How to make a poster to hire a part time caregiver

Our family decided to try and hire a part time caregiver for just a few hours per week. We don't qualify for Medicaid, so we don't qualify for professional in-home care (via Michigan's Hope Help Program). We do have Medicare, but as far as we can figure, we'll need to pay for in-home care out of pocket.

My dad is 70+ with Parkinson's and Dementia. We're lucky enough to live next to a university, so we decided to try and hire a college student or two.

We had to get creative and plan to make a poster and put it around campus.

Here's how you could do the very same thing.

The Plan

1. Write a job description
2. Add how to contact you
3. Design the poster
4. Print the posters
5. Hang the posters
6. Interview caregiver candidates
7. Hire and schedule caregiving session
8. Pay caregiver

Write a job description

Remember, you're going to want to keep it short. We will be printing the posters on regular US Letter Paper to save money. Try something like this:

In-Home Companion for Elder
$20.00 per hour, 1 or 2 hours per week, Located 5 minutes from campus
Looking for 1 or 2 students to provide in-home companion services for a senior citizen. You would help with simple activities, exercise, and/or neighborhood walks.

Add how to contact you

You have to give the applicants an easy way to get in contact with you about the job. You can choose whether or not you're comfortable puttind your name down. If you're very shy and prefer text, then try a simple solution like this:

Contact us for an interview
Text: 517-555-5555

Design the poster

I won't get deep into the design. You could use Canva or search Google for a part time job poster template/builder.

Print the posters

If you don't have a printer, the local public library usually has paid printing services. For full-page color US Letter Paper prints, expect to pay $1.50-$3.00 per page pretty pricey! UPS Store, FedEx Store, and other hubs at Meijer and Walmart work too.

Hang the posters

This is the tricky part. You're going to have to set foot on campus to find the publicly-accessible poster boards where you'll be able to hang up your caregiver job posters.

Lots of campuses have rules about where the public can post posters, and which parts of campus are closed to the public. Remember to follow the rules.

Interview caregiver candidates

You should be getting calls or text messages from students interested in the job now. You should have a handful of common part-time interview caregiver questions available.

Remember to ask about the essentials:

• Name
• Phone
• Schedule of sessions to work
• Reference or Emergency Contact

Remember to set expectations about the work responsibilities:

• Bathroom protocol
• Food and drink protocol
• House rules (what the caregiver can and cannot do)
• Which ADLs will the caregiver provide?
• Who can the caregiver can call if they need help?
• When and how will the caregiver get paid?

Hire and schedule caregiving session

If you've got a good feeling about a part-time caregiver candidate you've interviewed, then it's time to take the plunge.

To show the new hire around and give them basic training, why not plan to be present on the first session. Not only will you help the caregiver get off on the right foot, but you'll build trust and gain peace of mind.

Maybe by the second or third session, you'll be comfortable enough to take that respite care day trip you've been dreaming of!

Pay caregiver

For a one or two hour session when the caregiver is a student from the local university, I've found that "Pay Right Away" makes everyone the happiest.

The session is complete. The caregiver did their job. And you'd like them to come back again.

Put cash into an envelope at the end of the session, or get that Cash App all the students are using on their phones these days.

You used a poster and text message to make the hiring process easy. Now make payments after each session to keep your caregivers happy.