The carecareers challenge

What do you see in your mind when you’re asked to picture work in the disability and community care sector?

Did your vision include: meaningful and personally rewarding work, flexible hours, on-the-job training, and long-term job security?

No?

You’re not alone. When EMC undertook research for our client, carecareers, we discovered that only 24 per cent of those polled had considered a career in the disability and community care sector.

This was in spite of 63 per cent of those people simultaneously believing that work in this sector would be ‘quite or very rewarding’.

This was the challenge put to EMC

We were asked to design and implement a media strategy that would do two things; create awareness of the benefits of working in the sector, and encourage people to go to the carecareers website and consider employment within the sector.

A series of forums called ‘Talent Advisor Roadshows’ formed part of our strategy. The result was a regional media blitz everywhere we held them, namely Wagga Waga, Coffs Harbour and Penrith.

Both NBN and Prime TV covered the story along with the Coffs Coast Advocate and ABC Mid North Coast.

The media not only covered the newsworthiness of the event, but also featured links to the carecareers website. This assisted in promoting the service in free media, as well as changing attitudes and beliefs about working in the sector.

One of the reasons the media was so interested in the story was because we were able to talk about local job growth using tangible numbers.

The forums were also hosted by a local employer or service provider – whose staff members were available to talk to the media and give a local perspective.

The carecareers’ Talent Advisor spoke personally to all prospective job seekers who were thinking of beginning a career in this sector, providing one-to-one career advice about transferrable skills and training.

- Natasha Webb, EMC