As a manager in the health and care sector, preparing for the assessment and interview stage of a recruitment campaign is a critical step in finding the right hire for your team. It's not just about box ticking; it's about finding individuals who embrace the principles and excellence of care that you're committed to maintaining.
We all know the health and care sector is facing a crisis when it comes to filling vacancies (there were 152,000 vacancies in adult social care in the year to March 2023), so ensuring the recruitment and interview process is fair, efficient and compliant is critical.
- Understanding the role and the candidate
- Leveraging technology in the end to end recruitment process
- Creating a positive candidate experience
- Preparing for interviews
- Conclusion
Before diving into the interview process, it's essential to have a clear understanding of the role you're hiring for and the kind of candidate that is the best fit. Consider the necessary skills and experience and the values and behaviours that align with your organisation's ethos. Think about including these values into the application process and encourage candidates to demonstrate how they've shown these values in previous roles or life experiences.
Before we get to how to prepare for interviews, consider how technology can help make the recruitment process more human by removing time-hungry admin tasks and giving care managers more time to engage. Let's take a look.
If it isn't already, technology should play a pivotal role in streamlining your recruitment process. As a minimum, an applicant tracking system (ATS) like Jobtrain, can automate admin tasks, reduce time-to-hire and drop-off of new hires leaving you with new hires that stay longer and more time to engage with candidates.
In addition to saving time, an ATS can manage end-to-end recruitment and ensures a fair application and assessment process with candidates completing the same application questions and process as the next candidate.
Consider also implementing pre-screening questions during the initial application stage. This will allow you to quickly identify candidates who meet the minimum criteria, saving you valuable time and spotting potential interviewees quickly. It also provides a considerate way to inform candidates who don't meet the requirements that they will not proceed to the next stage.
With features like an Onboarding and Compliance hub with DBS and Right-to-Work checks, a good ATS can reassure you that you're not only hiring qualified candidates but also individuals whose values resonate with the health and care sector.
The recruitment process is also an opportunity to showcase your organisation's commitment to care and respect, which should extend to all candidates, irrespective of the outcome of their application. An ATS can help you manage this by providing timely updates and feedback to candidates, so you can be rest assured that their experience is a positive one. Having an approach like this not only reflects well on your organisation but can also help build a talent pool of potential hires for future vacancies.
Develop a set of behavioural questions: These questions should aim to draw out examples of how candidates have demonstrated the values and behaviours that are important to your organisation.
Use assessment tools: Tools like 'A Question of Care' can be integrated into the process to help assess the values and behaviours of potential recruits.
Can you involve service users?: By involving people who use care services in the recruitment process, it can offer a unique perspective and be invaluable in assessing the suitability of candidates.
Interview flexibility: Offer interview times that accommodate candidates' schedules and ensure that any requirements they have are met to enable them to attend the interview. Most good ATS systems offer self-service interview scheduling to enable candidates to choose an interview slot that's best for them. Running virtual interviews initially? Having Teams integrated into your scheduling and ATS is a must.
Environment: If you haven't been able to showcase videos to candidates on what it's like to work there at the application stage (a careers site is a great opportunity to showcase this before candidates apply), then invite them to meet the team and understand the working environment. This can help them gauge if they're a good fit for your service - the cost of a bad hire to your organisation can be huge if recruitment has to be started again.
After the interview, it's crucial to maintain engagement with candidates:
Timely communication: If you're using an ATS, then make sure this is set up so you can promptly send personalised communications on the outcome of the interview.
Feedback: Offer constructive feedback to unsuccessful candidates. This will help them in their future applications and ensure they're left with a positive impression of your organisation and open to future opportunities.
Onboarding: For successful candidates, keep in touch through congratulatory messages and informal meet-ups before their start date to help them feel welcomed and valued.
At Jobtrain, whilst candidates are going through the compliance phase, our clients can take advantage of a Welcome Hub. The Welcome Hub is fully customisable and keeps candidates engaged and excited ahead of their first day to reduce the risk of losing new hires before they start with you.
The assessment and interview stage is a crucial part of the recruitment process in the care sector. By understanding the role and the candidate, leveraging technology like an ATS and ensuring a positive experience for all candidates, care managers can significantly improve the recruitment process.
We're proud of the ATS we've developed here at Jobtrain that supports health and care organisations in finding and hiring the best talent while maintaining the highest standards of care and respect for all candidates.
If you'd like an informal chat about anything discussed here or how technology could make a difference for you, please get in touch and we'll be happy to advise.