Recruiting and retention are among the most challenging aspects of home-based care operations, particularly in the wake of COVID-19. According to industry research, employee churn increased significantly as a result of the pandemic and continues to present serious operational challenges.
As a result, providers are working hard to get their teams back to pre-pandemic strength, and they are turning to technology for recruiting, retention and training solutions that align with their goals.
Navigating a Tumultuous Staffing Landscape
According to an annual outlook report released in February 2022 by Home Health Care News, 80% of respondents cited staffing as their greatest non-Covid-related challenge in 2022, with recruiting (57%) and retention (32%) as their primary concerns. In such a turbulent hiring environment, employers must be quick to source talent and move applicants through the recruiting pipeline, but they also need a way to provide ongoing value.
Many providers are offering incentives to accelerate the hiring and onboarding processes, but the modern job prospect has additional criteria. Professional development and cultural alignment are among the top priorities of caregivers seeking employment today, and implementing an intuitive, comprehensive training platform makes it easier for providers to connect with those candidates on the needs they value most.
“We’ve had conversations with direct care workers in the past month about the values that are most important to them in the recruiting and retention process,” says Jessica Jones, outcomes manager at CareAcademy, an online caregiver training platform with training specifically geared toward home-based care agencies. “They spoke a lot about the importance of a professional work culture and employer recognition.”
From a recruitment standpoint, caregiver sentiment underscores that desire, with 94% of them saying access to further education is an important consideration in accepting a job offer, according to a 2021 survey of 1,500 caregivers conducted by CareAcademy.
From a retention perspective, the same is true: 88% of caregivers in the survey said they would feel more satisfied at their job if given opportunities to improve their skills through further education and training.
Beyond the operational benefits of a tech-based training and education platform, it is a symbol of dedication to professional development, and it can help providers establish a culture in which caregivers feel valued and accommodated. As such, training technology is a powerful recruiting and retention tool that depicts the depth of value, understanding, and investment a provider has with respect to its caregivers.
Additionally, the ability to provide a mobile-first web application with automated text and email training reminders, saving administrators hours of time each week, as well as other functionalities, is extremely valuable as providers expand their operations and aim to scale their recruitment and onboarding processes. The 2021 Home Care Employee Retention Survey Report showed that 71% of participants plan to pursue at-home care models for the first time in 2022, and it is imperative to have a training platform that can grow with the organization as it moves into uncharted territory, both from an infrastructure and staffing perspective.
Onboarding Technology With Measurable ROI
Adopting a tech-enabled training and education platform allows providers to meet caregivers where they are and empower them to develop the skills and insight they need to succeed in the field. At scale, this technology makes it easier to bring new direct care workers into the equation across different sites and timelines by eliminating the need for on-site training, directly impacting the bottom line.
“We are reducing onboarding time by 60%,” says Helen Adeosun, founder and CEO of CareAcademy. “Our customers’ caregivers have direct access to onboarding tools and resources any time, anywhere, vastly reducing friction in the process and empowering providers to scale their teams more efficiently.”
Technology can also provide significant insight for organizations with multiple sites or franchise operators, enabling them to approach scale through consistent data.
“Specifically, with private duty home care and franchise networks, you have very little data insights that are traveling across the organization or may be fed to the top,” Adeosun says. “I think that’s the biggest concern of a lot of leadership in some of the largest private duty home care companies right now: ‘How do I understand across multiple locations in multiple states, what is happening within the organization, where any given location is currently at?’ In many instances, CareAcademy is providing the opportunity at a glance, to be able to see across networks, which is absolutely critical.”
CareAcademy is also innovating its approach to continuing education in order to bring the value-add full circle. By recognizing the circumstantial nature of home-based care and the need for situational learning on the fly, the platform offers a robust, continuously growing training video library at caregivers’ fingertips. This enables caregivers to access condition-specific content in the moment, potentially reducing the number of adverse health events and eliminating the need for additional assistance. In essence, the training allows caregivers to spend their time doing what they do best: providing care.
This article is sponsored by CareAcademy. From compliance training to condition-based certification and more, CareAcademy is redefining the connection between quality training and quality care so providers can focus on growth and scale. To learn more about how providers are working with CareAcademy to scale recruiting and retention to increase the bottom line, visit careacademy.com.
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