How has Recruiting Changed?
Reflecting back on the early days of COVID-19, one of the primary concerns was how to keep growing our team of caregivers. This horrible illness was sure to send a surge of demand for highly qualified Home Health Aides and Companions. As the leading Licenced Home Care agency in Westchester, it was our obligation to be ready. It was crucial to quickly figure out how to attract caregivers to come to work on the frontlines in this new environment.
- How would we continue to consistently attract and recruit top-quality caregivers during this time?
- What needed to change in our recruitment strategy?
- How do we adapt to a hiring process that would take place without any face to face interaction?
Strategy
Without compromising the quality of our recruitment program at any level, we turned to technology to guide us through this.
The strategic goals we quickly determined and adopted were simple:
- Be transparent on our COVID-19 protocols on all recruiting platforms. We have strong protocols in place to protect our staff in all situations.
- Talking about Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) was one thing – but we needed to get our hands on it!
- Move our Interview and hiring process onto a virtual platform in a secure and compliant manner
- And last but not least, how do we maintain our first-class orientation and continuing education program.
Getting Creative with Technology
Our HR team was quickly able to move our application and hiring process onto an online platform. Video calls are used for interviews and paperwork is now securely completed via DocuSign. Caregivers have the ability to securely upload the various documents that we need for verifications.
Meanwhile, our clinical team was busy putting a virtual Orientation and continuing education program in place. This was a little more involved, using video conferencing, custom pre-recorded RN led training, and Industry leaders such as Relias education.
With our new process in place, now heavily reliant on technology, we believe we have implemented a very strong onboarding and continuing education process. The process has shown to be expedient and prospective employees are responding well to it.
Our Caregivers are more prepared than ever going out into the field. The only question left unanswered is why did we not do this before?
Our Process Now
Like many Home Care Agencies, FirstLight was stuck in the mindset of using the same process that we were comfortable with. Change is born out of necessity. We quickly adopted technology to streamline and enhance the hiring and onboarding of our most valuable employees.
- FirstLight Home Care continues to utilize social media and all the recruiting platforms that were used Pre-COVID-19.
- We are ensuring that all candidates who apply are contacted by our office ASAP
- Immediate first interviews are now being conducted via Video Call or regular phone call
- When a prospective employee is deemed to be a good fit for both our culture of care and requirements, they are sent a pre-employment application package electronically through DocuSign.
- The completed Docusign is then reviewed with the prospective employee during their second scheduled interview.
- Additional verification documents needed from the prospect to continue through the hiring process are requested and uploaded to HR securely.
Once everything is verified, the prospective employee is invited to our onboarding process, which is the final step of our hiring process. This consists of:
- HR Onboarding
- FirstLight Home Care Registered nurse-led training
- COVID-19 specific pandemic Training
FirstLight continues to stay innovative and at the forefront of recruiting strategies in the Home Care Industry. Our COVID-19 Pandemic training is mandatory for all employees, ensuring the continued safety of our clients and caregivers. Our new and enhanced process helps us to identify and hire the best caregivers to provide care during this difficult time and beyond.
In the future we expect many of our new processes to remain the same, however, we look forward to a time when we can once again welcome our new caregivers into the office for invaluable Instructor-led training with our nurse educator.
For more information, or to try our new onboarding process, please click here to apply or contact FirstLight Home Care on 914-215-1916