Values Based Recruitment – crunch point

Cohesion’s Hot Half Dozen series – Values Based Recruitment

After a period of heightened applications to the sector’s vacancies at the start of the pandemic which were as much as three times ‘normal’ levels, we are now experiencing the opposite.

Up until fairly recently many people struggling to find jobs in other sectors as a result of the pandemic, also ‘new to care’ applicants attracted by the media spotlight put on caring as a vocation, were boosting application numbers to almost unmanageable levels.

Now we are finding that applications numbers are decidedly dipping and in fact candidate attraction is a bigger problem for our sector.

This leads us to highlight another of our ‘hot half dozen’ of social care recruitment – the importance of values based recruitment.

This in itself is nothing new – Cohesion have been talking about this for years and stressing the importance of utilising values based recruitment to widen the candidate pool and fill the huge deficit care is facing in the coming years with an aging workforce and increase in demand.

But when you are struggling to get applications coming in it is more important than ever to adopt a values based approach – right from the job advert stage – you really need to, where appropriate, highlight that qualifications aren’t necessary if people have the right transferrable skills.

A lot of care organisations will say they are open to recruiting to values, however there can be a gap between the belief in and a desire for a values based process amongst the leadership and the wish of the hiring managers who may prefer someone that has done the job before.

It is important to consider how to make your whole recruitment process values based from beginning to end.

Our top tips for this include:

1. Train and support your Managers – are they asking the right values based questions at the interview stage? Also understand there needs to be the right balance in teams.
2. Use your Values – if you recruit around YOUR organisation’s values ensuring new starters are aligned with these you are more likely to improve your retention and hire the right people for your role.
3. Consider implementing Care Character the definitive values based candidate engagement and selection tool. Care Character identifies whether candidates reflect the seven qualities of care, and gives you a number of tailored reports to support your recruitment process.

If you would like more information on how to ensure your recruitment process is truly values based get in touch with Amanda: amanda.marques@cohesionrecruitment.com