October 7th 2020
Recruiting staff is one of the key challenges we face in social care. Skills for Care estimate that the turnover rate of staff in the sector is over 30%. This leaves providers struggling to find and recruit suitable candidates quickly enough.
Lansdowne Care Services is a Bedfordshire-based learning disability provider. When they were having problems recruiting, they turned to a fully automated digital solution.
Background
Employing around 90 staff and operating over six locations, Lansdowne relies on high quality and dedicated staff.
Ossie Machona, Operations Manager of Lansdowne Care, said:
“Consistency of staff is really important to us as our clients like to see the same people regularly and it’s vital for quality of care. I suddenly found that I needed to recruit to 7 vacancies and wasn’t having any success with online recruiters, agencies or local newspaper adverts.”
To maintain adequate staffing levels, Ossie had to rely on agency staff, which was expensive. It also didn’t give the consistency the team needed and had a negative impact on staff morale. He also highlights that the issue was beginning to affect quality of care in the long term.
A significant amount of time and energy was being used trying to find suitable candidates, sending out application forms, arranging interviews and dealing with inevitable no-shows.
Recruitomate was recommended by a colleague, a digital tool that uses social media to find and recruit staff. It also significantly reduces recruitment admin by automating the process.
How it works
Recruitomate uses a three-step process:
1 The platform uses data-driven social media campaigns to generate a continuous stream of qualified candidates in the local area
2 Automatic conversation messaging is used to engage and pre-screen candidates around the clock
3 The tracking system automates 90% of recruitment administration, such as following up with candidates, sending application forms and scheduling interviews.
The system is designed to get candidates who are genuinely interested in the role by using social media advertising and automated conversations in Facebook Messenger. By having automated contact and the ability to ask questions, candidates are more invested from the beginning.
Finding quality candidates
Ossie said:
“Initially I was worried that advertising through social media would only appeal to younger people, but actually we received a wide variety of candidates. The next morning after the social media campaign started, 14 people were already interested in the positions and were of high quality.”
Lansdowne Care received 200 applications in 4 weeks and the level of interest in the roles were significantly better than applications they’d received using other recruitment channels.
Previously the team experienced low show-up rates to interviews, with less than 30% of people attending. But because candidates had been screened in advance, the turnout rate for interviews was around 97%.
Saving time and money
Using automated tools to help with the recruitment process has saved the team valuable time. It has also been more cost-effective for the team at Lansdowne.
Ossie said:
“The system takes the admin and worry away from you. It gathers information automatically and sends out the application forms for you. It then schedules interviews with automated reminders and follow-ups.”
Now back to having a full permanent staff team, Ossie says that it’s been a positive experience. The new recruits have helped to reenergise the team and Ossie expects that this will also have a positive impact on their CQC report.
Lessons learnt
- Technology isn’t as scary as it seems. It might be an unknown, but you should try out recruitment tools to see if they can help.
- The challenge is always going to be finding the time to dedicate to recruitment, but technology can help support you and save you time.
For more information
To get in touch with Lansdowne Care visit www.lansdownecare.com
To find out more about Recruitomate visit www.recruitomate.com
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