04/06/2026
💭 One of the biggest mistakes I see in social care recruitment is hiring purely for experience.
Yes, experience has value. 👏
But experience alone doesn’t guarantee compassion ❤️, patience 🤝, empathy 💙, resilience 💪, or a genuine desire to support others.
The best care workers I’ve ever met didn’t always come from a care background.
Some came from retail 🛍️
Some came from hospitality ☕
Some had never worked in care a day in their lives 🚀
What they did have were the values that make great carers. ⭐
When organisations focus on values-based recruitment, something interesting happens:
✅ They open their talent pool significantly
✅ They create more diverse teams
✅ They find people who genuinely want to care for others ❤️
✅ They improve retention because people join for the right reasons 🎯
✅ They build stronger workplace cultures 🌱
✅ They create teams that people actually want to stay in 🤗
Skills can be taught. 📚
Mandatory training can be delivered. 🎓
Processes can be learned. 📝
Values are much harder to train. 💡
As an industry, we’re facing ongoing workforce challenges. 📈
If we continue to recruit only from the same shrinking pool of experienced candidates, we’ll continue to face the same problems. 🔄
Maybe it’s time to spend less time asking:
❓ “How many years of care experience do they have?”
And more time asking:
💬 “Do they have the values and attitude to become an outstanding care professional?”
Some of the best carers I’ve ever placed would never have made it through a traditional screening process.
Thankfully, someone looked beyond their CV. 📄➡️❤️
I’d be interested to hear from care providers, registered managers, recruiters, and carers themselves.
👇 Have your best employees always been the most experienced ones?
💬 Share your thoughts in the comments.
