Case Study: States of Guernsey
By Gemma Raw
“In a market where there is huge competition for high-quality staff, they have not failed to provide excellent high calibre staff.” - Fiona Robertson, Service Manager, States of Guernsey
When Guernsey’s Office for Health & Social Care approached us to fill a role their preferred supplier list (PSL) agencies had been unable to fill, Sanctuary Social Care were quick to establish a solution. Taking a microscopic approach to recruitment, we know that recruiting high calibre social work candidates into roles in more remote settings requires getting to know the local area extremely well. We collated details of the living and working conditions on the island so we could highlight the benefits to our candidates in our recruitment marketing. Working on the island offers several benefits in comparison to a more traditional placement on the mainland. Workers can benefit from the warmer climate, working in new modern buildings, low caseloads, readily-available quality accommodation and the chance to take a break away from the hustle and bustle of life on the mainland!
Sanctuary’s unique candidate reach
Sanctuary publishes a specialist social work magazine each quarter. The Social Work News magazine is read by over 50,000 social workers so provides an excellent marketing channel to promote a project like working in Guernsey. Through the magazine, we located a social worker who had just returned to the UK after working in Guernsey through a competitor agency. We interviewed her in the magazine and got her to tell the story of her experience on the island and the working conditions. The magazine feature was promoted through our other marketing channels to reach as many people as possible with a clear call-to-action for social workers to contact us if they would consider working on the island.
Close client communications
We stayed in close contact with the client at every stage of the recruitment process. As we began to promote the job, we were asked lots of questions from potential candidates that we needed to seek clarification from the client and quickly respond to each candidate. This regular dialogue helped us gain the trust of the client and she then agreed we could meet to discuss assisting Guernsey with other job vacancies across healthcare and their other social work teams.
Our business development and resourcing team visited Guernsey to meet the team to understand the requirements.
Due to the unique marketing channels, we got a huge amount of interest from candidates interested in working in Guernsey and who had applied for this specific vacancy. We thoroughly screened the applicants to select only the very best and most suitable candidates before submitting them to the client. These were well-received by Guernsey and following an initial telephone interview a job offer was made and we completed the challenge by placing a highly experienced child protection social worker into a contract role that had an initial 3-month contract.
Since then, the candidate’s contract has been extended indefinitely as both client and candidate are delighted with her. Sanctuary has since been given nine vacancies by Guernsey, we have submitted 17 candidates, 13 of these have been interviewed and we have filled every position, with a perfect 100% fill rate.
“Sanctuary has been working with us for a relatively short period, but I have been impressed by their commitment and professionalism in ensuring that high-quality candidates are provided to us. In a market where there is huge competition for high-quality staff, they have not failed to provide excellent high calibre staff. Sanctuary is prompt in their responses and really listen to our needs, which inform who might be a good fit for our service. Will we continue this working relationship? That would be a yes and I would happily recommend Sanctuary!” - Fiona Robertson, Service Manager, States of Guernsey
To find out how we can help you, get in touch with our specialist recruitment team today.
