A key to better hires and less turnover in Aged & Community Care
As we all know, our sector is facing significant staffing challenges and, as a leader, that means you’re often recruiting. While in-house teams are great at understanding your unique culture and processes, finding the right fit person is challenging, and can be incredibly time consuming – yet crucial.
That’s where partnering with a reputable and specialist recruitment consultancy can make all the difference.
Here are 5 reasons why working with an external recruitment partner could be your best move:
1 - Better Retention
‘Job shock’, ‘Quick Quitting’, and high turnover generally are common challenges in aged & community care, with regular rehiring negatively impacting team stability and consumer care.
Replacing one employee costs organisations roughly 1.5 times their salary*, so improving the quality of the recruitment and selection process has a huge impact on cutting overall costs.
Feedback from our clients has shown that turnover tends to be higher when candidates are recruited by in-house teams. Partnering with a specialist recruitment agency can lead to better long-term outcomes for your hires. Unlike in-house teams, which may face time pressures and a need to fill roles quickly, recruitment partners focus on developing long-term relationships with candidates, ensuring a more tailored match for your organisation. This comprehensive approach often results in improved retention and satisfaction for both employers and employees.
For more than a decade, 3D Recruit has consistently achieved turnover rates well below the industry average for placed candidates. This proven track record highlights our expertise and skill in sourcing, selecting, aligning and thoroughly evaluating the right fit candidates for specific positions in aged & community care.
This success stems from our detailed knowledge of the sector and its unique challenges and demands, trusted reputation and long lasting relationships and networks in this area, our specialist and diverse talent pools, and our skilled and rigorous candidate evaluation methods. By delivering an end-to-end recruitment solution, we ensure the right fit for each role, and can support effective onboarding to set new employees up for success. We understand what “good” looks like for positions across aged & community care and how to measure success so we can identify the individuals who will make a positive and lasting impact, transforming the workforce, and impacting lives.
To build the stable workforce the sector needs, and to meet the standards and values of the new aged care act, it’s critical to recruit the right talent into your organisation.
2 - Wider Horizon for Connecting with Candidates
3D Recruit maintain an extensive selection of highly skilled candidates across a wide range of roles and specialities within Aged & Community Care which notably increases our success in quickly finding the right fit for a position. We are actively involved in industry events, often asked for thought leadership on workforce challenges in the sector, and continuously engage with sector professionals to build relationships on a national scale. This extensive reach gives us access to a broad range of candidates which enhances our ability to effectively recruit for each client.
Passive Candidates
By outsourcing talent acquisition, you tap into a network that is otherwise out of reach, known as ‘passive candidates’. They are well-qualified but are not actively seeking or looking on job boards at all.
Passive candidates are happy in their current role, but know what their ideal position is and will move when it becomes available. Passive candidates cannot be reached through job adverts, and many organisations simply don’t have the resources to maintain extensive talent pools.
To tap into passive talents, organisation need a networked resource to access a broader talent pool to find the right candidates for the role and culture of the organisation. Expanded reach also speeds up the hiring process, especially during peak recruitment periods, or when filling roles that demand specific or urgent expertise.
As a specialist recruitment and workforce consultancy, we have cultivated networks and rich databases that far exceed what generalist recruiters can maintain. This breadth and depth of reach allows us to identify and engage with the most suitable talent, quickly. 3D Recruit can access candidates that traditional methods, such as job adverts, often miss.
Leveraging our extensive resources and connections can uncover blindspot individuals that can make the difference to your teams.
3 - Motivation to Accept
In a competitive hiring market, candidates’ commitment levels vary. While the recruitment process involves assessing a candidate’s capabilities and qualifications, it also involves measuring their commitment to take on a new role, and therefore reduce ‘Quick Quitting’. We call this their “Motivation to Accept” (MTA).
Candidate stages
Some candidates are simply looking around and toying with the idea of moving on to a new job and organisation. They’re information gathering and haven’t fully considered the consequences of a move, yet.
Some candidates are actively looking. They’re doing their research on potential roles, salaries and then applying for the positions that meet their criteria.
Then there’s the committed candidate who’s one step closer to making a move and they’re devoted to it. They’ve made a list of their non-negotiables and know exactly what it will take to accept a job offer in terms of salary. They may have already had some interviews, and they’ve partly ‘checked out’ of their current role.
Finally, there are the passive candidates, the talent who are not actively looking but would move for the right opportunity, that cannot be reached unless you have access to an extensive talent pool.
Why you need to be able to assess MTA
What is right for someone won’t be right for someone else, and there’s a skill in uncovering what those deep intrinsic motivators are for each applicant.
A candidate might seem ideal on paper and in interviews, but you need to be able to determine a candidate’s MTA to avoid the risk of hiring someone who’s still eyeing the market for something more suited to them, and not fulfilling their ROI.
As experienced recruiters in aged and community care, 3D Recruit conduct in depth interviews so we can assess and document the candidate’s MTA.
We remain closely connected with our candidates throughout their career journey. This allows us to understand their deep intrinsic motivators and where they are in the recruitment process – from “casually exploring opportunities” to “fully committed”. By staying in tune with candidate’s drivers and progress, we can make the right recommendations and offer tailored support that benefit both the candidate and your organisation.
Our approach goes Above & Beyond simply matching skills and qualifications. We also facilitate the offer and acceptance stages with precision, using our insight into each candidate’s position on the MTA scale to ensure a seamless fit and successful outcome.
4 - Sector Understanding & Expertise
As an aged care or community care professional, you are a specialist in your field. Similarly, specialist recruiters are experts in their domain, dedicating their full-time efforts and expertise to relevant search and selection. This immersion allows them to develop a deep understanding of the talent market, salary benchmarks, changing requirements and expectations, legislative changes and workforce dynamics.
Partnering with a dedicated recruiter means tapping into a wealth of market insights and a thorough understanding of available candidates. At 3D Recruit, we prioritise understanding each candidate deeply. With our thorough screening process and long-standing relationships, we assess their strengths, areas for growth and motivators to ensure they align with your organisation.
This targeted approach often results in more efficient and sustainable hiring outcomes, allowing you to focus on what you do best – managing and improving your services and employee experience.
By fostering strong relationships with both candidates and your organisation, we deliver end-to-end recruitment solutions that align perfectly with the needs of both.
5 - Save Time & Improve Quality
As a leader, a stable and skilled workforce is the backbone of success in this industry. However, how much time can you realistically dedicate to hiring without compromising other important responsibilities?
Recruitment is a lengthy process, from knowing where to advertise jobs to carefully reviewing each resume to create an interview shortlist, to relevant question design, and so on. The consequences of rushing recruitment can lead to poor hiring decisions and additional recruitment in the short term. Therefore, improving turnover rates by improving your initial hires can have a huge impact on cutting overall costs.
Leaning on a recruitment partner allows you to prioritise what you do best – being a leader. We at 3D recruit have deep knowledge of industry trends, access to a broad candidate network, and are equipped with advanced tools and resources that may not be available in-house. This allows us to identify high-quality candidates faster and more efficiently, especially for hard-to-fill roles. It also provides the flexibility to scale recruitment efforts during peak hiring periods without overburdening the internal team, allowing them to focus on core HR functions and strategic initiatives.
Better Hiring Outcomes with a Recruitment Partner
Recruiting is a specialist skill that requires a blend of credentials, experience and connections to get it right. Using a sector specific recruitment partner can reduce staff turnover rates, save costs, and boost productivity.
If you conduct recruitment in house, it’s worth checking in to ask – are you optimising results?
Our track record at 3D Recruit speaks volumes about the effectiveness of a recruitment partnership approach to reduce staff turnover. For over a decade, we’ve consistently maintained turnover rates for placed candidates that are substantially lower than the industry average.
Get in touch to partner with us for your Aged & Community Care recruitment needs, and see how we can help transform your workforce.
Authors
Lucy Sawkins
Recruitment & Workforce Solutions Manager
P 1300 831 949
E hello@aboveandbeyondgroup.com.au
Lucy has a wealth of combined experience as a Registered Nurse and as a Healthcare Recruitment Consultant. Finding a more permanent cultural and clinical fit for both her candidates and clients alike is paramount for Lucy. Knowing that she has assisted an organisation to grow and retain their dedicated team, her candidates in finding that ‘perfect match’ where they feel valued and can further develop and offer their skills is reward enough, but to enable those that need it most to be cared for appropriately provides her with great satisfaction.
Laura Sutherland
Director & Founder
P 1300 831 949
E hello@aboveandbeyondgroup.com.au
Laura is a Workforce specialist, Leadership and Career Coach with a background in Psychology. Considered the go-to trusted advisor on workforce challenges in our industry, Laura partners with clients to understand their specific challenges and tailor the most effective and sustainable solutions. Her core professional purpose is to improve and future proof Aged Care & Community Services by supporting organisations to develop the potential within their people.
*Source: The Australian HR Institute