How to Improve Your Disability Recruitment Strategy

The world has changed drastically over the last few years and our attitude towards work has changed with it. In a candidate short market, job seekers now hold much of the power and employers are struggling to attract and secure the right staff.

Disability recruitment is no different. Whether you’re looking for Clinical Directors, Residential Managers, Disability Support Workers or Physiotherapists, it’s more important than ever to ensure that your recruitment strategies are as effective as they can be.   

So, with that in mind, let’s take a look at what you can do to improve your disability recruitment plan and find the best candidates for your roles.

5 Top Tips for Effective Disability Recruitment

1) Improve your work environment

Good recruitment starts long before you post a job advert. In order to attract the best staff, you need to make sure that your organisation is an attractive option for candidates.

Before you start the recruitment process, take a good look at your work environment and think about what you can do to improve. Talk to your current employers and ask for their opinions. This will provide invaluable insight into what kind of things are important to today’s workforce as well as give you a tangible list of improvements you can make to your daily operations.

2) Make the job easier

It’s tempting to keep doing things the way they’ve always been done, but sometimes it’s highly beneficial to shake things up. Recruiting a new role is the perfect opportunity to examine the specific duties of a position and re-evaluate how and when those duties are fulfilled.

Think about ways to streamline operations. Whether it’s implementing new reporting systems or changing the way you communicate as a team, think about creative solutions that could make the job you’re recruiting for easier to execute day to day. Remember, you don’t have to overhaul your entire organisation — it could be as simple as reshuffling desks in the office to make collaboration and communication easier for certain teams.

3) Be flexible

Flexible working is extremely important in today’s candidate market. We’ve had a taste of life with hybrid working and reduced commutes and we’re not willing to give it up without a fight.

Disability support and residential care may not seem like the kind of industry where remote working is possible but don’t be too quick to dismiss this idea. While a great deal of disability support work requires face to face interaction, there are plenty of areas where you could provide flexible working options.

By investing in innovative technology to minimise the amount of admin and office work required, you can enable your workforce to adopt a more flexible working pattern. Even client-facing roles such as Diversional and Mobility Therapists, Physio, Speech and Occupational Therapists or Behaviour Support Specialists could benefit from digital solutions that allow them to complete the administrative side of their work remotely.

This may seem like a big adjustment but it could have a significant impact on your staff’s mental health, their enjoyment of the role and their productivity. For your staff, being able to report on patient data on-site or even from home could make the difference between picking the kids up from school or missing their bedtime. Investing in systems that empower staff to achieve a better work life balance is therefore key to recruitment as well as staff retention.

4) Network

Most people think of recruitment as posting a job advert, sifting through resumes and interviewing candidates, and while this is indeed a big part of the process, it doesn’t stop there. Effective recruitment strategies don’t just start when a vacancy arises and they don’t stop once the role is filled. In fact, the best recruiters are constantly looking for potential staff regardless of whether or not they have upcoming vacancies.

Networking is a huge part of recruitment, particularly in a specialised field like disability support and care. In order to access the best possible staff for your organisation, you need to be active within the industry.

Some great ways to network include:

• Attending industry events
• Hosting industry events
• Being active on platforms like Linked-In
• Keeping in touch with previously interviewed candidates who narrowly missed out
• Keeping in touch with former staff members

Immersing yourself in the industry like this is not only a great way for you to access fantastic candidates, but it’s also a fantastic opportunity to improve your organisation’s visibility in the market. Remember that disability support recruitment is a two-way street. You need to sell yourself to the candidates as much as they need to prove themselves to you.

When it comes to networking on social media sites such as Linked-In, make sure you post insightful material that adds value to your network. It’s a great tool for candidate searching but it’s also a great way to position yourself as a credible player in the market.

Regularly posting content on Linked-In is a great (and very easy) way to demonstrate and share your values with prospective candidates. For example, if you offer fantastic flexible working options, post articles about the importance of having a work life balance. If you offer strong parental leave packages, share articles about that topic. The content you share doesn’t necessarily have to be written by your own organisation - as long as it reflects your values, it’s a great way to position yourself as a desirable employer in your field.

Consistently posting on Linked-In and regularly attending industry events will give you access to fantastic future candidates whilst simultaneously allowing you to boost your organisation’s profile. Get this right and the candidates will come to you.

5) Use a Disability Recruitment Agency

It’s tempting to limit costs by recruiting positions yourself but partnering with a recruitment agency specialising in disability support work will save time, money and effort.

A specialist Disability Support Recruiter will be able to guide you through the entire recruitment process as well as offer some advice on what today’s candidates are looking for. This will help ensure that you are competitive within the market and that you have access to the right candidates.

Professional disability support recruiters will be fully immersed in your industry. Disability recruitment agencies in Sydney, for example, will continuously network with clients and candidates in Sydney while also keeping an eye on desirable candidates further afield who may wish to relocate.

In short, a recruitment agency will do all of the hard and time-consuming work of networking and sifting through resumes so that you can choose from a final shortlist of the candidates best suited for the role.

Need help finding disability support staff?

From General Managers and Clinical Directors through to Psychologists, Behaviour Support Specialists and Office Support, we specialise in recruiting Disability Support Services. For information on how we can help you find the right staff for your business, get in touch with our team today.