Care home provider Belong has created more than 100 new jobs during lockdown.
The company - which has seven care villages in North Staffordshire, Cheshire and Greater Manchester - launched a recruitment drive in April to help it meet the increasing demand for its services during the pandemic.
Now a total of 130 roles have been created at the dementia specialist - including nurses, support workers, housekeepers and hospitality staff - at villages in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Crewe, Atherton, Didsbury, Macclesfield, Warrington and Wigan.
Mel Saywell, project manager at Belong, who headed-up the campaign, said: "The current crisis has really increased people's awareness of the vital role of care workers in our society and we were pleased to receive a large volume of applications.
"We have a very personal approach to recruiting and when engaging with applicants, the overwhelming response was that people just want to help, it's very heartening.
"The use of technology has supported us in evaluating applicants quickly to identify those who share our values, and reduced the administration time needed to process paperwork. For example, the flexibility offered by video call interviews meant more could be held outside office hours, which is convenient to shift workers."
Mel added: "By fulfilling our recruitment needs, we have returned to less reliance on agency staff, with permanent colleagues guaranteeing continuity of care, which is particularly vital at this critical time and when working with those who have dementia.
"Amongst the new appointments, we've created a new recruitment officer post to continue this important work and help attract more high-calibre candidates as the organisation expands to serve new communities. We look forward to welcoming new members of the team and helping them realise their career aspirations with us."
The successful recruitment drive follows the news that construction work on two new Belong villages in Birkdale and Chester has recommenced, which will create more than 200 jobs when they open in 2021.
