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The Search Hospitality Pivot: Supporting the Carers – How Search Hospitality supported a leading independent care provider through the most testing of times

Written by: Search Consultancy
Published on: 27 Jul 2020

The Search Hospitality Pivot: Supporting the Carers – How Search Hospitality supported a leading independent care provider through the most testing of times

Search and the pandemic

Search has enjoyed a long-standing relationship with the healthcare sector that is perhaps best typified by our partnership with some of the UK’s leading health and social care providers.

Over the years, Search Health & Social Care has provided one particular care provider with a steady stream of over 200 temporary and permanent workers to fulfill roles within their care homes and across their home care services.

Offering a multi-faceted solution, Search Hospitality has ensured their care homes are provided with a number of high-quality culinary professionals who have been fully screened and registered. We have been able to support with permanent recruitment whilst also assisting with immediate temporary cover, utilising our team of highly trained chefs.

“We have been very pleased with the candidates that you supply and your level of service. We were looking for a new Head Chef for around 2 months before Andrew recommended we gave you a call and within three weeks we had completed the recruitment for Peter, our new Head Chef. You are always available on the phone and confirm by email promptly.” 

Pamela, Home Manager

With a comprehensive understanding of the market, Search Hospitality knows that flexibility is key when meeting care home recruitment needs. Which is why we focus on providing customised solutions and services to clients and candidates.

In 2019, 95% of candidate CVs we sent to this particular care provider resulted in interviews. 

It would be fair to say that events in 2020 applied pressure to that relationship in a way no-one could have predicted. As COVID-19 raged through the country, care homes became a focal point with so many of their residents falling into the “vulnerable” category.

Temporary measures require temporary hospitality workers

As demands on the care home sector grew, our clients found that they needed further hospitality recruitment support with boots on the ground to get through the ordeal as painlessly as possible.

We were able to ensure that this particular client’s homes were staffed with trained, tested, and accredited workers, many of whom have since gone on to secure full-time chef jobs.

“I was very pleased with my consultant at Search Hospitality, regarding my application for the second chef job. I was always kept informed of any information regarding the post. He was very polite and dealt with everything on my behalf.

I felt as if I knew him well and could call him or message him at any time of the day and even weekends when he was off. I was very happy with the tips he gave me in the lead up to my interview and trade test. I can’t praise him enough.”

Robert, Search Hospitality candidate

It wasn’t just the usual number of care homes Search Hospitality began to provide workers for either. As the pandemic intensified, more and more of their homes began to require temporary support, and Search’s reach expanded to cover a greater area including an additional 15 sites.

A significant part of the effort involved in making sure they had adequate staff was ensuring that associates had sufficient training to carry out their duties. As part of our service, Search provides learning and training opportunities for associates when they are in between jobs meaning we were well placed to upskill those with gaps in their learning. This proved to be a major advantage to the client who knew that, not only would they be acquiring quality hospitality workers, but that compliance was something they needn’t worry about.

Ultimately, it is the sheer scale of the Search infrastructure that allowed us to respond to a change in their recruitment needs.

By combining our healthcare and hospitality recruitment specialisms, we acquired access to a wealth of associates with transferable skills who could get straight to work.

Stronger together

Such is the close nature of our relationship here, Search has become more of an extended team member over the years, but the COVID-19 experience has strengthened that relationship further.

“My head chef and I have been extremely happy with the service from Search Hospitality. From the initial conversation we were happy to have one of the Search chefs cover the shifts consistently until a new full time chef was recruited.

The temp chef from Search Hospitality was really nice, and we felt confident in his work and attitude. Furthermore, the permanent recruitment process ran effectively, and we saw two great candidates, both of whom could have been great for the kitchen, but we choose Luke after his cook off as his food was fantastic. We are looking forward to him starting. Thank you for supporting us I really do appreciate it.”

Natasha, Home Manager

We were able to supply this leading care provider with all the hospitality personnel they needed to manage their care homes effectively, proved to them how well we can respond in a crisis, and helped them to make compelling cost savings throughout.

Moreover, our new reach into locations like London looks set to become permanent and other care home providers have started to enquire about our hospitality recruitment services.

The challenge posed by COVID-19 is far from over, but our clients here, and the new ones we have since taken on know, that with Search behind them, access to talent will never be a problem.


Thank you to our partners Search Consultancy. View their local job vacancies here