The biggest challenge I hear from agencies about Caregiver recruitment is trying to find the “right” Caregiver. Often times when I ask what the right Caregiver or CNA looks like, I’m met with a laundry list of things the agency would like a Caregiver to be. Things like a CPR certification, 2+ years of experience, and having car insurance are common ones I hear. In an earlier post we covered how your market could be bigger than you think, and based on the feedback we got it seemed fitting to dive deeper into one of the ideas covered: Is a requirement a “nice to have” or a “need to have?”
What do I mean by this? If I were to ask you what your employment requirements are, we could likely split them up into two categories. The ones that are absolutely required for a Caregiver or CNA to work for you (the “need to have”) and ones that are helpful and a plus, but not necessary (the “nice to have”). Examples of the “need to have” often include clean criminal background history, high school diploma or equivalent, and for some agencies working exclusively through state cases, a CNA certificate. Examples of the “nice to have” column often include things like a high experience requirement, TB tests and CPR certificates, and for agencies who work with private pay clients, a CNA certificate. By treating the “nice to have” as a “need to have” we see many agencies missing out on great candidates in their area.
As an example, I went to the myCNAjobs marketplace tool and used the filters available to see how adding certain requirements affects the number of Caregivers available. I started with a pool of a little over 6,000 Caregivers near Milwaukee.
Leveraging the filters in the marketplace, I selected a few common “nice to have” requirements to see how many Caregivers were left. I checked the boxes for CPR certificate, the ability to drive clients, and selected 2+ years of experience.
Just those three requirements lowered the total number of potential hires by nearly 80%, down to just over 1,300 Caregivers and CNAs. For many agencies, these “nice to have” qualifications aren’t required in order for a Caregiver to begin work. We see many agencies starting to develop programs to help Caregivers obtain things like CPR certificates they may need. We’ve also seen in-house training programs become more common as a way to hire Caregiversand CNAs who are new to the workforce.
These are a few examples of ways agencies are taking a new look at their requirements to see which ones fall in that “nice to have” category, and how they can open up their opportunities to more potential Caregiver hires.
If you’re interested to see how different requirements affect your market, you can search the Caregiver marketplace in your area. Looking for help recruiting Caregivers you aren't reaching today? We'd love to have a conversation about how we can help with Caregiver recruitment.
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