The Ultimate Guide to Recruiting and Retaining Caregivers

By caretime

June 18, 2019

Are you having difficulty locating and retaining the staff you need? Employee turnover in-home care is costing companies billions of dollars every year. In an industry where staff members come and go like a revolving door, you must put forth extra effort to attract and retain the right people.

Recruitment Tools

The internet will be your most useful tool. Just as you are searching for staff members, hopeful candidates are searching for you. You must make your open positions easy to find and apply for.

Staffing Websites

Post listings on multiple platforms.

Indeed – you can create a listing for free with some restrictions or sponsor your posting for at least $5 a day.
Glassdoor – post jobs with a free basic account or pay for a wide variety of packages based on your needs
CareerBuilder – offers three packages varying from $219-499/ month
LinkedIn- useful for targeting specific talents, it has a $119.95/ month starting price
myCNAjobs – recently ranked to be the best cost to recruit caregivers, it is $79/ month after a free trial period

Social Media

Use your already existing social media accounts to post for open positions, ask your staff to share the posts if they know anyone fit for the job.

Job Fairs

These are useful for meeting candidates in person right away. Search for local job fairs in your area. Depending on the event, the cost of a booth could outweigh the benefits. Be sure to closely examine not only the fee of the event, but valuable time and resources lost as well.

Your Company Website

Let those visiting your website know of any open positions. A careers page will be helpful for candidates to quickly locate openings. This is a great resource because it is free, you only have to pay someone to maintain it.

Word of Mouth

Current employees and customers can be your biggest advocates. Never underestimate the benefits of positive word of mouth. Chances are that your current caregivers know others with the same career aspirations. If they are happy with your company, they will be more likely to tell their friends that they should apply to work for you too.

Helpful Tips to Retain Your Staff

Lead the Way

Create a teaching atmosphere where any questions can be asked. If you see a mistake occur, take the time to make it a learning opportunity. If further training is needed, make sure they have access to the necessary materials .

Respect Your Staff

Yes, your employees come into work to do just that – work – but you cannot expect them to be perfect all the time. Personal issues can impede on work performance. Allow them to come to you with any issues they may be having. You may be able to provide them with helpful resources or simply give them much needed time off.

Be Flexible

Schedules are difficult to create when you have a long list of staff members who are only available at certain times or days of the week. It is your job to ensure that all shifts are filled. Find the best scheduler for you, in order to take some stress off assigning shifts. Try to be as accurate as you can. When schedules get mixed up, employees get frustrated, and customers may be neglected.

Leverage Efficient Technology

Home care and healthcare companies often use software to streamline activities. If there is a technology that can be used to lessen the work burden on your staff, then consider implementing it. Not only are you saving time by becoming more efficient, you are saving money in staffing and administrative expenses. If you are using a software created in the late 90s or early 2000s then you are not being as proficient as possible. Look into new software that have features you could only dream of before.

Offer Extra Benefits

Your employees want to feel valued. Go beyond medical coverage and sick days. Look into offering financial rewards to exemplary employees such as stock options and 401K matching. Allow for paid time off so your employees can relax for a week or two without worrying about the impact of loss of pay. Ask your employees what kind of benefits they would like to receive. You may be surprised by some simple (and low cost) suggestions.

CareTime – Helping You Help Others

While CareTime may not help you recruit home care staff, it can help you retain them. If you recall, a great way to keep your staff is by leveraging technology. With CareTime, caregivers can record and document visits with ease.

You can set up questions required upon clock out to ensure care plan tasks, ADLs, etc. were completed.

Example Clock Out Question

You will no longer need schedulers who spend all of their days calling, writing down availabilities, and filling shifts. Cut hours out of the process by using our schedule manager.

Schedule Manager

Remind your staff that you are thinking of them by using CareTime’s Agency and Caregiver Communicator. Send out SMS messages (can be texts or emails) of inspirational quotes or get them excited by informing your staff of a gift card contest you are running.

Agency and Caregiver Communicator

Organize your candidates and enter them in your system so they can get to work sooner. You can create a candidate “zone” where all your future employees may be stored. This way their name, birthday, location, cell phone number, certifications, position, and skill level can be found in one place. If you choose to hire them, you can easily switch them into a different zone, saving you the time of entering them again.

Candidate Zone