The top soft skills to look for when hiring temporary care workers

At JM Workforce, we understand the challenges you face in finding care workers who truly resonate with and support adolescents. It’s not just about filling a slot on a schedule—it’s about finding the right people who can make a genuine connection with the young lives you’re dedicated to helping.

Children in residential care often come from difficult backgrounds, and they deserve more than just basic support. They need someone who can offer them understanding, patience, and a positive example. That’s why we focus on recruiting carers who possess the essential soft skills that go beyond the standard job requirements.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through the top soft skills we look for when hiring temporary care workers. These essential qualities help ensure your staff can meaningfully engage with young people, handle challenges with compassion, and contribute positively to their development.

Teenagers in care often face a unique set of challenges that can amplify their emotional confusion and struggles. Unlike their peers, they may be dealing with the upheaval of separation from family, frequent moves, or uncertainty about their future.

These young people often experience emotions more intensely than most, navigating a storm of feelings that can include fear, sadness, and anger alongside moments of hope and excitement. Their experiences can leave them feeling isolated or misunderstood as they try to cope with circumstances beyond their control.

Care workers who understand this depth of emotional complexity can make a significant difference. By offering a compassionate, empathetic approach, they provide a stabilising presence that helps these teenagers feel safe and supported.

Patience is really at the core of effective caregiving, especially for adolescents who are still figuring out their social and emotional worlds. For those in care, this can be even more challenging. They often test limits and act out more because they’re trying to cope with feelings of instability and uncertainty. They might push boundaries as a way to find some sense of control in a situation where they often feel they have none.

A patient care worker can make a huge difference by handling these moments with calm and consistency. It’s about more than just managing behaviours—it’s about offering a steady, supportive presence that helps these young people feel safe and valued. By approaching each situation with compassion and patience, care workers can help young people in care navigate their emotions and build trust. This supportive environment helps them feel more secure and understood, which is crucial as they work through their challenges and find their way forward.

Effective communication is essential, especially when working with preteens and adolescents who may have faced hurt or neglect. For these young people, clear and respectful communication isn’t just about exchanging words—it’s about showing them that they’re truly heard and understood. It’s crucial to listen actively, validate their experiences, and interact with them in a way that makes them feel safe and valued.

However, good communication goes beyond just interactions with young people. It’s also about working closely with fellow care workers, social workers, case managers, and families. Building strong, supportive relationships with all these individuals is key to providing comprehensive care.

When care workers communicate effectively with each other, they create a unified approach that benefits the young people in their care. Sharing insights and strategies ensures everyone is on the same page, which is crucial for consistent and effective support.

Conflicts among young people, especially those coming from troubled backgrounds, can be incredibly intense and emotionally charged. These situations often carry a lot of underlying pain and frustration, making resolving them feel overwhelming. Effective conflict resolution skills are crucial in these moments. They help care workers address disputes with fairness, sensitivity, and a deep understanding of each individual’s feelings.

Working with adolescents, especially those facing tough life challenges, can be incredibly draining emotionally. These young people often carry a lot of pain and confusion, whether from trauma, unstable home situations, or other personal struggles. For care workers, this means dealing with high-stress situations and emotional turbulence regularly.

Resilience becomes absolutely essential in this demanding role. It’s about more than just bouncing back from tough moments; it’s about keeping a positive and hopeful attitude even when things are difficult. Resilient care workers manage to stay focused and effective, providing a steady and reassuring presence no matter how tough the day might be.

Working in a residential children’s home means dealing with a lot of unpredictability. The teens’ needs and emotions can change instantly, and care workers often have to adapt on the fly. One moment, everything might be running smoothly, and the next, a child could be in crisis, or plans for the day might have to be completely rearranged due to a sudden issue.

Adapting to these changes isn’t just about managing logistics—it’s about understanding the underlying needs of the children and responding in a way that helps them feel secure, no matter what’s going on. By staying flexible and responsive, care workers create an environment where the kids know they are cared for, even when things don’t go as planned.

Young people, especially those from challenging backgrounds, are incredibly influenced by the adults they interact with daily. For care workers, this means their behaviour isn’t just noticed—it’s often mirrored. That’s why it’s so important for care workers to model positive behaviours, attitudes, and social skills in everything they do.

This makes care workers’ roles even more critical. They can fill that gap by modelling positive behaviours, attitudes, and social skills these young people might not have seen before. When a care worker consistently shows respect, handles stress gracefully, and approaches every situation with integrity, they’re not just guiding the young person through their day—they’re teaching by example.

Children in care come from a wide array of cultural, social, and economic backgrounds, each bringing their own unique experiences and perspectives. For care workers, being culturally sensitive is about more than just awareness—it’s about actively creating an inclusive environment where every young person feels respected, valued, and understood.

Cultural sensitivity involves taking the time to learn about and appreciate people’s diverse backgrounds. It means recognising and honouring their traditions, beliefs, and values and incorporating this understanding into daily interactions. For example, a care worker might adapt activities to reflect a young person’s cultural practices or use inclusive and respectful language.

Engaging preteens and adolescents, especially those coming from challenging backgrounds, is not always straightforward. Creativity allows care workers to think outside the box, developing activities and approaches that resonate with each young person’s interests and needs. It’s about finding ways to break through barriers and spark a connection, whether it’s through art, music, sports, or even just a different way of approaching a conversation.

But creativity isn’t just about fun and games—it’s also about finding innovative solutions to the challenges young people face. When a care worker encounters a difficult situation, thinking creatively can lead to new approaches that might not be immediately obvious. Whether it’s developing a unique behavioural plan for a teenager who’s struggling or coming up with a new way to approach a tough conversation, creativity can open up possibilities that more rigid methods might miss.

Caring for preteens and adolescents in a residential home setting is truly a team effort. The nature of this work means that no one can do it alone—collaboration with fellow care workers is essential to provide the best possible support for these young people. In a residential home, care workers share responsibilities, challenges, and successes, all with the common goal of creating a safe and nurturing environment.

Working closely with other care workers ensures that everyone is on the same page when it comes to the needs and well-being of each young person. For example, if one care worker notices that a teenager is having a particularly tough day, they can quickly communicate this to their colleagues. This way, everyone is aware and can offer the extra support that teens might need, whether it’s a little more patience, a listening ear, or some additional space.

Advocacy is truly at the heart of care work, especially when it comes to preteens and adolescents who have faced abuse, neglect, or other hardships. These young people often struggle to find their voice, whether because of their past experiences or simply because of their age. They may not feel empowered to speak up for themselves, or they might not even know how to articulate what they need. That’s where care workers come in—as their voices and their allies.

Being an advocate for these young people means stepping up with determination and compassion, ensuring that their needs and rights are not just heard but truly understood and respected. It’s about being there for them in moments when they feel lost or powerless and standing firm in their corner when they need someone to fight for them.

When we hire temporary care workers, we don’t just look at resumes—we look at the heart behind the skills. We know that the best caregivers aren’t just technically proficient; they have the empathy, patience, and communication skills that make a real difference in the lives of those they care for. That’s why assessing soft skills is one of our top priorities. We genuinely care about finding the right people to bring warmth, compassion, and reliability to their roles. Our hiring process is designed to carefully evaluate these qualities because we want to ensure that every caregiver who joins our workforce has what it takes to truly excel and make a positive impact.

We employ behavioural interview questions that require candidates to reflect on past experiences. These questions are designed to reveal how candidates have demonstrated key soft skills in real-life situations. For example, we might ask, “Can you describe a time when you had to adapt to a challenging situation in a care setting quickly?” This helps us gauge their adaptability, problem-solving abilities, and emotional resilience.

To see how candidates handle specific caregiving challenges, we incorporate role-playing scenarios into the interview process. These scenarios simulate situations they might encounter on the job, such as how to react to a teen disclosing abuse or resolving a conflict with a family member. Observing how candidates navigate these scenarios allows us to assess their empathy, communication skills, and ability to think on their feet.

We conduct thorough reference checks to gain insight into a candidate’s past performance in similar roles. We specifically ask for references about the candidate’s soft skills—how they interacted with service users or young people, their ability to work within a team, and their reliability and punctuality. This helps us confirm that the candidate’s soft skills align with our expectations.

At our organisation, we recognise that even the most skilled caregivers can benefit from ongoing development, particularly when it comes to soft skills. We are committed to providing our temporary care workers with the tools and training they need to continually improve and adapt to the ever-changing demands of the caregiving field.

Our commitment goes even further. When a candidate comes to us with the right soft skills and some relevant experience, we stand by them as they work toward becoming a truly exceptional childcare worker. We believe in their potential, and we’re here to support them with comprehensive training and guidance to help them achieve the necessary qualifications. Whether they are just starting out or looking to advance, we’re dedicated to helping them grow into the best caregivers they can be.

The skills required in various caregiving roles can vary depending on the environment, but there is significant overlap, especially when it comes to soft skills. Many of our temporary care workers bring valuable experience from other care settings, such as elderly care, healthcare, or disability support, which translates well into child social care roles.

Caregivers with backgrounds in elderly care or healthcare often excel in child social care because they have already developed key soft skills like empathy, patience, and communication. For instance, those who have worked in elderly care are adept at providing emotional support, understanding the importance of patience in helping clients with daily activities and navigating sensitive situations—skills that are equally crucial when working with children, especially those who are vulnerable or have special needs.

Soft skills like adaptability, problem-solving, and teamwork are universal and transferable across different care settings. Workers who have dealt with the unpredictability of healthcare environments or the complexities of disability support often find that their experience equips them to handle the diverse challenges present in child social care. Their ability to quickly build trust, communicate effectively with children and their families, and remain calm under pressure are all assets in this field.

A significant portion of our workforce comes from these diverse caregiving backgrounds. Their varied experiences enrich our team, bringing different perspectives and approaches that enhance the quality of care we provide. We find that these workers are often able to transition smoothly into child social care, as they already possess the foundational soft skills needed to succeed in this role. Their ability to draw on past experiences in other care settings allows them to deliver compassionate, effective care to the children and families they serve.

At JM Workforce, we are committed to setting new standards in the social care industry by continuously raising the bar for temporary care staffing. Our dedication to identifying and nurturing exceptional caregivers ensures that we consistently deliver the highest quality of care. We believe that by investing in our staff’s growth, we can make a difference in the lives of children in care, providing them with the support and compassion they deserve.

If you are a local authority or care home manager interested in discovering how our temporary care staffing solutions can benefit your organisation, we invite you to get in touch with us. Contact us today to learn more about how JM Workforce can support your care needs and contribute to the well-being of the children you serve. Together, we can make a difference.