How to Improve Your NDIS Recruitment Process?

Lockdowns, social isolation, worries about PPE supply, and, most of all, the uncertainty and confusion caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the complicated rules about linked vaccines have made the last 2 years very hard for disability service providers. Nevertheless, there is little doubt that the disability services industry rallied in the face of these problems, and as we move into 2023, there are numerous reasons for optimism.

What does “NDIS” mean?

The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) provides assistance to disabled individuals, their families, and their caregivers. It is run and paid for by the governments of Australia and the states and territories that make up Australia.

Individualized support packages are the primary component of the NDIS for eligible people with disabilities. When the NDIS is completely implemented, around 460,000 Australians are anticipated to get individualised benefits.

Additionally, the NDIS has a broader role in assisting people with disabilities to:

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•  Access mainstream services including healthcare, housing, and education
•  Access community services like sports groups and libraries, and
•  Maintain informal supports such as family and friends

Be proactive

Begin recruiting as soon as possible, before there is an immediate need for extra support employees. Not only will this help you make fewer hurried judgments, but it will also relieve stress on your current employees.

As a result, both long-term support staff and new hires will have decreased turnover. Your employees will feel less overburdened, which will boost their engagement and commitment to the job. Furthermore, managers will have the time and energy to support and educate new employees, which means your new hires are more likely to make a good first impression and stay with the company.

Increase your hiring pool

The more candidates who see your job posting, the more talented prospects you’ll have to choose from. Instead of simply posting a job listing for support employees and hoping for the best, you can attract more prospects by:

• Advertising on numerous job boards, including general, regional, and industry-specific ones. Pro-tip: Make sure your system allows you to do this simultaneously for maximum efficiency
• Increasing the role’s visibility on social media, including in closed groups
• Attending industry events to network
• Encouragement of referrals within your pool of workers

You may also discover that revising your candidate requirements is beneficial. Examine your job posting and divide the requirements into two columns: required and preferred. Then, think about deleting anything in the desired column from the listing, or at the very least clearly designating it as optional.

You should also play around with your wording to see if it generates more responses. Another pro-tip: emphasising attributes like “collaboration” has been demonstrated to make occupations more appealing to women.

Simplify the hiring process

The faster and easier the hiring procedure, the better. This is not to say that you should rush into a decision. It is critical to ensure that your new recruits are a good fit for your care provider company. However, you want to make sure candidates aren’t deterred from working with your organisation due to having too many hoops to jump through. If a competitor has a more efficient and user-friendly process, you risk losing out on great people.

Begin with an application rubric and a checklist of items to look for before making an offer. Create a series of regular interview questions. All documents should be requested at the same time.

Make onboarding as easy as possible

Bringing on new support staff can feel like a war against bureaucracy. There is a lot of documentation to compile, from the Worker Screening Check approval through vaccination, qualifications, and visa information. While this may be annoying for you, it may be even more so for support employees who are eager to book their first shift with you. Having technology that helps you keep track of compliance is key. Bonus points if applicants can upload their documents straight into a system that feeds into rostering and payroll.

Stay in touch with new hires to ensure they see their value to your business. Make yourself available to answer any inquiries. A strong document management system will make onboarding less painful for both you and them. Empower your new members by putting them in control of how quickly they get to work.

Prioritizing the experience of support workers

Creating a great employment experience is critical to addressing support worker shortages. Retaining your finest team members is significantly easier and less expensive than replacing them. Furthermore, limiting team turnover increases employee motivation and safeguards organisational knowledge.

Even small things like giving support staff real-time updates on their schedules through a mobile app and working around their preferred work hours can go a long way towards keeping them.

Making shifts less stressful can have a significant impact. Using a system that considers travel time in support workers’ shifts can add a sense of control for your workers. Providing them with a mobile app to keep progress notes and care plans up-to-date and develop a simple record-keeping system can keep your workers and finance team from being overloaded with paperwork.

Depending on your budget, you might also invest in training and professional development opportunities to ensure that support staff have a future with your company. Don’t forget to express your gratitude to your support staff on a frequent basis. A thank-you message will not break the bank, but it will greatly raise motivation levels.

Entire OnHire team understands how critical it is to keep your workforce happy. As a result, our fit-for-purpose NDIS management software simplifies every step of your members’ experience, from recruiting to onboarding, rostering, document management, and all the way through payroll. If you want to learn more about how NDIS software can do for your NDIS staffing agency, request a demo today.

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