Interim HealthCare has launched a new marketing campaign designed to develop a longer-term recruitment pipeline for nurses, caregivers and therapists as home-based care providers compete in a limited labor pool.
The campaign, which centers on the promise, “When you come to work with us, we go to work with you,” aims to boost Interim’s applications, with the broader goal of establishing the company as a supportive workplace even before candidates begin their job search.
“Every company is great at providing care, and there’s a lot of care that has to be delivered,” Steve Schildwachter, chief people and brand officer at Interim HealthCare, told Home Health Care News. “The way to win in the category is to get more than your fair share of the people, and that’s what we’re trying to do here.”
Founded in 1966, the Sunrise, Florida-headquartered Interim HealthCare provides home-based care across 44 states. The company reports providing 25 million hours of care each year.
Interim worked with the advertising agency OK Boomer to conduct research with nurses, caregivers and therapists both in and outside the home-based care sector. The companies wanted to identify what potential candidates valued in employers and how Interim’s offerings could resonate with them, Schildwachter said.
“We know from industry research we conducted that there’s a real need for nurses, caregivers and therapists to feel supported in what they did,” Schildwachter said. “It seems like we’re providing something that is scarce in the market today, which is a supportive work environment.”
Because Interim operates through locally owned and operated franchises, the company also interviewed healthcare professionals currently employed by its franchisees to better inform hiring at the local level, Schildwachter added.
“We have a group of six franchisees on a marketing and advertising committee,” Schildwachter said. “We meet with that committee once a month, and we tell them what we’re doing and we get their input on it, so the combination of this research and this franchisee input was important.”
The campaign includes video, digital content and print elements. Interim placed ads in streaming platforms, social media, job boards and physical environments, including healthcare settings and community spaces, to reach individuals where they live and work, according to the company.
Interim sought to reach prospective employees through repeated, targeted exposure so that Interim was top of mind when they are ready to apply for a job, Schildwachter said. The company designed the campaign to promote Interim as a supportive work environment, he said.
“It’s more about putting our best foot forward into the marketplace on what’s great about coming to Interim,” he added.
The importance of follow through
Marketing campaigns are one way home-based care providers recruit caregivers amid a workforce shortage. Interim’s ‘employer-of-choice’ campaign “addresses [the tight labor pool] head on as a reality that every company and every provider in this space has to face,” Schildwachter said.
Marketing helps ease the worries of prospective applicants through effective storytelling and by tailoring the message to the right audience to help build trust, experts previously told HHCN.
However, Schildwachter emphasizes that the campaigns must coincide with tangible follow-ups on the part of the provider. To help franchisees actualize the promises made in the campaign, Interim introduced a set of 63 recruiting and retention resources for franchisees. While Schildwachter said that the materials’ information was proprietary, he said they covered prospective employee attraction, hiring and retention. Interim also made the materials with franchisee input.
For Schildwachter, the campaign’s success ultimately depends on whether franchisees provide the supportive environment originally promised.
“One of the things that we know in this business is you can’t have one without the other. Recruiting has to go with retention. Retention has to go with recruiting,” Schildwachter said. “It’s not just about putting a great message out there [and] resting on our laurels. It’s continuing to be a great place to work in each of the local communities where our franchisees operate.”