The caregiver industry is growing faster than ever, and finding and retaining quality staff can be challenging. A home care agency that’s successful with caregiver agency hiring has a well-established, consistent process in place for finding, screening and hiring top talent. A well-thought-out hiring system saves the agency time and money, while making it easier to fill client care positions.
Using a funnel approach, caregiver agencies track and analyze metrics at every stage of the recruitment process. This data helps the agency pinpoint where its efforts need improvement. For example, if an agency posts job advertisements on several different channels but sees no results, it may need to spend more money on advertising.
Agencies also use their website to promote their hiring process. Having an easily accessible career page can help the agency streamline its interviewing process by allowing candidates to fill out the application directly on the site. This also makes the website mobile-friendly, which is important because according to 2020 Dataportal, over 50 percent of all internet use is on smartphones.
An ATS is an applicant tracking system that helps an agency manage its entire recruiting process in one platform. An ATS allows an agency to collect detailed applicant information and sort applicants into three categories: qualified, needs further review or disqualified. This makes it easy for the recruiter to determine which applicants are the best fit for a particular position and eliminates unnecessary steps in the interviewing process.
Once a new hire is hired, the agency can use its ATS to automatically send additional paperwork such as I-9 and W-4 forms. This saves the new caregiver time on their first day and ensures that all necessary paperwork is completed before they start working with clients. Agencies also make a point to keep the onboarding process engaging and enjoyable for new caregivers. This can include hands-on examples of their job duties, and introducing them to fellow caregivers who can serve as mentors and provide support.
Another way to streamline the hiring process is by limiting the number of interviews. Having too many interviews can make it difficult to evaluate each candidate thoroughly. Additionally, if an agency is hiring for multiple roles at once, it can cause the process to run out of time and lose momentum. Caregiver agencies should aim to extend an offer within nine business days to give themselves the best chance of securing a great caregiver. caregiver agency hiring
