More nurses are being offered ‘golden hellos’ to work in care homes, according to a new report this week. You might say this is nothing new, but does it reflect a wider problem in recruiting the best staff for care homes?As a recruiter of care home staff across South Wales, Atlantic Resource has a naturally vested business interest in the matter.
Nursing Times reported on Monday that nurses across the UK are being offered a £500 pound “golden ticket” to join a provider of healthcare staff to care homes across the UK. This is being offered to full-time and part-time members of staff, and is equally open to former members of staff now wishing to return.It’s said that the provider introduced the payment scheme because it found recruiting and retaining nurses to be difficult.While there have been fears raised that this might cause a drain on NHS nurses, it also shines a spotlight on the issue of recruiting for care home work. It’s clearly concerning that such a large, nationwide provider of staff with over 40 branches should still struggle to adequately fill care home roles, and need to offer added cash incentives.It’s neither a novel nor new technique to try and attract staff. This is a big player deploying an aggressive strategy in trying to do everything it can to get as many care home workers on its books as possible, drawing workers away from the NHS if possible.Still, it underlines how people are open to transferring between working care environments. There could be other incentives in migrating. It could be that care home work offers more flexibility, greater financial rewards, improved team morale and less pressure than working on hospital wards.
Yes there may be the risk of a drain on NHS staff, but perhaps the migration of staff could be used to assess issues in NHS workplaces; or perhaps there could be even be areas of best practice collaboration identified between certain care homes and hospitals.Here at Atlantic Resource we service the care needs of several councils throughout South Wales, as well as a number of privately owned nursing homes. As an established provider, clients depend on us for staff around the clock, and we’ll often take calls before 6am and as late as 11pm. In our experience, there is no current crisis in recruiting good quality care staff if you’re focused, and if you know your people and your clients.But there’s no disputing that it is a tough sector to work in, whether you’re in a private care home or a hospital. Although golden handshakes of a few hundred pounds might encourage some workers into care homes, the key thing is to identify relevant skills, committed and diligent workers, and a consistently high quality of care.If you’re seeking care work, or care workers please get in touch.
