How To Encourage Long-Term Caregiver Retention: Home Care Heroes Podcast With Ankota Part 4

It is one thing to attract and hire caregivers, but retaining them is just as important. Today, we're talking about how to encourage long term retention.

Be prepared to learn some actionable step that you can start doing right away that doesn't require a lot of time or effort.  

FREE Training: Social Media Success - Click Here

Featured: Home Care Heroes Podcast With Ken Accardi, CEO of Ankota

Question:

How do you make yourself differentiated to retain caregivers?

Answer:

There's a lot of different elements to how we're retaining these caregivers once we've got them.

It is really about understanding what it is that they want. One of those thing being consistent hours. Therefore it's essential that's something that we're going to work on delivering for them. A lot of times they want to just want to feel more appreciated on what they're doing and there's other ways to incentivize caregivers for loyalty by sticking around.

Reward Your Caregivers For Long-Term Retention

Ex: If you're with us for one year (or worked "x" amount of hours then you get some type of reward. It could be just a bonus or it can be a more tangible gift. 

Create milestones for them to achieve and work towards creates that long term incentive so they just don't keep bouncing around. They want to stick with you so they can keep working their way up the employee ladder. 

When they do something good, they earn certain points and then you're able to reward them. This also sets clear expectations of what you want from them and what they need to do. 

If they're really happy then they're not going to leave you. They are going to stick around so its important we don't treat them like they're just a number. No employee ever wants to feel disposable.

On a consistent basis, how are you making your caregivers feel?

Help Your Caregivers Earn More WITHOUT Working More Hours

They need more hours and and you want to help them get more hours. However, what if there was a way for them to earn more without working more hours. This always peaks caregivers interests. Who doesn't want to earn more with working more?

Exaplin to them all the different ways that they can earn more. 

• Refer Clients earn "$x" when client sign up 
• Refer Caregivers earn "$x" per hour worked that you referred. 
• Earn more from working "x" amount of hours

The higher that you perform based on these expectation than the more you will earn.

Educate Them (Not Just CEU Training)

One of the biggest thing when it comes to caregiving is understanding that a lot of these caregivers may not know what it actually is to being a good employee.

It is your job to educate them on what they need to do to be the best employee. It is not just about completing the job description, but really the little things that make a great employee. 

if you could educate them and say "here are the exact things that you can do that will put more money in your pocket."

If you do x,y,z then I can pay you a higher hourly wage. The difference is that we are speaking about it in their language and we are focused what it is that they want. And so now we're speaking to their language in getting more earnings

I recommend with a lot of my students is like doing this in a video format because it gets your message across in a more clear and consistent way. Comprehension is better in a video format and making sure that they fully understand. 

Additional Video Training

What are some other incentives that you offer that can be used as a recruitment technique as well as a retention? Having ongoing training is one of them. Some of the training is required, but you can create additional training as well. 

However, the same thing applies, we need to speak in their language. "If you complete more educational training than we can pay you more."

Caregivers want to learn more in general as well, but now you can give them additional incentive.

Appreciation Goes A Long Way

Appreciation!! How can we incorporate appreciation that is different from what other organizations are doing?

This is one of my all time favorite things to do! Sending a video message to someone and telling them how much you appreciate them.

And you could use this for everything. You can use this for friends, relatives, caregivers, referral sources, and anyone else you can think of. 

Video Message Breakdown

• "Hey, _______________" (say their name)!
• "I appreciate you so much for _____________________." (Be very specific) 
• "Thank you so much for all that you do. We really appreciate it." 

Boom. Send. That will take less than 45 secs to do!

So many people do not send videos. They don't do it. They're scared to or whatever reason. When others are not willing to do something then that presents us with a choice to do what others are not. This is how we stand out.

It's only going to one person, right? So it's not a big deal. It doesn't have to be fancy. It doesn't have to be super professional. You don't need a microphone or any additional equipment. You don't need any of that stuff. You just take out your phone, you record it, and send it.

This can be so impactful to sending that to one of your caregivers, when they've done an excellent job, or if it's their birthday, right? Birthdays are a great touch point and opportunity to send a video message. 

The script is similar, you just add happy birthday. The main structure is still sharing how much you appreciate them. It is partt of our human nature that we crave appreciation. You'll be amazed at the impact you have. I've gotten the most incredible responses from people. Whenever I send one of those, every once in a while, I'll get a video response back, which is always great.

Think about this...

Have you ever received a video message from somebody?

I'm gonna guess, probably not. And if you have, it's very few, if not any, right? Other people aren't doing this than you know that this is going to help you to stand out. Thats the goal right? Do things that help us to stand out!

Other providers out there that are trying to get your caregivers. It's going to set you apart from other referral sources that are trying to get referrals. We have to do things that are going to help us stand out. Something as simple as a 30 second video-45 second video can help you to do that.

How To Send The Video Messages

There's really two ways that I generally recommend going about this. The first way is asking, like, are you connected with them? Where did you connect and how do you currently commuicate with them?

So for example, from the caregiver standpoint, it's going to be much easier to record it on your phone and just text it to them.

1. Loom

You can also record it using an app called Loom. (https://www.loom.com/) Loom is really awesome because it actually tracks whether or not they opened the email or open the message and watch the video. You'll get a notification "hey, the person watched your video."

Using loom, you can easily send it via email because it's just like a simple link. You can also just add your contacts email address and it will send it for you. That makes life really easy!

2. Social Media

The other way to send a video is through social media. There is a very particular reason why this is a great strategy from understanding the algorithm. When you are communicating with somebody, in the direct messenger of social media (whether it be LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram) and you're having a conversation, they are now going to be more likely to see your content and vice versa. You're telling the algorithm "Hey, these people are friends. They're talking, we should show them more of their stuff."

And so this can be a really effective strategy when you're leveraging it with referral sources on LinkedIn. You can simply just record the video on your phone and then send it via message without needing any additional apps. 

By sending it right through the social media platform. That's going to help with the algorithm which is a great way to increase engagement assuming you are posting. They will be much more likely to see it. This strategy only works if you have an active social media presence.

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