Understanding job-seeking behaviours: insights for social care

What is required / ‘The Requirements’To supplement the research on WeCare Wales, we want to commission an evidence synthesis on job-seeking behaviours. This will provide evidence on the views of current and prospective employees, but without the need for primary research with those groups. This is because there has already been a lot of research in this area, and the social care workforce is often asked to participate in research studies; this avoids placing any additional pressure on them.We are interested in evidence on how those working in social care found their jobs. If evidence is available, we also want to know how people with the skills and/or experience to work in social care, but who work in other industries, find their jobs. We think this could provide useful learning about what could attract suitably qualified people to working in social care in Wales. This will also help us understand how other sectors recruit people, and consider what we might learn for employers in social care. We want a social care workforce that reflects the population of Wales and matches the diverse range of cultural and societal needs of those who use social care in Wales, so we are particularly interested in groups currently underrepresented in the social care workforce.Aims and objectivesThe aim of this research is to understand the job-seeking behaviours of people who work in social care and people who don’t, especially those currently underrepresented in the social care workforce in Wales. We want to know how people look for jobs and apply that learning to the way we recruit, ultimately to help employers to become more effective at attracting and recruiting staff.There are two research questions:1. How do people working in social care find jobs?We’re interested to know what is currently happening in social care recruitment, and the main routes for finding social care jobs. This will shed light on what employers are already doing well. We are especially interested to know about evidence on values-based recruitment.2. How do people with the skills and/or experience to work in social care find jobs that aren’t in social care?a. In particular, how do people not currently represented in the social care workforce find jobs?We want to know what can be done differently to encourage people to work in the sector. For example, it could be that there is a lack of awareness, or that people are put off by current recruitment practices.We are interested in evidence on aspects of job-seeking behaviour such the benefits people look for/value in a job, what they look for in an employer, where they look for jobs – including which channels they use (e.g. social media, traditional), and what they think of job adverts and application/recruitment processes. We are also interested in any evidence that exists on whether and how this varies by type of job, such as social worker compared to frontline social care worker.The findings from this research will be used to inform WeCare Wales’ approach to attracting people to the sector, and provide useful insight for employers by helping identify opportunities to improve current recruitment practices. It will complement the ongoing WeCare Wales research project, which focuses on the employer perspective, by providing the perspective of employees and job-seekers.MethodsThis will take the form of an evidence synthesis. We expect that there is evidence from a variety of sources, including academic studies as well as grey literature and policy reports. We therefore need a pragmatic approach to the evidence synthesis that includes these different types of evidence, rather than one which focuses only on systematic reviews, for instance.OutputsSince this work is designed to complement the ongoing WeCare Wales research project, we need this evidence review to be complete by end of March 2023. It is expected that the supplier will produce, in Welsh and English:- A report on the findings (no more than 30 pages)- A summary of the findings (6-8 pages)We would also welcome any creative suggestions for alternative formats for the evidence review. This could include a video or infographic designed for practitioners to access easily and quickly.Please specification for more information