By Diane West
We talk with home care owners on a daily basis and recruiting is the hot topic. With a competitive labor market the issue is to attract candidates who are customer service oriented, dependable and have a positive attitude. So I sought out the advice of an HR expert, Tammi DeVille Merrell, Hiring Specialist, Owner of Hire With Ease.
There are ways to find the right candidates and entice them to apply to your company if you’re willing to take the time to review every aspect of your current recruiting methods. Every home care company is concerned about how they should market to get new clients. However, the way you market your company to applicants is just as important. After all, you’re going to need quality caregivers to serve all of those new clients.
Here are several great tips Tammi shared on ways to improve your recruiting process. Think about the type of people you’re trying to recruit and write your job post/career page around that.
- Review every aspect of your current recruiting process.
Where are you recruiting – job boards, career page on your website, job fairs, nursing schools? Are you tracking applicant traffic from each source? How easy is it to apply? Does the message in your ads and on your website convey your company culture?
Take an honest look at your job board ads and the Jobs/Careers page on your website. Look at other websites, not necessarily home care. Ask family members or other business owners for their honest feedback about your Careers page. Is it appealing? Does it sell the job? Does this look like a great opportunity? What do you feel separates you from the competition?
Ask current staff why they applied to your company. Also, look at your application process from the applicant’s perspective.
- Take a look at the competition
Indeed.com and Craigslist are still the most widely used job boards in the country. With that in mind, Tammi offered a great suggestion. Look at what other companies are doing to attract talent. Go to a few job boards, type in caregiver/CAN and your city. Yep, you’re looking for a needle in a haystack.
Highlight the positives … signing bonus, higher pay rate, training, opportunity for advancement, etc. – list the things that make you stand out as the better employer, and be sincere. Put this information in the subject line of your ad or use as keywords. Your ad should not read ‘Need Caregivers/CNAs’ because that’s what every other ad says.
- Make your ad stand out
Indeed.com – The subject line and/or keywords matter. Make it about the applicants. Remember, you’re selling them on working for your company. Experiment by typing in different keywords or jobs to see how many jobs are listed. The subject line needs to grab their attention – hospitality, customer care, pay rate, willing to train. Example: I searched under Caregiver – will train, there were 7 job listings. Searched under caregivers, there were 338 listings.
Craigslist – List your ad under something other than Caregiver. Try Customer Service or food/bev/hosp. Then make the subject line interesting. Example: Amazing attitude, you’re the kind of caregiver we want! Love to serve others, we’ll train you to provide care!
Careers page – Add a video, list the benefits of working for your company, list the necessary requirements, offer training or a signing bonus or host an open house. Sell them on being part of your team and your company culture. Let them know they’ll have opportunities to grow and make a difference.
Now, write those new ads, post them under different categories and track the data – number of responses from each source, why did they apply, applicants interviewed, applicants hired, etc.
The need for quality caregivers will continue to grow. Take this opportunity now to grow your business by changing the way you recruit.
Take this opportunity to learn more about recruiting from an expert, Tammi DeVille Merrell. Tammi developed two learning opportunities specifically for Leading Home Care, video learning modules and a custom consulting package. Order today at http://privatedutyacademy.org/-c-26.html.
Get Monthly Recruiting Updates from Caregiver Quality Assurance®
Industry trends suggest that the biggest barrier to growing your private duty home care company in 2015 will be your ability to recruit, select, train, and retain high quality caregivers. To bring added value to the members of our Caregiver Quality Assurance program, we are adding a monthly education program called Home Care R & R. You will receive a packet of information and two learning videos to help you and your team improve your recruiting process, find higher quality applicants, and retain your best caregivers for longer periods of time.
According to the 2015 Private Duty Benchmarking Study which will be out shortly, caregiver turnover has increased this past year to over 60%. That’s a big jump from 53.2% in 2013. To recruit, select, and retain the caregivers you need to grow your business, become a member of Caregiver Quality Assurance.
