Do some of your prospective job candidates blow off their interviews? No-shows are a fairly common problem in the home care industry. In this episode of A Drink With the Hurricane, our guest speaker Anna-Lise shares some ideas to help you increase the number of job applicants who show up for their scheduled interviews.
It’s frustrating: You put time and money into the caregiver recruitment process, and time and again, you have no-show candidates for job interviews. How can you reduce this problem? Although Hurricane Marketing Enterprises focuses on growing your business and attracting new clients, our guest speaker, Anne-Lise Gere, has deep insights into the matters of recruitment. Here are her recommendations for reducing the number of no-show candidates for job interviews:
If your home care agency has recruited caregivers, you’ve probably been stood up now and then by no-show candidates. This crisis is affecting many companies that are hiring applicants nationwide. It’s not just affecting home care businesses; it’s a growing trend across society in general.
Here are some steps that you can take to reduce the number of no-shows at job interviews. They’ve been effective for some of my clients around the country, who have been willing to share their secrets.
Weed out unresponsive candidates early
If you can’t tell which applicants are likely to blow off job interviews, you may not be having enough interaction with them before you schedule face-to-face meetings. One of my clients uses the pre-interview selection process to gauge a prospective candidate’s level of commitment. He tries to engage everyone in a back-and-forth dialog. Those who don’t bother to return phone calls are clearly ones who aren’t reliable, and you shouldn’t schedule in-person interviews with them.
Make candidates responsible for themselves
A client of mine has created a system that makes interested candidates come to them. When they’re interested in a job applicant, the agency puts the onus on that caregiver to schedule her job interview, rather than spending time chasing her down. And when they extend a job offer, they require applicants to let them know within 24 hours what date they can start working. This method tells candidates that if they’re interested in working for that company, it’s their responsibility to respond. And it works.
Leave subtle reminders
Have you ever gotten a phone call from your dentist’s office the day before your appointment, reminding you that you’re scheduled to have your teeth cleaned at noon tomorrow? A client of mine has had luck getting job applicants to show up for interviews with a modified version of this phone call. She leaves a voice mail message or text the day before an interview to remind candidates of the date and time. Because she only wants to leave a message (and not have a conversation), she’s strategic about the timing of her calls: She reaches out during the day, when she knows that the caregivers will be working and unable to answer the phone.
This same client of mine also calls job applicants after the interview to thank them for coming. This extra step gives caregivers a sense that her company offers a personal touch that most others don’t have.
Use technology to your advantage
You can optimize the recruitment process with an online application that works as a screening tool. Potential candidates fill out an initial form, and if they meet the minimum requirements (which you get to determine ahead of time), they’re bumped up to the next level where they can submit a formal job application. If they don’t meet the initial criteria, they don’t get to apply.
All of these tips will help you optimize the recruitment process while you minimize the number of phone call interactions that you have with prospective candidates. Follow through, and you’ll put your job candidates in the driver’s seat, rather than having to chase them down yourself.
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Anna-Lise knows recruitment! If you’d like to meet with her to talk about your company’s recruitment challenges, register as a VIP for the upcoming Hurricane Marketing Enterprises Boot Camp. Everyone who does will get a complimentary one-on-one strategy session with Annalise to discuss recruitment and retention challenges with her.
At Boot Camp, you’ll learn about recruitment and retention from her, and all about growing your business and getting more clients from us at Hurricane Marketing Enterprises. It’s a one-two punch that will help you Blow Away The Competition!
