The Difference Between Home Care Recruitment and Recruitment Marketing
These two concepts sound alike, however, they perform two separate functions within your agency’s operations. Learn more about what those differences are.
There has been an ongoing caregiver shortage for some time, and this may lead you to reevaluate and revamp your recruitment efforts. Now may be the ideal time to incorporate recruitment marketing into your hiring operations.
Recruitment and recruitment marketing are two very important pieces of the puzzle and influence how your agency operates, learn more about these subtle and larger differences.
What is recruitment?
Recruitment is focused on the "after"; the time that follows an applicant sending their resume over to you. Recruitment, by definition, is “the overall process of identifying, attracting, screening, shortlisting, and interviewing candidates for jobs within an organization.”
In home care, recruitment means the process of identifying ideal caregivers that should work with your agency from the application pool to the interviews. There is less emphasis placed on the behind-the-scenes work that happens before someone applies for a job.
What is recruitment marketing?
Recruitment marketing is similar to recruitment, however, there is more emphasis on the period of time before a caregiver applies to a job posting. If you think of recruitment in terms of the customer’s buyer journey, this would be the awareness and engagement stage. Show caregivers who you are, and what your agency stands for. Use your website, brochures, reviews, and texting efforts to focus on what your agency does best.
By definition, recruitment marketing is the combination of strategies and tools used by an organization to engage and nurture potential talent in the pre-applicant phase. When you think about how your agency markets itself to prospective employees, would you apply for a position as a caregiver?
A compelling agency story, a commitment to quality care, and your employer brand are crucial tenets to success in recruitment marketing.
Some examples of recruitment marketing
We browsed the internet for caregiver job postings that stuck out in terms of their headlines and what benefits they offer. Take a look at these and see what they do differently than other postings you’ve seen. You can click on them to open in a new window and zoom in to see them in a larger size if needed.
In this job posting, the agency referenced a program that helps employees access funds sooner. Caregivers frequently reference pay as an issue that can lead to turnover, and by offering more frequent payment or daily pay options, you can use this as a recruitment and retention tool.
Reading further down the job description, the advertisement is centered around the caregiver, listing off benefits they offer that are enticing to them. By using recruitment marketing tactics, this agency is appealing to caregivers before they apply for the position. Set your agency apart by doing things differently and focusing more specifically on creating a better caregiver employee experience.
In this job posting headline, this agency chose to lean on their free training programs to help their caregivers learn more skills and have more options to work with certain clients. This agency understands that training is a pain point that caregivers experience and is a great example of recruitment marketing.
The strategies that you use in your recruitment marketing plan may look different than the examples that we have shown you. However, the point is to press on the recruitment marketing gas before a caregiver applies for a job with you.
How to balance recruitment and recruitment marketing
Although there are a lot of differences between recruitment and recruitment marketing, they both serve a valuable purpose in your agency’s daily operations.
When you are dividing up tasks for your hiring manager or talent acquisition manager, make sure to have an even equal emphasis on the pre-applicant process as you do on the post-applicant process.
It can be helpful to create a list of all tasks in the job description (adding more if needed). Then they can be sorted into “recruitment” and “recruitment marketing” categories while prioritizing those that need to be done first.
Good things come in pairs
Home care recruitment is no different. Now that you understand the difference between recruitment and recruitment marketing, you should see the world of caregiver recruitment in a different light.
Having those one-to-one applicant relationships are important, however, if you are attracting the wrong talent or not generating enough interest, you are limiting yourself. By implementing a robust caregiver recruitment and recruitment marketing strategy, your agency will be on its way to tremendous growth to round out 2021 on a good note.
Want an extra set of eyes looking at your recruitment plans?
At Home Care Marketing Pros, we have studied the art of caregiver recruitment and recruitment marketing like a science. Book a 30-minute call with one of our recruitment experts and we will go over what’s working well for your agency and what could be done better. Make Q4 of 2021 a quarter of strong growth to pair with the increased demand for care.
