Peninsula Villages, a leading provider of aged care and retirement living services on the Central Coast, has achieved significant recruitment outcomes since launching its new employee referral and reward program, Care Friends, in May last year.
The aged care and retirement living industry in Australia is facing a number of challenges, including a shortage of qualified workers.
The Care Friends app is a valuable tool for Peninsula Villages in helping to address this challenge by making it easy for employees to refer their friends and family members for open positions.
Employees can earn up to $400 and micro rewards for each step in the recruitment process that their referred candidate successfully completes.
This helps to motivate employees to refer their friends and family members.
Since implementing the Care Friends app, Peninsula Villages has seen a 25 per cent increase in applications, with 35 per cent of new hires now coming from app referrals.
The average time to fill a vacancy using the app is 35 days, with 24 new staff members hired through the app since May 2023 and no departures.
Executive Manager of Quality and Organisational Development at Peninsula Villages Nicola Burton said the Care Friends app had helped address key challenges the organisation faced in recruiting staff, including finding candidates with the right qualifications and who lived locally.
“When we use online job boards or even our website, we get a lot of people applying who we can’t consider because they don’t have the correct qualifications or they live internationally,” she said.
“Care Friends has helped us to reduce this problem significantly.
“Our recruitment is now more targeted, and we love that we can work in partnership with our staff and reward them for being part of our recruitment process.”
The app allows Peninsula Villages to target its recruitment efforts more effectively by matching open positions with employees’ networks of friends and family members.
This has helped reduce the number of unqualified applicants and ensured Peninsula Villages were attracting candidates with the right skills and experience.
While over a third of its starters have care or clinical qualifications and experience, Burton said Peninsula Villages had seen the most volume with using Care Friends to recruit for positions that don’t require a qualification, such as traineeships and housekeeping roles.
“Employees can invite their friends and family members without prior experience to apply for these roles,” she said.
“In addition to helping Peninsula Villages recruit more quickly and efficiently, the Care Friends app also helped the organisation improve its employer brand and build stronger relationships with its employees.
“By showing that the organisation is committed to rewarding its employees for referring their friends and family members, we can create a more positive and inclusive workplace culture.
“Additionally, by engaging with employees’ networks of friends and family members, we can create a more supportive and connected workplace.”
Burton said Peninsula Villages was committed to using the Care Friends app as part of its overall recruitment strategy in the years to come and the organisation believed it was a valuable tool for attracting and retaining top talent.