While already residing in Scotland, drawing refugees and asylum seekers to your organisation entails distinct considerations. Employers tapping into the 'displaced talent pool' are engaging candidates who have endured the trauma of life disruption, including the forced departure from their homes and familiar surroundings.
Regardless of the recruitment strategy an organisation adopts, it is crucial to focus on ensuring these candidates feel welcomed and integrated, which is a significant aspect of the process.
Retention should be built into any recruitment strategy. Organisations recruiting from the displaced talent pool need to think about what they can offer candidates in terms of integration, career development and progression as well as pastoral support. Organisations should recognize and value all parts of their workforce, so that people can flourish within their establishment. This is as important as pay and the terms and conditions offered. A checklist of what this might involve can be found here.
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Recruitment should be undertaken with retention in mind. Therefore, mitigating against joiner attrition should be undertaken by ensuring candidates fully understand the role they are applying for. This can include written accounts, videos of people in the role talking about their day, and information on an organisation’s website. It should cover information on important elements of care, including what personal care is, what the activities of daily living are. and what a typical day might look like as a care worker.
Information on what the care worker role is can be found here:
Attracting candidates as part of the recruitment process will involve building their interest in your organisation and to life in Scotland. Both should be considered when planning to recruit refugees and asylum seekers. When attracting to your organisation, any internal asset mapping will help you articulate your candidate value proposition statement, setting out what you as an organisation can offer the candidate.
Important elements of your attraction strategy may include:
You can find out everything about Scotland – from regions to getting around, currency to culture, weather, and food all in our useful links below:
It is of course vitally important that, as an employer, you ensure that the people you recruit are not a risk to other members of staff, or the individuals receiving care. This is equally as important with recruiting UK-based staff as when you are recruiting from the displaced talent pool. However, it can be more difficult to ensure all the proper checks have been done, or even to know what those proper checks are, when recruiting refugees and asylum seekers. In September 2023 the Care Inspectorate and SSSC released the latest version of their guide Safer Recruitment Through Better Recruitment, which is a great place to start looking for the answers to any questions that you might have when recruiting into social care services. In addition, to get the best out of potential candidates, it is crucial to signpost them to information on the recruitment process.
Values Based Recruitment (VBR) is an important factor to consider when recruiting from the displaced talent pool; it exists where both the organisation and candidate’s values align. VBR encompasses shared values, promotes a positive work environment, and improves staff performance. VBR also helps employers gain the right person for the job, increases workforce capacity, and has the potential to maximise retention. It is imperative to be aware of VBR when hiring both locally and internationally. VBR will help candidates align themselves to an organisation and demonstrate their own values. Ensuring candidates understand what VBR is will help them produce better applications and promote the likelihood of retention once in their new role. Information to signpost candidates to learn more about VBR can be found at:
· Skills for Care – What is values based recruitment?
· NHS Employers – Values based recruitment
· SSSC – Elements of a values based approach
Organisations that provide help and advice on how to apply for their own roles will build a good rapport with potential candidates. This need not be intensive, as a minimum highlight useful information for candidates on other websites. Examples of helpful links to signpost to can be found here:
· Health Careers – Identifying Transferable Skills
· Indeed – Functional CV: Tips on how to write a good functional CV
· Indeed – How to write a care assistant cover letter
· Indeed – How to write a supportive statement when looking for a job
Inclusive recruitment requires employers to put measures in place that support a recruitment process that is unbiased, inclusive and diverse. Active steps should also be taken to minimise the likelihood of discrimination in the process of conducting recruitment. More information can be found within the SSSC/Care Inspectorate’s publication - Safer recruitment through better recruitment.
To ensure that candidates can make an informed decision about taking up a care worker post in Scotland, it is important that you as an organisation provide them with information on their rights as employees (both statutory and contractual) before they accept an offer. This must be done in a way that supports any learning needs they have, for example making it available in a specialised format or supporting them if English is a second language.
This should also include information on:
More information can be found here:
NES has produced a document on Challenging Unethical Practices in International Recruitment with a focus on modern slavery and with the aim of ensuring the relocation of individuals, for the purpose of work, is done in a fair and ethical manner. This document considers factors which contribute to human trafficking, forced labour and debt bondage. It provides helpful tips to ensure recruitment, workplace policies and culture are in line with ethical considerations.