How to use Values Based Recruitment to find and retain staff who really Care

 

Why does it feel so hard these days to find staff who care about the work you do and the people you support and care for as much as you do?
Why are staff who really do care as much as you do leaving your organisation?

 

I have worked in recruitment for nearly 30 years and have never lost my passion for searching for that holy grail of recruitment processes that can help organisations to find those gems who will thrive at work because they care as much as you do about what the organisation does and about the people they care for and serve.  

 

I believe I found that holy grail 20 years ago when I was given the absolute privilege of working for the NSPCC to develop an innovative approach to recruiting staff who shared the organisation’s values and behaviours and who really wanted to make a difference to the lives of others. And that is where my passion for and belief in the power of Values Based Recruitment was born. 

 

For the last 20 years working in education, the NHS, social care, charities and with a whole range of organisations who all share the same mission to make a difference to the lives of others in a values based way, I have seen first hand the ability of Values Based Recruitment to transform teams and cultures through recruiting gems of staff who stay and help those organisations to deliver on their mission. 
 

I therefore jumped at the chance to do some work recently with Social Care Wales and a fabulous group of Social Care Managers who shared my passion for Values Based Recruitment and wanted to come together to think about how this can support the development of new models of children’s residential social care in Wales over the coming years. 

 

Being with such an inspiring group of people, hearing about how they are already embedding values into recruitment and what more they could do to find these gems of staff who can support children and young people in residential care in Wales has been a highlight of my year so far.

 

Here are some of the things I learnt and reflected on from my time in Wales, and some of the top tips I shared with these managers so they could think about how to take Values Based Recruitment further in their organisations:

 

Why is it challenging to recruit and retain staff who care?
As you read this, you may be able to relate to some of the many challenges we discussed when considering the question: 
What are the barriers to finding and keeping staff who share our values and passion for the work we do?
 

A shrinking pool: Across all the caring professions I work in (education, health, social care), the pool of available staff is reducing for many reasons and therefore many organisations are fishing in the same shrinking pool. Values Based Recruitment can support organisations to think out of the box about the types of candidates they are trying to attract and start to target a more diverse range of candidates who may not previously have considered a career in a caring profession, but who share the organisation’s values.
 

The profile of Care: The profile of the caring professions as a career is not as high as those organisations providing care would love it to have. Campaigns like We Care Wales are much needed to reach those people who are not happy in their current careers, who want to make a difference to others but who may not have thought a career in care was for them. 
I was involved in a very successful Values Based Recruitment campaign in one NHS Trust I worked at which saw a huge increase in applicants for care support worker roles from people who had never worked in care before such as hairdressers and shop owners who had exactly the values and behaviours needed in the role. 
 

Competitive pay: I am not an expert in pay, but one of the things I hear again and again is in a time when many people are struggling with the cost of living, earning more by working for a retailer, in spite of how much you love working in care, for some is the key reason they leave their role in a caring role. But I also hear many stories of these workers returning to care as job satisfaction and working in a culture that aligns to their values is also so important to their happiness. 
 

Resilience and reality: Many people are talking about the current mental health crisis which I see firsthand every week in my work with schools, social care and health organisations. But it is not just those who are being cared for that need to be supported, it is also the staff who are providing the care. The reality of working in challenging roles and environments for some does not match up to the image they had of working in care, and we are seeing increasing levels of reported stress and overwhelm and reducing levels of resilience in the workforce. How organisations embed values into their induction and training, how they support staff to ensure they are equipped to meet the challenges of their roles, and how through values based recruitment you identify staff who have the values and motivations to succeed in a role in care is more important now that ever. 
 

So what is values based recruitment and how can you embed in your organisation?

 

I describe it as an approach to recruitment that focusses on identifying and understanding the values, behaviours, and motivations of candidates and how they align with the vision and values of the organisation. 

 

I believe it enables organisations to be more inclusive and widen their recruitment pool by looking beyond previous experience and qualifications and identifying candidates with the potential and passion to be amazing employees through their shared commitment to the organisation’s mission and values.

 

While working with Skills for Care, I developed the 5 A’s model of Values Based Recruitment to support organisations to understand how they could embed a values lens to every stage of the recruitment journey from Articulating what you are looking for to Assimilating new staff into your organisation.