The latest findings from our Cost of Living consumer survey are in, and we’re taking a look at the insights through the lens of the leisure industry.
With over 2,000 respondents surveyed in November, we asked consumers about their thoughts and priorities in the lead up to Christmas to help brands understand how their customers may be behaving. For companies in the leisure space, being able to predict the movements, intentions and spending patterns of customers is key at this time of year, especially in the current economic climate.
So, what did we find?
Nearly half of consumers still want to socialise and spend despite the impact of the Cost of Living
With 46% of respondents agreeing that the increased Cost of Living will not impact their intended Christmas social plans (up from 40% in 2022), leisure brands can expect to benefit from people wanting to attend and spend on events out of the home this year.
While this is reflected in general financial fears dropping since the late summer, there seems to be a generational divide with Gen X, Millennials and Boomers feeling more confident. Gen Z, on the other hand, reached a new peak of concern at over 50%.
Their concerns relate to their personal finances as opposed to family finances or the national/global economy, which could affect brands reliant on young adults to boost their seasonal profits.
Energy fears remain high as the cold moves in, leading to potential cost-cutting in other areas for some groups
With energy costs becoming more of a focus as temperatures drop, some demographic groups are having to cut down on other costs to keep warm this winter – with one in three among the Low Income Living Acorn category expecting to have to do so.
The impact decreases as we climb the affluence scale but remains fairly significant, with over 20% of the Established Affluence category also considering cost cutting for this reason.
Spending on food and drink at home remains a priority, but the importance of entertainment and leisure at Christmas is growing
With a significant 79% of people considering spending on food and drink at home to be important this festive period, there is further optimism for the leisure industry as our latest survey has also detected a shift back towards entertainment and leisure as a source of importance.
While consumers report that most other areas of spending are reducing in importance, entertainment and leisure is trending in the other direction, with 59% of consumers surveyed classifying entertainment and leisure as either somewhat or very important to them this year, which is up from 53% in 2022. This is supported by 47% of respondents identifying that socialising outside of their homes this year is important, which is a slight increase from 2022.
Overall, the social planning picture is a lot less negative than last year
When we consider the contrast between pre-pandemic and Cost of Living crisis behaviours versus consumer attitudes now, it’s fair to say that people continue to exert caution in the lead up to Christmas. Nonetheless, we’re seeing less negativity year-on-year, which shows that there’s opportunity for leisure brands in the coming weeks.
Brands may still want to consider how different demographic groups are going to drive success this Christmas, as levels of concern and caution seem to be directly related to affluence. The findings show that the Established Affluence category appear to place the most importance on maintaining their food and beverage spending and socialising this year.
When taking age into account, we found that a surprisingly large pocket of younger respondents actually prefer New Year’s Eve to Christmas Day as a celebration. So, this could be something to consider when rolling out engagement strategies post-Christmas.
Apply these insights to your consumers and stay in the loop as you strategise
We work with a range of market-leading brands in the leisure industry, helping them to identify, understand and locate their customer base to drive value for their businesses and inform successful estate optimisation and growth. If any of our demographic or location-focused data is of interest to you, or if you’d like to dive deeper into our survey results, please get in touch to discuss this with us.
In this third blog of our series looking at balanced locations, we shift our focus to Skipton, a picturesque market town in North Yorkshire known for its rich history and breath taking countryside known as “the Gateway to the Dales”.
With its 900-year-old medieval castle forming a centrepiece that overlooks the town and its charming, cobbled streets, traditional shops and vibrant markets, Skipton has retained its historic character while also providing modern amenities and a welcoming atmosphere for residents and visitors alike. These key contributing factors have earned Skipton its place on our list of perfectly balanced places to live per our report, “Six Pillars of Success: Building Resilient Places”.
Skipton’s historic High Street is home to an array of independent shops, boutiques and local businesses, which are complemented by national retailers such as M&S and WHSmith, clothing retailers like Next and Phase Eight, and health and beauty retailers like The Body Shop and Boots.
On the cusp of Yorkshire Dales National Park with hiking and cycling trails galore, the High Street of this historic market town also offers an array of outdoor clothing and equipment specialist retailers such as Chevin Cycles,Trespass,Regatta Great Outdoors and Mountain Warehouse.
Pillar 2: Uniquely tailored offline experiences
One of Skipton’s standout features is its weekly farmers and crafts market that offers a variety of locally sourced, traditional produce and handmade goods. All the stalls are run by local Yorkshire businesses, which generates a lively community atmosphere in and around the town. On Saturdays, locals can stroll through Skipton Market lining both sides of the High Street, establishing itself as a vital player in the town’s overall shopping experience and offerings.
History aficionados can also visit Skipton Castle, a remarkably preserved medieval castle where the Fattorini family— jewellers and creators of the Football Association Challenge Cup— continue to live to this day. Plaza Cinema is also popular with cinemagoers—a century-old, art deco, single-screen cinema that is the sole survivor of the town’s cinemas.
Skipton is also home to many small cafes and coffee shops (both independent and chains), pubs and restaurants.
Pillar 3: Engaging community infrastructure
In terms of amenities and services, Skipton houses nearly everything that would be expected from a town of its size, including both small and large supermarkets like Grape Tree Skipton and M&S, banks like Halifax, Barclays and NatWest, dry cleaners, furniture shops, charity shops and estate agents.
Skipton’s town hall is also situated near the castle, with a museum and gallery, a library and a small music amphitheatre just off the High Street.
Skipton Station is also a major force in the town’s infrastructure, with regularly scheduled direct commuter trains travelling to both Leeds and Bradford, and several London-bound trains daily.
Pillar 4: Support social cohesion through optimised residential design
Skipton features a wide variety of properties that are suitable for several types of people, ranging from large, detached houses to converted mill apartments, with terraced houses being especially prominent in the town. Families with children will find excellent educational opportunities available in the area, with several prestigious schools such asboys’ and girls’ grammar schools in the vicinity.
Pillar 5: Sufficient & accessible work opportunities for the local population
Although theSkipton Building Societyiscurrently the largest employer in the area, the town’s largest industry is likely to be tourism. Train line connections to Leeds and Bradford have opened many additional job opportunities as well.
Pillar 6: Appealing open spaces for the community to dwell in
Being the gateway to the Dales, Skipton is home to plenty of green spaces. From inviting woodlands and walking paths situated behind Skipton Castle to impressive views accessible within a half-hour drive, Skipton and its vicinity has something for outdoor enthusiasts.
In the heart of the town is Aireville Park, a large open space packed with sporting facilities suited for football, tennis, netball and basketball, a wheel park catering to BMX, skateboarding and rollerblading, children’s play areas, a treetop high ropes course and a café. The park is also home to Skipton’s weekly parkrun and annual triathlon, Yorkshire and Humberside’s largest pool-based triathlon.
Fans of the Harry Potter film franchise will be pleased to know that scenes from “The Deathly Hallows” were shot at the top of Malham Cove, a short drive from Skipton, showing views across Malhamdale, down to Malham Village and Kirkby Malham. Scenes from the 1992 version film adaptation of Emily Brontë’s “Wuthering Heights” were also shot in Malham Cove.
In the opposite direction and of similar driving distance, the renowned Brontë sisters’ home in Haworth can be found. It is now one of the oldest literary societies worldwide and was converted into the Brontë Parsonage Museum in memory of the celebrated authors of classic literature.
Saltaire, a UNESCO World Heritage Site built in the mid-19th century as a model Victorian village depicting life for workers in Sir Titus Salt’s textile mill, can also be reached from Skipton within half an hour’s drive. Visitors will find ornate and well-preserved houses, a church and public buildings surrounding a park to stroll through, with the namesake mill, Salt’s Mill, at the epicentre of the site.
Stay tuned for our next pick ofa ‘perfectly balanced’ place to live in our upcoming blog. To learn how our six property pillars can help ensure you are creating resilient places, please speak to one of our Placemaking and Property experts.
In this second blog of our series looking at balanced locations, we focus on Reigate and Fleet. These two enchanting towns are brimming with rich history and exceptional greenery. A blend of nostalgia, tranquillity and friendliness, they are south of central London in Surrey and Hampshire counties, making them the closest to London on our list of balanced locations outlined in our report, “Six Pillars of Success: Building Resilient Places”. While inhabitants of both towns are proud to call them home, the criteria they achieved in our report reiterate the reasons why we consider them wonderful places to live.
Reigate and Fleet both feature a myriad of national chains and independent retailers that take part in annual local activities and events.
In Reigate, national retailers like M&S and Boots are complemented by a range of independent retailers like The Vineking, a wine tasting and dining experience independent merchant, Art of Living, a family-run cook shop and showroom, and a handful of boutique gift shops like The Lemon Tree. Day-to-day convenience shopping is also supported by a large high-street Morrisons, which offers free parking.
Just under an hour from central London, you will find the town of Fleet, an ideal travel connection town for those who regularly commute into the city. Fleet Road, the town’s high street, features an array of independent shops and a mix of both independent and chain restaurants. Hart Shopping Centre houses several known brands and independent retailers. It hosts monthly craft markets that bring the community together to support local, independent businesses.
Pillar 2: Uniquely tailored offline experiences
Reigate has more restaurants than any market of its size, all of which are successful staples in the area. Just off Reigate High Street, you can find the Pilgrim Brewery, an independent retailer that is actively involved in our community’s sports teams and events, and is known among locals as a wonderful spot to gather and socialise.
Pan Asian chain restaurant, Banana Tree, recently opened its door to the Reigate community, joining the likes of Bills, Nando’s and Wagamama on the High Street to further enhance Reigate’s food and beverage offerings. Monte Forte also took up a fixed residency on Reigate High Street after trading from a pizza van that visited the town. After a cozy dinner or a day spent shopping on the High Street, locals can also catch a film at the local Everyman Cinema. With several independent pubs and even a couple of late-night venues catering to the night owls, Reigate’s independent retailers have something for everyone.
Reigate High Street is also involved in several national events throughout the year, from artisan, food and street markets to Pillage the Village around Halloween, an annual Christmas Fayre on Church Street, and most recently, Tom Kerridge’s Pub in the Park, which featured food stalls, live musicians and renowned chefs from around the country.
Popular cuisine in Fleet tends to be Italian and Indian, with several restaurants a notable hit with locals. For vegetarian options, The Greenhouse Fleet is an independent vegetarian cafe/restaurant with a strong environmental emphasis and diverse selection of palatable meals.
Zinc & Popworld and a variety of local pubs form Fleet’s leisure scene. For a cozy lakeside view and nautical atmosphere, locals can visit the Heron on the Lake pub. The recently redeveloped Hart Leisure Centre now offers a sports facility that doubles as a community gathering spot. For the town’s younger population, a recently opened virtual gaming experience arcade, Chimera VR, has quickly gained popularity.
Pillar 3: Engaging community infrastructure
Reigate’s array of yoga and Pilates studios along with a centrally located gym appeal to locals looking to stay in shape. Many companies or large groups also make use of Priory Park for outdoor fitness classes. To cover local essentials,Reigate houses a Royal Mail delivery office to the north of the High Street, a couple of dry cleaners and a key cutting shop, all of which cover local essentials. A launderette is also situated south of the High Street within a small parade of separate shops, and a Busy Bees nursery can also be found in this vicinity.
For a town of its size, Fleet’s array of amenities and services cater well to the needs of all ages of the local population. It’s home to a large leisure centre that comes with a pool, spaces for squash and indoor sports and a gym. Many of its eco shops like Fleet Scoop, a ‘Zero Waste’ community spirited and environmentally conscious shop along with other local gems that opened just before the Covid-19 pandemic have been warmly embraced by the community and have continued to perform well post-pandemic. There are also plenty of smaller rows of shops outside of the High Street, along with a number of hairdressers and nail salons catering to its residents’ beauty needs.
Pillar 4: Support social cohesion through optimised residential design
Housing in Reigate and Fleet is affordable for those that live in the area, as the higher than national average prices are reflected by respectively higher-than-average earnings. With plenty of private rentals to choose from and hundreds of newly built homes going up in the last few years.
At £1,147 per calendar month, private rentals in Reigate are 24% of average earnings, a smidge below the national average of 25%. Private rentals in Fleet equate to £1,095 per calendar month (or 21% of average earnings), also below the national average of 25%. Fleet has also seen 815 new homes built in the last five years– a growth rate of 4.8% which sits above the national average of 3.8% in the same period.
Fleet has experienced organic growth and periodic development in its housing market. Approximately every 20 years, a new housing development has emerged, including the likes of Ancells Farm Nature Reserve, Zebon Copse, Church Crookham, Elvetham Heath, and the currently under construction Edenbrook. Each estate has brought new retail and food & beverage opportunities with it, such as pubs, community centres, supermarkets, parks and cafes.
Pillar 5: Sufficient & accessible work opportunities for the local population
Reigate and Fleet’s economies are both active, with only 1.7% of the population in both towns being unemployed (below the national average of 2.5%). Fleet Services also employs many locals and acts as a stopover for those travelling from London and the East.
Fleet is home to many managers, directors and senior officials, with over 50% of the population in managerial, administrative and professional occupations. While it has historically been home to many commuters to London, it now houses several business parks, primarily occupied by Information Technology (IT) companies.
In Reigate, 46% of the population are in professional and technical occupations, with a higher-than-average 17% in service industries. There are thousands of companies and hundreds of medium-large-sized businesses that locals can work for, including the UK and European head offices of Willis Towers Watson, Kimberly-Clark and Pfizer. While most local employers operate in the private sector, there are public sector opportunities available in the local Council and NHS Trust.
Pillar 6: Appealing open spaces for the community to dwell in
Reigate’s Priory Park just off the High Street offers a great open space to tire the kids out either at the skate park, playground or by strolling along the lake or through the woods. The park hosts many events, including a free park run every Saturday morning that draws in upwards of 200 locals each weekend. It also hosts sporting events like local kids’ football teams, bringing together the community to the town centre.
Fleet’s lush greenery similarly draws in locals– at the heart of the town lies Fleet Pond, connecting various parts of Fleet. The town’s younger population is also catered to through open spaces such as a skatepark in the local park, The Views.
To learn how our six property pillars can help ensure you are creating resilient places, please speak to one of our Placemaking and Property experts.
Only 1.5% of locations across the UK can be described as balanced across all pillars. We set out to find these locations and determine what sets them apart in our report, “Six Pillars of Success: Building Resilient Places”, where we explored locations across the UK that are “balanced” in all six of CACI’s property pillars that contribute to the resilience of both community and place. Over 5,000 locations across the UK were assessed in this report, of which only 77 were considered balanced across all pillars.
Interestingly, only 1 in 20regional towns in the UK are balanced. Thisdemonstrates that despite achieving perfect balance in some places, there is still a lot that can be done for places to enhance their community engagement.
In this blog series, we’ll uncover the defining criteria for ‘perfectly balanced’ places and find out how these communities’ tactics can be applied to other locations across the UK.
Having retailers that ensure a return on investment for occupiers and effectively appeal to locals’ needs along with proper leasing of a retailer in terms of its tenant line-up are critical to an area’s success. A ‘perfectly balanced’ place achieves a balance between chain retailers to boutique shops and independent retailers by understanding the core of their community’s personalities and values and reflecting that in the area’s retailers.
Pillar 2: Uniquely tailored offline experiences
Unique offline experiences are ones that are only available in person and cannot be replicated at home. A place that is ‘perfectly balanced’ will host things to see and do for customers to do in person that come with halo benefits and contribute to the overall liveliness of the area and can only be experienced in person. The results will be achieved through an uptake of dwell time, varied footfall patterns, greater customer spending and more.
Pillar 3: Engaging community infrastructure
The types of amenities and services offered in an area can play a vital role in enhancing social value and community engagement. A ‘perfectly balanced’ place has optimised its relationship between supply and demand across amenities to help commercial landlords plug gaps within the community and reinforce social value.
Pillar 4: Support social cohesion through optimised residential design
A lack of suitable housing can be damaging for an area. ‘Perfectly balanced’ places optimise their residential design to positively influence the community and create long-term value, income and footfall for developers. These places typically feature residential units that closely align with the needs of the community and offer the right types, tenures, sizes and price points to fill supply gaps
Pillar 5: Sufficient & accessible work opportunities for the local population
Communities need job opportunities for those looking for employment. Acute un- and under-employment can be damaging on both an individual and community-wide basis. In our post-pandemic world, 29% of the UK population work in hybrid roles, allowing them the option of splitting their work week between the office and home. A ‘perfectly balanced’ place offers working opportunities that reflect the demand levels of the area and increasingly include collaborative, co-working spaces.
Pillar 6: Appealing open spaces for the community to dwell in
To drive footfall to a location, a ‘perfectly balanced’ place draws people into spending their leisure time there. It will be conveniently located, offer appealing services and amenities and encourage dwelling and exploring. With an increased interest in greening urban environments and finding pockets of greenery in even the most unexpected spots, ‘perfectly balanced’ places will offer luscious open spaces that are built sustainably and encourage biodiversity and carbon capture.
Stay tuned for our upcoming blog featuring the first two of our top five ‘perfectly balanced’ places to live.
To learn how our six property pillars can help ensure you are creating resilient places, please speak to one of our Placemaking and Property experts.
Increase the proportion of journeys made by active travel and public transport
Understand variations in the customer profile across different modes of travel, and specific Bus, Metrolink, and cycle routes
Understand barriers to take-up for different user groups (e.g. geographic location, affordability)
Identify appropriate ways to engage with existing customers and target new users
The solution
To overcome these challenges, Transport for Greater Manchester partnered with CACI on the following solutions:
Use Acorn Postcode, Workforce Acorn, Paycheck, and Retail Footprint to enhance their own datasets, including survey data (at the sampling, weighting and analysis stages)
Use with GIS systems to identify spatial patterns and trends
Postcode-level analysis provides a granular understanding that allows for targeted intervention
The benefits
“CACI’s Acorn, Acorn knowledge base and supporting products (Paycheck, Retail Footprint), used in combination with our own datasets, increase the value we can get from our data and help us to understand in more depth the people behind the travel patterns.”
Rosalind O’Driscoll, Head of Policy Insight and Public Affairs – Transport for Greater Manchester
Read the case study
You can access and download the full case study here. If you have any questions or want to learn more about CACI’s solutions, please get in touch with us.
Nansledan is a new community being built on the eastern edge of the coastal town of Newquay in Cornwall, England. Over the last decade, the Duchy of Cornwall has acted as master developer and landowner of the development, creating an already vibrant community which will eventually include c4,000 homes, job opportunities and diversification of the local economy to sustainably meet Newquay’s current and future needs.
To bring the vision of a successful and thriving new community to life, the masterplan for Nansledan includes a new town centre, known to the Duchy of Cornwall as “Market Street”. To facilitate the progress an introduction was therefore made to CACI, to demonstrate the breadth of data and consultancy expertise that could be offered to support the forward strategy of Market Street.
The Challenge
To answer questions around the scale and mix of spaces within the Market Street plans, it was clear that data-driven insights would also be helpful in shaping the forward strategy.
The Duchy of Cornwall also wanted to understand what role Nansledan might play within the wider Cornish market and how complementary offers could be provided so as not to compete with Truro, Newquay and Padstow.
The Solution
CACI’s initial report has now been completed and was presented to the Duchy of Cornwall in February 2023. It has already been helpful in shaping the forward strategy for the first phase of Market Street and will continue to inform the scale and the mix of space that comes forward across Market Street and Nansledan over the coming years.
The Duchy of Cornwall now has a much clearer understanding of Nansledan’s catchment area from both a resident and tourist perspective around demographics, spending habits and spending potential. In turn, this is expected to help in the positioning of Market Street within its local and regional market and will hopefully assist with ensuring its long-term commercial success.
The Future
While Market Street is yet to be developed, the work undertaken by CACI so far has helped to shape the Duchy of Cornwall’s forward strategy and will continue to feed into the design of the remaining phases of Market Street, as well as other commercial centres that were planned across Nansledan.
Further advice is expected as the development progresses and wider market influences take shape in order for the Duchy of Cornwall to continue to position Market Street appropriately for Nansledan’s growing population, as well as that of other local towns and villages. Using data-led insights on an ongoing basis is seen as increasingly important given the wider context of struggling retail centres around the country and in trying to ensure a vibrant and thriving centre at Nansledan.
Since 1964 Amtico have been one of the worlds leading designers and manufacturers in luxury flooring, and flooring solutions amongst both the residential and commercial flooring market. Amtico currently have a presence in over 600 independent stores in the UK.
The challenge
Identifying the most viable locations for retailer recruitment, taking into account the demographic profiles that each retailer serves
Having a rich insight into the overall market potential of each Amtico retailer
Understanding and being able to map their target consumers across the UK
The Solution
Investing in InSite enables Amtico to prioritise retailer acquisitions based on the greatest headroom potential whilst leveraging demographic data
InSite enables Amtico to quantify their market potential based on the demographics of their consumers
An actionable and strategic tool that Amtico are able to share with multiple stakeholders across the business
Nowadays, creating an optimal fulfilment service requires you to have access to sophisticated location intelligence data and superb knowledge of your customers. CACI’s Paul Dawsey and Dom Saunders, who work in the Logistics and Supply Chain business unit, presented the impact that location intelligence and customer insight have on optimising a distribution network and two examples of influential optimisation models at the Leaders in Logistics Summit on 28 March 2023.
Why are location intelligence & customer insight so important?
Having the right data for any type of location logistics solution is critical. Road network data, precise attributes and customer data are all critical parts of the distribution network optimisation process as they allow you to extrapolate the necessary details to ask the right questions and strategise accordingly.
There are several benefits that gaining these insights will have on your business’ operations, including:
Improving your understanding of and ability to inform store locations, and expand or contract store locations accordingly
Adhering to customers’ individual preferences for the delivery of products
Personalising fulfilment options and determining what works best for specific customer demographics
Enhancing the accuracy of your predictions for the length of time that drivers will need to spend at drop-off points, which will improve customer satisfaction and cut costs.
Example model 1: Network distribution modelling
To effectively model your distribution network, especially when making expensive decisions, your thought process should be backed by data. This will help you understand your customers in a way that will allow you to quantify and locate the demand that they have for your products, their consumption of your products, their collection preferences and more.
Once you have quantified and located demand, you can determine your baseline to strategically tweak the model you are building. Depending on what happens or changes in the marketplace and your sector in the coming years, and its impact on your model, you can formulate the right questions and conclude where changes need to be made.
Different customers will also present inevitably different logistics challenges. Profiling these customers will help you gauge how to better adhere to their existing and future demands. Pairing customer insight to understand demand with location intelligence to find the best locations to effectively reach your target customers will highly support the functionality of this model.
Finally, testing a range of ‘What if?’ scenarios depending on various changes your business may experience– population growth, market trends, what your market department is focusing on or how consumers will want to shop— will help you answer questions to gain strategic insights on your business’ efficiency, optimisation, costs, bottlenecks, products and services. This enables you to make recommendations for change.
When you take these answers and insights to the board for sign-off, you will have a significant amount of evidence through this model to back up your claims.
Example model 2: Delivery stop time modelling
Understanding the key factors that influence property level delivery stop times will ensure this model is created effectively. A grasp on the intricacies of property locations, households, context and vicinity and carrier data have become standard business practice for success in more recent years.
Effectively modelling property delivery stop times begins with accessing unique data feeds via customer and property intelligence data, road network and traffic data and carrier/historical customer data. These datasets can be then used in route optimisation tools such as CACI’s Pin Routes to fine-tune optimal routes, further increasing the level of optimisation. They show how dynamic the stop time analysis can be and how to consider running costs, regulations, and other impactful factors. They can also flag high traffic volume index, Acorn type, unloading duration and more to analyse existing stop times, compare delivery times, adapt strategies and conclude the optimal routes for drivers to take.
These data feeds support the development of your solution or model to produce an output of precise stop times based on customers’ addresses, enhance stop time generation and improve customer service and insights.
How can CACI help you optimise your fulfilment services?
Implementing a digital model that will showcase exactly what needs to change and improve will be paramount to running a successful, long-term distribution network. The right model based on the right data is what will help you build in the right way—gaining efficiencies, reducing costs and improving your customer service.
To find out how you can use location intelligence & customer insights to optimise your distribution network strategy, contact our team of experts.
Pay is only one factor that influences the number and quality of candidates for your roles, and their loyalty.
It’s no secret that staffing is an ongoing challenge for most providers of elderly care. Market competition doesn’t only come from other care settings. Potential staff may be looking for local work in a range of sectors locally, where hourly pay is higher and the responsibilities seem less demanding. How can you compete to attract and retain quality staff for your elderly care services?
Take a targeted approach to recruitment and retention by applying marketing principles
Traditionally, elderly care providers have used their instincts to decide on good locations for their residential or in-home care operations. In recent years, some have made good use of market data to investigate and understand their potential customer base. By looking at the age and affluence of potential care clients in their catchment area, savvy operators can anticipate the level of need, design the right services and price them competitively. Today, we’re advocating the same approach, to understand staffing supply and demand.
In our work with a few forward-thinking, large-scale elderly care providers, we’ve helped them to factor in staffing availability when looking for new sites or deciding whether expand operations in an existing location. There’s a great opportunity for mid-sized operators to take advantage of the same approach.
Using local market insight and benchmarking to identify potential staff
Using demographic and location data, we can:
Profile the demographic characteristics of ideal candidates for elderly care roles
Contrast them to the Acorn profiles of typical users of the elderly care services
Flag high-risk locations likely to face the biggest staffing challenges
Highlight areas of demographic overlap, with a strong potential customer base and staffing base
Identify the best catchment areas to recruit suitable candidates
Analyse the likely needs and priorities of available candidates in the area
Contextual dynamics in practice: understanding local recruitment landscapes
Our current work with elderly care providers is commercially sensitive. So, we’re using an example from a different care sector with a very similar recruitment and retention challenge – children’s nurseries.
Our client told us that recruitment challenges are hampering business performance – they had had to close some sites because of a lack of staff. They needed to factor the potential to recruit into acquisition decisions. We profiled 11,000 staff members in 400 nurseries in the UK to discover their Acorn groups and identifies primary and secondary target staffing groups. We mapped nurseries in their locations, showing where the customer base and the staff base overlapped. This helped our client tailor recruitment messaging to available local staff priorities. They could plan to expand their service provision in locations where they knew they could recruit to meet demand.
Modelling the recruitment potential for new and existing locations
The approach is not only relevant for new elderly care locations and investment. By understanding the local employment landscape, you can recruit in a more targeted and effective way and find out what matters to the people you’d like to employ, so you can shape working practices and promote aspects of the role that will be most appealing.
Location and mobile app data can you help you focus recruitment in areas where there are candidates who can easily access your sites and domestic clients. Your potential staff don’t necessarily live on the doorstep but there may be nearby areas that have good transport links, where workers already tend to travel from.
Offering roles that local employees want to take
Of course, pay is a very important factor when it comes to attracting competent and committed staff. Premium elderly care operators may be able to pay staff more and offer a more luxurious workplace. But these are not the only things that influence employees. You can provide other, affordable benefits and mould your working environment and employee programmes to match what workers really value. Profiling target candidates in your local area can help you understand their priorities – from family-friendly working hours to free lunches and incentive programmes.
Beyond pay and benefits – understanding the appeal of elderly care roles
Working in elderly care is a socially responsible job. For some candidates, recognition of the value of their work can be a strong motivator. Creating better career paths and more tangible pathways for carers can make a big difference to your recruitment. Some larger elderly care operators are trying to emulate nursing pathways: clear role definition and progression can help to retain committed staff. If you understand more about the potential candidates in your area and your existing staff, you can decide whether this approach could support recruitment and retention for one or more locations.
CACI’s specialist elderly care and senior living team works with clients in the UK to help them improve operational and financial performance with access to vital insights into their customers, employees and locations. To find out more, contact us.
