Care Agency Business
The main objective of a healthcare employment business is to boldly establish and focus on its principal income stream which is providing staff to its current, finding new clients and staff. Everything else is secondary. Like any other business there has to be a strong emphasis on Marketing, Operations and Compliance.
Marketing
The employment agency business is a hectic venture, especially if processes are not streamlined properly. Sometimes care agency business owners get side-tracked doing the day to day urgent tasks, which includes up to dropping off staff to the client workplaces and let the vital part of the business (sales) suffer. It is important that the organisation dedicates to marketing its services without compromise, therefore a clear marketing strategy has to be put in place and adhered to. Marketing for a healthcare agency is composed of two components, Recruitment Marketing and Client Marketing.
Recruitment Care Agency Marketing
Nurses, Care Workers, Doctors, Social Workers, Allied Healthcare Professionals
Staff Recruitment
This is the marketing focussed on recruiting staff into your books, creating awareness about your business to potential candidates and attracting them to register and join your company. It is very important to ensure that you have a clear marketing strategy for getting staff into your database. Below is a list of things you could do to make potential candidates aware of your company.
Recruitment is an essential aspect of your business since this is the main product that you sell. It does not matter how great your logo looks, if you do not have the staff in your books, your business is doomed.
Marketing
Traditional Recruitment Marketing
Leaflet distribution
Recruitment fairs
Referral Marketing
Word of Mouth
Online recruitment Marketing
Social Media Marketing
Search Engine Marketing
Job Boards
Client Marketing.
This ranks as high in your company as oxygen does in your body. It should be given its own space to breath and thrive, and it precedes everything else in your business. No miracle will bring you clients and the hours you need for your business to survive and thrive. Your company should have an effective, clear strategy and marketing processes that must be implemented religiously in order to acquire the clients you need.
Below is a list of things you could do to market your business to potential clients.
Traditional Recruitment Marketing
Leaflet distribution
Recruitment fairs
Subcontracting from vendors and other providers in your region
Word of Mouth
Tender applications and bidding
Online recruitment Marketing
Social Media Marketing
Search Engine Marketing
Subcontracting
As a smaller or start-up healthcare agency, you can get work by subcontracting from a bigger Agency who struggle to fulfil their shifts, these include independent recruitment vendors.
Operations
A successful Employment Agency Business relies on a formidable operational system and processes, be it its recruitment process, client acquisition, shift bookings, shift assignment, timesheet management, invoicing, payroll and payments. Your business may be sharp in getting the client and the candidates in but if the processing and managing of these as well as the other processes in your business are not as great your business may struggle still. Information is the most important commodity that needs to be managed properly with an agency, from sales leads to financial records. Therefore, carefully planned policies and processes should be set up in your business as well as the employment of suitable software. Below is a brief of how an employment agency operates, the process involved as well as the instruments that can be used. The processes will include part of your marketing strategy.
Client Acquisition
One thing commonly overlooked by new start-ups in care is their sales process. As a company focusing on growth, you need to have a clear and defined sales process. There is always a path that your sales follow depending on what channel you follow. Whether a lead has come from a telemarketing or any other channel campaign, they are likely to follow a path in your organisation until they become a regular client. Therefore, this process has to be defined and not random disjointed activities.
Shift Assignment
Your company should have a smooth shift assignment process for your staff, from staff availability information, alerting staff about available shifts, assigning them as well upcoming shifts that they have been assigned to.
Recruitment and HR
Now that a candidate has expressed interest in joining your company, how you process them until they start to work for you has to be clearly defined. From:
Application DBS Checks
Vetting Induction
Selection Training
Appraisals Revalidation
Referencing Refresher training
Interviews Staff compliance
Shift Booking
Obtaining shifts from your clients: You should make it easy for your clients to book staff from your company, by either ringing them at designated times or what ever method you agree with them. Also booking confirmations should be communicated smoothly to your clients.
Timesheet Management
Timesheets are equivalent to cash in your organisation, only they are not yet accepted at Tesco for now. That is how important they are to your agency, if any go missing or there is a processing delay, you run the risk of losing cash. There should be a clear timesheet management process structure from entry, submission, handling, processing and filling. You can employ relevant software to handle part of the process for you i.e. timesheet management software.
Accounts and Reporting
You need to know how your company is performing as well as it being a requirement to submit your company accounts every year to the HMRC. Your organisation should maintain processes that ensure smooth reporting of your business.
Payroll
This is a delicate part of your agency as staff need to be paid accurately and on time as well as contributions to the HMRC for NI, PAYEE etc. If this is not handled properly it will affect the way your business operates in a big way, from dissatisfied staff to troubles with the HMRC. It is a great idea to use the relevant HMRC approved payroll software to handle this for you and of course someone who knows what they are doing.
Payments
Payments to your staff, supplier and the HMRC should be made smoothly. Make sure you organise a clear payments policy and processes to avoid confusion as well as inefficiency. Everyone your business owes would very much prefer to be paid on time, as much as you have to be vigilant and pragmatic about your debtors. A suitable policy and process must be established to ensure your organisation maintains a healthy cash-flow.
Invoicing
You should have a smooth invoicing process for your organisation to ensure all the time worked by your staff is accounted for and invoiced without. There are quite a few software packages in the market that can handle this for you with ease, we recommend cloud-based software combined with accounting for convenience.
Cash-flow Management
As mentioned on payment, your company should ensure the maintenance of a healthy cash-flow. Most start-up agencies usually face the cash-flow issue, where they struggle to pay their staff because their clients take 30 days to pay invoices, yet they have to pay staff weekly. Therefore, if there is not enough of a cash cushion, the agency business may struggle to fulfil its weekly dues, of which it may have to include other cash sources including factoring for short term finance.
Compliance
Depending on the services that the agency provides it may need to be registered with regulators, industry and sector bodies in order to operate lawfully. For example with the Care Quality Commission, Health watch and more. It is a must that you register with the CQC if you are delivering services directly to the services users, i.e Home Care, Live-in Care, Supported Leaving and more. Any person (individual, partnership or organisation) who provides regulated activity in England must be registered with us otherwise they commit an offence. You only register with the CQC if you are providing a regulated service which in this case could be personal care. If you are only providing staffing services to other bodies, you are not required by law to be registered with CQC as this is not a regulated service. You can find out more about this here and here. We provide guidance on this here.
Policies and Procedures
The organisation should establish policies to ensure its operations as well its position on aspects of business and how it handles certain issues as they arise. In every situation, processes should be followed to deliver the desired result. The agency business as any other business relies very much on systems and processes therefore these need to be standardised in order to serve time as well as achieve the desired results.
Credibility and Affiliations
As a growing employment agency, you need to ensure that your organisation adopts the relevant standards and affiliates with relevant bodies. Depending on the services you offer, below is a list of some organisation you may join. This adds to your credibility as a provider and some standards and memberships will help steer your organisation to best practice.
Legal
As a care agency, your business is not immune from facing legal battles, therefore you need to have your legal toolkit set up. You can speak to your personal lawyer to recommend ideal services or firm that you can affiliate with in case your company faces legal challenges in the future. The legislative and regulatory environment is complex with a continued shift towards greater public scrutiny. To find a solicitor who can help you, you can search online for ‘Community Care Solicitors’ in your region or city.
Risk Management
Sometimes other risks including compliance and legal issues, knowingly or unknowingly breaking employment law by assigning undocumented, untrained, or unskilled staff may put service users at risk. This may lead to the investigation and legal suits by the involved stakeholders, which in the worst-case scenario may lead to the agency being closed if for serious safeguarding issues. The company therefore must ensure that its processes are detailed, clear, and legitimate in case issues arise.
Care Documents
Get up to date CQC compliant policies, which are updated regularly in line with regulatory changes ensuring your social care business adheres to the requirements at all times.
Insurance
As a care provider, you need comprehensive insurance policies in place to ensure that both clients and staff are protected fully in the workplace. These policies will cover things like alleged abuse, theft of property, errors, personal injury and so on. They combine both Employer’s Liability Insurance and Public Liability Insurance, as well as extras related to running a business. If you are looking at setting up your own care agency, then make sure that you have the appropriate insurance in place before you begin delivering services. Some of the providers featured here do offer insurance for care agencies and these are tailored to meet your needs. There are plenty of other insurers that also deal with businesses, so contact your insurance broker to find out the best option for you.
Growth and Diversification
As a healthcare employment agency, there are various ways in which your company can expand and grow. Depending on your business plan, sector, and the stability of your product, you can expand into other geographic regions. Maximising your potential, experience and duplicating across the country.
Technology can now allow you to recruit anywhere and candidates can attend virtual interviews as well as online training. There are other ways to expand your business by supplying a diversified product portfolio within the same region where you are operating, especially if your company is registered to provide personal care. There are a number of specialist care services and products that your organisation can focus on.
Below are some example of what you can look into:
Supported Living
Supported Housing
Respite care
Home care
Leave-in care
Spot Purchasing (Readmore..)
Supplying the NHS and the Local Authorities
One of the most common questions that we get is how do agencies get in the NHS Framework. In most cases, to supply to the NHS you will need to be on the providers’ list. Suppliers selected included on the Trust Preferred Supplier Listing only gain that status after a desktop exercise is conducted using a weighted evaluation against their Charge Card, Agency Commission, Quality of Submission and Number of Registered Workers they report on their tender submission. Each of the organisations considered would have gone through a full Tender Exercise and Evaluation to be awarded supplier status on the registered Framework Agreement and each of these organisations is audited regularly by the originator of that Framework Agreement.
This desktop exercise, although reviewed annually, is only carried out formally once during the life of each framework. Unless there is an irretrievable breakdown in service from selected suppliers, it is highly unlikely that any other providers will be considered for, or added to this listing for the duration of the relevant framework agreement. You can read more about this here
For Tenders, you can subscribe to the following websites
Also, as bid writing is not a straight forward exercise, you can seek the services of experienced Bid Writers to ensure your tender submissions make the cut. Below is a couple, but you can always search for one within your city or location.
Industry knowledge
One of the key aspects that determine the growth rate of your organisation is the proprietor’s skill set and knowledge. It is important that as the business grows, so should your industry knowledge, business skills and network. Also, you need to be able to adapt to both change and market trends because regulations change, and new opportunities arise where your business can take advantage. Therefore, knowledge is key for your organisation to keep up. You can search the web for relevant sources of information to which you can subscribe to. Below is a list of some publications and events you could subscribe to:
Publications
Events
UK E-Health Week Health Pulse Care Events