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It’s no secret that the direct care industry is growing. In fact, new data suggests that from 2018 to 2028, this profession will add an estimated 1.3 million new jobs specifically in home care and residential care.
Add a global pandemic and possibly the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression to the existing shortage of direct care workers, and home care agencies are faced with a serious recruiting challenge. But like any good challenge, the best companies are able to turn challenges into opportunities to position their business for growth.
The following four recruiting strategies will help your home care agency tap into new growth opportunities.
1. Lean in to the Economic Uncertainty
Some sources report that as many as 26% of Americans are unemployed today. While the millions of candidates this figure represents might not already possess direct care work certifications, many could be efficiently reskilled to help address the dearth of direct care professionals in 2020.
Considering the average person will change careers five to seven times within their working life, home care agencies have a real opportunity to fill positions as workers transition within this time of economic turmoil. By repositioning their recruitment marketing to attract potential new hires with or without experience, agencies can set themselves apart in what is already a competitive recruiting space.
While some agencies may consider training and certifying a new workforce daunting, solutions like CareAcademy’s training tools and others make reskilling an eager candidate much more efficient. Worried about building the internal infrastructure to train new direct care workers? Home care agencies can partner with other organizations that already have systems in place to connect with candidates and ensure they receive proper training through initiatives like CareAcademy's Future of Work campaign.
2. Rethink your ICP
An Ideal Candidate Profile, or ICP, helps hiring managers focus on candidates that have the key skills necessary to succeed in a particular role. For home care agencies, an ICP often includes position-specific certification needs and soft skills like empathy and emotional intelligence.
As pressure increases for home care agencies to fill positions and expand in the direct care field, consider adjusting your ICP to value growth potential and motivation in applicants over certification and experience. Home care agencies that are able to train and retain a dedicated team will be well positioned to stand out in an increasingly competitive environment in 2020 and beyond.
Keeping in the realities of today’s unique hiring environment, outsourcing expert Eric Sims suggests 5 simple steps to building an ICP for your open position:
- Define the job content and duties
- Consider the company culture and vision
- Learn from your top and bottom performers
- Define key hard and soft skills
- Evaluate methods of connection to candidates
Using these five steps, home care agencies can focus on what kind of hiring choices will allow them to scale their businesses in the long run, rather than simply filling a position today.
3. Take Your Recruiting Virtual
(Even if Your Positions Aren’t)
While most home care positions are not virtual, that doesn’t mean home care agencies can’t reap the benefits of the transition to efficient virtual recruiting. Aside from the obvious safety benefits of conducting hiring processes virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic, there are multiple benefits of taking your hiring process online.
Recruiting expert and head of global talent acquisition at SimpliSafe Larry Jacobson, explains that virtual recruiting can compress the interview process and alleviate scheduling problems that often draw out the candidate’s journey. Swap recruiting events and job fairs to meet candidates where they are already spending time today: online. Consider posting job opportunities on Indeed, Facebook, Craigslist, and LinkedIn, and use story features on Instagram and other platforms to highlight vacancies in an engaging way.
Down the line in the candidate journey, virtual interviewing and candidate screening improves efficiency by reducing scheduling conflicts. Some video interviewing solutions even offer an asynchronous approach to interviewing, making the process even more efficient and accessible. Experts agree that even for in-person positions, virtual recruiting processes are likely here to stay.
4. Leverage New Technology
From applicant tracking systems to skills assessments, recruiting experts have long encouraged employers to consider the expediency and effectiveness that technology can inject into the hiring process. Technology can help home care agencies automate arduous processes like confirming certifications and licensure to streamline the candidate's journey.
However, often overlooked is the growing capacity of recruiting technology to effectively assess for soft skills that are critical to direct care work like empathy and emotional intelligence. Especially when considering reskilling a motivated workforce to fill the rising demand for home care professionals, these kinds of tools can be invaluable to understand a candidate’s potential rather than existing hard skills.
Check out these top recruitment solutions to get started.
Recruit Efficiently to Grow Your Business
Whether you’re working to transition your recruiting process online or brainstorming creative ways to fill vacant positions to grow your home care agency, remember to keep the power of diversifying your candidate pool in mind. Scaling your agency requires building a pipeline of motivated candidates.
Take your business to the next level with our guide: Agency Growth Secrets: The Complete Guide to Recruiting Caregivers.