How to Write a Caregiver Job Post that Attracts All-Star Applicants
Activated Insights
Home care agencies today are faced with more recruitment challenges than ever before. It’s easy to overlook something as small as your job posts, but the words used inside your caregiver job post matter and will play a powerful role in determining who you are.
Agencies that prioritize caregivers and clients will see increased profit margins and long term sustainability. That prioritization of your caregivers begins as early as the hiring process. In order to attract all-star applicants, you need to know how to write an eye-catching caregiver job post. From the first encounter potential applicants have with your business, to their third year with your business, putting your employees and your clients first is crucial to the long-term success and growth of your agency.
As a growth marketing expert, I specialize in writing copy for articles, emails, social posts and job ads. From my experience, I’ve seen that job ads are essential in the early encounters future employees will have with your business. Simply stated, the purpose of a job post is to ultimately get candidates to fill out the application, but you also want to make sure those applicants are qualified and meet your requirements. So, the question is, how do you as an agency owner, marketer, HR, or recruiter get applicants excited enough to take action and apply for your position?
This article will walk you through how to write a caregiver job post that attracts amazing applicants. Keep reading if you want to learn strategies and best practices to catch the applicants and get them hyped enough to click that ‘apply’ button.
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3 Job Post Tips
Formatting
Before we dive in, take note that before applicants go through the nitty gritty of your ad, they’re going to scan it. Make sure the caregiver job post is formatted in a bold, clear and concise way so that candidates scanning can understand what you’re looking for. Scanning isn’t a bad thing, it’s just inevitable. We encourage holding the readers attention regardless because ultimately that will lead to more applicants taking action.
Study Your Target
All of the content included in your caregiver job description needs to speak directly to your target audience. It’s commonly known that people buy into emotion before they rationalize with logic, so write a job ad that taps into their emotions. Keep in mind the applicant’s goals and aspirations, what makes them happy or what they might feel is missing in their life.
Optimize Your Job Title
Write your job title and your whole job post using words you know your candidate is searching. Millions of people are searching for millions of keywords every day. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is key to your recruitment process. I know you want to stand out and be unique, but for SEO purposes, it actually helps to focus on simple searchable phrases and titles.
Job Title
Use keywords the candidate will be searching. Like I said, don’t get too fancy or creative. You don’t want to confuse or deter the applicant before they’ve even begun scanning your job ad. I know it can be tempting to add benefits, hours or pay in your job title, but try and refrain. Keep the title recognizable and keyword friendly.
Examples:
- In-home Caregiver
- Caregiver for Seniors
- Caregiver to Help with Elderly
Company Summary
Don’t just paste in your company’s “About Us” page. Research your target audience and write specifically to them. Write a summary that speaks clearly to your applicants and provides them with context to the company and the position.
Great example from one of our customers in Idaho:
Grandma’s Loving Care is a family-founded agency started by two sisters in Twin Falls, Idaho. Sisters, Caroline and Janine personally cared for family members over the years and grew to know compassion and love first-hand through their experiences. Grandma’s Loving Care is best known for its ability to let family stay family and let caregivers take on the role to serve. Now having built a successful agency after nearly a decade, Grandma’s Loving Care is looking for that special caregiver to help families take care of the ones they love.
Job Overview
Help the applicants feel a part of something bigger than themselves and envision the impact of their role. Describe briefly and clearly the role of the applicant and the work they’ll be doing.
Example:
As a caregiver at __Your Agency Name__, you’ll build relationships, improve the quality of life and serve elderly in need of love and care. Your goal will be to help individuals enjoy life by helping them perform their simple daily functions; meal prep, light exercise, local transportation, social interactions and housekeeping. Your compassion and diligence as a caregiver will bring joy into the lives of the clients you work with and help them feel encouraged, involved and loved.
Benefits
Offer the benefits that your applicant needs and if you can, some of the ones they want. Similar to the job overview, help them envision the benefits. Keep the bullet points concise for scanning purposes.
Examples:
- Location –We hate commuting too—and we’ll do our best to provide clients as close to you as possible.
- Flexibility – We understand how difficult it can be to find a job that balances your time with school, kids, or other priorities. We’ll do our best to provide flexible options that work with your schedule.
- Education/Learning – Free certifications and courses will be at your fingertips every day to help you grow in your position and gain professional experience for future opportunities.
- PTO – Earn an extra day of paid time off for every 30 days you work.
- Gas Compensation – We’ll provide you with the technology to track your mileage and we’ll compensate all travel to, from, and on the job with clients.
Requirements
Keep your list of requirements as brief as possible. You don’t want to lose them here, which is why we’ve placed it in between the benefits and responsibilities. The requirements serve two purposes, to show candidates prerequisites and disengage unqualified people (if there are any).
Examples:
- Experience –If you’ve had a job or experience in a position with similar goals and responsibilities, we’d love to connect with you.
- Skills – We’re looking for individuals that are compassionate, social, trustworthy and service-minded. If you have experience cooking, cleaning or caring for others, that’s a bonus!
- Characteristics – This is an autonomous position, so we’re looking for individuals that are self-motivated and willing to learn through experience and receiving feedback.
Responsibilities
Use strong action verbs that can help the applicant envision themselves performing the responsibilities that you outline. Your goal in the responsibilities section is to excite and create value that the applicant is looking for. Begin each bullet point with an action verb that catches the eye of the candidate.
Examples:
- Preparing snacks and meals to help sustain and satisfy the client throughout your time with them.
- Encouraging light exercise (walks, bikes, swims, stretches) to keep the client active and physically moving.
- Tidying up the house and helping with basic housekeeping tasks that keep the home environment neat and enjoyable for the client.
- Transporting the client to nearby appointments or engagements. Take the clients to social activities, fairs and events in the community or with family and friends.
Call to Action: Apply Now
Only provide one call to action – keep it clear and simple. If you’re posting a job on multiple channels – Facebook, LinkedIn, Google, Indeed, or myCNAjobs, make sure to drive all the applicants to the same source (landing page, website link, job posting hosting site) for them to fill out the application.
Bonus: Testimonials & Company Awards
If applicable, it can be beneficial to include an employee testimonial or even a testimonial about an employee from a client. Often times your current all-star employees can reach the candidates in a way, you may not be able to. Clients can also share stories or testimonies of high-quality services and love shown by an employee. A simple written testimonial or even short video clip can go a long way near the end of your caregiver job post.
In addition to employee testimonials, your agency may have qualified for Best of Home Care awards. If so, including your badge or award recognition at the end of your job ad could be another way to increase credibility and success of your agency. Don’t flaunt these awards, but make it known that you stand out from your competitors and you value the service you provide.
Time to Get Writing
The top five reasons caregivers chose to work for a provider are: 1) first job applied for 2) good working environment 3) company recommended 4) company has good reputation 5) working schedule met lifestyle. Your caregiver job post should address every single one of these reasons inside of the format outlined above. We can’t stress enough the importance of knowing your audience and speaking directly to them. Knowing these five reasons will give you an idea of the needs of your potential caregivers. As mentioned in the tips above, spend time researching your audience so that you can speak to them.
For most of you reading this, you’re already incorporating a lot of these ideas and best practices into your job ads. The goal of this information is to help you tweak areas where you can improve.
The concepts and examples we’re providing are to help you create a job ad that can make candidates feel something as they apply for your position. Tailor your ad to your company, it’s culture and the needs of your applicants.
Best of luck in writing a new job ad or tweaking a pre-existing one. You got this!
