August 15, 2022
Article
With over 105,000 vacancies in social care every day, and 1.54 million staff working in the sector as a whole, recruiting and retaining staff is a constant worry for care providers. Of these 1.54m staff, 7% come from countries in the EU, with a further 9% coming from countries outside the EU. International recruitment may seem daunting, but as Mithun Mohan from Denizns explains, by following a simple process it doesn’t have to be.
Recruiting staff from abroad requires a significant effort on the part of the employer to educate everyone in the organisation from the top down. Recruitment is about more than just numbers, if it is done correctly employers can nurture staff who become huge fans of your care home brand, and nowhere is this more true than with international staff.
Many employers have qualms about international recruitment which can include that it is complex, prone to difficulties/culture clashes, and costly. Whilst these are understandable, there are counterarguments to these qualms. For example, whilst there are legal requirements to meet when employing staff from overseas this process is often made overly complex by international recruiters, who insert numerous clauses to their contracts. Similarly, many of the ‘horror stories’ are heard third hand rather than as direct experience, and there are also costs to recruiting in the UK such as advertising and agency fees. When recruiting internationally, we typically offer employers between 10 and 20 candidates for each vacancy, and we advise employers to use a ‘step by step’ process to demystify international recruitment and make it part of their standard recruitment and retention strategy.
Step 1: Ascertain your requirements – revisit your current processes, people and technology. Do you have adequate systems to manage applications? Ensure that your recruitment paperwork is correct and complete.
Step 2: Work out your costs (one-off and yearly). This should include salaries (taking overseas thresholds into consideration), application fees, and payments to sub-contractors such as recruitment agencies.
Step 3: Envision the logistics. You should create an ecosystem around your care home, taking into account accommodation for your staff. Can they be accommodated on-site or nearby?
Step 4: Define the scope of the suppliers (agencies) you would like to work with.
Step 5: Source your suppliers, not only for recruitment but also for legal services and logistics.
Step 6: Application phase
Step 7: All recruitment is GO!
Throughout this process, remember TREADS: Transparency, Resilience, Empathy, Accountability, Diligence, and Stewardship. Also bear in mind that it is better to recruit experiences, rather than staff – if your new staff have a good experience, they will become your best advocates and encourage others to join, making the recruitment and retention process much easier.
For more information about recruiting internationally, email hello@denizns.co.uk or telephone 01908 737 007.