If you are spending a lot of time and money recruiting and still not having enough caregivers to staff new cases, you probably have a retention problem. Recruiting caregivers feel like filing up a barrel with a hole. You can never fill it fast enough to get a full barrel. Most home care companies need to recruit 5 or more caregivers every week. At least half of this is simply to staff existing cases where caregivers leave.
Agencies Are Implementing Mentoring Programs
Antionette, a field nurse supervisor, heard me speak in Virginia a couple of years ago and shared an enthusiastic testimonial. She told the audience how her agency has a mentoring program in place and how it helped caregivers stay for the long run with her agency.
A similar situation happened again at the New York State conference last October. Bader Reynolds of Homemakers’ Experience provided a spontaneous endorsement from the audience for caregiver mentoring. Her agency has had a mentoring program for 7 years and they credit it for lowering staff turnover.
The business of home care is caring for seniors in their home. Why not try a similar approach with our employees? Let’s build a resilient workforce by showing care and providing support to direct care workers.
The Staggering Costs of Caregiver Turnover
Every time a caregiver leaves, it’s a lost investment. You lose the time spent interviewing and on-boarding. Your staff has to spend more time and money advertising and screening candidates. It’s demoralizing for the staff to see a revolving door or caregivers. It creates a culture of chaos and instability.
Caregiver turnover has a definite impact on client satisfaction. How many clients like having a new caregiver in their home every 3 months? None.
Turnover reflects poorly on your agency and impacts your business in very real terms. A quick estimate puts the costs of turnover at $3,000 per caregiver who leave in the first year. This is a staggering cost to your business.
To avoid turnover, you need to work on caregiver retention.
When you think you cannot afford to create programs and benefits to retain your employees, think again. You cannot afford to stay idle in the face to the rising tide… unless you want to drown. Invest in the future of your agency with a mentoring program.
Learn how to implement a caregiver mentoring program for your agency. Join us on February 12 at 1pm ET / Noon CT/ 11am MT/ 10am PT for our webinar “Save real $$ in home care. Start caregiver mentoring”
