The Kingsmill Review: Taking Care

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2 With recruitment costs as high as 3,500 per staff member, there is a high cost for time wasted on constantly training new employees who leave soon after starting work. The Kingsmill Review: Taking Care.

3 INTRODUCTION It s no big secret recruiting the right people to care and support work is difficult. Whilst demand for care and support services is growing at unprecedented rates, vacancies are aplenty. Providers are under pressure from commissioners to meet demand levels, and it s no wonder that inconsistent and questionable hiring decisions are being made as a result. Demand for candidates with previous experience of care and support work is high on most providers wish lists. But previous experience isn t always a great indicator of whether they are the best candidate for the job. Yet when it comes to interviewing someone with experience, the temptation to appoint is even greater whilst vacancies remain unfilled and service delivery is being negatively impacted. So what is the cost of making the wrong hiring decision? Well there s the 3,500 figure, suggested by Care England, in recruiting and training costs for every new staff member. In a sector where high staff turnover prevails, continuity of care is being severely impacted. Throw in low staff morale caused by the constant churn of employees and you have a ticking time-bomb, ready to unleash a safeguarding issue. Is this an exaggeration? For some of you it may be, but for others it will ring true. The aim of this ebook is to share proven, tried and tested interview questions which will help you recruit the right individuals, whether or not they have experience in care. These are individuals who exhibit the right values, mindset and motivation for frontline care and support worker roles and are in the job for the right reasons.

4 Not caring is not an option. It s a part of their DNA. These are people who if treated well and are enjoying their work, will stay longer. As a result service users will be better supported and the quality of their care improves. Which as providers is what we are striving for, right? These interview questions are based on our experience of recruiting to thousands of frontline care and support worker vacancies for the likes of Voyage Care, Lifeways, Turning Point, Priory Group and Metropolitan Care & Support. These questions have been asked by our experienced team of recruiters and assessors time and time again. As a result of using these questions at telephone screening stages, hiring managers regularly praise the higher calibre of the applicants that they are interviewing at face to face stage. Consequently hiring managers are offering jobs to between 70-80% of the candidates they meet. That s a significant amount of time saved by not interviewing poor quality applicants. It s also a significant increase in the number of vacancies being filled at the first time of asking. We want to share our expertise with you so that we can all work towards a common goal of improving care outcomes. I hope you find it useful. Lee Burman, Business Solutions Manager, Cohesion Recruitment

5 What makes a good. Care & Support worker?

6 Whether you recruit domiciliary care workers, health care workers, support workers, home care workers or some other variation, there tends to be a set of common values that help to identify those who are most successful in social care. Both the National Skills Academy and Skills for Care offer suggestions on what these values might be. They include: Compassion Courage Respect Responsibility Empathy Imagination Treating people with dignity Adaptability Integrity Responsibility So with this in mind, our approach to recruitment has to reflect these. From how we attract and engage with applicants, the recruitment screening and assessment methods, through to how we present ourselves at interview, all our recruiting efforts must be consistent in order to achieve better recruitment outcomes. How to use these questions The questions we are about to reveal have consistently enabled our experienced recruiters and assessors to make strong decisions relating to a candidate s suitability for frontline care or support worker roles. Where you choose to insert these questions will largely be driven by your own recruitment process. A highly simplistic overview of our recommended process, based on the impressive results we have achieved for our clients, looks a little like this: Initial pre-screening questions; Screening via application form; Values based telephone interview; Values based face to face interview. We are making an assumption that candidate s will have already passed an initial filter question (pre-screen) stage. By filter questions we mean those questions which automatically screen out unsatisfactory applicants. These might include confirming that the applicant has the right to work in the UK or, if essential, that they have access to a car and possess a clean driving license. You could use 2 or 3 of our questions in your application form. You may then choose to ask a further 2 or 3 different questions during a telephone interview.

7 Finally at face to face interview, use 4 or 5 of these questions alongside any of your mandatory questions. A few tips: At no stage in the recruitment process is it acceptable to ask industry-specific questions or use language specific to your organisation, especially where nonexperienced candidates are part of your applicant pool. We ve lost count of the number of times that a strong non-experienced candidate is considered to be unsuitable, because they lacked knowledge about something that only an experienced candidate would be privy to. Candidates don t like filling out long application forms - fact. Given that it can be difficult to convert expressions of interest into real live applicants, why not consider asking for the minimum amount of detail up front. As candidates move through the recruitment process, then ask for more detail. They are far more likely to commit to the process, which gives you greater choice.

8 The questions.

9 What appeals to you about working in care and support? Why do you think that appeals to you? What have you done to find out more about working in this area? What other roles have you applied for? What part of this role appeals to you most? What interests you about our organisation and why? Why does this role excite you? What sort of experiences have you had either at work or personally - that you think could you help you become a great care/support worker? What is your understanding of the people we support? Can you describe what you think good care looks and feels like? What challenges might you face working in this environment? How will you excel at these? How will you ensure the people you support are happy/safe? Generally speaking, what sorts of things concern you? How do you deal with these? What sorts of goals have you set for yourself or others, either personally or at work? How have you achieved them or supported others to achieve them?

10 A little bit about us Cohesion is a leading recruitment services provider to the housing, social and health care sectors. We truly understand the social care, health and support world. Since early 2012 we have helped Turning Point to make over 1120 job offers across their organisation, processing some 14,500 applications and conducting 5000 telephone interviews along the way. We re also hugely proud to have partnered with the likes of Metropolitan Group, Lifeways, Voyage Care, Wandle, Affinity Sutton and Priory Group.. The questions Outside of these sectors we manage volume Customer Service recruitment projects for Dyson, deliver exit and retention interviews for AON and manage Apprentice and Graduate recruitment for Welsh Water, Wales & West Utilities and Thames Water. Our total recruitment philosophy means we deliver services which include and are not limited to: Recruitment campaign End to end recruitment process outsourcing Talent pool cultivation and Internal referral process Volume recruitment campaign Tailored assessment and selection Bespoke recruitment technology Hiring manager recruitment training Strategic direct sourcing New media engagement strategies Contingency workforce Locum bank recruitment and New starter and retention surveys Graduate, apprentice & trainee recruitment To find out how we help you make a significant impact on recruitment, contact Lee Burman on