I am always on the lookout for like-minded professionals who want to share their talents with the home healthcare industry. And recently I met Julio Briones through an online professional network. We scheduled a call and he shared with me how he works with home care agencies to optimize their territories for both business development and recruitment.
I was intrigued and asked him to tell me more. Julio went above and beyond: he wrote a full piece which I am happy to share with you today. I know you will learn something from it.
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If you want better caregiver recruitment results, get to know your territory!
A service area or “Territory” is determined in a few different ways depending on your business model. Most franchises determine theirs by measuring the population within a geographic area or within a predetermined square mileage. Independently owned agencies tend to restrict their service area by town or county. In some states, territories will simply be restricted by the state’s governing body for licensing.
What To Consider for Your Home Healthcare Agency
When we are considering what your territory should be, there are several demographic factors to consider such as median family or household income, age of the population, spoken languages, means of transportation, rental vs. homeownership, etc.
Analyzing and understanding your territory will allow for more effective management of time and resources. By the time your analysis is done, you should be able to answer:
- Where does your target client live?
- How many hospitals are within these areas?
- What support facilities are within the effective range of those hospitals?
- Are there CNA / Nursing schools in the territory?
- Where do caregivers likely live?
Targeted Recruitment for Home Healthcare Agencies
Now that we have a solid grasp of our territory map, let’s consider how we will refine our search to target our recruiting campaigns more effectively.
Based on state licensing data for Home Health Aide (HHA) and Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA), the following profile emerges:
- Average earnings are $27,808 per year, nationally.
- 89% of HHAs and CNAs are female.
- Many professional caregivers work for multiple agencies.
- Range in age from 16 – 65+, with 23% being 45 – 54 y/o.
- Approximately 35% have at least some college education.
- 72% work for agencies that are funded by a government program.
Keeping this in mind, let’s figure out where we are most likely to find success in our recruitment campaigns. We all know that in the private pay space, our clients and caregivers do not generally live in the same neighborhoods. There are several reasons for this, but the primary reason is housing affordability. In addition, caregivers, especially in urban markets, may not have access to private transportation and rely on public transportation. So, how do we target caregivers that will likely be willing to work where our clients live?
- Analyze your territory and identify the hospitals and service providers that support those hospitals. Providers such as Skilled Nursing, Assisted Living Facilities, and Hospice, are places where you seek to build referral partnerships.
- Now look for demographic information for neighborhoods that fit the caregiver profile. Much of this information is available online.
- Look through your list of current applicants or active caregivers and match the zip codes from your demographic findings to those in your records.
- Focus your recruitment efforts on those areas.
Having a focused approach based on the relevant data, specific to your office, will improve your overall results and allow you to spend your time, resources, and money much more efficiently.
About the author – Julio Briones CADDCT, PWF, CBEC, CDP has done most jobs in home care: Recruiter, a Director of Business Development, Corporate Trainer, and Franchise Consultant & Training Systems Developer. He’s bringing this experience to his consulting work. Julio believes that the key to a successful home care business is having the right tools and building the right relationships. To learn more about how he supports home care owners, visit www.thebrionesgroup.com
