How to Attract Talent to Home Care Jobs

The pool of applicants for home care jobs is growing exponentially – as is the demand for candidates. The Bureau of Labor Statistics cites a job growth rate of 41% between 2016 and 2026; over one million jobs will be added to this field.  Home care jobs are growing at a more rapid rate than any other type of career. And as demand increases, competition for the best home care providers will get tougher. How can you stand out from the crowd?

Optimize Your Listing for Home Care Jobs

Crafting a captivating job listing is a combination of art and science. You want to be specific about your own expectations, so you aren’t recruiting candidates who aren’t willing to do the job. You also want to make sure you’re mentioning the factors that matter most to those seeking home care jobs.

What You Want

First, be clear in your job description. Are you looking for part-time or full-time employees? Seasonal, temporary, or long term? Will home care aides work with several people of various ages and capabilities, or will they focus on just one or two clients?

Note any physical, educational, or experiential prerequisites so as to eliminate unqualified candidates before they begin the application process. Explicitly state any necessary knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs).

What They Want

In today’s job market, both parties have to bring something to the table. With so much demand for home care jobs, the benefits and bonuses you offer your staff can set you apart from other employers. According to recent studies (learn more here and here), the most important indicators of job satisfaction among home care workers include:

• A consistent, predictable number of hours
• A flexible work schedule
• The ability to work independently
• Employer-provided health insurance
• The ability to develop a long-term relationship with a patient

If the home care jobs you are offering provide these benefits, emphasize them in your job post. Knowing that you provide the things that are most important to your prospective applicants will help your job posting resonate.

Where to Post

Even the greatest ads for home care jobs won’t gain any notice if they aren’t posted in the right places. Where are candidates looking for home care jobs? According to CareerBuilder, candidates use an average of 16 resources during their job search. Make sure you have your job posted in these key places.

Your Careers Page

Candidates will use your Careers page not only to find information about open home care jobs, but also to get a better sense of your company culture. Your Careers page can be your “secret weapon in the war for talent.” Put significant time and resources into designing it. Include information about career paths, opportunities for advancement, salary ranges, prerequisites, and corporate culture. Use videos and images to paint a picture for prospective applicants. At some point, the vast majority of applicants will visit this page (even if they find your job through another board or site), so make sure you’re wowing them.

Job Boards

There are literally hundreds of job boards out there, from major players like Indeed and Monster.com to industry-specific sites like HealthCareJobsite and HealtheCareers. (Although these sites emphasize the health aspect of home care, they also offer listings for general home care jobs.) Leverage an applicant tracking system to mass-post job listings to all of the relevant boards with just a few clicks.

Social Media

LinkedIn is the primary player in this category, although you may want to consider posting your job to Facebook as well. On LinkedIn, you can broaden or narrow your selection criteria by choosing more or fewer job functions and industries. If your job posting isn’t performing well, open it up a little by adding categories. You can renew your posting every two weeks, so it shows up at the top of the listings when applicants search for similar jobs.

Finding and recruiting candidates for home care jobs can be difficult. Be honest and thorough in your job description and post your job where your candidates are looking, and you’ll soon have scores of qualified resumes in your applicant tracking system.