Hi, everybody. Steve the Hurricane here and, on today’s episode of A Drink with The Hurricane, we’re going to go back to a homecare pulse report and we’re going to talk about how to keep caregivers.
When you look at the industry, and you’re an outsider looking in, everybody is aware of the caregiver crisis. Caregiver shortages, caregiver shortages. Can’t get enough caregivers, can’t get enough caregivers, can’t get enough caregivers. And you sleep it. You dream about it. It’s keeping us awake at night. That is the truth. I’ve done so many webinars and I have spoken at so many events on this subject. I even have a whole other division of my company about how I help with retention called Mindful Caring.
The problem is more than the shortages. The bigger issue is keeping the caregivers that we have. When you look at the homecare pulse report, when you look at these numbers, turnover rates, here’s the five-year look-back. Five years ago, it was 50%. Then, 60%, 65%, 66%, 70% now. That means that, if I hire 10 caregivers, a year from now, I’ll have three left. That’s not bad. That’s atrocious. That abysmal. We can’t keep caregivers. So I want to give you some quick tips.
Why do caregivers work for a provider? Why do they choose to stay with a company? Well, it says it right here in the homecare pulse. These are the five reason why a caregiver stays with an employer, or they work for a homecare provider.
1. It was the first job that they applied for
Now, this make sense because hospitals and rehab centers, they don’t hire CNAs, without experience. So they have to get experience. Where’s a great place to get experience?
2. Good Work Environment
And this is where I’m actually going to spend some time talking, because think about it from this perspective. Good working environment. What does that mean? That means steady hours. That means consistent income. They’re getting paid on time. And I’ve been doing this for long enough. I hear a lot of horror stories. I know a lot of homecare companies, maybe not you, specifically, but I know homecare companies that haven’t paid their caregivers because they’re having a hard time making ends meet, and caregivers aren’t getting paid on time.
Many of us out there, this is more people than what I just said, can’t get steady hours. This week, they work 24 hours. Next week, they work 32. The week after, they work 20. We finally give them 40 hours. Then, they lose a client and goes out. Now, they have 36. That inconsistency is not a good work environment. That’s going to get somebody to leave you. So we’ve got to give them steady work.
3. Benefits
I know some people, I actually have one of my clients, huge client, doing more than $5 million a year, started with me at zero a couple of years ago, right? $5 million. A couple of years, they went from zero to $5 million. You know what they did for their caregivers. They bought flat-screen televisions. For Christmas, their holiday gift was a flat-screen television. Talk about benefits and perks of the job, right? They would be with you for a certain time, and now, it’s like, happy holidays, happy new year, here’s a new TV, here’s a new TV. Cost them $300 a TV, whatever, because TVs are relatively cheap now. Look at that. That’s a great benefit of the job. So just throwing thing out there.
I know people who give cell phones to people after a certain amount of time. Give them a professional wardrobe and clothing, you know, uniforms. These are all things that are benefits to the job. Not just benefits like 401k and health insurance. You may offer it. You may not. It may be difficult to do so, I understand. But those are other perks and benefits that help keep caregivers.
4. The company is recommended to them
5. Good Reputation
How do you get a good reputation? By taking care of your people. It’s very important to your retention which leads to the long-term success of your business. And that just makes sense.
If I have a caregiver who is a single mom and her kids have to go to school, well, you can work these hours. When do your kids go on the bus? Oh, they go on a bus at 8:45. So we can have you work from nine to three because your kids get home at 4:30, or 4:00. Great. Whatever it is. Work with your caregivers. Find schedules that fit them, and then, what you really have to do is you have to understand how to sell your clients.
This is all that I do with people. This is why my company is so successful and my clients are so successful. When you have a patient who has a need and you know your caregiver’s availability, you go in and then you sell that patient their need wrapped around when you can provide it for that caregiver and, boom, that’s a match. That’s a fit. That’s the reason why my caregiver retention rate was 66%, 67%. That means that if I hired 10 caregivers, at the end of the year, I had six or seven of them still with me, not the industry average of three right now today.
So there’s so much more on the topic but I just wanted to give you those quick tips because it’s straight from the homecare pulse. That’s what people are doing to keep their caregivers and those are people who have better than industry average retention rate.
If your retention rates are anything less than 50%, you really have to take a look at what’s going on operationally in your organization. Because what’s the point in hiring more caregivers if you can’t keep them. Figure out how to keep your caregivers then recruit more of them.
If you need help with this or anything else, fill out the form or pick up the phone and give us a call. We can then help you find something that fits in your budget so that you can BLOW AWAY THE COMPETITION!
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