Insight kindly provided by Alex Hens, CEO at HARBOUR ATS
The care sector’s staff shortages and increasing administrative burdens are well-known. If you run or manage a small to medium-sized care provider, you already know the challenge – you’re competing for talent against big players with deeper pockets, dedicated HR teams and advanced hiring tech. You’re not just up against similar-sized providers but also large healthcare organisations and even supermarkets offering competitive pay and faster hiring processes. Yet, you still need to hire just as quickly, compliantly and effectively.
Technology, especially AI and automation, is no longer reserved for the giants. The tools that once seemed out of reach are now more accessible, more affordable and more necessary than ever. But, adopting tech doesn’t mean making hiring impersonal. Because people still buy people. As a smaller provider, your personal touch is your strength so it’s about leveraging it, not losing it. The key is to use AI and automation where they add real value, helping you respond faster, cut admin and nail safer recruitment while keeping people at the heart of hiring.
AI in candidate evaluation: A tool, not a decider
One of AI’s biggest advantages in hiring is candidate evaluation. Traditionally, reviewing applications means hours of scanning for qualifications, experience and availability while also trying to gauge personality and emotional intelligence. AI can now summarise applications in seconds, helping you spend less time reviewing CVs and more time making hiring decisions. It ensures great candidates aren’t overlooked due to poor formatting and gives a fair chance to those with unconventional career paths.
That said, AI should never make the final decision. AI models only assess what they’re trained to measure. If a system relies too much on one type of evaluation, whether it’s CV parsing, pre-recorded video responses or interactive assessments, it risks missing great candidates who don’t fit the expected format. That’s why a blended approach works best. AI can handle shortlisting, but unless you’re ready for full ‘robot hiring’, human judgment is still essential, especially when assessing soft skills, cultural fit and suitability. At the end of the day, empathy and a genuine desire to care aren’t easily measured by an algorithm.
Reducing admin with intelligent automation
While AI gets attention, intelligent automation (IA) is where smaller providers can see the biggest impact. Many care providers still rely on semi-manual recruitment, juggling job boards, emails and spreadsheets. This slows down hiring and increases risks, including the loss of great candidates due to slow response times, compliance gaps caused by manual errors and wasted admin time on repetitive tasks. Even without a huge budget, small automation tweaks can transform your process. Interview scheduling tools like Calendly let candidates book interviews instantly, meaning no more back-and-forth emails. Automated reminders reduce no-shows with SMS and email nudges, and digital compliance checks speed up ID verification and DBS processing by integrating automated checks. Additionally, pre-screening forms collect key details upfront such as shift availability, experience and certifications, but avoid full applications too soon. Nothing increases drop-off faster than a ‘create a profile’ page followed by a five-step application. Be smarter about what you ask for at each stage.
The reality is top candidates move fast. If your process takes too long, they’ll have accepted another job before you even reach them. So, if you’re hiring, set yourself up to do it like you mean it. Faster hiring equals less reliance on costly agencies. For many care providers, recruitment agencies are a necessary but expensive crutch. While they can help in a pinch, relying on them for new hires is a long-term white flag. The longer hiring drags on, the greater the strain on your business and if you keep outsourcing recruitment, you lose the skills to do it in-house.
By streamlining your hiring process, you can reduce agency dependency. If you can engage candidates quickly, keep them informed and move them efficiently through the process, you’ll reduce agency reliance and build an internal hiring process that works. And don’t forget, this isn’t about making hiring impersonal. It’s about making it more personal by freeing up time to focus on what really matters – finding the right people, engaging with them and making them feel wanted – and no third party can truly do that for you.
Keeping hiring human
For all its advantages, technology must support, not replace, human judgment. Care work isn’t just about ticking qualification boxes. It’s about empathy, reliability and a commitment to those in need. No algorithm can fully assess these traits. Not yet, anyway… despite what some may profess.
What technology can do is speed up admin tasks, giving more time for real conversations and stronger connections. It can improve accessibility, surfacing hidden talent that might otherwise be missed as well as keep candidates engaged with faster, clearer and more responsive communication. At the end of the day, people hire people. The most successful care providers strike the right balance, using technology for efficiency while keeping hiring human.
Final thoughts: A smarter approach to hiring in care
For small and mid-sized care providers, AI and automation aren’t about replacing human judgment – they’re about levelling the playing field. Large providers may have bigger budgets and specialist teams, but smaller businesses can compete by being faster, smarter, more adaptable and far more personable.
If you can respond quickly, reduce admin burdens and keep candidates engaged, you’ll attract great people without the overheads of a corporate hiring machine. Care isn’t just about filling roles, it’s about finding the right people to make a difference. With the right mix of simple but effective technology, human insight and a genuine passion for what you do, small and mid-sized care providers won’t just survive, they’ll thrive by getting the right candidates, faster.
