
Advertising your roles to attract a diverse range of applicants who share your workplace values and vision.
Communicating the culture and values of your Children’s Home and the importance of these values to the children and young people and the staff who work with them enables you to target a wider, more diverse range of applicants who share your vision and values. This may include older or retired staff, staff with no care work experience, staff from abroad, neurodiverse staff and many other groups of people who may not have previously considered working in care. This is important because it:
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increases your candidate pool of potential recruits at a time when there is a shortage of staff who have care experience or who are thinking of a career in care
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creates a more diverse workforce with people who share your values but who bring a diversity of lived and work experience.
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How to attract candidates who share the values of your Children’s Home
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1. Identify current staff who share your values and are great at their jobs. What recruitment channels did you use to recruit them? How can you use different recruitment methods to attract more staff with similar values and behaviours?
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2. Review your adverts and recruitment packs to identify how effectively they communicate the culture and values of your organisation, and what it would feel like to work in your Children’s Homes.
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3. Share your values and what makes your culture unique in your adverts, social media posts, open days and any recruitment activities you plan.
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4. Find ways to actively target people who share your values and who are underrepresented in your workforce using different recruitment channels such as social media, community events and diverse jobs boards.
5. Use nationally developed resources such as the We Care Wales recruitment posts and videos to support you in attracting staff who had not previously considered a role in Children’s Residential to work for you. (Welsh version available here / Fersiwn Cymraeg ar gael yma).
Resources
Here are some resources to support you to include your values and behaviours in your job descriptions, person specifications and adverts for your Children’s Care Home(s).
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Attracting Staff who share your workplace values
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Top tips on how to attract staff who share your vision and values, including some example adverts with values embedded within them. (Welsh version available here/ Fersiwn Cymraeg ar gael yma).
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Embedding values into job descriptions and person specifications
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Top tips on how to update and redevelop job descriptions and person specifications to include the values and behaviours that are important in roles in your Children’s Residential Care Homes.
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We Care Wales National Recruitment Campaign
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The national recruitment campaign from We Care Wales includes resources and templates to help you attract staff into Children’s Residential Care.
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Using social media for care recruitment
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This resource from Skills for Care supports you to identify the wealth of opportunities to attract people from a variety of backgrounds and demographics using social media and includes videos and information with everything you need to know to optimise your social media usage.
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Using gender neutral language
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This tool is based on the research “Evidence That Gendered Wording in Job Advertisements Exists and Sustains Gender Inequality” written by Danielle Gaucher, Justin Friesen, and Aaron C. Kay