How to hire more care workers

The battle for high-quality candidates can be positively influenced by a strong Employee Value Proposition (EVP) and an effective advertising strategy. What sets your organisation apart and what will they get from it? Is it money and benefits, or is it skills development, career progression and job satisfaction?  

Speed is king with hiring candidates

Time will be of the essence, so long corporate branding projects won’t help in the short term, but there is plenty that can be done quickly to help develop a strong brand message and EVP. Developing and using a consistent introduction in all adverts could help build this awareness. Update your organisations career pages as well as LinkedIn, Indeed and Glassdoor profiles. 

Click here to download your free candidate attraction checklist

Use media to bring the best talent

Add videos to your adverts. Would-be applicants value ‘real’ information and insight in these videos from real employees acting as ambassadors, rather than ‘corporate brainwashing’. Film them on your phones for authenticity and upload to YouTube or Vimeo and embed or link into your adverts.

If you're currently relying on job boards like Indeed to attract candidates, now is the time to revolutionise your strategy. Our ATS for care homes - JTGO - integrates with all of your usual job boards (as well as NHS jobs!)

Our research shows with video in adverts applications increase 34% and rejections reduce by 2/3 indicating a better ‘quality’ of candidate, and importantly meaning more pass into and through the recruitment funnel. 

Care worker statistics you need to know

Round-the-clock work requires a myriad of different shift patterns and bank staff that can work at short notice. Turn this into a positive feature. The lockdowns of the pandemic have created a significant shift in expectations and desires across the labour market.  

• 93% of male workers and 75% of female workers have some degree of dependent care to factor into their working life.
• Recent research from CareerArc shows 61% of candidates plan to change jobs in 2021, and over half expect some degree of flexible or home working.
• A survey by Prudential and The Economist found that 42% said they will resign if they aren’t granted it.
• The same survey revealed young mobile workers (16-21) with no dependents are the age group least keen to return to office-based work. Promoting your flexible hours and vocational roles could see your applicant pool increase in size and quality. 

Consider the writing of your advertisements

When it comes to the adverts for your specific vacancies don’t just copy and paste the job specification into them. Similar to the approach at the organisational level, ask yourself what makes this specific care home and this specific vacancy attractive to a candidate, especially given the competition from other organisations for their services.

Is it the people, the facilities, the location, the training? Be realistic and think of things from the potential candidate’s perspective, and the likely negatives they might identify. How easy is it going to be for potential candidates to reach the location? 

For those awkward ‘out-of-hours’ shifts is there a public transport option? If yes, make it clear in the advert, don’t assume they will know or they will find out. If not, what might you offer to help make this a realistic option. A bike scheme? A company mini-bus?

The upfront costs of such a thing could be cancelled out by reducing turnover and the resulting agency and recruitment expenditure if it helps recruit and retain good people.

Candidate engagement continues into application forms 

Application forms should carry on the use of the tone and language of your culture and EVP, be inviting to the candidate, and not be onerous or overbearing. What is the minimum information you need to get them into your funnel? 

The British Dyslexia Association estimates 4 – 10% of UK adults have dyslexia to some degree, and Skills for Care estimates there to be 1.62 million jobs in adult social care in the UK. In 2020, around 84% of the adult social care workforce were British, which could mean 65000 – 13500 employees with dyslexia. An organisation with an online application process or system that doesn’t have tools to support those with dyslexia, could be missing out on many potential candidates. 

Contact applicants quickly! It will show them you are interested and make them feel wanted, and you can find out other information you may have stripped from your streamlined online application. Candidates may be working already, and for a rival. How easy is it for them to be able to attend an interview or show-around at your location, bearing in mind the time and cost? Could this be more easily facilitated by video interview and online video tours?  

Other organisations are competing aggressively for the same candidates, who will be snapped up quickly. Automated notifications should be set up to prompt recruiters to take actions if they forget or fall behind. Automated communications to candidates can keep them warm and informed of progress. Maintain the tone and language of your culture consistently but give them the feel of a human hand.

Ask yourself ‘’if I received this email; would it keep me keen?” 

Rethink how you offer a job

Don’t lose focus at offer stage. This is the time when it would be most expensive to lose out to a rival recruiter. It is too easy to kick back and think ‘’job done’’. Not at all, this marks the end of selection and the journey of onboarding into employment. If you have an ATS, does it have SMS and e-mail functionality? Can you design glossy templates to tantalise and excite your new hire?

Make sure the promises made to candidates before joining come true once they join. Happy employees will increase retention and decrease your vacancies, which is the easiest option when facing a recruitment challenge like the one now in the care industry. 

And for the ones that you didn’t hire, make your rejection communications friendly and personalised. Use data merge fields to embed information from your shortlisting or interview notes stored in your ATS, as specific feedback for the reason for rejection, and to reference what the positives you recorded about them too! After all, you may cross paths again in the future, perhaps as a future hire, a future colleague or peer, or even as one your organisation’s customers.