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Introduction: A Human-Centered Approach to Healthcare Hiring
Kofi, Director of Recruiting, Training & Outreach at AccentCare, is helping redefine workforce development in healthcare. By embedding empathy into every stage of the hiring process, AccentCare remains adaptable in a changing industry — and RiseKit is proud to support their mission.
AccentCare is a national leader in post-acute health care. With over 2500 employees in Illinois alone, they provide world-class service in areas such as hospice care, care management, and health alert services.
Tell me about your story and role at AccentCare -- what critical tasks are you responsible for?
I’ve been with AccentCare since 2013 and my role as Director of Recruiting, Training, & Outreach, which means I’m in charge of developing stronger connections with the communities in which we work. It’s kind of a brand new role that I’m building from the ground up.
Since our business doesn’t advertise, community outreach has been an important strategy and growing focus of our business. It allows us to inform our senior citizens about our Caregivers, the role they play, and services they provide while forming stronger connections in the process. One of my most critical tasks is ensuring that our services remain equitable amidst an increasing need for patient care due to both the evolving industry and an aging generation of baby boomers.
How do you define diversity in the context of your business? Where does it fit into your company’s story?
To AccentCare, diversity means everyone — regardless of your experience. Serving the most vulnerable populations: we work across every corner of the population — with every income level, every ethnicity, age, race and creed. To us, it’s just good business to hire talent that empathizes and understands our clients, their communities, and their situations wherever possible and provide opportunities to grow.
That’s great — what kind of training? Tell me more about your usual process when matching your open roles with qualified candidates?
Since there is somewhat of a cyclical nature to the clients we work with, we are always looking for reliable employees that can help us remain adaptable and accommodating of what they need as they go through significant changes in life. Our Caregiver role (for example) is the biggest hiring need we have.
Experience is not a prerequisite – reliability is the most important trait to have as a new candidate. As a result, our interview process is focused on providing a lot of opportunities to showcase your ability to be trustworthy. Once hired: my team works to help develop the hard and soft skills necessary to be successful through 24-hours of total, hands-on training before you’re ever in the field working with clients. If you have the drive and willingness to learn, we’ll help you develop the skills you need to succeed and thrive here. If someone is 50% there with their skillset, we have no problem working with them.
Can you share a bit about how RiseKit helped you improve this process or better pursue your goals?
Absolutely. RiseKit and the organizations in its network align with our values so much. As I build my role from the ground up and run three different teams — RiseKit has helped me get more organized and build my skills as a recruiter. Beyond having immediate, easy access to the talent pools we want to form connections with, their team and tools have been great in helping me focus on following up with interested candidates while I navigate an ocean of new responsibilities. Plus, it’s been so nice to see my feedback translated into improvements on their platform. As my role grows and my needs evolve, they listen to how they can make my job easier and make it better.
Be sure to explore AccentCare and the roles they have available on RiseKit:
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