How can care homes attract more staff?
Emma Platt, division manager of White Recruitment Health & Social Care, one of the UK’s foremost recruiters for care homes, discusses recruiting and retaining good-quality staff members… As the UK healthcare sector continues to suffer from the worst staffing crisis in recent memory, more and more care homes are being forced to shut down. In addition to this, with an ageing population, the strain on these institutions is only set to increase. However, despite an unfavourable staffing situation, there are still many things that care homes can do to attract more nurses. CPD Offering and encouraging nurses to pursue training and development helps greatly with attraction, and also retention – with one survey suggesting 70% of workers will remain in their roles due to job-related training and development. By becoming known as a care home that gives nurses the chance to progress through the ranks, and actively encouraging them to take charge of their careers – you will be seen as a far more appealing place to work. Mentoring Tying in closely with CPD, mentoring is another key approach to boost attraction. By being known as an organisation that gives mentoring to young employees, provides them with feedback, guidance, and the opportunity to soak up the valuable experience within your workforce, you can take advantage of an easy, cost-effective way to bring more nurses into the fold. Flexible working It’s vital to offer employees as much as possible in terms of work-life balance, as the excessively demanding schedules of care workers are in part contributing to the current crisis. This can be done by introducing non-traditional working arrangements such as flexible working. The desire for this is clear, especially amongst younger workers, with 67% of millennials claiming ‘flexi-time’ was something they expected as standard from a job. Technological advances, such as e-rostering and e-job planning, should make this easier to implement. Employer Brand A strong employer brand is key to talent attraction, and retention. Research shows 63% of employees admit that a trusted employer increases job satisfaction. Care homes need to build a relevant Employee Value Proposition (EVP) for potential recruits. This can be achieved in a number of ways, such as finding a recruitment partner that is well placed to assist with communicating an authentic, attractive employer brand. Ultimately, with plenty of more ‘fashionable’ brands to compete with, care homes must take action to get in front of young audiences and give people a glimpse of some of the high-tech, cutting edge work going in the sector. Communicate your purpose Any employer brand must also communicate your purpose across all touchpoints. Many workers nowadays, especially millennials and gen Z, are value-driven and committed to finding a company that aligns with their beliefs. By emphasising the ethical, socially minded aspects of working in a care home, and the difference that can be made in patients’ lives – recruitment will be a far easier job. Highlight the ways your organisation gives back and is actively engaged in the community, and make sure you are vocal about your core values – and that this is integrated into any employer branding. No ‘one size fits all’ approach Ultimately, there is no magic solution for solving the current staffing crisis in care homes. However, by embracing the above methods, those in the sector can begin turning things around. Fortunately, these solutions are interchangeable, and by embracing any one method, you will be going some way to implementing the others. For instance, by investing in flexible working solutions, your employer brand will benefit.
Improved access to shift schedules can reduce turnover among home care workers
Cristian Grossmann, CEO and Co-Founder of Beekeeper – a digital workforce management platform – on retaining home care workers through better access to shift schedules… It’s no secret that the UK care and nursing home industry typically has a higher rate of staff vacancies compared to others. A recent report showed that the vacancy rate in the adult social care sector was 6.6%, higher than the national average of 2.6%. Just as worrying, staff turnover in the adult care sector has climbed to 27.8% and has been steadily increasing since 2012. Stem the flow of high turnover among your care workers The industry must stem the flow of high turnover by investing in improving morale amongst employees and increasing retention rates of adult social care workers. One way to do this is to provide workers with earlier access to shift schedules to help them improve their work/life balance. Early access to work schedules changes lives This recent study highlighted how a fluctuating work schedule combined with last-minute shift changes can negatively impact workers. Unpredictable shift patterns create an inability to plan for needed childcare, medical appointments or socialising, as workers simply don’t have enough time to anticipate these needs. This causes employees to feel dissatisfied and stressed and less likely to stay with their job. The study also found that offering employees access to shift schedules just two weeks in advance made a huge difference in the quality of life for workers. There’s an app for that Technology can address the problem of high turnover with an internal communications platform that employees can access via an app or desktop, in which shift schedules are migrated from paper or email into an easy-to-access digital hub. The result of digitising schedules is that workers have improved access to their shifts, which prevents communication delays typical with the traditional approach to scheduling. Additionally, internal communication platforms offer home care shift workers the ability to instantly request schedule changes to management, enabling faster response times to requests and improving management’s ability to quickly find cover. This allows employees to have more control over their work schedules, which can dramatically improve overall job satisfaction. In addition to operational tools such as shift schedules, an internal communications platform like Beekeeper also offers instant access to one-on-one and group messaging, information sharing, surveys, training guides and health and safety information — all of which employees find extremely beneficial. In our experience, staff retention improves very quickly when employees have a platform that offers easy shift scheduling, access to information, and an immediate way to connect with management. It’s important to remember that your staff are your best asset and by investing in technology that makes their working life more harmonious, you will retain more talent, and build a happier, more productive workforce. For more information on improving shift pattern access for care workers, see Beekeeper
