You need a caregiver, but that does not tell you who should run the search. You can find candidates yourself, ask another person to find them, or choose a provider that recruits and assigns caregivers. Those routes do not deliver the same result.
Do not start by asking, “Can you help me find someone?” Start by deciding where the search ends. A name and phone number is a lead. A person who has accepted the written job, cleared the checks you require, and confirmed the first shift is a candidate you can act on.
1. Write down the shift before choosing who will search
A search cannot be compared until every person is searching for the same job. Use the work window you already defined through Start Here: Five Steps to Hiring.
Write:
Days needed: ____________________
Arrival time: ____________________
Departure time: ____________________
Tasks that must be completed: ____________________
Tasks that are outside the job: ____________________
Required start point: ____________________
Who will be in the house: ____________________
Then make one short description that you can read without adding explanations. Give that same description to every person or organization involved in the search.
2. Decide what you are willing to do yourself
Finding a name is only one part of a direct hire. The family may still need to contact candidates, explain the shift, collect applications, check records, call references, decide who moves forward, issue the work terms, and arrange the start. The agency or direct-hire guide separates those two hiring lanes.
Mark each item “family” or “outside help”:
Write and post the job: ____________________
Answer candidate messages: ____________________
Reject candidates who do not fit the shift: ____________________
Conduct interviews: ____________________
Obtain permission for checks: ____________________
Review the returned records: ____________________
Call references: ____________________
Confirm acceptance of the written job: ____________________
Arrange the first shift: ____________________
If several lines remain blank, you have not chosen a route. You have only chosen where the names might come from.
3. Ask what the outside party actually delivers
Use the same questions with an agency, registry, referral source, independent recruiter, or other person offering to help:
“Do you give me names, or do you assign the person who will work?”
“Who interviews the candidate for this specific shift?”
“Who decides whether the candidate meets the written requirements?”
“Who obtains and reviews each record check?”
“Who calls prior work references?”
“Who presents the job and confirms that the candidate accepted it?”
“Who contacts candidates who stop responding?”
“What exactly will I receive when your work is finished?”
Write the promised deliverable in one sentence: ____________________
Listen for verbs and objects. “We help with placement” does not identify the work. “We send three phone numbers” does. “We assign a caregiver who has accepted the shift” does. Record the exact answer without improving it.
4. Test the search against one real requirement
Choose the requirement most likely to eliminate an otherwise promising candidate. It might be the arrival time, a firm end time, the location, a household condition, or a task the caregiver must accept.
Ask:
“At what point do you tell the candidate about ____________________?”
“How do you record the candidate’s answer?”
“Will I see that answer before an interview or assignment?”
A usable process puts the real requirement in front of the candidate before the family spends time arranging the next step. If the requirement is being saved for the interview, write down that the family will perform that screening.
5. Find out who controls the candidate relationship
The agency and direct-hire lanes assign responsibility differently, as outlined in Hire a Caregiver in St. Louis: Agency or Direct. Ask enough questions to identify your lane rather than relying on labels.
Ask:
“Who offers the work to the caregiver?”
“Who can change the assignment?”
“If we want a different candidate, who starts the next search?”
“If this person leaves, do we return to you or start again ourselves?”
“May we contact the candidate directly while the search is open?”
Write:
The person controlling the offer: ____________________
The person responsible for a replacement search: ____________________
The person who tells rejected candidates: ____________________
If no one can identify those people, the search has no clear owner.
6. Demand a handoff you can inspect
Before authorizing an outside search, request a sample of the information delivered with a candidate. Remove names if necessary. You are checking the fields, not the person.
Look for:
Candidate name and direct contact route: ____________________
Shift the candidate accepted: ____________________
Tasks the candidate accepted: ____________________
Requirements confirmed: ____________________
Checks completed and the records available to review: ____________________
References contacted and what will be provided: ____________________
Remaining family decisions: ____________________
The site’s Sources page identifies the public pages used for checking hiring requirements and records. Use the relevant public page itself when confirming what a returned record covers. Do not replace the record with a verbal assurance that someone was checked.
7. Run one candidate through the proposed route on paper
Write a candidate’s path from first contact to confirmed start:
Candidate is found by: ____________________
Candidate receives the full shift description from: ____________________
Candidate is screened by: ____________________
Candidate is interviewed by: ____________________
Candidate records are reviewed by: ____________________
Candidate receives the final work terms from: ____________________
Candidate confirms the first shift to: ____________________
Family receives the finished file from: ____________________
Circle every handoff between people. At each circle, ask what document moves with the candidate. If the answer is “we will let them know,” replace it with the name of the document, message, or record you will receive.
8. Compare finished work, not introductions
Make two columns. Label one “family-run search” and the other “outside search.” Under each, list the work that remains after a candidate’s name arrives.
Compare:
Who finds candidates: ____________________
Who screens against the actual shift: ____________________
Who completes the checks: ____________________
Who documents acceptance: ____________________
Who restarts the search after a rejection: ____________________
Who owns the unfinished work: ____________________
Your decision is not between doing everything yourself and doing nothing. You can keep the interview and final choice while hiring out candidate sourcing. You can accept an assigned caregiver while keeping the right to decline the assignment. You can also run the entire direct search. The useful dividing line is the last completed task you receive before responsibility returns to the family.
Signs to walk away
Stop the conversation if the person offering search help cannot say whether the result is a lead, an interviewed candidate, or a confirmed assignment.
Stop if the full shift is not shown to candidates before their names are sent to you.
Stop if the answer to “who reviewed this?” is only “our system.” Ask for the responsible role and the record produced.
Stop if you are promised a ready caregiver but the family is expected to discover basic availability, task acceptance, or start readiness after the introduction.
Stop if the replacement process begins with an argument about who was responsible for screening the first candidate.
The line to keep
Write one sentence before you choose:
“We will handle ____________________, and the outside party must deliver ____________________ before we take over.”
Put that sentence beside every proposal, referral, or agency explanation. If you cannot fill both blanks, the search is not divided clearly enough to begin.