Care Friends, which launched an employee referral app for aged care, disability and health providers in the UK, has officially put the product on the market in Australia and New Zealand after successful trials led by the region’s director Ross Bell (pictured).
Founder Neil Eastwood’s idea is to reduce staff shortages by allowing employees to share jobs with their network in just three taps, increasing an organisation’s reach into a well-recognised source of quality care and support staff.
“Halted immigration, competition for staff by other sectors, wage levels and a damaged public perception has created a perfect storm particularly for Aged Care and Disability providers, who increasingly struggle to find and keep quality care staff,” said Mr Eastwood.
“The core purpose of Care Friends is to unlock the huge potential of employee referral, which is recognised as providing consistently high performing care employees who are retained for longer. Operating for over 12 months in the UK, we are very pleased with the results. Users in our first year have seen candidates sourced through referral grow significantly to over 10,000 with a 30% improved retention rate for new starters.”
South Australian aged care provider ECH was the first in the country to use the Care Friends app.
“The simplicity of the app makes referring easy for our staff, and the quality of candidates has clearly been better than those coming from job boards,” said ECH Human Resources Manager Narelle Milne.
