As the 75 million baby boomers in the United States reach retirement age over the next couple of decades, the demand on the long-term home health care industry will grow exponentially. To meet this demand, in-home care providers need to be well-staffed not just in their number of employees, but also in the quality of those employees. Here are five tips for recruiting the best home health professionals for your business.
Write a great job description
The first step in the recruitment process for any job is writing the job description. Writing a clear, concise job description benefits both parties involved.
For the potential employees, a great job description tells them exactly what skills and qualities they need to secure employment, what to expect from the job, a general salary range, and a little bit about the company itself. This helps them decide if they are right for the job and if the job is right for them.
For the home health care providers, a great job description narrows the pool of potential candidates down to mostly those who are actually qualified for the job. This wastes less time and fewer resources in finding quality staff.
Advertise job postings
Once you have a great job posting, the next step is to publish it everywhere. Industry-specific job boards are great because they’ll give you candidates who have a decent amount of knowledge about the home health care industry. Local listings like Craigslist and your local news website’s classified section receive a lot of traffic, as do free job sites like Indeed, Monster, and SimplyHired.
Get visible in the community
Attend community events or sponsor a health fair or home health information forum open to the community. This will set you apart from other employers and make you memorable to potential candidates.
Being a part of university and vocational school job fairs may be a good idea as well. Candidates straight out of college may not have much experience, but many are looking for job skills training, willing to learn, and very hard-working.
Perform background and reference checks
Background checks and drug screenings are often overlooked in fields with high turnover rates, but they are very important in recruiting great home health care employees.
Also check references from previous employers. This will tell you if the person is a team player, why they left their old job, and any reason why you should — or shouldn’t — hire the candidate.
Document and change as needed
Lastly, if any of your recruiting strategies aren’t working, change them. Perhaps your job ad needs tweaking or your interview questions don’t really prompt enough from new hires. Whatever the case may be, it’s important to document all the steps of your recruitment process so it’s easier to see if there are any problems and where those problems lie.
Recruiting great home health employees is crucial to staying ahead of the wave of retirees that’s about to hit the home health industry. Finding the best people is about more than just asking good interview questions — it starts long before the interview. Be clear about your goals, and reach out to both job sites and the various corners of your community to find the gems of your future home health care staff.