Each month, we share insights into the experience of the thousands of caregivers who apply through Hellohire. We share statistics like Application to Interview rate, the average time it takes to schedule and conduct an interview, and more so you can benchmark your own hiring process.
While the data fluctuates from month to month, when can we call it a trend? Each quarter, we zoom out and share the bigger picture, separating fleeting changes from fundamental shifts in home care hiring.
Home Care Hiring Trends in Q3
Here’s what we saw in Q3, what it means for your business, and what you can do now to prepare for Q4 and beyond.
Application to Interview Rate Improves while Interview Success Keeps Dropping
We define an applicant as someone who meets the job requirements and is interested in the role. The Application to Interview Rate has been improving for a full year now, increasing over 12% since Q3 of 2024.
Meanwhile, the Interview Success Rate, defined as the number of candidates a recruiter marks as a “Yes” or “Maybe” after an initial interview, dropped again this quarter. It’s fallen nearly 12% in the last 6 months, after previously steadily increasing. The interview success rate currently sits at 56.6%, the lowest success rate we’ve recorded.
There are a few potential reasons for this. First off, more applicants interviewing for the same jobs would logically lead to a lower percentage of applicants moving on to the final stages of hiring. However, when we look at the rest of the shifts we saw this month, a bigger picture starts to take shape.
Candidates are Scheduling Faster, while Interviews Run Longer
Candidates took, on average, just .7 days (slightly under 17 hours) to schedule an interview. Since potential caregivers self-schedule interviews with Hellohire, this is likely the time frame your applicants would prefer.
In addition, the average time between application and interview was just 2.71 days. This is good news; you have access to dedicated candidates who want to move quickly through the hiring process.
At the same time, interviews started running longer. The average interview length, which hadn’t varied by more than 30 seconds over the last 3 quarters, shot up by 2 minutes in Q3. That’s an over 20% increase since Q2.
No-Show and Cancellation Rates Keep Falling
The Interview No-Show rate has been dropping for the last year. They now sit at just over 43%, a 14.6% decrease from Q4 of 2024.
The Interview Cancellation rate, which varied by less than 0.5% over the last 4 quarters, dropped to 12.9% in Q3, an over 15% reduction.
This is especially interesting, as we’d generally expect more schedule changes in Q3, between summer vacations and back-to-school season. This sharp drop off, combined with the other changes we’ve noted, marks a pretty clear shift in home care hiring.
Is the Employer’s Hiring Market Finally Here?
While we’ve been hearing for months now that it’s an employer’s hiring market, many in home care haven’t been feeling that shift. This quarter, though, marks a definite change.
The changes we’re seeing show that recruiters have been able to be choosier over the last few months. A lower proportion of applicants are proceeding through the hiring process, and interviews are running longer.
After years of hiring feeling like a race to hire candidates before they were off the job market, we’re seeing more breathing room for recruiters and more engaged candidates.
Why Hiring is Still So Difficult—and How to Change It
Despite the flood of applicants on the job market, a recent study found that half of hiring professionals say that hiring is more difficult now than it was last year. How can that be the case?
The top reasons they cited were difficulty in finding high-quality candidates, candidates using AI, and struggling to manage the influx of applications. Each of these issues is a facet of a bigger problem: candidates who feel pressured to find a new position are mass-applying to jobs (often with the use of AI tools), making it nearly impossible for employers to find the right candidates through all the noise.
It’s the reason applicant pre-screening has been a hot topic with agency owners; it allows their team to take back the time they would’ve wasted chasing down answers to basic screening questions so they can focus on finding high-quality, dedicated caregivers.
In addition, a 43.4% interview no-show rate and 12.9% cancellation rate means that more than half of scheduled interviews still aren’t happening. While there are a lot of reasons for no-shows, better candidate communication can help. Giving applicants a specific, easy way to reach out can clear up confusion and make it more likely you get a heads up when they need to reschedule.
That’s why Hellohire users now have access to a new Conversations module, which allows you to start SMS/text conversations with candidates. In addition to automated conversations around screening and scheduling, you’ll be able to speak with candidates one-on-one.
Here’s what it looks like in action:
There are tools available to get you the candidates you need to scale your business. Reach out today to speak to a hiring specialist.