How to Recruit and Retain the Most Nurturing Caregivers

Did you know 77% of home care providers struggle with caregiver shortages? This means they are often unable to offer the quality and consistent care patients need.

With this information in mind, how can home care providers turn things around for the seniors who rely on them the most?

Read on to learn more about how to recruit and retain the best caregiving staff for your home care agency.

How To Recruit Quality Caregivers

When combatting a caregiver shortage, the best thing a home care agency can keep in mind is quality, not quantity.

While it may seem like the best possible option to simply hire anyone who passes a background check, the problem lies in their suitability to the job.

This is where issues of caregiver retainment can crop up. Families Choice Home Care, for instance, have done the legwork in their staff recruitment. If you haven’t, it could all fall apart down the line.

Here are a few fail-proof ways to ensure you hire the best caregivers for your home care establishment:

1. Ensure You Ask the Right Questions

The caregiver interview is a vital part of the process when it comes to employee recruitment.

If you fail to ask the right questions and gauge an in-depth understanding of a candidate’s skill, then the process is set up for disaster.

There are four types of strong, informative questions you should ask in each interview.

Questions About Skill

These questions are simply aimed at understanding if the candidate has the necessary skill to work at your care home.

Make sure to ask them direct questions related to a much-needed level of skill, such as CPR, stroke recognition, caregiver communication.

Hypothetical Questions

A hypothetical question focuses on the future and what a candidate’s plan-of-action would be in a typical home care scenario.

Ask questions about hypothetical situations which may be sensitive or difficult to handle. This will help you to gauge how they’d handle stress or working under pressure.

Behavioral Questions

These types of questions are a great way to understand how a candidate behaved in the past and handled certain situations.

Certain behaviors become a habit over time, and negative habits can be hard to shake. If a candidate behaved in a certain way in a previous position, will they behave the same in a new one?

Behavioral questions are also a good way to understand a little more about their personality and whether they’d be a good fit for your agency.

Direct Questions

Finally, direct questions are important in uncovering the hard facts and nitty-gritty information that you need.

Don’t shy away from asking direct questions about past experience, likes and dislikes, things a candidate is willing and not willing to do etc.

2. Look For Matching Motivations

When interviewing caregiver candidates, make sure they are well aware of your expectations of them. Ensure they understand your motivation and vision behind your care agency.

If you can find a candidate who fully accepts your expectations, is willing to deliver on them and shares your motivation, then you have a winner.

How To Retain Quality Caregivers

The reality is that even if you hire the perfect set of caregivers, the quality of their work life is as equally important as their skillset.

The quality of a work environment relies on employee satisfaction in their position, employee motivation and employee recognition.

To stay on top of your satisfaction management, you need to understand your caregivers and create an environment they can thrive in.

Two of the most effective methods for caregiver retention include employee training and recognition.

1. Create a Caregiver Mentorship

To keep your caregivers around, a mentorship program which makes them feel looked after and cared for is key.

A mentorship program will also inspire your caregivers to be better at their jobs because they know that their success is a top priority. The top 5 benefits of a caregiver mentorship include:

• Creates a positive culture where everyone works together as a team
• Boosts caregiver confidence in their abilities and overall job satisfaction
• Creates a sense of belonging among caregivers, a feeling of unison
• Reduces caregiver turnover in the long-term
• Increases client confidence in your home care establishment

Ultimately, your caregiver mentorship should be focused on providing regular training and boosting employee job satisfaction. An employee that knows how to do their job well feels empowered!

Make sure to assign strong caregiver mentors to your program who are happy and willing to show new recruits the ropes.

2. Offer Recognition and Reward When It’s Due

Most home care agencies are under the impression that a pay raise is the one and only answer to boosting morale. This is simply untrue.

While a pay raise may not always be possible, recognition and reward is far more cost-effective and worthwhile for both agencies and caregivers.

Take the time and make the effort to give credit where its due. Even if this is in the simple form of a written letter or verbal recognition, it can go a long way to bolstering caregiver morale.

You could also create a ”caregiver of the month” initiative where each staff member is praised for their duties on a more public scale.

Simple gifts of recognition such as a small gift hamper, a shopping voucher, or a public post on social media can go a long way!

3. Offer Full Business Transparency

Be open and honest with your caregiver team. They rely on their jobs just as much as you rely on their skills, so business transparency is important.

If you plan on making changes in the direction of the business or adjustments to caregiver rates, it’s important to disclose as much information as you can.

Otherwise, your team may get a whiff of change, and before you know it, everyone is uneasy and looking for new work.

Make business changes in small increments where possible, and always allow for honesty among team members. This will show your employees they are valued within your business!

Run Your Business Like a Boss With Business Blogs Hub

Looking for comprehensive business advice on how to recruit for your business for the long-term?

BusinessBlogs is your one-stop directory for all things recruitment, business tech, marketing, sales, and social media.

Learn more about important communication tools and run your business like a boss!