Walfinch to give franchisees a tech solution to carer recruitment

Carer recruitment and retention is a problem across the care sector but the franchise sees this as fixable

Walfinch is rolling out a new app which means carers can recruit friends and family faster – and get rewarded for it.

The app, launched in partnership with adult social care workforce development body Skills For Care, allows carers to refer potential candidates from their phone in just three taps. The person making the referral earns rewards for each step of the process, and not just for successful hires.

“Recruitment through referrals from existing carers is likely to attract higher quality staff,” said Amrit Dhaliwal, chief executive of Walfinch. “Existing carers understand what the work really involves and are unlikely to put their own reputation on the line by suggesting someone unsuitable.”

What’s more, people recruited through personal connections stay with the business for 15 per cent to 20 per cent longer, according to Neil Eastwood, author of Saving Social Care and designer of the app, called Care Friends.

“We are offering the Care Friends app to all our franchisees for use by their staff, to boost recruitment and retention for care staff,” added Amrit. “We are about to go live in our Oxford branch and are encouraging other franchisees to adopt it too.”

The app also helps carers stay motivated and engaged, because they get extra bonus points for good performance, and can easily track how many points they have earned and choose when to cash them in. 

The app also offers a leader board to make referring fun and competitive among the team.

Amrit said: “The app has been shown to deliver better results than ads on recruitment sites and is faster than traditional referral schemes, so we know it is likely to benefit our network of franchisees and their care teams.”