Resilience can be defined as ‘an ability to rebound from adversity and overcome difficult circumstances in one’s life’. People working in the care sector often function in an environment that is highly stressful and demanding physically, emotionally as well as mentally.

Resilience can increase through life experience, one’s social network and training, however some people seem to naturally be more equipped to overcome difficult situations.

Which traits are linked with resilience?
There is robust evidence indicating a link between resilience and the Big5 personality traits, the framework on which the Care Advantage assessments are built.

While all 5 traits have been linked to resilience, the three most significant linkages are: Stable (Neuroticism), Extroversion and Conscientiousness.
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Across all 5 traits, these links appear logical, for example:

• Higher on the Stability Scale: Less inclination to feel anxious, insecure, impulsive, overwhelmed by stress.
• Higher on the Extroversion Scale: Associated with positive emotions and seeking out /maintaining interpersonal relationships (the latter being an important tool for building/ maintaining resilience).
• Higher on the Conscientious Scale:  Associated with being planned, organised, and action oriented.  People scoring high may be inclined to address challenges in a managed, structured and pragmatic way.
• Lower on the Conventional Scale: Associated with thinking flexibly, being open and adaptive to change/new situations, and willing to try new things in the face of challenges.
• Lower on the Tough-Minded Scale: Associated with individuals who are helpful, cooperative, and supportive.  These individuals may be less inclined to become involved in conflict and may attract reciprocal help/support from others when they are going through difficult times themselves. 

Being able to identify job applicants who are naturally better able to cope when times get tough is a great first step in ensuring your workforce has the required resilience for the job. Add to that specific training and an organisation-wide support network and you're setting your staff up for success in stressful times. 

Contact us if you like to learn more about our assessments.

Our view on working in the COVID-19 world
Just like many other businesses, our office staff are all working from from home and are taking all safety precautions as directed by the government. We can no longer offer face-to-face training sessions and meetings, but other than that, we are business "as usual".

The workforce shift
Many of our clients are building an "emergency" or "back-up" workforce for when times get tougher. The creation of new jobs brings opportunities for those huge numbers of people who recently lost theirs. The subsequent recruitment task is just as large and met with novel challenges. For example, group recruitment drives are no longer an option and many clients are thus exploring video interviewing. 

Screen for attitudes, teach the skills
We are seeing an increase in interest in behavioural screening as many applicants now come from non-care sectors. The lack of relevant work experience does not necessarily have to be a problem, as long as the person has the right job fit, values and attitude to work. Although this does not work for all roles, there are certainly roles which can be learned on the job.

We have thereby developed new functionality that helps to quickly screen large applicant pools to find those people with the best job fit and attitude to work. Hopefully this will ease some of the recruitment processing efforts. 

Being able to do our assessments at home, online and thus remote, is another factor that has seen an increase in demand. The free Career Trait Profile report that many candidates automatically receive after completing the assessments is a valuable tool in their search for a job. 

Stay safe!
​These are extraordinary times affecting billions of people around the globe. Let's hope that in the not so distant future we can meet up with a group of friends and think back to the time when the world stood still. In the meantime we will continue to help smooth out the recruitment screening process and wish for people to stay safe and healthy whilst getting used to their new "normal".

​In a consumer driven market with frontline staff being the regular and principal touch point for service users, providers have to manage employee related risk in both traditional and emerging areas of their business.

Misconduct Risk
The commitment to protect service users in the sector is clear and undiminished. The processes to ensure this, however, are often found wanting and scrutiny from the regulator, media and community has never been greater. Reputational damage in a competitive marketplace haunts provider for years, especially in the local community near an incident. Misconduct extends beyond high profile incidents seen in the media to include indifference, neglect, culpable behaviour and dishonesty impacting on clients/residents.

Performance Risk
User Experience is the new battleground in the aged, community and disability sectors. Empowered clients, with choice, and increasing expectations continues to move social care into a consumer driven competitive marketplace. The engagement and relationships built by frontline staff, combined with the quality of the support provided are pivotal for success in today’s care sector. Ensuring employees are suited to roles requiring the delivery of care, support and compassion is fundamental to effective staff performance in social care.

Frontline capability now translates directly into Bottom Line Performance

Some Facts
We took a sample of over 15,000 frontline care applicants screened during the past year. Using the standard Care Advantage assessment for counter-productive work behaviours - Hostility, Integrity and Dependability, we found the following:

Some Quick Wins
Are our applicants ‘right’ for the sector?
Care Advantage screens specifically for job fit in the Social Care sector. It identifies those candidates with the values, empathy and personality necessary for success in a human services environment. It compares your applicants to a benchmark of proven good performers in the same role and identifies those with a strong job fit. Benchmarks exist for around 40 roles in the care sector including personal carers, disability support, home care assistance, Registered Nurses, Clinical Managers.

Can we identify the level of risk with our applicants?
Care Advantage also screens for counter-productive work behaviours, specifically hostility, dependability and integrity. Flagging high-risk profiles allows providers to avoid or increase scrutiny of applicants.

How do we Avoid Missing Good candidates?
Most Care Advantage users screen applicants high in the recruitment funnel, when the candidate first applies. The screening platform has been designed, and priced, to allow employers to review high volumes of frontline applicants in an effective and rapid manner.

Identifying strong job fit and lower risk candidates early in the recruitment process provides significant competitive advantage by reducing misconduct and performance risk whilst improving efficiency and speed of recruitment processing. As the assessments are based on personality, the screening identifies all good job fit, lower risk candidates, regardless of work history, enabling our clients to find the ‘Hidden Gems’.

Governance
With 'Standard 8' of the, now legislated, compliance regime starting next year, there are a number of new requirements. The majority of these involve the ability to demonstrate that the organisation possesses a governance framework that recognises the organisation’s purpose, its legislative, policy and ethical obligations, as well as its workforce and employment responsibilities. Care Advantage allows users to demonstrate an effective framework, as part of a contemporary recruitment process, that identifies candidates able to support service users in a person centred and safe manner.

Contact us to discuss your situation.