“How can I recruit care and support workers?”

Social Care and Recruitment seem to have become interchangeable in many ways- if you work in either one of these professions, the other will be a hot topic. With both asking the question “how can I recruit care and support workers?”

Skills for Care have predicted that by 2030 the number of people aged over 85 will have almost doubled and by 2043 there will be double the number of people living with dementia. This might seem like a long while off, but if action isn’t taken now, there is going to be a serious shortage of workers.

Social care recruitment solutions are imperative to the success of recruitment and social care businesses alike. You need only look at the turnover rate of the social care sector to understand the issue here- the average rate across all sectors in the UK is 15%, social care turnover rate is around 20%.  This obviously has a bearing on the social care sector vacancy rate which, in comparison to other sectors, is almost 2% higher.

Download our e-book 11 top tips on how to recruit the best care and support workers 

We work with a number of Health and Social Care organisations, such as Priory Group, Turning Point, Midway Care Group and many more. We recruit thousands of workers in to the Health and Social Care sectors every year and we want to share some tips on how to recruit great people in to the health and social care industry

1. REACH- ATTRACTING THE RIGHT PEOPLE (INCLUDING PASSIVE CANDIDATES) AND KNOWING HOW

ONLINE

Online advertising on job boards helps to ensure your vacancies are being found by the numerous job seekers who turn to the internet to find their next career. Your adverts need to speak to your audience, they should be creative, why not create word clouds or e-cards? These have the ability to be shared on social media sites and dramatically increase your reach.

LOCALISED RECRUITMENT

How are you ensuring you are targeting those people who are not online? Localised recruitment is one of the solutions to this. Work closely with your local job centres, welfare to work providers and universities and colleges to run open days and attend career fairs. Posters and flyers in local churches, shopping centres and bus stops will also help to target your offline audience.

RECRUITING FOR VALUES

Recruiting for values in the care sector has never been more important, there are not enough experienced people to recruit to the vacancies and we therefore need to be targeting people who have the right values and behaviours to join the sector – the rest you can teach!

Data from the NMDS-SC shows that from the 1.3 million jobs recruited to in the last 12 months only 3% of hires had worked in the care sector previously.

Values based recruitment has allowed the sector to start looking at alternative routes to market and has widened the pool in which we can attract candidates from, making such avenues as international recruitment possible.

2. ENGAGE – CREATING A GREAT CANDIDATE JOURNEY

ENGAGEMENT:

• Needs to start right at the beginning of the recruitment process, including the information candidates have access to on your website – this is the first impression of your organisation and you need to ensure the right message is delivered.
• Look at the application process from a candidate’s point of view, you can imagine how demotivating it must be to spend loads of time completing a detailed application form only to never hear back. Candidate engagement has never been more important in retaining candidates through the recruitment process. Whether they are successful or not they should be left with a positive impression of the organisation and be willing to recommend you to colleagues and friends.

3. RETAIN- REDUCE TURNOVER

65.5% of the Social Care workforce surveyed by the NCF left within 2 years. With a 16.6% staff turnover rate, retention is an important aspect to consider.  A good retention strategy has the potential to transform your business by ensuring top talent stays longer.

Exit and Retention interviews can have a huge impact on the way your business operates. By finding out why people leave and, on the flipside, what encourages them to stay, you can work on refining the good and eradicating the bad.

ENCOURAGE GREATER WORKFORCE PARTICIPATION AMONGST THE OVER 50S

As well as being highly skilled, the older members of your workforce are great role-models for your new employees, they can train and mould new talent in to the future stars of your business.

Are your employees happy? Engage with them, get their feedback and try to ensure they’re enjoying their role. Can you offer incentives to retirees or those who are due to retire? Offering more flexible hours and benefits could mean that those over 50 stick around a little longer and retirees may well return.

4. BRIDGE THE SKILLS GAP

Your people are your greatest asset and investing in them will help your business grow. Thorough training programmes will close the skills gap and be beneficial for you and your employees.

Training improves organisational survival rates. According to the UK Commission for Employment and Skills, organisations that do not invest in training in the Health sector are 1.3 times more likely to close compared to those that do.

By developing the communication skills of your employees, you will be creating a palpable difference in staff behaviours- this will increase morale as well as improving the overall performance of staff. Ultimately, you will have a more experienced workforce with a higher proportion holding relevant qualifications, including managerial and supervisory staff, senior care workers and care workers.

Training will result in your business performing to a higher standard with residents receiving better levels of care and support.

For more information and best practice tips on how to combat some of the issues of the social care sector read our ebooks by clicking here or call Lee Burman now on 0121 713 6956

Written by Hannah Ratcliff, Marketing Executive