January 20, 2023

How to recruit domiciliary care professionals

Table of contents

Hiring the right person is not easy - hiring them quickly is even trickier!

This short article provides some useful tips to help your care businesses attract and hire great care professionals, fast. Follow the steps, answer the questions and get confident around the recruiting process.

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Assess your needs and values

By understanding why you’re hiring and who is right for your business, it’s much easier to attract the right fit first time. Answer the questions below to help get a better understanding of who or what you're looking for.

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What would your ideal team capacity look like?
How many additional hours work do you need per week to meet this capacity?
Are these hours reasonable for one person, or will you need to hire multiple people?
Do you have specialist training on offer or the budget to provide training if requested or required?
Does this role have the potential to develop into a more senior position?
What are the top three values your business has when it comes to team members?
What are three words you would use to describe your ideal team member?

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Create the job role

Break down the role into simple responsibilities and requirements.

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What are five main responsibilities for the role?
Will the they require their own transport?
What hours per week are they needed for?
Will they be needed on weekends, over night or for particularly long or short shifts?
Will they require specialist training i.e complex care?

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Create a strong job post

Make sure your job post attracts the right candidates. Use this step-by-step guide to help create

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Write a title for your ad that includes any role requirements, a benefit of the role and the location they’ll be operating in

Follow this basic example:

Are you a carer with a car looking for flexible home health care hours in Hackney?

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Describe the services your business offers with one sentence and a few bullet points

Follow this basic example:

‍Join a fantastic local care business and help us provide bespoke support to help older adults. We offer the following services:

Personal care
Light domestic tasks
Shopping
Medication management
Companionship

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What is the way applicants will apply for the role?

We suggest one of the following examples:

Click here to fill out an application
Send your CV to example@business.com with the subject line ‘Care pro role - Hackney’

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Describe the next steps for all applicants once they’ve applied

Follow this basic example:

Thank you for sending in your application. If your application is successful, a member of the team will be in touch with in the next 24 hours with next steps.

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Engage your current team

According to a study by CEB, the number one way people discover new job opportunities is from someone they know!

How have you shared the job post with the team?
Do the team all agree with and understand the job post?
How will team members easily share their referrals back to you?
What is a monetary incentive you could have in place for referrals that go onto be hired and stay for 6 months?
What is a non-monetary incentive you could have in place for referrals that go onto be hired and stay for 6 months?
Are these incentives clear to the team?

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Pre-interview screening

Save time on unnecessary interviews with the wrong people with pre-screening questions. These can be sent following an application, or be part of the application itself. We recommend you fill out these questions as well, so you can quickly compare applicant’s answers with your own.

What about your past experience makes you a great fit for this role?
What will a successful career look like to you?
How does your perfect manager communicate with you?
What are some characteristics of a company culture that helps you do your best work and helps you enjoy your time at work?
What could your current/previous employer do to keep you from leaving your role?
What salary range do you expect from your next role?
When can you start if you’re hired?

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How birdie can help with retention and recruitment

What are the three main reasons you’re looking to fast-track your recruitment?

birdie provides a unique one-platform solution used by care businesses of all sizes, with care management, rostering, financing and analytics tools. birdie is proven to save our partners time - up to 15 hours a week on all day-to-day operations - and money in day-to-day care management, rostering and finance; giving back breathing room to focus on strategic activities like recruitment and retention.

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Book a demo now at birdie.care/book-a-demo

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