Statistics

The very high levels of care worker churn or turnover in social care are widely acknowledged as one of the most difficult challenges companies providing care are faced with. The current turnover rate in social care is around 31% and rising, more than double the UK cross-industry average of 15%.

High staff turnover does not just eat up you and your colleagues’ time either. Skills for Care estimates that the average cost of hiring and on-boarding each new care worker is £3,642. Equipped with this figure it doesn’t take long to appreciate how much vital capital you might be expending on recruitment each year.  

There are many practical changes that care providers have tried and tested to reduce employee churn. 

Gathering intelligence

Employers like The Good Care Group ask all leavers to complete an exit survey, which are analysed along with resignation letters to draw out patters on why people are leaving.

You should consider doing the same to understand if there are underlying issues behind why people are leaving, some of which could be solved without too much cost or effort.

More support from the get-go

From their exit surveys the Good Care Group found that employees appreciate good management and support especially in the first three months of employment. In response they altered their supervision framework, including:

• A week-long residential as part of induction for new employees, giving them the chance to complete training, meet other carers and learn new skills
• Reviews at six and 16 weeks
• An assigned manager to act as a support contact
• Access to online learning to support induction
• A 24-hour phone helpline for carers

The Good Care Group found that adjusting its regional management structure to decrease the number of clients each manager looked after meant they had more time to support workers. In a recent staff survey, nearly 90% of workers reported feeling respected and supported by their manager and appreciated improved communication and responsiveness.

Some 80% of workers said they looked forward to starting work in the morning and agreed their workload was fair and manageable, while 90% said they were proud of the service the group deliver to clients.

Research has found that the majority of care workers who leave their role do so in the first six months after starting. We could speculate that this period is one where they are at their most stressed, their least confident and knowledgeable, both about the care itself and how the business operates.

It makes sense that more support would reduce leavers, while giving managers the opportunity to spot where someone is at risk of leaving, needs additional guidance or training or indeed shows particular abilities in an areas that could be harnessed by the company.  

Hours and contracts

The use of zero-hours contracts is common place in social care, covering around 43% of care workers according to Skills for Care, with 58% of domiciliary care workers on zero-hour contracts.

Significantly, Skills for Care also found that employees on zero-hours contracts were more likely to leave their employer (32% turnover rate) compared with those not on zero-hour contacts (25%)

Employers who have reduced or stopped the use of zero-hours contracts have had success in reducing staff turnover, when coupled with a wider strategy.

This is a tricky issue as for many employers and employees alike, zero-hour contracts can offer the kind of flexibility they need, so giving people choice may be the Goldilocks option here.

You may also want to consider if the financial impact of improved retention and a more satisfied workforce offsets the costs of offering staff greater choice in whether to take a zero-hours contract or not, or using fixed hours contract with added flexibility options.