How to slow down the revolving door of recruitment and staff retention in your care home
It is typical for care providers to struggle with a high turnover of care staff if they rely upon contract and temporary care workers. However, there are several strategies that care providers and management teams can employ to keep current care staff incentivised for longer — and attract new and experienced care workers.
Use feedback to adapt your care recruitment approach
If you are a care home owner or provider with high staff turnover or are looking for new ways to improve staff retention, understanding why team members are leaving and what factors informed their decision can be a valuable tool.
We often see exceptionally expensive recruitment campaigns underway with little thought about slowing down the revolving door of leaving carers. In essence, this amounts to throwing resources and budget at gaining new recruits, whilst losing the most valuable and experienced members of the workforce.
Never wait for an exit interview to find out why. Be proactive in your approach and run ‘stay’ focus groups, to get to the crux of what motivates the different demographics within your organisation to stay with you – and never presume it’s always about the pay!
Be vocal about the benefits you can offer new care talent
On the other side of this revolving door are new care joiners. If you have listened to your staff and implemented new practices or benefits that they say will make a meaningful difference to them, or have existing benefits for staff that are part of your care organisation, then don’t keep it a secret!
Make the benefits of working for your care organisation – whether it’s better pay, development paths, shift flexibility or community events – a focus of your recruitment strategy.
By sharing staff stories from within your care home on social media or with the local news, inviting potential recruits to see your practices in action and detailing the approach and values you take in job listings, your service will stand out for its unique offering, rather than a boring cookie-cutter job role, which is likely to boost recruitment engagement.
Keep care recruitment at a constant pace
Unfortunately, the fall-out rate of staff who progress through the recruitment process but ultimately don’t start the job can be high, as is the churn rate of new starters, with significant proportions only lasting a few weeks or months. To reduce these statistics within your care home, structure your recruitment process to have regular contact with candidates in whom you are interested, with additional touch points between job offer and their start date. Follow this up with an efficient and welcoming onboarding process, with effective mentoring so that they quickly feel part of the team.
Additionally, it’s worth implementing a policy of continual recruitment, so that you always engage with potential workers whether there are current vacancies available or not (again, keep in regular contact with them so they don’t go ‘off the boil’). This way, if a valued team member were to leave, you have a better chance of being able to replace them quickly, so as not to interrupt regular care practices.
If you want to boost staff recruitment and retention in your care home to ensure robust commercials, our team of independent care consultants can help. Please get in touch for a free initial consultation.