A pain-point most home care and care-based service companies struggle with:
Recruitment and Retention. Having enough field staff for coverage and consistency with patient and client care needs (the other side of the coin we address in this article is consistency with hours, which is a major factor in retention).
This starts with first having the right people in the right seats and the right team working on the problem under your leadership.
There is a cost to not filling a client need and a cost to staffing with the wrong person/skill set match. This is easy to overlook outside of crisis situations and putting out fires.
What are the best practices when it comes to consistently capturing and closing more care opportunities, growth and develop long term sustainability?
Here are some simple big picture things to look at and consider, as well as a few simple rules of thumb to help form the backbone of a great recruitment and retention strategy and the Caregiver Centric Culture℠:
• Prioritizing Recruitment and Retention
• Strategically Recruit and Hire Based on Values with Specific Weighted Metrics
• Prioritizing the Relationship and Communication with Staff and Recognition
• Invest in Quality and your Care Staff
Know your Market and be Known in your Market with a Caregiver Centric Culture ℠
Prioritizing recruitment and retention is a proactive mindset that disregards the day to day ups and downs in the business. It is a strategic targeted focal point and doesn’t drift. You want to know your market well and be known in your market niche. MyCNAjobs, which is one of the largest networks of Caregivers, CNAs, and Home Health Aides in the nation and helps recruit and engage care workers states that on average: 22% of caregivers want to work for home care, 29% for private families 18% for assisted living, 24% for hospital, 8 % for skilled nursing.
The percentage that want to work in your environment, fall into three general categories:
1.) The Caregivers who are in it for the right reasons: Experienced, hard-working, employed and deployed for your (and other companies). Usually they are open to opportunities and may be actively or passively looking to pick up extra work. This category of caregiver should be on your main target list. Differentiating your brand in a market with employer distinctions such as a “employer of choice” with a group like Home Care Pulse, can help create an edge in attracting this type of employee.
2.) The Caregivers who are in it for the wrong reasons. There’s no shortage of evidence for this type from: falling asleep on shifts and being on their phones rather than anticipating client needs for example. “How much is your rate?” can be one of their very first questions when you talk to them. You need to be discerning. Implement a value’s-based hiring system (3 tips to hire quality caregivers) These values will permeate your job postings, your interactions, hiring decisions and act as a value differentiator for your service. Knowing who you are to your core values and core target market will help you avoid taking in “warm bodies” to fill shifts or having this type of approach.
3.) The nonprofessional, non-trained, caregiver curious who want to enter the market for the right reasons. These individuals may not have specific professional experience but possess a lot of soft skills and potentially experience with a family member. Have a developed training system that is a healthy combination of classroom, virtual and field training that is relevant, effective, efficient, and focused on your core purpose. You can create an excellent competitive advantage with this in your recruitment and retention strategy.
Give Recruitment and Retention a Number and Accountability to that Number.
In order to strategically recruit, hire based on your values, and retain, you need measurable metrics and accountability. What you do in your organization, from the number of caregivers you project you’ll need, to the time lapse between responding to Caregivers (more than 72 hours is too long, for example), are all part of a healthy weighted metric. It is a data driven system of recruitment and retention that will help your team stay accountable to the ongoing need, help you make the best decisions and investments and build and maintain a focused Caregiver Centric Culture ℠
Developing a pool of caregivers that you have an ongoing interactive relationship with, manage expectations and deploy with readiness
Unless you apply daily energy to these very specific efforts, you’ll be in a reactive vs. pro-active state.
Caregivers are receiving an average of three calls a week for other jobs (myCNAjobs statistic). They have a choice. And Caregivers have an abundance of options and that “97% of reasons on why caregivers change jobs are the hours they receive and the ability to get the schedules and shifts they want”.
Culture of Accountability, not Excuses:
Define a Caregiver Centric Culture ℠ where your recruitment department is accountable and finds opportunity to succeed in any set of circumstances rather than circumstances being the “reasons” why you don’t have enough Caregivers.
Have you heard or said things such as: “All the good caregivers are working”, “we simply can’t pay them enough” “We simply can’t compete with X, Y or Z” , “They’re just so unreliable” There are a few logical fallacies wrapped up with these statements (Appeal to pity, irrelevant conclusion, accidental correlation).
When the economy is great, it takes more effort to recruit employees.
“We not only have a shortage of caregivers; we have a shortage of really – good caregivers.” States Brandi Kurtyka of MyCNAjobs.
This provides a unique opportunity for your value as a service provider and ability to delivery on your core purpose and mission.
Keep your Caregivers Engaged:
Prioritizing the Relationship Side with Communication and Recognition and Improve Retention
Invest in your Care Staff (There is a lot of great things to share on this topic so more look forward to more to come!)
The gap between knowing what to do and integrating change is where we can help you create lasting success! Are you exploring ways to maximize your results with caregiver recruitment and retention, customer interactions and return on marketing investments with your health care business: home care, hospice or assisted living?
Schedule a discovery meeting with Sixth Sense Solutions today. Visit our appointment calendar and schedule here, call us at 949-241-6690, or you can reach our team via email at info@SixSenseSolutions.com