Home Care Growth Kit: Recruiting + Retaining = Growth
" Small home care agencies believe that they are small because they can't get client referrals. Big agencies KNOW that they're big because they can recruit and retain caregivers ."
The top challenge in home care is having the staff to fill cases. The agencies who can take the phone call, meet the prospect today, and staff the case tomorrow are growing astronomically. The agencies who think they can suggest a home visit next week and then take two weeks to recruit a caregiver are being left in the dust.
With all that in mind, today's focus in the home care growth kit is recruiting and retention.
How to Attract More Caregivers
Below we provide a curated collection of some of the best advice we've found from industry leaders on the topic of caregiver recruiting and retention:
From Home Care HR Expert Anne-Lise Gere:
Home Care HR Expert Anne-Lise Gere offers Six Strategies to Improve Recruiting and Retention .
The top strategies are as follows:
- Emphasize your Caregiver Satisfaction Ratings
- Benchmark and Offer Competitive Wages
- Provide Mentoring to Cut Down On Early Turnover
- Promote Your Unique Culture
- Provide Career Development (not just a job)
- Your Office Staff Matters more than ever!
We recently chatted with Anne-Lise on the Home Care Heroes Podcast.

From Home Care Growth Expert Steve "the Hurricane" Weiss
Here's a great video from Steve the Hurricane on "How to Attract Caregivers.":
From Home Care Marketing Expert Jason Chagnon
Since the Internet is the first place that everyone searches for everything, check out this article from home care website expert, Jason Chagnon, at Providential Marketing. He offers 10 Creative Suggestions in this article , including SnapChat, Reverse Career Fairs, Leveraging Holidays and Current Events, and asking your caregivers how they found you.
From Home Care Expert Ginny Kenyon
Ginny Kenyon reminds us that many caregivers entering the marketplace today are Millennials or from "Generation Z" and that they have a different mindset when searching for fulfillment in their lives. You might enjoy her article about recruiting tips for Generation Z.
How to Ask Great Caregiver Interview Questions
Home Care Pulse has a two article series where they give advice on interview questions. The first article suggests that you should ask four types of questions , as follows:
- Past Experiences
- Behavioral Questions
- Hypothetical Questions
- Skills Questions
But then an expanded article adds a 5th category which might be the most important one. They call it "Questions to Help You Understand Their Needs as an Employee." Don't be intimidated, but this second article gives you 65 questions to choose from .
How to Provide Excellent Caregiver Training
In a home care business, your caregivers are your product, and caregiver education is a key way to develop a high quality product. Caregiver education is also a key ingredient in your caregiver education program. Home Care Pulse shared an article entitled
The
Top 10 Topics You Should be Training Your Caregivers On
.
Please read the
full article
for all of the detailed insights that are shared, but here's the top 10 list:
- Housekeeping
- Transportation safety
- Preventing pressure ulcers
- Recognizing Abnormal observations
- Caring for clients with mental illness
- Caring for someone after a stroke
- Preventing readmissions
- Helping someone with COPD
- Helping someone after a heart attack
- Common medications
How to Safeguard Against Attrition in the First 90 Days
In the article , Overcoming the Biggest Obstacle to Growing Your Home Care Business , Home Care Pulse focuses in on improving your 90 day retention rate. Sadly, caregiver turnover averages over 60% per year and when caregivers leave in the first 90 days, your costs to recruit and train the caregiver will never be recuperated.
Note that the biggest reason that caregivers leave is that they don't get assigned enough hours, or they lose their case and don't get reassigned quickly enough. The top 3 suggestions are as follows:
- Hire the right caregivers in the first place
- Keep new caregivers working the hours they want, and
- Stay in touch with your caregivers, always making sure that they are valued and appreciated
Here's anothe r link to the full article.
How to Continue to Learn Home Care Best Practices
Stephen Tweed is one of the preeminent consultants in the home care industry. Stephen joined the Home Care Heroes podcast and shared the foundations of a Caregiver Quality Assurance Program, and the value of growing and learning in Mastermind Groups. Here's a link to the episode .
Recruiting and Retention Training Suggestions
There's a very robust recruiting and retention course called Momentum that is taught by Home Care Results expert Steve "the Hurricane" Weiss and Home Care HR Expert Anne-List Gere. Plus, we're able to give you a $1,000 discount on that program. Be sure to use code "ANKOTA1000" for the discount. Click here to learn more.
Additionally, Valerie VanBooven from Approved Senior Network was kind enough to offer a 4 part online training course on recruiting and retention that you can access by clicking here:
Home Care Recruiting Ideas for When You've Tried Everything Else
We're sure that you've found numerous valuable ideas in this installment of the home care growth kit, but as an added bonus, here are some further guides and resources for you:
From Home Care Pulse: How to Recruit & Retain Caregivers When You’ve Already Tried Everything.
From Providentia Marketing: The Ultimate Guide to Caregiver Recruiting
Thanks for reading this article and jumpstarting your agency's growth journey. For a quick and shameless plug, Ankota wants to be your home care software provider. We consider home care professionals to be heroes, and our mission is to take care of the home care tech so you can focus on the "hero stuff" like providing great care, recruiting and retaining great caregivers and growing your business. If you'd like to connect, please click here.
Ankota is the Software for the Heroes of Home Care. We truly embrace the notion that caregivers and home care companies are heroes. Our top priorities simplicity, caregiver retention and outstanding service. Visit us at https://www.ankota.com.
Kenyon Homecare Consulting can help you with all of your agency's needs. Whether you need assistance with your start-up, recruitment and retention, clinical or operational issues, regulatory compliance, or financial concerns, we can help. Call us today at 206-721-5091 or contact us online to see how we can help you reach your goals.
Kenyon Homecare Consulting reposted this article with permission of Jed Hammel who authored it and originally posted it to the Ankota Blog.
Results Based Consulting
Did you find value in this blog post? Imagine what we can do for your home care or hospice agency. Fill out the form below to see how we're leading the industry with innovation, affordability, and experience.
Contact Us
