Home Health Providers: Are You Making One Of These Hiring Faux Pas?

Nearly 80% of Home Care Pulse’s 2021 annual benchmarking survey participants said that caregiver shortages was the top challenge facing home health providers while 40% cited caregiver turnover as the top threat.

What’s more, it was revealed during a recent panel that among all types of direct care workers, the demand for home care workers is highest and is expected to grow by more than 568,000 on average each year over the next decade. That’s a whopping 34% increase.

Given the current challenges and where we’re headed, it’s more important than ever that home health providers get the recruitment process right. Still, many organizations continue to drop the ball. Here are some common faux pas home health providers commit when recruiting and hiring and how to fix them.

1. Not Following Up Fast Enough

Unfortunately, slow and steady does not win the race when it comes to hiring in home health. In today’s highly competitive job market, candidates often apply to several jobs at once and often accept the first job offer they receive. To avoid missing out on top talent, it’s important to follow up as soon as you have their application in hand. Since recruiters and hiring managers often have a lot on their plates, talent acquisition software (TAS) like OnShift Employ can automate this process to make that initial connection.

2. Opting Out Of Job Boards

Job boards are a great way to get your postings in front of as many eyes as possible. In fact, it’s generally recommended that you post openings on several job boards at a time to ensure the right candidates can find you. OnShift Employ allows you to instantly post to thousands of job boards. The click of a button sends your application to key job boards including Indeed, Zip Recruiter, Monster and Careerjet. This feature has helped our customers increase the number of applications by up to 75% while reducing annual ad spend up to $60,000.

3. Skipping Social Media Sharing

Like job boards, your social channels are a goldmine for reaching potential candidates. In addition to posting on LinkedIn, Facebook and your other company sites, get employees involved in spreading the word. Ask them to share your posts on their personal channels to reach those open to new opportunities in their networks. Just as OnShift Employ streamlines posting to job boards, it gives hiring managers the ability to easily share job ads to all their channels right from the platform.

4. Focusing On Quantity, Not Quality, Of Candidates

While casting a wide net is important, the last thing HR managers want to do is sort through a pile of applicants that don’t even meet the minimum qualifications. To narrow down this pool and deliver best-fit candidates to your hiring manager, consider asking a few qualifying questions. Be sure to screen candidates for minimum requirements, such as certifications or licensure, right at the start of the application. Doing so will allow HR and hiring managers the chance to focus their efforts on the top candidates.

Behavioral assessments can also help hiring managers ensure they’re hiring the right fit for the organization, the needs of clients, as well as the position for which they are applying.

OnShift Employ includes a library of assessments based on the many common positions home health and home care organizations are hiring. With these assessments in place, you can ensure you’re not only interviewing the right candidates but hiring someone that is likely to be a fit in the long term. It can also help you further refine your applicant pool so you can focus on your highest quality applicants.

5. Leaving Candidates In The Lurch

We talk a lot about candidates ghosting employers, but what about the inverse? Well, it’s more common than you might think. Recruiting and hiring managers have a lot on their plates and this faux pas is generally due to inefficient processes and lack of data. Still, the last thing you want to do is let top talent slip through the cracks. Modern hiring software like OnShift Employ quickly moves candidates through your hiring process with customizable workflows. Additionally, the automated reminders nudge candidates and hiring managers to complete next steps, leading to up to a 35% reduction in time to hire and creating that positive, more seamless experience for all parties involved.

6. Using Adhoc Hiring Processes

It’s important to map out a clear step-by-step hiring process for your entire organization. This could include where jobs are posted, how long managers have to follow up and schedule an interview, what questions are asked during the interview and a streamlined onboarding process. Once you have a clear process in place, look to key hiring metrics such as where new hires are applying from, the overall time to hire and referral sources to refine your process over time. Having talent acquisition software in place can help automatically track these metrics. OnShift Employ comes standardized with 60+ hiring reports, as well as easy-view dashboards and weekly automated reports to keep optimization top of mind.

7.  Not Building A Candidate Database

Many home health providers rely on job boards to manage their candidates. However, it's a best practice to create a database of those candidates who, while they may not be a match for the positions you currently have available, may be a fit in the future.

Hiring software for home health gives you the ability to save this candidate data, providing you a pool of candidates to pull from whenever a new opening is available. This can greatly reduce time spent sourcing and evaluating a new set of applicants each time a position needs to be filled.

8. Asking New Hires To Complete Tedious Paperwork On Their First Day

Filling out paperwork and watching outdated training videos is no way to kick off an employee’s first day. Instead, use day one to build excitement about their new role -- introducing them to their coworkers, other new hires and all of the perks and benefits your organization offers.

Modern hiring software prompts new hires to fill out all their pre-hire paperwork via a candidate portal before their first day, allowing organizations to capture, organize and collect legally required & organization-specific paperwork in one convenient location. OnShift Employ event integrates with common HRIS and Payroll companies for a more seamless experience.

As you can see, there are a number of ways to fix some of the most common hiring mistakes home health providers make. However, implementing a talent acquisition software like OnShift Employ can virtually help you correct all of them in one fell swoop.