Staff referral is an old, established recruitment practice but difficult to build into the HR structure as an ongoing discipline. The UK app and process Care Friends is now in Australia and achieving real long-term results.
We met Neil Eastwood, Founder of Care Friends, on a flying visit to Australia, and he explained our Australian experience has the same growth rates as the UK – locally for every 100 aged care employees enrolled on the Care Friend app, expect 62 candidates over 12 months to be introduced. and one in 5 to be appointed, or 12%.
More importantly, he explained, those staff-referred recruits are, in the majority, going to become long-term employees. While sector average churn is 25% to 30% departing within the first three to six months; Care Friends sourced starters regularly sit between 6% - 10% turnover across the first 12 months of employment.
It is a matter of how like-minded people attract like-minded people. And they are most probably local.
“Care Friends has opened a new untapped channel for us that is now delivering a significant proportion of all starters. In the first 3 months we had 30 starters and no departures. We are approaching 5 months of usage and we now have 44 starters.” Luke Greive, CEO Infin8Care
Neil pointed out that these referred recruits, being local and acquaintances with the right values, are also more likely to perform well and stay longer.
How does it work
Care Friends provides a digital structure to operate a referral as well as a reward and recognition program.
Using the Care Friends app, staff are notified of positions available, kept up to date as their candidates progress through recruitment and notified as they are awarded referral rewards. Full transparency and simplicity has boosted staff engagement and referral numbers.
Points are awarded and built towards cash or can be used for holidays and other incentives. A leader board can be introduced as an element of competition between members of the team and also between facilities.
A retention reward can also be added, helping everybody invest in long-term success.
They have found that around 33% of all employees are prepared to be active referees, and they are very active, generating several candidates each a year.
Potential roadblocks
We asked Neil what are the roadblocks to a successful implementation. With the experience of over 700 operators taking up Care Friends in the UK, he said the top performing providers have the endorsement of their leadership team and the involvement of stakeholders from across the organisation.
As Neil commented, the market has moved from active to passive job seekers as evidenced by Government awareness campaigns – A Life Changing Life for example. This requires a slightly different approach to attraction and sourcing across the whole business. Reaching high quality passive job seekers, through your own staff is proving to be a highly productive avenue.
In 18 months they have brought on 20 large and small operators in Australia, fine tuning local processes and incentives along the way.
“With Care Friends we are building an effective referral culture across our business and the results are impressive. Referrals in our first year have moved from a trickle to almost 10% of all starters. Annual turnover on these starters is 6.5%. Candidate quality is high – we employ over 20% of the people our team members refer.” Steve Muggleton, Group CEO Bolton Clarke
Cost VS reward
Conservatively the sector average cost to recruit and on-board a new employee to Day 1, is 15-25% of annual salary. If the role is worth $45,000 a year, this recruitment cost is around $9,000. Referral incentives through Care Friends range between $250-$1,000. The amount is up to the employer but as Neil says, that money is going into the pay packet of your care staff, not to a third party recruitment channel.
“We did not have access to these new staff until we opened this referral channel via Care Friends. We estimate these appointments have mean the elimination of more than 500 overtime and agency shifts per month.” Luke Greive, CEO Infin8Care.
This does not take into account the cost of turnover, which is significantly less with the high retention rates of Care Friends sourced starters. Since its launch in the UK in 2019, over £2.5 million ($4.5 million) has been earned by staff as reward for referrals.
It simply makes sense.
For more information, contact Ross Bell on 0418 450 024 or click here.
