By Stephen Tweed
The biggest barrier to growing your home care business is finding enough new caregivers to meet the needs of your clients.
In a conversation with the owner of a very large home care company, he told me that of his 12 offices, nine of them had grown hours in 2019, and three were flat or down. In looking at the data, he learned that the three offices that had not grown also fell behind in the number of qualified caregiver applicants. In his analysis, there is a direct correlation between the number of qualified applicants and the growth in hours of the business.
How To Attract More High Quality Applicants with Better Ads
Our research shows that there are three elements in attracting applicants; the placement of the ad, the wording of the ad, and how you tell the story of your company.
Let’s take a look at how the wording of your job ads affects the number and the quality of applicants. In writing a highly effective job ad, there are four key ingredients:
- Hook ’em with the Headline – To attract top quality applicants to your company, you first need to capture their attention. The headline of your job ad is critical. Get away from “Caregivers Needed” and move to an attention grabbing heading “A Rare Opportunity.”
- Describe the Job in Detail – Tell the reader exactly what the job is, and what you are looking for in a high quality caregiver. Paint a picture of the ideal applicant. Avoid the “must have” language.
- Tell your Story – Why would anyone want to work for you? What is the main reason that high quality caregivers work for your company? We’ve found that high quality caregivers want to do meaningful work, they want to feel valued and appreciated, and they want to feel fairly paid.
- Call to Action – Tell the applicant exactly how to apply for the job. Make it easy to apply, and make them feel valued.
There is no one best job ad. Take these principles and test them out with different job ads. Track the results from each ad you run, and each recruiting source you use. Analyze the data to find out which ads in which placements get the largest number of high quality applicants.
Track Your Ad Results
To really know how your ads and your recruiting sources are working, keep track these metrics:
- Number of Applicants
- Number who come to interview
- Number of offers made
- Number of applicants to complete orientation
- Number who show up for their first shift
- Number still working after 90 days
- Number still working after one year.
This data will help you refine your recruiting process. The more highly qualified applicants you can attract, the more caregivers you can hire and retain, and the more you can grow your business.
Stay tuned for more tips on conquering the crisis.
And … order a copy of the book!
