Forget the traditional job boards: New technology platforms are saving aged care providers thousands of dollars on recruitment costs and using software to ensure the providers’ retention rate is its best.

With tight competition for new aged care workers, new technology platforms are helping to speed up the hiring process for providers – and reduce turnover with software that sees new workers stay beyond six months.

Research shows that it currently costs at least $11,000 to recruit and onboard a new employee – much more if you factor in wasted training time for other staff.

In a sector like aged care where turnover is sitting at 30%, the cost of replacing staff to businesses easily runs into the millions.

But what if you could step off the recruitment treadmill – and free up your HR team to focus on retaining new staff?

CareBridge now has 25,000 workers on its platform

There are solutions.

Imagine having a virtual recruitment officer who reduces 80% of your hiring workload, from sourcing matching and screening the best-fit candidate to seamlessly hiring them.

West Australian AI-based digital platform CareBridge now has over 25,000 care and clinical dedicated members since it launched in 2022.

Their system combines AI-driven profiling analysis, interactive chatbots, virtual interviews, behaviour analysis, and auto compliance checks to continuously learn an aged care provider’s needs and preferences over time, refining its ability to match and hire the most suitable candidates.

For every 10 candidates CareBridge suggests to aged care providers, eight are shortlisted, while maintaining a high retention rate for new hires.

“Adopting CareBridge not only slashed our recruitment overheads but also come with outperforming results,” said one client.

Most staff turnover happens in first six months

Technology is also helping to identify those with the ‘right fit’ – vital when you consider most aged care staff turnover happens in the first six months of a new role when workers realise the job is not for them.

Expr3ss! is an Australian-based predictive hiring software provider – 25% of its clients are in the aged care and disability space.

Its software is designed to offer insights into a person’s temperament and attitudes in advance of an interview thereby ensuring that employers are bringing the right people into their organisations from the start.

Expr3ss! uses a combination of ‘dealbreaker’ screening questions and a unique checklist which surveys prospective staff on their attitudes.

These questions are based on operators’ own benchmarks which they create via a six-minute survey based on the exemplar staff that they already have in their employment.

This provides a star rating for each candidate so employers can see which prospective staff are best suited to the role.

“All we’re saying is focus on these applicants first, because they’re more likely to have the ‘will do’ attitudes and be the right fit for the role,” said Carolyne Burns, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Expr3ss!.

The platform also offers an additional survey, which is videoed so prospective employers can see how the candidate performs ‘in person’.

The result? A faster turnaround – Expr3ss! has a ‘seven-day’ club for its users that hire within a week – and new hires that are better suited to the role.

Stop losing candidates to the competition

One challenge that aged care providers often face is the time it takes to verify paperwork between the application process and the job offer – if you’re not quick off the mark, the applicant will invariably be snapped up by your competition.

But technology can significantly reduce this time.

Launched in July, Lookout Connect is a hiring platform of ready-to-work healthcare workers, everything from carers, support workers and Registered Nurses, that can be accessed by providers of homecare, retirement living and residential care facilities.

Created by the team behind home care provider Five Good Friends and the Lookout Way, the platform acts as an online CV for healthcare workers, allowing them to build a profile, upload all their qualifications and background checks which they can then bring along to any onboarding process.

“Lookout Connect takes the heavy lifting from the provider talent engagement teams, our algorithms and health care talent team ensure that the candidates being presented to a provider are matched to their criteria and ready to work,” said Samantha Carson, Head of Lookout Connect.

This ease of access speeds up the application process – and helps to give the healthcare workers more control over the providers they want to work with. Employers apply to the workers and the workers can directly apply to the employers.

The growing market for job referrals

There are also technology platforms designed to drive recruitment from those that understand the job best: your existing staff.

Developed in the UK by Neil Eastwood and launched in Australia in 2021, Care Friends is a staff referral platform aimed at modernising the referral process.

Staff are notified direct to their phone when vacancies are available at their worksite and can readily share with their connections via a variety of channels including text and social media.

Points are earned progressively for referrals instead of at the end of their referral’s probation period, keeping people engaged.

The same as a loyalty program, staff can also use their points when they are available or building them up for big-ticket items with some of its client with staff now earning $3,000 to $4,000.

But the real value of Care Friends is in the volume and consistency of the candidates delivered. This takes referral beyond filling random vacancies and allows providers to change sourcing mix by activating better performing channels.

Referrals have 30% longer tenure than other sources

Using the platform, Not For Profit aged care provider Bolton Clarke has taken its referrals from 2% of all new hires to 21%, with turnover on those referrals in the first year of 6%.

Of the 80 referrals it receives per month, one in five are offered a job. .

“In the last 12 months, the average tenure for referral sourced candidates is just under 30% longer than any other source,” said Ross Bell, Director of Care Friends Australia & NZ.

Staff are better performing and have a longer tenure, saving on operational and staffing costs.

“We’re enjoying record low turnover rates at the moment,” said Group CEO Steve Muggleton. “The retention rates were improving well before the Work Value pay rises came through. There’s no doubt Care Friends has been a significant contributor to that success.”

Streamlining the induction and onboarding process

Technology can also play a critical role in staff retention by offering a good induction experience and ongoing support to ensure staff continue their employment.

CareBridge’s new digital induction solution aims to improve the experience of new employees, facilitating efficient learning and familiarisation with the new workplace and its policies and procedures, as well as monitor and address any challenges they may encounter all through the AI-powered chatbot and onboarding system.

While the current cost of living crisis has brought people back into the jobs market, that will quickly change as the number of available candidates declines again.