Academics from Aston Business School are teaming up with Solihull-based recruitment experts Cohesion, who are funding a three-year social care recruitment study  including  attraction and selection practices in the UK care sector.

Organisations in this sector are faced with a dual challenge: the need for fast paced recruitment to meet business growth and turnover, alongside the continual demand to improve the quality of care provided. It is hoped that the study will result in specific and high-impact recommendations for recruitment and selection in the sector.

The project will begin with a literature review, which will uncover existing research evidence on the effectiveness of recruitment in the care sector, and investigate the current selection and assessment processes.

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From this, the study will move on to explore what it means to be an effective care worker, looking to uncover key knowledge, skills and competencies for the variety of roles which care workers may carry out. The project also aims to look at the reasons why care workers stay in or leave a role, a particular challenge in the sector.  Understanding these factors will help employers develop recruitment and selection strategies which will mitigate the potential costs of high staff turnover.

The final stage of the care recruitment study will track the progress of a group of care workers over an 18-month period.  Through monitoring key performance indicators, absenteeism, development and turnover, conclusions will be drawn regarding the most effective recruitment and selection techniques which lead to the most effective performance over time.

Dr Ann Davis, Head of the Work & Organisational Psychology Group at Aston Business School will be supervising the PhD student, and said of the project: “This research is a fantastic opportunity to study the different techniques of recruitment and selection and find out what works most effectively in different organisations.”

Debbie Edmondson, Talent Director at Cohesion, said: “We’re really excited about this opportunity to work with Aston in order to develop and improve testable recruitment models. We’re passionate about innovation at Cohesion and we look forward to understanding more about how we can improve recruitment processes in the care sector.”

For more information call Cohesion on 0121 713 8320. To find out more about collaborating with Aston University, contact the Business Partnership Unit on 0121 204 4242 or email bpu@aston.ac.uk