A successful caregiver agency is driven by a solid roster of quality caregivers. Caregivers are hired to assist seniors, disabled adults and other individuals with daily living tasks. To attract the best caregivers, home care agencies must be proactive in their hiring processes to keep up with demand and ensure that their clients are matched with experienced and reliable caregivers.
The first metric your agency should track is the number of caregiver applicants received in a given time period. This is a key indicator of how aggressive your agency is at hiring and can help identify areas where improvements are needed.
Next, your agency should consider the speed at which new caregivers are hired. If your current process takes more than two weeks or 10 business days to extend an offer, it could be costing you top talent. Agencies that are adept at caregiver hiring can hire in less than a week and often get first dibs on the best candidates.
Finally, your agency should also track the percentage of applicants that are qualified. This is a key factor in your recruitment strategy because it will help you avoid wasting the time of your recruiters and hiring managers on applicants who aren’t a good fit for your organization. This metric can also help your team understand what is working and what is not when it comes to recruiting for your home health care agency.
Hiring a home health aide is an intense process. There is background checking, verification of credentials and a thorough interview process to ensure the aide has the skills and abilities to meet your client needs. Additionally, you will need to provide insurance so a caregiver can be paid in the event of an on-the-job injury or illness. Agencies that employ their caregivers will be bonded and insured, while independent (direct hire) caregivers are responsible for their own worker’s compensation and liability insurance.
The goal of your recruitment strategy should be to find a caregiver who fits the client’s profile and is a cultural match. To do so, your agency should use inbound recruitment techniques such as social media marketing and referral programs to promote the opportunities you have available.
Lastly, your agency should make sure that its job postings and application forms are clear about what you’re looking for in a caregiver and what the applicant can expect from your company. Many job postings are overly specific and can turn away potential candidates by asking for unnecessarily high qualifications such as a valid driver’s license or the ability to provide references.
By tracking these metrics, your home care agency can hone its recruitment efforts and ensure that it is only investing resources in areas that will produce the highest return on investment. After all, it’s one thing to receive 100 applications for a job post, but it’s another to find that none of those applicants are your ideal candidate persona and therefore will not be effective at your agency. caregiver agency hiring