The Houseparent Network

Recruiting in the 21st Century

In developing this site, I have spent the last 2 years, studying houseparents and their recruitment. I have looked at hundreds of websites, talked with many houseparents, as well as administrators. The one thing most everybody agrees on, is that the internet is the greatest resource to ever come along for recruiting houseparents. In the old days you would place adds in church and trade magazines, as well as the local newspaper. Every time one of your development people got in front of a group of people, they would put out your plea for staff. But mostly, you had to rely on word of mouth by current employees, board members, etc.

Now, with the internet you can reach thousands of potential candidates with just a few minutes of effort. I have talked with administrators that use the internet exclusively for recruiting.

However, there is much more to the internet, than just putting some words and pictures on a server and having hundreds of applicants running to your facility. I am certain that there are over 3,000 facilities nation wide, and that many of them are in need of staff. However, in the first 4 months of researching for my website, I was only able to find enough contact information to make a directory entry on about 125 of them. It has taken me almost a year to get to 650. How many applicants do you think are going to spend a year or more looking for your facility.

Until recently only about 100 facilities were getting the vast majority of applicants on the internet. The good news is that times are changing, and you can greatly improve your recruiting success by using the internet and these strategies.

1. Post your job opening on The Houseparent Network. I get more hits on my site in one month than most facilities get on theirs in two years. Additionally, about 75% of the people that find my site are looking for a residential child care position.
2. Post your job listing with other free classifieds. I know one Christian facility, that until I started my site, used only two free internet sources with pretty good success, because he didn't have the money to pay what my competition wants for advertising. www.youthspecialties.com & www.youthpastor.com If you are a Christian facility, I would encourage you to also place your openings with these sites. You will get a lot of leads from people looking to work with youth and not really knowing what it is they are looking for. This is a great chance to guide them into childcare. If you are not a Christian facility, there are still tons of free classifieds on the net. You will not get a huge response, but who knows, you may just hire the best set of houseparents you have ever had.
3. Join State and National Childcare Organizations and get on their online directories. The vast majority of facilities I have found for my directory was through these organizations. If you are not listed in my directory, get listed. The two most used parts of my site are the job listings and directory.
4. Get your own website, and register it with all the major search engines. As a non-profit organization, search engines will list you for free. Even if it is only 4 or 5 pages, get your own website. These days you can produce a site for very little money. Your website is an extension of your classifieds. It allows the applicant surfing the net at 10:00 PM on a Friday night to learn about your facility without having to wait until 9:00 AM Monday morning. I can tell you, as a houseparent, that I have overlooked many facilities in my job searches, because I couldn't go to their website, and look at their programs, kids and facilities.
5. If you are continually in search of staff and you have the resources, use it in cost effective advertising, such as: Button & Banner ads with child care organizations and of course The Houseparent Network.

You don't have to spend thousands of dollars on internet recruiting. You can have an effective recruiting program for a fraction of that. Those that spend the most money are probably going to get the most success, and if you have the resources - Great. However, you need to decide if the extra success is worth the added expense, or could that money be better spent on retention and training. Happy recruiting!!!