Just over 28% (that’s 390,000 workers) left their adult social care role in 2022/23.
Even before Covid-19, healthcare staffing challenges were a common concern in care settings.
Fast forward to post-pandemic, and the significant stress on healthcare professionals is still showing. The shortage of workers is leaving patients and staff alike at risk.
Challenges in the care sector.
It’s essential for care settings to both attract and retain excellent care workers. One reason for that is continuity of care. When care staff and service users enjoy long-term relationships, they experience familiarity and build trust. This has a positive impact on the service users’ outcomes and satisfaction.
Staff shortages.
As we’ve touched upon, staff shortages are rife in the care sector. They can impact operations, team morale, and ultimately – the provision of quality care.
To address these challenges, partner with local colleges, schools, or universities. Offering internships, apprenticeships, and job shadowing opportunities can help attract new talent to the care industry.
High turnover rates.
Staff turnover is another reason why it’s so important to retain key staff members. High turnover rates can negatively affect existing staff morale, deteriorating team performance over time. It can also damage your reputation as a care provider. Prospective employees may be put off by a history of staff instability, making recruitment even more difficult.
Addressing high turnover rates requires a comprehensive strategy to improve job satisfaction and create a supportive work environment. We’ll explore this further – but offering competitive salaries, opportunities for professional development, and rewarding employee achievements are great starting points.
Strategies to attract talent.
To attract much-needed talent to the care sector, there are four key strategies:
Competitive compensation.
It’s the obvious one but offering a competitive rate of pay is a vital first step in making your care home attractive to employees. Performance-based incentives and an inclusive benefits package can also help your organisation stand out from other care services.
Employing care staff who are satisfied with their pay makes it much easier to retain skilled workers.
Offering training and career advancement opportunities.
Make it clear if you offer career development for caregivers.
For example, look into career growth through training programs for healthcare workers, certifications, and other prospects for promotion. Then advertise these opportunities with your job roles.
Ambitious workers will be looking for chances to develop their careers within the care industry. So it’s a great strategy to provide them.
Creating a positive work culture.
The care industry is a demanding profession. That’s why it’s essential to create a positive workplace culture in caregiving. A supportive work environment that encourages communication and recognises workers’ efforts will positively impact your team’s well-being.
A positive work culture is founded upon openness, avoiding blame for errors, and actively seeking ways to improve. For full transparency, make sure your staff understand your core business vision.
Strategies to retain care sector talent.
Retaining care sector talent is not all about offering employee benefits in healthcare; there are other strategies to explore.
Recognition and rewards.
Implement recognition programs to ensure that excellent performance and efforts of your care staff are recognised. People shine when you recognise their hard work. That’s especially true in a demanding role such as care.
Recognising hard work will have a positive impact on overall job satisfaction and boost motivation within your team. It’s also more likely that your employees will stick around for longer, too.
Explore programmes that regularly recognise individual team members. Popular ideas include monthly or quarterly awards for outstanding performance.
Offer employees meaningful rewards. Think about incentives like gift cards, extra paid time off, or professional development opportunities.
Providing mentorship and support.
Caregiving can be a tough job and can impact your team’s mental and physical well-being. Offer support such as peer programmes, counselling services, and mental health resources. This proactive approach not only shows that you care, but it will also boost their performance and aid care worker retention.
Other examples include employee assistance programmes, access to family law, and debt advice. This strategy doesn’t cost much money but it shows you care about their wellbeing. Caring about your team’s health and well-being removes pressure and enables them to deliver better care.
Introduce mentorship programmes that provide new caregivers with guidance in their new roles. Mentorship can accelerate the time to productivity for new workers and welcome them to your team. Investing in your team’s continuing professional development helps with motivation and loyalty to your organisation.
Prioritising work-life balance.
It’s important to give your care workers the best work-life balance possible.
After all, when they’re relaxed and happy, your team can give their full selves to caring for residents.
Flexible working patterns enable staff to balance both work and family demands. Can you put strategies in place to ensure employees have sufficient time off? Always encourage them to use their holidays to maximise their time off from caregiving responsibilities.
Other ideas for better work-life balance include allowing staff to swap shifts with their colleagues. This strategy gives employees more control over their schedules and helps them manage personal and professional commitments more effectively.
If your business model allows it, you could try offering part-time roles or job-sharing arrangements. This can be especially effective for care workers who need to balance caregiving with other responsibilities.
Leveraging technology.
Leigh Smith, Director of Growth and Happiness at AnswerConnect recently discussed the challenge of staff shortages on a podcast with Care Home Management. She offered an example of staff struggling to answer the phone and manage their service duties:
“He [the care setting owner] was regularly answering all the calls himself, even outside of core working hours. It was something his team couldn’t support with; bearing in mind his desire to give staff a healthy work-life balance. The ideal situation is to hire more people to cover those out-of-hour calls. But the cost and the challenges of recruitment and retention make it so, so difficult to do.”
HR software.
You can also use specialist HR software to tighten up your recruitment process and engage talent from the beginning.
Successful care recruitment relies on a multitude of channels – so introducing the right care recruitment and screening software can help you manage applications effortlessly.
Telemedicine and remote monitoring.
Telemedicine allows your caregivers to care for more service users in a shorter amount of time. Of course, this technology means better management of routine follow-ups and chronic disease. Better health outcomes, more satisfied patients, and relaxed staff are all huge benefits.
Remote monitoring also reduces some demand for night shifts and on-call duties. That’s certainly a tick in the box for flexible schedules and improved work-life balance.
Retain care sector talent with answering services.
If you’re struggling to attract and retain talent, a care provider answering service can help.
This proactive approach relieves the pressure on your care staff to answer constantly ringing phones, allowing them to focus entirely on their caregiving roles. It’s also a great way to promote your business when you want to add team members.
Find out more here about a care provider answering service.
