The biggest challenge most home care agencies face is getting Caregivers. Especially now during these times. In this week’s Drink With “The Hurricane” Steve will discuss wages and what you should be charging in order to retain them
Hi folks, Steve “The Hurricane” here, and for today’s episode of, ‘A Drink With “The Hurricane.”‘ We’re gonna be talking about recruitment and retention in 2022. So, raise your glass and let’s toast to your success. Cheers. All right, folks, so. You know, this is our third episode under the new business entity. We’re no longer “Home Care Marketing” by Hurricane Marketing Enterprises. We are now “Home Care Evolution.” We help home care business owners adapt to changing circumstances, transform their business so that they can thrive in the brave new world.
So with that said, the focus of today’s episode is gonna be on recruitment and retention, which is one of the five areas of expertise that we bring, we help home care businesses scale and grow, recruitment and retention it’s no secret. This is the biggest challenge facing the home care industry right now today. As a matter of fact, when you look straight across all industries at the entry level position, in hospitality, in restaurants, in warehouses, supermarkets, you name it, entry level positions are at an all time low. It is hard to get workers right now. It’s hard to get people to come back to work after COVID. It is hard to get people to enter the workforce at the low wages we’ve been paying people. And that is the key aspect of what I’m talking about right here.
The low wages we are paying people right now. And I know where this comes from. I know that every single client that I’ve ever spoken to about increasing their rates to compensate their caregivers more always was resistant at first. Why were they resistant at first? Because they’re thinking about their patients. They’re thinking about the seniors coming in. And I understand that. That’s why the first video I made under the new “Home Care Evolution” umbrella was about finding the target customer. Because when you find the target customer that will allow you to charge what you need to charge, to be able to compensate caregivers for the wages that I’m gonna be real with you, the good caregivers, they deserve these better wages, they really do. At the end of the day.
When you look at what Amazon is doing, when you look at what Walmart is doing, when you look at what these other giant multi-billion almost trillion dollar a year businesses are doing their starting wages at $15 an hour, heck, the Chick-fil-A around the corner from where my office is located. They’re starting people at 18, $19 an hour. I drove down the road by a CCRC, a continuous care retirement community, in my town of Manalapan, New Jersey, and when I drove by, they had a sign out front saying CNAs for higher starting wages, 19 to $20 an hour, 19 to $20 an hour, that is what here I am in New Jersey, that is what nursing homes, assisted living communities and everybody else who needs CNAs are looking for.
So, in order for us to be able to get caregivers, we have to compensate at the same point, which means we have to raise our rates. Now I’ll talk about raising rates. I’ll talk about sales and marketing and being having a strong closing process and having a strong inquiry managing process, because that’s all part of how you have the right rates so you can pay this. But with this rate, what are we doing with it? Are you attracting? Like, I’m not just gonna tell you to pay somebody that much money, because that’s what they’re asking for? No, when you pay somebody this kind of money, this now helps you to attract the cream of the crop.
This helps you to be able to attract the people who would be working at a hospital, would be working at an assisted living, would be working at a nursing home and get them to work for your agency. But with that, you’re gonna be now re-empowered on interviewing because something that every single home care business owner has told you before they started compensating this way, before they started increasing their rates the way that I’m talking about and discussing here, they all talk about how, when they interview caregivers, caregivers, they’re in such a demand that they don’t have any ability to really interview that caregiver, meaning? It’s like, will you work here? Will you show up on time? Will you, like you’re basically begging caregivers to work for you. And that’s not how it should be. When you’re compensating at this higher level. Now all of a sudden you get to actually interview a caregiver, and then when they ask you a question, “What are the hours?” Well, if you get the job, you have the control again, right? Or if you make it through orientation and we decide to assign you to a client, you will get X, Y, and Z.
The power of being the employer is now granted back to you because you’re offering a wage. Then none of your competitors are offering, which means that all the caregivers are gonna want to work for you. Which means that now when all the caregivers are coming to you, you get to be selective in who you hire and who actually works for you. Which mean you gonna be able to hire the people who will show up on the case. You’re gonna be able to hire the people with experience, not brand new, right out of school. You don’t want people brand new out of school. You want people who have experience. They’re the ones that deserve this compensation. And when you hire them, then you can give them those target customers that I’ve been talking about for weeks.
The N.E.R.D customer, who has the great need, elderly, resources and they’re disabled, because the caregiver at the higher compensation rate has the experience and knows how to take care of that patient. Trust me, folks, I’ve been doing this for over a decade. I’ve helped my clients generate more than a billion dollars in revenue during this last 10 years of my life. This works and I know it can be done and it’ll help with your recruitment effort. Another tip I’m gonna throw out there to you is creating a career path for those caregivers. So, it’s not just attracting them to come in, but what’s gonna make them want to work for you and stay working for you is if you have a career path of development, where somebody comes in as a caregiver, and then they can advance to maybe becoming a field supervisor. What I call a care coordinator, who’s managing caregivers or maybe even before that, a mentor, you bring a new caregiver in, and then this person’s gonna be part of the training process for three-to-six months, to help that new caregiver get developed. Then after that they become a care coordinator. Then after that they can become a recruiter. After that they can become a scheduler. I’ve even seen people take caregivers and turn them into marketing representatives or even executive directors and scale and grow the business to multiple offices.
Something I’ll talk about in another ‘Drink With “The Hurricane”‘ to come and I’ll talk about the finances and multiple revenue streams. But by creating this career path, what you’re doing is you’re basically talking to a caregiver coming in as part of your orientation, that if you work here, you don’t have to be a caregiver for your entire time. You have to show up on time. You have to do good work. Put in your due diligence. And over years you can evolve and develop and grow with us if you decide to do so, prove your worth then get advancement and move up in life. People want that, caregivers don’t make a lot of money, but the opportunity to advance and grow their career is how you’re going to attract the cream of the crop. So, I just laid out a whole recruitment plan here for you. If you need help with how to do all of this, pick up the phone give us a call, come to one of our events. I do conferences. I do workshop days now. “Home Care Evolution” adapt, transform, thrive, so that you can blow away the competition.