7 practical ways to attract more diverse talent into care

Care’s recruitment crisis isn’t just about shortages. It’s about who gets excluded before hiring even begins. From rigid roles to narrow ideas of “fit”, outdated recruitment models are shrinking the talent pool. Here are seven evidence-backed suggestions to deliver more inclusive care sector hiring.

Our State of Care Sector Recruitment 2026 report talked about the enormity of the sector’s recruitment crisis, with predicted staffing shortfalls that’d make anyone cry. 

But often, the people care organisations need most aren’t absent from the labour market. They’re excluded by hiring models that were never designed for the realities of care work, or the lives of the people who might do it well. 

Rigid roles, narrow assumptions about who “fits”, and processes that reward polish over potential all shrink the pool before recruitment even begins.

Diversifying applicant pools isn’t about box-ticking or one-off inclusion initiatives. It’s about redesigning recruitment so more people can realistically see themselves in care. And successfully build a career they’re proud of.

Here are seven practical, evidence-backed ways care organisations can widen who applies, who progresses, and who stays.

How to attract more diverse talent into the care sector

1. Design jobs for flexibility

The care sector often writes checks it can’t cash when it comes to flexibility, and that’s driving people away. As the LGA says, “access to flexible working is the biggest benefit that social care workers seek when looking for a new job. In practice, it can be hard to come by.”

This rigidity excludes huge swathes of people who could make great carers. Students; parents; part-time workers; retirees, etc.

Care providers need to cross the gap between theory and practice, to make flexible working the actual on-the-ground reality. Skills for Care share many practical examples of flexible working that can help, like:

• Remote working 
• Flexitime 
• Staggered shifts
• Job sharing 
• Shift rotations
• Part-time positions
• On-call and relief staff
• Flexible scheduling
• Compressed work weeks
• Phased retirement
• Floating holidays
• Family-friendly policies
• Flexible start and end times
• Cross-training for broader role coverage

2. Proactively attract more men into care work

Men make up only 22% of the social care workforce, highlighting a massive untapped labour pool. There’s a huge opportunity here, if care providers can help tackle stereotypes and improve visibility of men in the sector.

Small steps can make a big difference. Like:

• Show men in your job ads and careers pages
• Remove gender-coded wording from job ads 
• Share stories from male carers
• Target outreach for male audiences (Armed Forces leavers, as one example)
• Build feedback loops to support male inclusivity
• Promote the breadth and diversity of care careers
• Ensure you can provide enough hours for male carers
• Challenge negative stereotypes and perceptions of poor progression
• Support male applicants (they’re disproportionately likely to drop out)

3. Create equitable pathways for disabled and neurodivergent applicants

When you crunch the numbers, employing more disabled people makes mountains of sense for the care sector. 

First, because disabled people are underrepresented in the workforce. Skills for Care lay out the numbers:

• 17% of the working age population has a disability
• Only 2.6% of the healthcare workforce are disabled
• Only 2% of the adult social care workforce are disabled

And secondly, because people with disabilities are an enormous talent pool. There’s a 30% disability employment gap across UK, the ONS say. Around 3.8 million disabled people are out of work – many of whom are able and want to work. 

Creating disabled-friendly recruitment policies and practices helps you attract and retain these people, to grow capacity and enrich diversity in one fell swoop. 

Small, practical changes can make a profound difference:

• Offer accessible-by-design applications
• Give candidates clear info about adjustments from the first touchpoint
• Ensure job adverts are inclusive and focus on skills 
• Train hiring managers in neuroinclusive interviewing
• Use strengths-based job design where appropriate
• Consider sensory-friendly interview options
• Explicitly welcome disabled applicants 
• Partner with specialist organisations and charities
• Ensure onboarding includes consistent, actionable support

4. Build a “local-first” recruitment strategy that reflects your community

A local-first strategy isn’t about one-off job fairs. It’s about embedding your organisation into your community’s fabric. Practical actions to consider:

• Partner with colleges, sixth forms, and adult education services
• Work with Jobcentre Plus and local employment support charities
• Use hyperlocal advertising (bus stops, GP surgeries, libraries, supermarkets)
• Build community presence through open days and “meet the team” events
• Collaborate with local organisations serving marginalised groups (e.g. refugee networks, faith groups, housing associations)
• Emphasise proximity – short commutes, walkable routes, local placements

Care works best when it reflects the community it serves. Local-first recruitment diversifies applicant pools and improves care continuity. Good and better. 

5. Employ “Radical talent”

Emma Freivogel, Co-Founder and CEO of Radical Recruit, introduced us recently to the idea of “radical talent” – disadvantaged candidates from marginalised communities, often who’ve had adverse life experiences, like:

• Contact with the criminal justice system
• Contact with the care system
• Domestic violence survivors
• Refugees or return veterans 
• Homelessness and rough sleeping
• Generational poverty or joblessness
• Victims of modern day slavery 

Our traditional recruitment processes typically filter these people out. But in care, these are often exactly the people you need. Bridge of Hope’s Chance Bleu-Montgomery talks about how adversity breeds grit; resilience; motivation; purpose. Lots of the qualities the care sector is crying out for.

But traditional recruitment journeys quietly lock those people out. Employing radical talent isn’t about lowering the bar. It’s about removing the friction that has nothing to do with doing the job well.

That means:

• Designing CV-optional application journeys
• Recruiting for values and potential, not polish
• Partnering with charities and programmes
• Providing recruitment and employment support
• Offering paid training and structured onboarding
• Making recruitment human, fast, and clear

When care organisations redesign recruitment to meet radical talent where they are, you don’t just widen the talent pool. You build teams that stay, grow, and care deeply. 

6. Create age-inclusive routes into care for people aged 50+

The UK is sitting on a huge, overlooked talent resource: people aged 50+. Nearly three-quarters of this age group feel overlooked, for example. And over-50s make up 42% of the 1.2 million people with long-standing health conditions who aren’t in work but would like to be.

The Centre for Ageing Better identifies older workers as highly reliable, deeply motivated, and often seeking meaningful, community-focused roles – exactly what social care offers.

Consider:

• Using age-positive messaging (“A career that values your life experience”)
• Offering lighter-duty or companionship-led roles
• Providing flexible hours and predictable rotas
• Highlighting progression pathways and accredited training
• Offering friendly, confidence-building recruitment events
• Avoiding youth-coded language in job ads (“fast-paced”, “digital native”, etc.)
• Ensuring interviews are supportive, not adversarial

Life experience can be a superpower in care, but only if employers make that visible.

7. Attract younger workers – and meet them where they are

Younger people are often seen as hard to attract into care. But many young people are interested – they just don’t understand what social care actually offers, or can’t see a clear, supported route in.

For Gen Z, work needs to feel purposeful, flexible, supportive, and fair. Long job descriptions, opaque progression, and sink-or-swim onboarding put them off fast. 

The opportunity for care employers is to design early career routes that feel safe, structured, and meaningful. That starts earlier than most recruitment teams think.

Practical ideas:

• Offer meaningful, well-supported work experience — not cheap labour
• Be explicit about values, impact, and progression from day one
• Design roles and rotas that work around education and life commitments
• Train managers to support younger workers, not just supervise them
• Create clearer pathways from work experience into paid roles
• Make recruitment simple, mobile-first, and human

Done well, employing younger workers isn’t just about filling roles today. It’s about building a sustainable pipeline – and the next generation of care professionals.

For different results, we need different actions

There’s no single fix for care’s workforce challenges. But one thing’s crystal clear: doing recruitment the same way but hoping for different results won’t work. 

The organisations making progress aren’t chasing “perfect” candidates. They’re redesigning roles, processes, and expectations to reflect real people’s lives – opening the door to talent that’s always been there but excluded.

Whether it’s flexibility, age inclusion, disability access, local pipelines, or radical talent, the common thread is simple: remove friction that has nothing to do with doing the job well.

Diversifying applicant pools isn’t a side project. It’s one of the strongest levers care providers have to build a workforce that’s resilient, representative and sustainable long term. It’s difficult, yes, but not complicated: let’s make our work environments work better for more people.

Tribepad is the trusted tech ally to smart(er) recruiters everywhere. Combining ATS, CRM, assessment, video screening, compliance, onboarding, analytics and a fully-integrated AI assistant, our B-Corp certified talent acquisition software is a springboard for fairer, faster, better recruitment for everyone.

Tribepad is trusted by care organisations like Bluebird, Avery, Horizon, Keys Group, HCRG Care Group and Signature.