Delivering a multi-layered recruitment programme for FABRIC Family while minimising disruption to support services.

FABRIC Family is a multi-award winning social enterprise group of organisations united in one powerful mission:

“A world where young people in need are supported by systems, places and people that help feel safe, secure and loved.”

The work they do with young people is incredible: not only do they provide safe and loving homes when they need them the most, but they also connect them with adults - and role models - that they can trust. Their work, values and vision is totally inspiring: so, when Sophie from FABRIC Family came to us searching for some recruitment support, we couldn’t be more excited to collaborate.

FABRIC Family were in need of:

Seven exceptional permanent team members
Minimal service delivery downtime for their young people
More time back for FABRIC Family head office
An easy, efficient and ‘no faff’ approach to their recruitment drive

The team were in the process of a big shift and restructure. They were adapting the ways in which their ‘on the ground’ team worked in order to provide more stability for young people. Their primary aim was to consolidate shift patterns into one robust and reliable way of working without compromising on their ongoing service.

The challenge: recruiting for a large number of vacancies while keeping FABRIC Family’s support services going.

As Chief Operations Officer at FABRIC Family, Sophie has a lot of responsibility on her shoulders. She manages invoicing, developing policies and procedures, company social media (including internal newsletters), escalation of complaints and investigations, developing and delivering team training, and inducting home managers. She’s also the organisation’s recruitment lead.

Alongside a need for additional team members, the expectation was that - with this shift restructure - there would inevitably be some people stepping away. They therefore had seven roles altogether that needed filling; and this needed to be done as quickly as possible to minimise the risk of team member shortages and disruption to the vulnerable young people.

Sophie and co needed a recruitment programme built upon values, professional needs, specific services and culture.

Luckily, Keeran was just the guy to support them on this.

Why Moxie?

‘The main thing for us was to find candidates who would be a good fit for the company's values and have the right attitudes that we need to work in our homes and with our kids. Keeran took the time to really understand this, which included getting to know our head office team, how the homes run and what the job descriptions include. Recruitment is such an integral part of the smooth running of the company, finding the right people for the right roles is key to everything, and having someone focus and prioritise this area has made an enormous difference to our service delivery.’ - Sophie Walters, COO at FABRIC Family

A winning solution for finding and hiring great support candidates - the 4-step Moxie process.

1) First up - we listen and learn.

Time constraints were a big problem for Sophie and her team due to their own demands and responsibilities: this was leading to considerable delays in the recruitment process. And while there was a strong need to fill the roles quickly, they needed to be filled with the right people for the job.

‘I found that we had a lot of people apply for roles who were not genuinely interested. They were applying because they needed to job search as part of their benefits application. This wasted my time, needless to say.

'The interview was being done by one or two people. Usually, however, it would be one person due to those in the head office having other responsibilities: the interview outcome was therefore determined by one person's judgement, which proved to be a challenge.’ - Sophie.

It was vital that they could fill their homes with permanent team members as quickly as possible so that they could minimise any downtime in their service delivery. While there was the option to use agency staff in the interim, this would be disruptive for the young people; something that they wanted to avoid. One of FABRIC Family’s core aims is to build a family environment - something beyond people ‘just a place to live’ for their young people. Ensuring team members were a regular, friendly and trustworthy face for young people was, therefore, incredibly important.

2) Tapping into the right talent.

Keeran put a full recruitment programme together - designed around their values, what they needed, the people that would enhance their organisation and the services that they needed to provide - for Sophie before taking it out to a Port Talbot and Swansea market.

‘Keeran came out to visit me to explain the process and answer any questions that I had. He made the time to understand the company and its values which helped with his assessment of candidates.

‘The ads were created for us, which I know included directly approaching candidates. Keeran pre-interviewed people before they came to interview with us, which ensured candidates already had an understanding of the role and the company (saving us a lot of time).

'He was able to pass on potential successful candidates that he felt would be a good fit for the company. After taking the time to get to know the company, I trusted his judgement. After any interviews, Keeran would contact me for feedback and we would discuss them.

'Keeran was very likeable and had excellent communication skills. He worked 'with us' and went above and beyond to make sure we were happy with every step of the process which included giving us feedback from candidates. I found this to be very useful as it assisted us with our internal process.’ - Sophie

3) Filling the spots with the perfect candidate.

There were seven roles altogether that needed prime candidates - two senior roles, four support worker roles and a home manager position. In the space of one month (from first collating CVs), every single role was filled. Now, 60% of the FABRIC Family staff have come through Moxie.

‘This was a huge deal and, we believe, a super successful recruitment campaign. The speed at which we were able to fill those very important roles meant that FABRIC Family could continue delivering their exceptional services with far less downtime. The new shift structure has also all but eliminated the need for them to turn to temporary staff agencies (minus unavoidable staff sickness!), allowing for more consistency and tailored support for their young people.’ - Keeran, Senior Talent Partner Moxie People.

4) Post-placement care and onboarding.

'Keeran reassured us that if we continued to have issues after the plan then within the first months we could look for another candidate.’ - Sophie

This is (one!) of the reasons why post-placement support is so important to us here at Moxie. We genuinely care about the success of an organisation and their team - if something isn’t quite fitting right, we make it our mission to fix it.

The happily ever after.

‘To summarise my experience of Moxie, myself and the team were really pleased with how smooth and personal the process was from start to finish. Usually, a time-consuming and not particularly enjoyable experience turned into a much more structured, focused, and pleasant one with the support and guidance of Moxie. We now have confident and competent team members in the roles which means that we can provide the best possible quality support to our kids.’- Sophie

Jobs in support and supported housing.

We are constantly recruiting for roles in the following areas: Homelessness Prevention, Homelessness, Criminal Justice, Young People and Care Leavers, Mental Health & Wellbeing, Domestic and Sexual Abuse, and Housing Support. Contact Keeran Williams, Senior Talent Partner, for an informal chat, whether you're hiring or looking for that perfect new role.

Find out more.

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