How to Find The Best Carers For Your Home Care Business

Introduction

Passionate and hardworking carers can really set your business apart from the rest, whilst boosting your reputation and driving referrals your way.

Within the Home Care industry, you are searching out companions and caregivers with heart, you will be looking to hire someone with a particular personality, skillset and passion for others.

When you’re at the stage of hiring, here’s how you can you do your very best to ensure you find the quality carers.

Make The Job Post Attention-Grabbing

Your job post is the first thing jobseekers will see, it will give them an impression of you and your company. Remember, first impressions count!

As you are looking for first class staff to look after your clients, you want your job advert to grab the attention of the high-quality carers! Each position should clearly identify the ideal skill set and qualifications needed, which will of course be based on the service and level of care required for the role.  The post should inform of the clientele they will be providing care for, where the care is taking place, (independently at home) and include if any incentives are available for the applicants, such as full retention schemes.

Be honest about the size of your business, this gives the potential candidate a clearer idea of the business and scale. Some people have preferences for working within a smaller more personal company.

Include the franchise vision on the advert to emphasize the types of people you want to join your family. It is important to hire people who share the same values as yourself.

Utilise Your Online Presence & Community

The My Business pages on Google and Facebook are there to be utilised, it is free and simple to do. Take the time to properly fill out your profiles, reply to all reviews, and keep an eye on your user views.

Step up your involvement in your local community, show your involvement on your website and social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Use your community events to promote positions available and attract local jobseekers.

Post the position on your company page on LinkedIn to advertise for free, be aware, the post will expire 30 days from the job postdate. When you post a job, LinkedIn will notify your co-workers and close connections in your 1st-degree network so they can also share the job with their own networks.

Contacting Applicants

You should contact the applicants right away, within 48 hours of them submitting an application. If you wait to respond to an applicant, you are risking losing out on that person, if you wait a couple of weeks, they may have secured another role by then. Do not only call the seemingly perfect applicants, give the CVs that don’t fit all the relevant skills a chance too. You are looking for a great caregiver, they may have the right attitude and heart but lack skills and skills can be learned, passion for the job cannot.

Trust your gut and ask yourself if you would want that person looking after one of your family members! Once you have decided to hire someone, do not wait, call them quickly or again you could risk losing your carer.

Interview Questions

Use your interview questions to gain insight on the candidate’s skills, personality and honesty levels, care requires a high level of critical skills in emergencies so ensure you ask questions that show their awareness of certain conditions their clients may suffer from.

Ask Technical, Personality and Experimental questions.

Technical questions are to test the applicant’s basic knowledge to work as a care assistant.

Example - What do you know about safeguarding policies?               

Personality questions are to help you determine whether the applicant will be suited to the position.

Example - Tell us how you would handle caring for a patient with Alzheimer's disease.

Experimental questions are to test if a candidate’s previous experiences have prepared them for this role. If your applicant has no previous professional experience then you can change the question to reflect upon personal experiences.

Example - Describe a stressful situation you have had with a client and how you handled it.

Once You Have Hired Your Carers Keep Them!

Try to pay, train, and support your employees well. Carers treated well will often be loyal and refer friends and family member to work for their company.

At CareYourWay we are incredibly strong believers in supporting our members of staff, which is why we have built a care community promise, pledging our commitment to employees. At the heart of our very business, our fantastic carers go the extra mile every single day and we find it vital to provide them with the support they deserve for their life-changing duties they carry out each and every day.