Getting the Silent Treatment: 5 Reasons Applicants Don't Pick Up Your Calls After They Apply
Originally published by The Rowan Report, Jan 2024.
Introduction:
Recruiting caregivers for your home care agency can be challenging enough, but it's even more frustrating when those same caregivers don't bother to pick up the phone after applying for your jobs. You may have put in a significant amount of time, money, and energy into trying to find qualified caregiver applicants, only to be repeatedly met with radio silence, missed calls, or unanswered texts.
In this post, we're going to explore the top five reasons why caregivers don't pick up your calls and what you can do about it.
You're not offering competitive pay or benefits
Pew Research found that the number one reason people leave their job is, in fact, for more money. But, the number two and three reasons are no advancement opportunities and feeling disrespected at work. If your compensation package – and your career advancement opportunities – aren’t competitive, caregivers may choose to ignore your calls and continue searching for better opportunities.
Your job ad looks like spam and your hiring process doesn’t stand out
Candidates don’t read the job description, especially if it is wordy. All job posts look like spam to the applicant, they apply to too many jobs (16+ at one time!) and never read the job description as a result. This confusion can lead to candidates feeling apprehensive about the job and opting not to answer your phone calls. The images here are real examples of how caregiver applicants get too many spam-looking text and email messages about jobs. Find a different way to communicate with the applicant about the value and challenges of your jobs.
You're not demonstrating professionalism in your hiring process
Caregivers are professionals and they expect you to have a professional hiring process. Many agencies use hiring software built for other industries and, as a result, their hiring process is clunky. On many job boards, applicants “1-click” apply with a job seeker profile they may have made several years ago. When they’re followed up with through some sort of automated text system (which they think looks spammy – see pic!), they’re annoyed that they’re being asked to “apply” again.
You have poor online reviews or ratings
Today, people trust online reviews and ratings as much as personal recommendations from friends or family. If your agency has poor online reviews or ratings from clients and employees, caregivers may not have confidence in you as an employer, and have the wrong impression about your culture and work ethics. Therefore, getting positive feedback from clients and employees will help attract caregivers interested in working for you.
Your recruitment process takes too long and caregivers are moving on
The data shows that 57% of applicants today expect to hear back about the position they applied for within 1 week. And, one of the reasons caregivers leave is they don’t have enough hours to make full time work at your agency that are in the right location, meet their scheduling needs and their experience level. Why go through the whole interview, orientation and hiring process if you just don’t have the right clients to match them with at that time? Therefore, it's vital to streamline your recruitment process and have a very fast and efficient process with the best applicants.
Conclusions
As a home care agency owner, it's essential to understand why caregivers may not answer your calls, even after applying to your jobs. In Summary:
Evaluate your recruitment process, compensation package, job description, communication methods, and online reputation.
Ensure you demonstrate professionalism through your interactions, online and during interviews.
Make your job description and requirements stand out amongst the spammy looking emails and texts out there today.
Take steps to eliminate bottlenecks in your hiring process.
By doing so, you will attract the best caregivers who will choose to work with you, and your agency can grow and thrive.
Originally published on the The Rowan Report. A leading sources of news about home care technology, regulations, marketing, clinical tools, and other critical issues. For more information check out https://homecaretechreport.com
