As a Home Health Care agency owner, you know that having the right quality and quantity of caregivers on your team is key to keeping your business successful. As anyone in this industry knows, turnover can be very high – often leading to decreased satisfaction among both clients and staff. It’s important that you create an environment conducive to hiring and retaining personnel in order for your agency to succeed.

Not only are you looking for trustworthy individuals who will provide quality service to your clients – they must also stay with you long enough to ensure continuity within your agency. To help combat turnover in your agency, it’s essential that you take proactive steps to retain existing caregivers and prevent them from leaving

In this blog post, we’ll provide tips on how to keep caregivers from leaving your business so you can focus on growing your agency.

1. Give caregivers a break every once in a while.

Taking a break is an easy, cost-free way to help boost the morale of your caregivers. So make sure you let them take some much-deserved R&R! A recommended break time is 15 minutes every 3-4 hours. Encourage them to take a walk, call a friend, or eat a snack. This will allow them to have time to rethink or even refuel their bodies with food and water. By taking a break, your caregivers can come back refreshed and able to provide better care – creating an obvious win-win situation. You’ll be happy with their improved focus.

2. Let them know their work is appreciated.

Thank-you notes don’t have to be complicated or expensive – but they can make a big difference. Our previous blogs explored gifts for caregivers, an admirable gesture of appreciation no doubt. But, sometimes just recognizing their efforts with a heartfelt thank you letter goes further than any amount of money could ever do! A simple thank you can go an incredibly long way, with proven boosts in staff morale and better retention rates! Don’t forget: saying ‘thank you’ not only lets workers know that their efforts are noticed but also makes them feel valued and respected. To get started on creating your own heartwarming expression of gratitude, here’s our tried-and-true template:

Dear  

_____,

I wanted to take a moment to thank you for all of your hard work and let you know that it does not go unnoticed. Caregiving can be such a challenging job, but every day you are helping someone and making such a difference in their lives. It’s no small feat we know; it takes patience, resilience, and true dedication! Thank you for all you do. You’re awesome! 

Sincerely, 

___________

3. Provide proper training and support.

Providing proper training and support can be so important for retaining caregivers. There is no worse feeling than showing up to a new job and having no idea what to do. Make sure to have someone patient and kind when teaching your staff, someone who doesn’t mind showing them how to do things. Providing proper training and support could help someone stay with your agency.

4. Offer competitive wages and benefits.

Although this might not be feasible for every agency, having competitive wages or a bonus system might be a great way to handle retention. We know this may be hard for a lot of agency owners because they might not even be getting paid on time themselves, if this sounds like you, you may want to consider using GEOH so you can get paid on time and have more money available to your caregivers.

5. Give your staff a gift.

Sometimes a small gift for your caregivers can go a long way. You may want to consider giving your staff a gift. A cup of coffee from Starbucks, a customized cup with their name on it, and stuffing it with their favorite candy are some of our favorite ideas. Remember the key to this is customization make sure to get their favorite, not yours! Ask for their favorite candy and coffee order in advance so you can be prepared.

6. Respect their time off requests.

We’ve all been working somewhere where we would like a day off and your boss says no, or flat-out schedules you anyway. It’s no fun to miss your child’s baseball game, have to work when you’re sick, or have to stay working a schedule that is not feasible for you. When your workers request time off, honor their request the first time and then send them a note saying I am honoring your time off request for ______ and hope you have a restful day off. This may go a long way when you are competing against agencies that do not honor their time off requests.

7. Communicate well and often as the boss.

Communication is something that can make a workplace frustrating. If you have to change the schedule- send a text. If you make an office change, try sending an email. Just remember that you can’t over-communicate with your staff and they will appreciate your openness.

8. Consider allowing longer lunch breaks.

A longer lunch break can quickly seem like a luxury to someone who does not have a lot of time. Offering a long lunch break could be nice so your caregivers could grab lunch out, or take a moment for themselves, an added bonus would be nice if you could offer them a lunch break paid! This would be a good option for your agency to show appreciation to your caregivers if you could not afford to give them a raise.

The great resignation is something we have all been familiar with as agency owners. More than ever before, Caregivers are quitting their jobs to move into a new field or moving to a new agency. This makes keeping caregivers a huge problem for agency owners.

Most importantly, make sure to let your caregivers know you care. Showing that you appreciate their hard work will go a long way in making them feel like part of the team and make it more likely they will stick around through the good and bad times.

With the right mindset and by taking advantage of all the tools available to you today, you should have no trouble keeping your talented staff around for years to come!