This episode of the Care Home PR And Marketing Podcast features Stephen Forster, founder of the Care Social Network.

Drawing from his background in care and recruitment, Stephen shares how to revolutionise care worker hiring for care homes.

Stephen used to work as domiciliary care assistant in Huddersfield, and it was here that he advanced to HR manager subsequently helping to double the size of the company within two years before founding recruitment and retention company Care Social Network.

In the episode Stephen focuses on:

• “Why you can recruit all your carers via Indeed”: Stephen believes care providers need only use Indeed for hiring care assistants – and he offers unique insights into optimising job adverts and budgets.

“Indeed is 100% a golden ticket. Learn how to use Indeed you can smash it! One provider I’ve been helping has at least 500% more applications while using the same budget as previous,” says Stephen.

He adds: “focusing your efforts on Indeed rather than spreading them thin across various channels,” is key.

• Why “it’s now a candidates’ market – so you must strip back your entire recruitment processes to make it work”

Stephen addresses how overuse of agency staff can lead to permanent staff being unhappy, which ultimately negatively impacts care.

• Why “time-to-hire: is vital:

“Often if someone applies for a care job on Indeed the care home will reply three days later, and it’s often a boring ad. And yet they expect candidates to get back to them!?” says Stephen.

“The truth is you must treat applicants with unbelievable respect, like gold dust - and get on the phone to them straight away”

“I use a VET (voicemail, email, text) system, and I do this twice per day, per applicant.

“Remember, candidates may be applying for 4 or 5 care jobs in one go on Indeed. So you have to be fast

“And you must sell the company ethos to candidates, and why your provider is the best place to work.”

Stephen gives the example of one Lancashire provider with three homes which cut agency usage from 60% to 5% saving over £10,000 a month in agency fees.

• Why face-to-face interviews are, in the present recruitment climate, more about “candidates interviewing the care provider.”
• Why lengthy screenings of applicants via the phone need to be reduced - and face to face interviews should be around one hour.

Why offering jobs on the spot should not be considered as “being desperate”.

Rather it’s about doing “whatever it takes,” to get the right person to work for you.

• No-shows: “Providers complain that potential applicants are not good enough and do not show up – but when I dig deeper it’s because processes are not good enough from the start,” says Stephen.
• Hiring registered managers: Stephen recommends “using Indeed and its CV search features to proactively reach out to potential candidates, potentially saving on recruitment fees…..You can hire a new manager for £250 – and that can be done by every care company…”