In creating a campaign to recruit care workers, we tapped into the real, emotionally driven reasons why people get satisfaction from the work.
Hardly a day goes by without media talk of a crisis in our care sector.
The common theme, invariably, is recruitment.
At CPL One we work with local authorities to create powerful, emotionally resonant campaigns that help encourage people to apply for roles in care.
It’s an area we know and understand, and this type of marketing with social purpose is rewarding for both our agency and client teams.
Staff turnover in the adult social care sector is running at around 28%, and there are more than 150,000 vacant posts in England at the moment.
Care providers say they struggle to find people who want to work with vulnerable, elderly, people with disabilities and high care needs.
And when they do find them, it is hard to keep them as they can easily be lured elsewhere, often attracted by better pay and more sociable hours.
Be a Care Worker is a campaign we launched with Cambridgeshire County Council.
It was aimed at ‘people people’ – those who are motivated by the emotional and personal connections they make with those for whom they care.
‘Be a care worker’ features images of people such as:
- “A maths teacher, 94, (who) now needs a bit of helping working things out”;
- “A women’s rights campaigner, 84, (who) now needs someone to look out for them”; and
- “A lifelong Spurs fan (who) now needs someone to moan to.”
Caroline Townsend, head of commissioning partnerships and programmes for Cambridgeshire County Council and Peterborough City Council, said: “Attracting new people to the care sector in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough is a huge priority for us. We needed an agency that could understand the needs of care providers, show real empathy with carers and those being cared for, and create and deliver a compelling campaign within a tight timeframe. The members of CPL One’s team have once again come up trumps.”
Sophie Hewitt-Jones, director – client services for CPL One, added: “After working on previous campaigns to recruit people into very specific roles, such as social and reablement workers, it has been fascinating to put together a broader programme that pinpoints the reasons why those who care have a passion for what they do.
“Our team has worked in partnership with the councils involved, and with care providers in the region, to create a striking and emotive campaign that highlights the transformational and rewarding work that carers do.”
