Gellibrand did from a family member recently:

“They’re just the most dedicated team of people I've ever known and worked with in my life.”

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