Why it’s important
Compliance is the process through which you gather all information for your new recruits to start work. This will include collecting references, eligibility to work in the UK, and criminal convictions checks (DBS). It’s really important to make this part of the process as smooth as you can for candidates, and ideally as quick as you can to avoid them dropping out of your process due to delays. Due to the relationship developed with the candidate during the recruitment process, the compliance journey should be a smooth one. It is really important to keep good communication channels at this stage. If there are delays (common with DBS checks) then keep in touch with the candidate, let them know what is happening, reassure them that you are chasing as much as you can to keep them engaged and reduce drop out.
Things to consider
There is always drop out at the compliance stage – typically around 20-25% but we’ve heard it as high as 50-60% in some cases! It is unavoidable, but there are ways to minimise drop out.
The key is to keep engagement at the levels you put in place during the recruitment process, so that your new employees feel welcomed, supported and part of this process. Can they help you to chase references?
A good ATS can also support here, by automating some elements of the chasing process by sending reminders / SMS messages / emails, to the relevant parties.
Policies and procedures – your organisation will no doubt have these in place but it is a good idea to check you are covering all you need against the information on the CQC website.
There is a requirement to ensure you hold relevant employee details such right to work and document areas such as gaps in work history, in order to keep your residents and organisation safe. Skills for Care offer some advice on safe and fair compliance on their website.
What else?
After compliance your attention will turn to onboarding, Make new employees feel welcome by introducing e-learning ahead of their start date. The benefits of not waiting to start this on day one, is seen here in this case study Overture case study (79 downloads) .
You also need to think about your induction process – do you have welcome videos? Can you offer them a buddy / mentor before they start? Have you booked a time in to check they’ve settled in and perform a stay-interview? You can see some example stay interview questions here Stay interview questions (75 downloads) .
Don’t just give a great recruitment process, give a great onboarding and ultimately employee experience to your new starters. This has a really positive impact on retention.