How Speed Can Fix Your Care Recruitment Challenges

A recording of the webinar can reviewed below, and a copy of the slides can be found HERE.

During the webinar, we discussed how recruitment in social care isn’t just a supply problem; it’s a process problem. For many care providers, that process is quietly costing time, money and quality of care.

We explored how candidates are applying to multiple roles at once. Providers who respond within hours build trust, engagement and momentum. Those who wait days lose out. It’s not about who has the most vacancies; it’s about who creates the best candidate experience, fastest.

We also discussed how millions are being spent on job boards without clear strategy or visibility. Many providers aren’t tracking cost per hire, analysing return on investment or using historic data to improve results. The outcome?

Wasted budget, ongoing vacancies, excess agency usage and increased pressure on already stretched teams.

Internally, recruitment is often unclear and inconsistent. We looked at questions such as: Who owns it? Who follows up? How strong is the first interaction? These gaps directly impact outcomes, including interview attendance. With no-show rates as high as 65% in some cases, it’s easy to blame candidates. But the reality is more uncomfortable: poor processes fail to build commitment.

We also examined the challenge facing Registered Managers, whose priority is delivering safe, high-quality care, yet who are often expected to lead recruitment. Most don’t want this responsibility, and many don’t have the time or training. This creates a structural issue, not an individual one.

We discussed how small changes can deliver big results:

• Faster response times
• Clear ownership of recruitment
• Better candidate engagement from first contact through to interview

The webinar highlighted that this isn’t about doing more; it’s about doing things differently.

For providers experiencing ongoing vacancies, high spend, high agency usage or candidate drop-off, the discussion reinforced the importance of rethinking recruitment approaches.