"Would you choose to be a passenger in a car when the driver had only done the theory test but had never driven a car before?".
Recruiting the right people to the care sector who have that inbuilt "caring nature" is the only solution to ensure care is delivered in the way we all want in the future, but it can't all be learnt from study and qualifications.
In my opinion most of the problems we read about in both the care and health sectors is down to the lack of that "instinctive need to care" People who have genuine compassion simply could not behave in this way unless under some kind of duress.
The overall cost to the sector of recruiting the wrong person who never was cut out to be a carer, who leaves before one year is in excess of £3,500
The numbers are incredible, with the churn rate of carers at 19% that is 122,000 carers leaving the profession every year.
122,000 x £3500 = £430 million. So if this tool recruited just 30 people who where the "right stuff" that is a saving to the sector of over £100k. Not only do you save funding, at the same time you recruit the right people who do care, are compassionate by nature and will stay in the sector for long periods of time.
You are throwing away training and your investment in recruiting that person, which you now have to fund again. Not only that, but think of the impact on your remaining staff if they're having to pick up extra shifts, or on the people who use your service when they have to keep getting to know new carers. It doesn't make for a positive situation for any of them.
Training for both health and care sectors is as far as I can see "academically driven", but compassion is much harder to teach as it's in our nature.
It is a thing people can learn, the Dalai Lama tweets about compassion a great deal, that and warmheartedness. However this takes time to learn and besides, the current systems don't seem to acknowledge the importance of being compassionate in its haste to train on procedures and protocols under shrinking budgets and new guidelines.
So the key is to find the right people at the very beginning of the process and identify those who may not have the right make-up for roles in care or health. The saving starts from day one and continues for each year that person delivers the care to a standard we all want as both provider and receiver.
This group of people "love their jobs" they are instinctively kind and compassionate. As a consequence they get huge job satisfaction and reward in giving care...so how do you identify people like this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfzUALbMZls
Measuring compassion
The concept was the brain child of Lee Stribling who was also responsible for creating a unique resource for people caring for those with dementia. www.Demenctiachallengers.com
My job was to bring this vision to life and make it work. Perhaps because I would describe myself as caring, and do look after someone. My mentor said "winning the heads, hearts and minds is how to engage an audience". I realised it was possible to re engineer this and use it as the way of identifying my target audience, "people who have care in them".
Why the Quiz Format?
Its up to you; you can play the quiz now and come back to the blog or have a go at the end to see....
"if you have what it takes to be a carer"
The solution was to create a quiz, like a gateway, at the front of the tool which was designed to run on any platform, be it web, disc or just a usb stick.
The quiz needed to be interactive and have an inbuilt scoring mechanism to feedback to the user. This sounds simple, trust me it's not! This needed considerable thought and planning to get the bias and calibration correct.
To validate its effectiveness feedback was requested from users once it was released, so I know it works.
Sadly I don't feel the true potential and ways in which it could be used in recruitment has ever really been understood and is now something that should be revisited, as it seems so relevant today to the needs of not only carers but anyone recruiting. The achievable cost savings from every perspective seem hard to ignore but they have been, well that's my view anyway.
If it identified one hundred carers who then went on to stay for more than a year the saving to the sector is 100 x £3000.
Wider Applications
It would seem to me to be as applicable to the recruitment of nurses as it is for carers. The format is the same it just needs populating with nurses talking from the heart about their jobs.
Training and Qualifications
It has already been reused to address the fears that so many have around achieving qualifications and exams, in this case NVQ's. It has the quiz at the heart of it and has just been reworked for that purpose. I could do so much more, the issues it addresses are timeless as well so it has a fantastic shelf life.
With Regret
Sadly, and a mistake in my opinion only the front end quiz is available on line, then the audience have to go to links on YouTube. This breaks the connection and engagement I had built into the second and larger part of the recruitment tool. Its like having to keep changing channel on order to watch a movie, it stops it being immersive.
The full version then has clips that directly follow the quiz so it's seamless and far more effective. I very carefully constructed the "narrative" to take the viewer on a progressive journey where they hear about the profession and all its aspects, including telecare.
I think its true power comes from the fact that these are real people speaking from the heart about all aspects of their job, so the tool also gives the viewer a real feel for how it is to work in care.
To get these real and honest contributions from people who had never been in front of camera was partly as a result of keeping it to a crew of one, much less intimidating. Also creating the right "atmosphere on set" put them at their ease.
I have probably done well over a thousand interviews in my time as Director who is also a lighting cameraman, and have a good reputation when it comes to working with first timers.
As you will have gathered I would be delighted to get this tool out there, I know the DH liked it as I was at one point asked to quote on 100,000 Cd's, but then the spending reviews killed that off when actually it was in my opinion just what was needed, as it was paid for and ready to go.
The Business Case Blog http://tinyurl.com/a8sbn7s
I have also created a visual language for people with learning difficulties to help them understand a 43 page legally worded tenancy agreement into something they can understand. I made it with them and for them.
http://jonbryant54.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/a-completely-difference-audience-to.html
http://jonbryant54.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/a-completely-difference-audience-to.html
As with all my work its re usable so it can be multi purpose, this how I deliver value added projects to my clients. Multi role, Multi platform solutions that demonstrably work.
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