Social Care: Values Based Recruitment?

Social Care Recruitment – is Values Based Recruitment the answer?

If you work in the care sector in any capacity it’s highly unlikely that the concern around future demand for social care services and staffing levels has passed you by.

As we try to balance an aging population and increasing demand for care services with poor staff retention rates, your social care recruitment processes should be the very best they can be.

Practicing Values Based Recruitment is an important consideration if you aren’t doing so already. It essentially means that the values and behaviours held by the individual applying for the role are considered equally important, and possibly even more so, as previous experience in care roles. This widens the potential candidate pool options considerably, which can only be a good thing.

Studies have shown that recruitment is strongly linked to retention – hire the best fit for both the role and the organisation and you increase the chances of that member of staff staying. Bear this in mind when considering your recruitment process. The PhD behind Care Character sought to establish criteria for effective performance of care workers, along with drivers of retention and attrition. This was in order to develop a strategy for the recruitment and selection of effective care workers.  You can read the executive summary here.

The PhD identified 15 core competencies and 7 main qualities that make an excellent carer: communication, compassion and empathy, dutifulness, teamworking, inclusivity, adaptability and resilience and procedural compliance. Consider putting these at the heart of your social care recruitment processes and assess candidates based on their qualities rather than past experience. Care Character can do just that for you, with a 7 minute online assessment completed by your candidates before interview. Why not give it a try today?

Trial the assessment

We are holding an event on the 18th March that will be looking at the effect of digitalising social care recruitment and the impact this has on both HR teams but also the candidates applying for roles. Hope you can join us!