Steve “The Hurricane” here, and for today’s episode of “A Drink with The Hurricane”, we are going to talk about how you can get more caregivers without raising your rate of compensation. So raise your glass, and let’s toast to your success. Cheers!

This is “A Drink with The Hurricane”, the talk show discussing all things growing your home care business. This video is sponsored by Home Care Evolution, where we help home care agencies adapt to changing circumstances, transform their business so that they can thrive for years to come.

So here we are. We’re talking about getting more caregivers without increasing the compensation. And I know that ultimately there’s nothing that’s going to help you to get more caregivers like being able to pay your caregivers more than what they’re making somewhere else. That is the best way to do it. I just want to make sure you understand that, because for every dollar an hour you pay, it becomes less likely you’re going to lose a caregiver and it’ll be easier to get them. The statistics show it again and again and again. So pay your caregivers.

However, a lot of agencies aren’t able to pay their caregivers enough because they don’t feel confident enough in raising your rates. Now, why do people not want to raise their rates? Because they don’t have strong closing processes. A lot of people rely on having a low rate as the reason that they’re able to get people to sign up for services. I don’t recommend any of that stuff. As a matter of fact, if you want help on being able to increase your rates, you should be reading the magazine. You should be going to my website, homecareevolution.com/magazine. Get the magazine for free! You can sign up for services. We’ll help you with it.

But I understand not being able to raise your rates. I really, really do, because you got to know how to sell in order to raise your rates. You got to have an abundance of referrals in order to raise your rates. So here’s the ultimate way. It’s really just one way that we can increase the referrals and ability to attract and hire more caregivers.

And it comes down to simple, what is my company culture? And I’m going to ask my videographer here, my cameraman, my producer, John, who’s behind the camera right now, real time. He has no idea what I’m going to ask him, all right? And this is a question I’m going to ask him and you. If you were to walk into Burger King and buy food at Burger King and walk into Chick-fil-A and get some food at Chick-fil-A, which place are you going to have a better experience, from a customer service standpoint? Burger King or Chick-fil-A?

Chick-fil-A.

Chick-fil-A! And why is that? It’s because Chick-fil-A, their workers are better trained, and they’re happier, and they give you a better customer experience. Now, here’s the real funny part about this, because we talked about this in Elite Academy meeting recently. We were talking about culture and we were talking about core values, and mission statement, and everything else. And I said to them this exact question. They all said, “Oh, Chick-fil-A. It’s definitely better.” Does Chick-fil-A pay more than Burger King? No. It’s the same exact income. It is the same skill set employee.

But you know you walk into a Burger King, you’re going to get somebody that greets you, they’re going to make you the food, and that’s it. You go to Chick-fil-A and it’s an experience. You could pull up at that drive through and there’s 75 cars in front of you, and then you get your order taken. You get your food faster than you would if you went to Burger King and there was two cars in front of you. How does that happen? It’s because of the company culture, the training, the onboarding, the systems that they’ve put in place.

So how can I become the Chick-fil-A of home care agencies when it comes to recruiting caregivers? And that is through my company’s mission statement and my company’s core values. And I’m going to again reference this same board meeting I had with the Elite Academy a couple of weeks ago because when we were talking about this, one of the members actually said, “Steve, this is great, but I never had a caregiver once say to me, ‘What is my company’s mission statement? What is my company’s core values?'” And I said, “All right, I’m going to answer that question. Let me give you an example.” And one of the people who work for me at Home Care Evolution was in the room. And I said, “Kelly, what are one of our company’s core values?” And then Kelly said, “Less is more.” Right. Don’t over complicate things. Make sure that we do what we do best, and we’re masters of it and don’t make it too complicated for anybody who is with us.

That’s our number four core value. I said, “Kelly, what’s another one of our core values?” She goes, “Don’t complain, improve.” And I said, “Right. When bad things happen, don’t complain about it. Figure out a way to improve it so that we never have to deal with that again.” Don’t complain, improve. That’s our number seven core value. I said, “Kelly, what’s another one of our core values?” And Kelly said, “Excel at communication.” I said, “Right. When we have good communication internally and to our client, that will lead to a greater overall client experience and a better work environment.” That’s our number five core value. And then I went to another employee, Nicole, who was in the room, and I said, “Nicole, what is our company mission statement at Home Care Evolution?” And she says, “We exist to help service providers find those in need of care. Our ultimate goal is to help these service providers increase their census, revenue, and profits.” And I said, “Right, because that is why we are in business and that is what we do for our clients.”

And then the client who was in the room who heard it says, “I completely understand it. It’s more than just having a mission statement for your company. It is more than just having core values for your organization.” Do your employees, all of your office staff, all of your caregivers, even you yourself as the owner of the company, do you or do you not know and run your business by your company’s mission statement and core values? I can guarantee right now, if I asked you, “What is your company’s mission statement?” The vast majority of you will have to look it up. Most of you do not memorize it. That’s a problem. And if you were to ask your staff, “What’s your company’s mission statement?” I guarantee they’re not going to know it off the top of their head.

What are your company’s core values? Do you even have core values? Because I guarantee you walk into that Chick-fil-A, they’ve got core values, and their employees know it because they’re living it every single time they show up on a shift. So here’s what you got to do if you don’t have core values, if you don’t have a mission statement. You got to create a mission statement. The best way to create a mission statement is make it a team environment, because it’s not just your company. Yes, it’s your company, but your office staff are a part of your company if you have an office staff.

Basically what I recommend doing is look up Fortune 500 companies and find out what are their mission statements. Get a list of about 50 or 60 mission statements from those Fortune 500 companies and give them to your staff. Have them spend a week, not a full week, all day, every day, but over the course of five days, or seven days. Say it’s Monday. By next Monday, I want you to come back and I want you to draft up a mission statement. I want you to look at these 50 here, get a sense for what their company does and what’s their mission statement, and then look at what we do and what do you think our mission statement is after looking at the two? And come up with a one sentence statement as to what is our purpose here at our company?

And then when you get it, what’s going to happen is if you have three or four staff members, they’re going to end up having similar missions, because you’re all doing it. And then you piece together what they said with what you said, and then you come up with a company mission statement.

A week after that, do the same thing for core values. Select about 200 core values, again, from Fortune 500 companies. These companies that have been around for decades, some of them for centuries, like Palmolive, Colgate, and Clorox, and Bayer Aspirin. These are companies that have been around for well over a hundred years. So they are not only Fortune 500 companies, but they also have core values and mission statements, which is why they are successful and they’ve been around for as long as they have.

Select their core values, come up with a list of 200, give it to your staff, have them review it and think about it over the course of seven days, and have them pick three or four each that really resonated with them in its fulfillment of the mission statement that you’ve created the week before. The following Monday, you collect those three or four each, look at them. Guarantee, once again, you’re going to have a lot of overlap. And then you pick the seven to 10 plus your own that you feel are the best.

Now, how do you create this culture? How do you get to a point where like I have with my staff, they know the mission statement, they know the core values? You have to make it part of your every single day life. When it comes time to having your weekly team meeting, you should have every single person each week kick off the meeting. And when they kick off the meeting, they read the mission statement out loud at the start of the meeting and then they should pick one core value, which will be your company’s core value of the week. They read the core value, and then they can even go further with it by giving an example as to why they chose this core value that they themselves saw or used in the last seven days.

Because what happens is when you start to do this regularly, and it takes months and it takes years to create a culture, but when they start doing this in and week out, then all of a sudden your people are thinking, all right, I’m next week. I have to lead the meeting. I have to recite the mission statement. I have to pick a core value. So now I’m going to be thinking all week long about when did I use one of our core values in a situation that I’m going to bring up at the Monday meeting? It’s only going to take three or four minutes to go through it, but that is how your people will start to lean on your company’s core values as to how they’re doing everything that they’re doing and why they’re doing everything, even when it comes to decisions.

You may have a decision. There have been times in my company, Home Care Evolution, Hurricane Marketing Enterprises, there have been times over the last 10 years and longer in business where I had to make a difficult decision and I’m like, I don’t know how to figure this out. And then I say, “What are my core values?” And you know what? This one right here, my number one core value at my company is integrity. Integrity to us at our company means doing what is best and right for our customer, even if it’s not in the best interest of the company.

So there have been times when I’ve decided to refund a customer, or times that I’ve decided to give somebody something for free based on their experience, based on what is the best thing for my customer. There have also been times when I’ve told people they should sell their agency and get out of home care because it’s not the business for them to be in. And I lose the customer. Even though it hurts my company, it is the best thing for the customer. And as long as I’m doing right by my customer, I will always have an abundance of customers. That’s integrity. That’s what integrity means to me.

Doing these videos for you to help you grow your business so that you can have a better experience. And then when you have a better experience running your business, your patient benefits from it, your caregivers benefit from it, that’s integrity. That’s why I do everything that I do. And that is displayed in all facets of my business, from me to my office staff, to my coaches, and it filters through into all of my clients. And the same thing will happen for you when you do this. You will become the Chick-fil-A of the home care agencies in your area, and that is how you can attract caregivers to work for you without increasing the rate of compensation.

People, yeah, they want money, but caregivers know they’re not going to make $100,000 a year as a caregiver. It’s a low-level salary job, right? It’s a low paying hourly wage. They got the experience. They could work anywhere. Why should they work for you? Because it’s a good working environment. Create the culture that attracts excellence! Mission statement, core values, that’s how you attract caregivers.

Now, my friends, if you haven’t downloaded the magazine, if you haven’t been to my website, if you want help with this or anything else on a more professional, deeper understanding so you can really dominate your marketplace, go to my website homecareevolution.com because you know I’m going to give you everything you need to “Blow Away The Competition!”