Just Remember SMTP
Quality in-home caregivers are critical to assuring success for your Homecare agency, but low unemployment in the US has created competition for good caregivers among Homecare agencies that have led to very high levels of employee turnover. High turnover makes it difficult for you to staff your organization with high-quality people that possess the correct skills. Many agencies are averaging 80% caregiver turnover based on a survey of agency data. High turnover is very expensive for you due to the costs to train new employees as well as recruiting and hiring to replace those who have left. The cost of recruiting, hiring and training new employees “is probably 5 times higher than the cost of retaining employees” per the Executive Director of one US Homecare organization with more than 200 locations.
The bottom line, Homecare agencies need to find good caregivers and they need to keep them. This is easier said than done, but you can lead the pack if you just remember SMTP: Screening, Matching, Training, and Perks.
TO IMPROVE YOUR RETENTION, YOU HAVE TO START IN THE BEGINNING
Finding, hiring, and retaining good employees is a process that starts with effective screening (S) and matching (M) of personality traits and skills of the potential employee with the job. Developing and applying tools to assess potential employees takes more time and effort, but it will help you assure that your retention is better in the long term. Personality traits and skills gathered at the beginning will also help you better match new caregivers with patients and lead to better patient and caregiver satisfaction.
FREQUENT TRAINING FOR BETTER CAREGIVER ENGAGEMENT AND SATISFACTION
It is well known that training (T) is important to make sure your team is providing a high quality of care, but frequent training is also important to keep caregivers confident, satisfied and engaged. A well-designed and executed training plan clearly indicates your commitment to your caregivers and helps you increase your caregiver retention as well as generating greater caregiver and patient satisfaction.
THE FINAL PIECE: RECOGNIZE AND REWARD CAREGIVERS
Incentives or perks (P) are the final pillars of this strategy to find and keep good caregivers. Earning recognition is important to everyone and when teamed with earned incentives/perks can tremendously improve satisfaction among your caregivers and that leads to greater retention too. Keep in mind that many of these perks are not expensive but are very effective.
REMEMBER SMTP: SCREENING, MATCHING, TRAINING, AND PERKS TO IMPROVE YOUR CAREGIVER RETENTION
To find out how SmartCare™ software and support can help you retain your caregivers, please contact us at 1+ (800) 450-9104, email: hello@smartcaresoftware.com or visit us at our headquarters:312 S Barstow St Ste. 2, Eau Claire, WI 54701