crooton and Barchester Healthcare: Shaping the future of care together

As one of the UK’s leading care providers, Barchester Healthcare is recognised for delivering high‑quality, person‑centred care across its homes and hospitals. The organisation is opening new, purpose‑built care homes each year, expanding its ability to support more communities with modern, thoughtfully designed environments.

At the heart of Barchester is a commitment to making a genuine difference every day. The team is driven by compassion, professionalism, and a shared belief in providing exceptional care for residents, patients, and their families. 

Kristy McGrory, Barchester’s Recruitment Marketing Manager said: “A career with Barchester offers purpose, progression, and the chance to be part of an organisation shaping the future of care in the UK.”

Barchester’s partnership with crooton began in 2021 when they worked together on a trial role to see whether crooton’s unique approach to recruitment marketing suited the healthcare leader.  

“As with any healthcare provider, we are always looking for ways to find quality candidates for niche roles or more challenging areas. crooton provided an opportunity to support awareness on a local level and increase exposure through digital media and other methods” said Kristy. 

The trial soon blossomed into multiple campaigns and years later, the partnership is stronger than ever. "crooton is a partner who we feel understands what we were trying to achieve," says Kristy. "They took the time to listen and build relationships with our team, and over time this went from strength to strength."

As the partnership matured, the strategy became a blend of high-tech location-based marketing and crooton’s fully managed recruitment service. 

crooton uses location-based marketing techniques to support Barchester’s new home openings, serving well-timed digital ads to passive candidates who were likely to be interested in a career at Barchester. This was supported by offline marketing in some key areas, to reinforce the core messages. 

While this drove awareness, crooton’s team of recruiters got to work in sourcing and screening candidates for those harder to fill roles. 

Fast forward a few years and the partnership remains strong. crooton supports Barchester in recruiting numerous roles, from care teams to managers and even chefs and maintenance roles. 

Beyond the numbers, the impact was felt in the confidence of the Barchester team. “crooton took the time to understand our needs, the sector and the challenges that come with that. We always put the experience of our residents first and for that reason it’s crucial to align the quality of candidates to any role. Over time and due to the duration we have worked together, there is a firm understanding and collaborative approach to meet our requirements. The delivery has continued to get better and better and the opportunity to set up marketing campaigns or sourcing support is met with a responsive and dedicated approach time and time again.” 

“crooton gives us confidence that our roles are marketed in a way that attracts quality candidates. They help us to be proactive and to use new initiatives to highlight Barchester as a great place to work.” Concluded Kristy.