Care providers are facing an increasing challenge to find and keep the staff to meet the growing demand for their services. Recruitment expert Neil Eastwood suggests five of his favourite tips.
The labour market for frontline care staff is changing rapidly and one of the major risks social care employers face is not responding to these changes quickly enough.
It wasn’t so long ago that the care sector could pick and choose from large volumes of applicants but those days have gone. In the current market we have to work even harder to attract new staff including those who had previously never considered a paid care role. At the same time we have to ensure we take steps to prevent the unnecessary loss of existing workers.
Given that Registered Managers already have a full workload and little time to dedicate to researching the best approaches, here are five recommendations for improving both recruitment and retention:
1) Ensure you have a culture that people want to work for
Too often office staff and supervisors can treat their frontline colleagues with a lack of respect. Prospective employees can be dealt with brusquely or go for days without any communication. It is essential that all employees understand the value of care workers and work to create a family-like and supportive environment. Without this, finding and keeping staff is incredibly hard.
Tip: If you think your support team could benefit from a culture change, consider arranging conflict resolution and communication skills training. Supporting team leaders to handle care staff with respect has delivered huge improvements in retention.
2) Community outreach is essential. Get out of the office!
Many of your best future staff could be sourced from seeking out high potential groups in the community. These people are unaware of how suitable they are for a career in care – and how rewarding it would be for them unless you go and tell them.
Tip: Get your existing employees looking on your behalf and re-launch your employee referral scheme. Try offering double-pay months to keep the scheme top-of-mind and pay rewards promptly.
3) Make sure someone in your organisation wakes up every day focused on recruitment
A successful social care recruitment operation relies on multiple channels, not just Internet job board advertising. Often the best candidates have to be found in the community, which requires coordination and planning. Sustaining the flow of quality applicants cannot be undertaken as an afterthought, or when a busy Registered Manager can spare time. The best care providers around the world assign someone to own and oversee the process.
Tip: Some of the best recruiters are current or past care staff, who understand the job and can sell the role with conviction.
4) Look beyond job experience
There are simply not enough trained and experienced care staff in circulation to satisfy the recruitment needs of today, let alone the next ten years. Also, many of the best and most suitable qualified care workers are committed to their clients and loyal to their existing company. So, providers need to look beyond work experience and qualifications and more to values, personality and attitudes.
Tip: Concentrate on the applicant’s motivation to work in care and their values. Look for past family care experience and a mature outlook. You can find high potential applicants in all sorts of places in the community, such as informal carer groups, volunteers or those who worship a faith.
5) It’s not about the money, it’s about feeling valued
Good care workers are emotionally connected to their job and the service they provide. If staff feel they are appreciated at work, they will more likely stay. Verbal appreciation, for instance when a carer has covered a shift or gone beyond their duty, as well as written appreciation in the form of a letter to their home, go a long way in retaining staff – above offering a pay rise.
Tip: Task supervisors to find a member of frontline staff doing something well and publically praise them every day. This is a very powerful mind-set change.
There are certainly enough caring and compassionate people to meet the demands of our ageing population, the trick is to reach out into the community to make them aware of the value of a paid care role, make them feel welcome and then enable them to do what they love to do.
About the Author:
Neil Eastwood is founder of Sticky People, provider of PeopleClues candidate screening technology and an international speaker on care worker recruitment and retention.
