How to attract the "right people" into social care
If our workforce really are our most important asset in social care, it’s time for a rethink. You can’t have failed to hear about the crisis in social care and the large number of vacancies that are exacerbating pressures in the already overstretched sector. In my new blog mini-series, a collaboration with Andrew Burridge, NWADASS, I’m going to be examining why there’s a problem in the first place and providing some practical advice and solutions for changes we can make right now, as well as in the longer term, to recruit and retain more of the right people to work in social care.
I said in my last blog that we don’t just want to attract any people to work in social care. We want to attract the right people. This week I’m going to unpick what we mean by “the right people” and share some practical tips for how we might attract them.
So here’s a really practical task to help you think about what the right person means for your organisation. Stop and think about who is your best care worker or manager. Think about what it is that makes them so great. What are the things they say and do that give you confidence in what they do? What qualities and attributes do they have? What’s the biggest thing they bring that makes the most difference to the job they do? I’d be pretty confident in saying that the conclusion you get relates to what they care about and their personal drivers and qualities. You might call it their mindset, their attitude, their values. And if you could clone this person and recruit more of them you would right?
What I’m talking about here is a values based approach to recruitment. Let me be clear. I’m not saying prior experience doesn’t matter. I’m not for one minute suggesting that social care is an unskilled job that anyone can do. What I am saying is the thing that makes the biggest difference to the quality of care people provide are their personal motivations and drivers. We can learn new skills but if we’re lacking the right values for the job, it’s not going to work. Who wants a carer who is proficient in carrying out the practical tasks but isn’t interested in us as people, isn’t motivated to help us live our best life and doesn’t really care about us?
So now you’re clearer about the sort of person you are looking to attract, let's think about how you entice them to work for you. When we’re busy and pulled in different directions with lots of competing priorities, it’s tempting to dig out an old advert we’ve used before and use it again. The truth is a one size fits all approach rarely works and especially in a buoyant employment market where applicants have lots of choice. The trick is to know who you are trying to target and to direct the content of your advert/marketing in a way that talks directly to them. I’m talking about taking a targeted approach to recruitment. Time for another practical task. Think about the groups of people you would like to attract to work for you. What sorts of people do you usually have the most success recruiting? How do you ensure your workforce reflects the communities you provide care for? Where is the untapped potential ie. people who might have the right values but who don’t currently work in social care?
With recruitment pressures mounting, it feels like we have to get better at tapping into untapped or at least under-tapped groups of people:
The over 50s - there’s a shed load of evidence that says some of the best social care workers are in their 50s and have often cared for a family member. They may not have worked in social care before and may lack confidence that they would be considered but get the right people and they’ll be a fantastic asset to your organisation.
Pandemic reflectors - we’ve all experienced seismic change in the last 18 months and change makes us reflect. What matters to me? What do I want to do with my life? How do I make a difference? Hundreds of thousands of people volunteered during the pandemic, got behind the Marcus Rashford campaign and spent more time with their families and in their local community. I’d say there’s a pretty good chance that there’s a whole untapped group of people considering their options for the future and for who, if we change people’s misconceptions about what social care is (Let's change the story - Social Care is Amazing!! — Kath Smythe Collective), might just be open to working in the sector
Young People - the rates of young people working in social care are really low and there has to be more we can do to persuade them what a great career social care is. Changing the story about social care is part of the picture as is getting out there and selling our sector loud and proud to young people in schools and colleges. We also however have to be open to challenging ourselves about how we do what we do and where there are opportunities to be more flexible. For example, working in a team and making new friends is a strong motivator for young people and that can feel challenging when they are working in peoples’ homes. There are some great examples of employers recognising this and creating spaces for people to come together for social time and peer support - how do we do more of this? What do we have in place that helps to nurture and develop young people? And, are our employment practices young-people friendly?
Take some time to identify who you are trying to target. Put yourself in their shoes and ask yourself, if I was them, what would matter most to me? What am I looking for from my next job? What would stop me applying for a job in social care? What might I be worried about? Write your thoughts down and then, use this to produce adverts or marketing content that is targeted specifically to the people you’re seeking to attract. You don’t have to have a standard message. You can target what you say to specifically address the hopes and fears of the people you are trying to attract. And if you do this, you’re more likely to attract more of the right people to come and work for you.
Keep it local
Most social care workers live within 6 miles of where they work so when it comes to recruitment, think local.
Last but by no means least, think about where you are promoting the jobs you have available. Where do the people you are trying to attract access information? The answer will be different for different groups of people. Most people who work in social care live within a 6 mile radius of where they work so keeping your approach local is likely to get you the best results. Take your jobs out to where the people you are trying to attract are. Don’t expect them to come to you. This will look different depending on who you are seeking to attract. Some employers find getting out into their community and talking face to face with people - in supermarkets, community centres, pubs, hairdressers - is a great way to draw people in. It’s a great opportunity to break down some myths, talk about real life examples of the difference people in social care jobs are making and creating an emotional pull.
Social media is a great way to attract people but think about who you are trying to attract and what social media they access. For example, if you’re targeting the over 50s, you might find Facebook works well for you - especially posting in a local neighbourhood or community page. If you’re targeting younger people, you might find Instagram or Tik Tok give you better results. Remember that most of us are looking to work with “people like me” and are more likely to listen to real people already doing the jobs we’re trying to recruit to, so getting your own staff involved in your recruitment drive is a great way to promote your jobs. If you’re lacking diversity in your workforce at the moment, don’t be afraid to reach out into your community to ask for support in promoting your roles across different communities.
Time is precious but investing time into getting recruitment right will pay dividends in terms of retention, loyalty and the quality of services you are able to deliver. 4 key steps:
Think about what makes a great care worker/manager/support coordinator etc.
Know who you are trying to attract - what matters to them, their hopes, aspirations and fears
Target your messaging in a way that plays to the hopes, aspirations and fears of the people you are trying to attract
Take your jobs out to where people are. Don’t wait for them to come to you.
I’m not suggesting this is a magic wand and the answer to all your recruitment challenges. We know it’s a challenging context we are working in with plenty of competition for new recruits. I’m a firm believer in focusing on what you can control. You can’t control the wider context but what you can do is take control of your approach to recruitment. By taking these practical steps that are grounded in what works, you will increase your success rate in recruiting people who care and with the right values to deliver great quality care.
Andrew says:
Kath poses a great question in this blog about who are the best care workers we know. My mind turns to a friend who has worked as a support worker for a young man with a learning disability and who is leaving that role to training as a mental health nurses. My friend is passionate about photography and will regularly post amazing pictures on Facebook using only a camera phone.
Knowing they would be seeing less of the person they cared for (who we’ll call Steve) my friend planned and published a small memory book of photographs of activities they had done. What struck me most was how Steve was seen as a person, if not a valued friend, rather than a customer or “person with needs”.
Other examples come to mind – the Care Home that asked the older person what they would most like to do, and in response to being told “to feel sand between my toes” brought back sand as a gift. The best care workers are those that see the whole person and feel rewarded by supporting people to be independent, not simply “providing care”.
Given the need to appeal to people’s values and communicate that for some people social care represents a fantastic rewarding career, values based recruitment is an area we’re hoping to explore with care providers. We recently ran a Care Home Quality Webinar sharing values based approaches. While it may take slightly more time (and hopefully only slightly) spending more time up front with applicants appears to have had success. Approaches include pre-interview conversations, and interview activities such as telling your person story or hand massage.
As Kath suggests there is no magic wand but the NW ADASS Future Workforce programme is aiming to identify the best approaches that can help attract the right people into the right jobs in order to help make every day the best it can be.
Attracting the right people is important. How you respond when someone shows an interest in working for you is absolutely essential and it’s this that we’ll be getting into next time with more practical tips to help you maximise your success in recruiting the right people into your social care roles.
