Blogs & Podcasts
PODCASTS
We were honoured to be asked by Dr. Shabnam Berry-Khan to feature on one of Psych Works Podcasts to discuss how Finders Keepers Recruitment Ltd work with vulnerable clients and their families to recruit bespoke Carers for all of their needs. Have a listen, we would love your feedback!
BLOGS
Ever wondered what the life of a Recruiter was like, read on to find out about our typical day:
Making sure that we prioritise our day from the outset is a must to ensure that we are focussed on the work ahead, so we put the kettle on, we are human after all! Having had our caffeine hit, we click on our Spotify background playlist and we are ready to start the very rewarding day of a Recruiter.
We usually have a couple of Support Worker recruitment campaigns running simultaneously so our first job, after checking our emails and social media, is to check the interview schedule for the day. We always like to have a second read through the candidates’ CV and any other information they’ve sent us before we give them a call, we never dismiss a CV that isn’t a perfect match, we look for relatable skills and never make a judgement on abilities until we have had a full telephone screening call with our candidates. Screening calls are a great way to have a relaxed and informal chat to the candidate about the job, we really get to know the individual, discuss their interests, experience and reasons for applying and a little bit of finding out what makes them tick! We make sure that they have all the relevant skills for the role and that they can work the advertised hours, the journey is commutable and if they have the aptitude for the role. Candidates are often a little nervous and we do our best to make them feel relaxed and we can really get to know their personalities – which in turn, helps us discover who might be a good fit for our clients and their families.
It’s a mixed morning with two of the candidates seeming like they are a really good fit for the role whilst two aren’t suitable to put forward, letting candidates down is our least favourite part of our role, but a necessary one, however we do try to give constructive feedback and are happy to keep details in case another role comes on board to which they would be more suited (all within current GDPR practices of course).
After a quick top up of caffeine, its back to the in-box. One of the Case Managers has come back to say he would like to arrange a face to face interview with 5 candidates with whom we carried out a telephone screening interview a couple of days ago. We’re really pleased with this result and typically find that our Case Managers interview most of the candidates that we suggest to them. We are sure that this is due to the fact that before we start a recruitment campaign, we spend time talking to the Case Manager about their requirements for the new Support Worker and learning about the client’s needs, personality and family dynamics.
We make the calls to book in the interviews with the Case Manager, it’s so uplifting to hear their surprise at being selected for the next stage, we know how hard it is at the moment in the current climate with some candidates saying they have applied for 30+ jobs without even having an acknowledgement of their application. We find that totally unacceptable, every candidate is important, they have taken the time to apply and they each should be acknowledged even if their skill-base doesn’t fit. On the flip side of this, our next email is from a candidate that has been offered another role and has had to withdraw, unfortunately, some high calibre candidates slip through the net, another reason we have to be time-conscious and get interviews set up quickly. It’s really good of this candidate to let us know at this stage, there is a lot of criticism about Recruitment Agencies but to be fair, there are some bad practices with candidates too, like not turning up for interviews even though we have called them the day before and text them good luck the morning of interview!
COVID hasn’t really impacted the way in which we work at Finders Keepers, we both already worked from home and were used to Zoom calls and virtual working. It has, though, had a huge impact on our Case Managers and their clients and staff teams. Many teams have had issues with staff testing positive or having to isolate and they have needed to expand to cover this. We have found that our last campaigns have been turned around within less than a week and staff onboarded within a fortnight (DBS allowing), which our Case Managers have found really beneficial during the last few months.
We then turn our actions to the HR side of our business. Following a successful recruitment campaign and verbal job offers, we have three new staff to onboard so amongst other actions, we seek references, offer letters, apply for their enhanced DBS certificates and start working on the contracts along with creating a Staff Handbook as it’s a new client, a lovely young child with complex Cerebral Palsy.
A lunch and caffeine break, then a quick catch up call with Liz, our HR Associate regarding a redundancy situation she is dealing with for one of our clients. As usual, the day seems to fly by! Time for a quick look at our Social Media pages– one of our recently recruited candidates has left us a great recommendation on our Facebook page so we reply to thank her – it really makes our day when we are acknowledged for the support that we provide, she’s a lovely lady and the family of the little boy whom she’ll be supporting are delighted and can’t wait for her to start working with them. We then add some advent items on ContentCal, our social media planning platform, for our upcoming Advent Calendar campaign which we are really excited about – you will just have ‘follow’ us to find out more!
A call to my partner to plan our work for the rest of the week and put the world to rights and then it’s time to log off – except we don’t - one of our Case Managers e-mails with an urgent query during the evening which needs a reply and one of our candidates calls with a query about her face to face interview taking place tomorrow, however we don’t mind, we understand that in the Care sector there really isn’t 9-5 working, our Case Managers often work late and some of our candidates may also be doing night shifts so we understand that we will need to take calls or respond to messages outside of ‘normal’ hours, although trying to find a quiet part of the house to speak is sometimes difficult – something that a lot of you will now be familiar with whilst working from home due to COVID!
Every day is a little different, we love what we do, the lovely candidates that we speak to, sharing the highs and lows of a family needing support and building a rapport with our Case Managers and their teams, it’s what makes us different and we can’t wait to see what tomorrow will bring.