r/techforlife

been hiring caregivers and CNAs for my home care agency for about 4 years now and i feel like ive tried basically every channel that exists. wanted to write this up because when i was starting out i couldnt find any honest comparisons of hiring methods for care work specifically and it wouldve saved me a lot of time and money

this is for anyone running a home care agency, home health company, or any care focused business that needs to hire shift workers with certifications. the dynamics are really different from hiring for office roles or even restaurant/retail

indeed

this is where most people start and its fine for raw volume. you will get applications. the problem is signal to noise ratio. i post a position clearly requiring CNA certification and easily 60-70% of applicants dont have one. they just blast apply to everything. then you spend hours screening only to find that half the qualified people dont respond to messages and the other half ghost on interviews. that said, over the years indeed has gotten me some of my best long term employees. its just a brutal numbers game. maybe 1 hire per 40-50 applications. budget wise the sponsored posts add up fast too

care.com

this is built for families hiring a single caregiver, not for agencies filling multiple positions. the interface is clunky for business use. candidates on care.com tend to want private pay direct hire arrangements, not agency work. i used it for about 6 months and stopped. if youre a family looking for one person its probably fine. for agencies its the wrong tool

staffing agencies (maxim, bayada, amedisys, etc)

these work when you need someone fast and can absorb the cost. markups run 25-40% depending on the agency, position, and your market. quality is wildly inconsistent. ive had them send genuinely excellent caregivers and ive had them send people who were clearly not experienced with home care patients. the biggest issue is they usually cant guarantee the same person for recurring shifts, which is terrible for clients who need continuity of care. also once you get dependent on a staffing agency its hard to wean off because your own pipeline atrophies

craigslist

no. just dont. maybe 1 in 20 responses is a real person with actual qualifications

facebook groups

underrated honestly. most cities have caregiver and CNA facebook groups. the people in those groups are actually in the field which already puts you ahead of indeed in terms of qualification rate. the downside is its totally unstructured. youre posting in a group, getting a flood of DMs, and doing all the vetting yourself. no filtering, no scheduling tools, nothing. but ive found some solid people this way

hirey

this is the newest thing ive tried. its a matching service where you call or text 281-801-8048 and describe what you need. they match based on zip code proximity (try to keep it within 30 minutes) and certifications. what i like is that it cuts the screening step because candidates are already filtered by location and qualifications. if theres a match they set up a zoom interview which is convenient. what i dont like is the candidate pool is smaller than indeed because theyre newer. ive had times where there wasnt a match for a specific area or time slot. theyre currently focused on the houston area where i am so if youre elsewhere it may not be available yet. its not a full replacement but for getting qualified nearby matches fast its been the most efficient option per time spent

word of mouth / referral programs

honestly still the best channel by retention rate. my current staff referring people they know converts at the highest rate and those hires stick around longer because they already know someone at the company and understand what the work involves. i pay a $200 referral bonus after 30 days and its been the best money ive spent on recruiting

the takeaway

theres no single solution for hiring care workers. the industry has high turnover and the tools that exist were mostly built for different kinds of jobs. im currently using indeed for broader hiring pushes, word of mouth for steady organic growth, and hirey for targeted fast matches in my area. staffing agencies only when im truly desperate because of the margin hit

for anyone else hiring in healthcare or care work, what channels have worked for you? especially curious about markets outside of texas