From Day One to Year Ten: How to Build Loyalty & Retention in Your Caregiver Team
Published on December 10, 2024 by Dan Wenger
Successfully recruiting and retaining caregivers in these fast-changing times requires agencies to reexamine their staffing strategies and embrace a different set of techniques and tools as soon as possible.
The latest benchmarking report shows industry-wide caregiver turnover rose a further 2% in 2024 to a staggering 79.2% – the highest turnover rate since 2018.
In this article, you will learn eight ways your home care business can adapt and innovate to comprehensively tackle preventable caregiver turnover, set your agency apart from the competition, and achieve your full potential in the year ahead.
- Revamp your recruitment process
- Establish engaging and seamless onboarding
- Provide tools and resources to reduce admin time
- Foster open communication and regular feedback
- Invest in training and development opportunities
- Set up highly compatible caregiver-client matches
- Prioritize emotional well-being/reduce stress and burnout
- Recognize and reward achievements to promote a culture of appreciation
1. Revamp your recruitment process
To achieve groundbreaking results in caregiver retention, agencies need to start with a radical shift in how they approach their recruitment process. It’s vital to acknowledge that retaining talented, best-fit employees begins with an effective recruitment process – not after hiring.
There are plenty of tools and strategies to help you innovate and update your recruitment and hiring processes to get you off on the right foot. For example:
Tailored job descriptions
During a staffing crisis, it can be tempting to copy and paste standard job postings on several online job boards and hope for the best. However, well-defined job descriptions and postings are crucial to ensuring potential applicants clearly understand each role’s responsibilities, challenges, and expectations before considering applying.
Transparency about duties, required skills, work conditions, and the USPs your agency has to offer will weed out anyone who’s bound to be a mismatch before you invest time and money into onboarding and training – and ensures you’re only attracting candidates who are genuinely prepared and suited for the role, reducing early turnover due to unmet expectations.
Competitive and personalized benefits
While the salary you can offer is important, providing great benefits can be equally appealing to quality caregivers. A competitive benefits package can help you attract, hire, and hold on to talented employees.
Take a look at what other agencies your size are offering their caregivers, and raise your game to surpass them. Ideas include:
- Flexible daily/weekly pay
- Travel reimbursement
- Dental/vision/health insurance
- Paid sick leave
- Education/training reimbursement
- Childcare/daycare services
- Wellness support programs
- Membership discounts, for example, to gyms or spas
- Profit sharing
And make sure your applicants (and existing staff) know about them!
Mobile-friendly application process
A recent study by Kelton Research revealed that 86% of people with a smartphone use it to search for jobs. These same individuals also expect to apply for your caregiver positions directly from their phones.
Home care agencies that do not have a mobile-friendly app for prospective candidates may miss out on top-quality talent and are less likely to provide a consistently outstanding candidate experience.
A mobile-friendly application process serves as an easily accessible platform and self-service portal for applicants while also offering numerous add-on features. Features include applicant progress checks, links to your website, and timely reminders – all ideal for optimizing your recruitment process, improving the candidate experience, and saving your agency time and money.
Applicant Tracking System (ATS)
The ATS has become an essential part of any recruiter’s toolbox. Home care agencies that embrace ATS technology see an immediate increase in quality, efficiency, and consistency across all recruitment and hiring stages, right through to onboarding and caregiver retention.
With a modern, embedded ATS, you can automatically post open positions to common job boards, track and manage applicants through the hiring process, utilize integrated background checks, as well as deliver timely, streamlined, and automated communication for maximum engagement.
It not only significantly reduces time-to-hire and applicant-to-hire ratios but also minimizes candidate drop-off and guarantees an outstanding candidate experience.
Request a demo to find out how Aaniie’s ATS can help your agency deliver an innovative, fresh approach to caregiver recruitment for outstanding retention results.
Employee referral program
Home care providers listing ‘word of mouth’ as their top recruitment source have lower caregiver acquisition costs and reduced caregiver turnover. For caregivers hired by ‘word of mouth,’ the Median Caregiver Turnover Rate is 54.7%, and the Mean Caregiver Acquisition Cost is just $246.
Employees who already know what it’s like working for your agency are uniquely well-positioned to determine whether someone they know would be a good fit for an open role. Setting up an employee referral program is a proactive and effective way to keep those quality applicants pouring in. And make tracking referrals easy with an integrated ATS.
Sales strategies
Some of the most successful agencies approach caregiver recruitment and customer/client marketing similarly and consider finding the best-fit employees as important an investment as finding great clients.
Applying sales strategies to help maximize recruitment over the long term results in more successful hires, increased retention rates, and more opportunities for sustainable growth.
Read more about how Aaniie is leading the way in this innovative approach in our recent blog.
2. Establish engaging and seamless onboarding
The latest benchmarking report revealed that almost 4 out of every 5 caregivers will resign within the first 100 days. Given that your business has just spent countless hours and dollars to attract, recruit, and hire these caregivers, you must deliver flawless onboarding and orientation processes to set them up for success.
First impressions carry a lot of weight, and the first few months will be critical in shaping each caregiver’s experience, engagement, and long-term commitment to your agency.
Start your new hires off strong with a well-structured, focused onboarding program that clearly outlines expectations, company-specific policies and procedures, payroll processes and benefits, integrated training opportunities, technology tools, and job responsibilities.
Use software tools to streamline as many routine admin processes as possible to save time and keep engagement high. For example, allow new hires to complete forms and access essential documents electronically before their first day on the job. You want them to have all the information and support they need to hit the ground running from day one without feeling bogged down by tedious paperwork or overwhelming, lengthy handbooks.
Personalized orientations, ongoing mentorship, and hands-on training tailored to individual skill levels will further help your new caregivers build trust, confidence, and competence quickly.
By fostering a positive, supportive environment for new hires, your agency can start to establish strong relationships with them and create a real sense of belonging. This not only improves loyalty and retention but also ensures better quality care for your clients.
Once you’ve hired strategically and onboarded effectively, you can move on to Part 2 of your mission: creating a genuinely compelling company culture that will significantly impact the ongoing retention of your new top talent (and your existing staff).
3. Provide tools and resources to reduce admin time
By reducing admin burdens, simplifying care documentation, and offering on-demand support, your agency can empower your caregiver team to focus more on client care and less on onerous paperwork. This not only improves job satisfaction and retention but will also enhance overall care quality.
Key areas to consider include:
Flexible scheduling
Not everyone is looking for a 9-to-5 job, so offering flexible scheduling can broaden your pool of candidates while giving caregivers greater autonomy.
Digital scheduling tools make it easy for caregivers to set their preferred work hours, view their schedules, request shift changes, pick up extra shifts, clock in/out, and receive real-time updates directly from their phones. These self-service features significantly reduce admin burden, prevent miscommunication, and increase caregiver engagement and satisfaction.
Care coordination and documentation
Centralized platforms connect caregivers, healthcare professionals, clients, and families, enabling real-time communication and collaboration. Features like HIPAA-compliant communication and user-friendly mobile apps keep the flow of information seamless and secure, minimizing errors or frustrations.
In addition, mobile-friendly documentation apps enable caregivers to record notes and updates in real time, reducing after-shift admin tasks. Enabling quick and secure input of care notes, updates, and tasks means your caregivers can spend more time with their loved ones or enjoy self-care time – which they’ll thank you for with ongoing loyalty and commitment.
On-the-job support tools
Mobile access to GPS navigation, shift-related reminders, and instant messaging platforms means your caregivers can stay connected with back-office staff, clients, families, and each other.
Providing training materials, such as how-to videos or guides, on-demand via mobile apps and access to emergency support hotlines also help ensure your caregivers never feel stranded or unsupported while on duty.
Cloud-based software like Aaniie includes everything you’ll need to simplify care management and build strong relationships with your caregivers to keep them engaged and build enduring loyalty to your agency.
4. Foster open communication and regular feedback
By fostering open communication and regularly requesting feedback, your home care agency can develop a culture of trust, responsiveness, and continuous improvement. Caregivers who feel supported, heard, and connected to their agency are far more likely to stick around.
Open communication
Caregivers often work in isolated environments, making it difficult to maintain regular communication with supervisors or peers. Providing easy access to communication tools, like Aaniie’s integrated communication tools, allows caregivers to ask questions, report issues, and always feel connected to the whole team. This ongoing support reduces feelings of isolation, improves job satisfaction, and fosters a true sense of community.
It’s also important to implement routine one-on-one check-ins that give caregivers a safe space to voice concerns, discuss challenges, and receive personalized support. Frequent communication means any potential issues can be addressed quickly before they have a chance to build up and cause burnout or turnover.
Regular feedback
While plenty of statistics and survey results are available on why caregivers leave/stay, they’re all individuals with unique needs and goals. You’re not a mind reader, so make it a priority to regularly ask them what they want/need.
Use surveys and anonymous feedback tools, so caregivers have the opportunity to provide honest feedback on their work experience, agency culture, policies, job satisfaction, pain points, etc. Collecting and acting upon employee feedback shows your caregivers that their opinions matter to you and helps to build genuine connections and trust.
All feedback can help your agency refine a more effective retention strategy and identify where to focus your efforts for best outcomes.
5. Invest in training and development opportunities
With 41% of employees considering leaving their current company to increase their chances of career progression – and 63% saying they’d be more likely to stay at their organization if better learning opportunities were provided – investing in training and development programs is clearly a winning retention strategy.
Caregivers want to feel competent and confident in their roles. They also want to learn and grow within an agency and be supported in achieving their professional goals.
Look for ways to facilitate continuous learning to demonstrate your commitment to your caregivers’ long-term growth – and create an even more skilled team in the process. For example:
- Accredited certification programs or in-house training sessions
- Personalized career paths with a clear vision of career progression
- One-on-one development plans with a mentor or supervisor
- Coaching and mentorship programs
- Soft skills and emotional intelligence training through workshops, webinars, and interactive learning modules
- Technology training for on-the-job tools, like scheduling apps, care documentation, and communication tools
- How-to videos or guides available via mobile phone
- Online courses/e-learning, with gamification tools to boost engagement
If caregivers are going to stick around for the long haul, it’s because they see a bright and rewarding future with your agency. Make sure they’re always aware of their next career step, including frequent check-ins, performance reviews, and goal-setting meetings – and you’ll soon see their job satisfaction, loyalty, and commitment soar.
6. Set up highly compatible caregiver-client matches
Making strong matches between your caregivers and clients has far-reaching benefits for both parties (and your business!) regarding engagement, satisfaction, and retention.
When your caregivers are well-matched with clients that fit their skillset and preferences, where meaningful and special bonds can flourish, they enjoy a much more rewarding and fulfilling work experience, setting the foundation for long-term success.
Of course, trying to make matches manually can be extremely time-consuming and use resources you could be employing to greater effect elsewhere. That’s why innovative client-caregiver matching solutions, like Aaniie’s integrated deterministic decision engine, are the most efficient and effective way to guarantee perfect pairings every time.
This state-of-the-art technology, which can identify compatibility across crucial factors (including physical and medical needs, personality traits, scheduling/availability, location, language/culture, and much more), means you can secure harmonious caregiver-client relationships from day one – fostering mutual respect, reducing stress, markedly enhancing job satisfaction, and boosting retention.
7. Prioritize emotional well-being/reduce stress and burnout
Caregiving places unique physical and emotional demands on employees. From regularly caring for chronically ill individuals and commuting between appointments to working long shifts and worrying about their finances, multiple factors can contribute to burnout and sky-high turnover rates.
To prevent this, your agency needs to find ways to promote a healthy work-life balance and ensure caregivers have all the tools and resources needed to do their jobs well, such as:
- Predictable and consistent shift scheduling
- Reasonable working hours (with plenty of opportunities for proper breaks between shifts) and appropriate overtime pay
- Paid time off and sick leave
- Tech tools to simplify care management and recording and keep the whole team connected
- Regular check-ins, mentorship programs, and buddy systems to reduce isolation and overwhelm
- Careful matching with clients to ensure compatibility and support meaningful connections
- Frequent recognition, reward, and celebration of achievements
- Wellness programs or benefits that include access to wellness resources
- Job security, reflected in their contract
- Free, confidential counseling for caregivers facing personal or work-related challenges
Being proactive in taking care of your caregivers – recognizing and addressing the challenges they face – can make all the difference between engaging and retaining your teams and seeing them move swiftly on to another job without a backward glance.
8. Recognize and reward achievements to promote a culture of appreciation
Recognition and reward are proven to impact the building of long-term commitments and reduce employee turnover, especially in caregiving roles. Research shows that:
- Organizations with effective recognition programs experience a 31% lower voluntary turnover rate than those without such initiatives.
- Employees who are regularly recognized for their achievements are 56% less likely to look for new job opportunities.
- Employees are 3X more loyal to organizations that prioritize recognition.
These statistics (and there are many more like them) highlight just how important it is for home care providers to master the art of effective recognition and reward if they want to keep hold of their caregivers for the long haul.
While acknowledgments during annual performance reviews and simple ‘thank yous’ for notable contributions during the year are beneficial, frequent, timely, and personalized recognition is shown to be the magic bullet to optimizing caregiver motivation, engagement, and retention.
Implementing a loyalty program is by far the easiest way to build feelings of goodwill and boost engagement in your caregiver workforce, where points can be earned for meeting ideal performance criteria that can then be exchanged for tangible rewards. To create positive momentum, take time to find out what motivates your caregivers and build your program around that.
Points can be offered for, for example:
- Arriving on time or early for a scheduled shift and volunteering for last-minute shifts – with bonus points for perfect attendance over a week, month, or quarter.
- Receiving positive feedback from clients or family members – with bonus points awarded for specific commendations.
- Completing additional training or certifications or exceeding job expectations.
- Referring a friend, family member, or former colleague to join the agency as a caregiver. Bonus points can be awarded if the referral completes a certain period of employment (e.g., 6 months).
Aaniie’s embedded Caregiver Rewards is a powerful example of how technology can be used to streamline your loyalty program without adding any administrative burden. This software automates the process of tracking caregiver performance and distributing points, making it easy for your agency to offer timely, consistent, and personalized incentives and rewards.
By leveraging automation, you can ensure recognition becomes a core part of your company culture, where every caregiver feels appreciated and valued on a daily basis – directly increasing retention while also improving your agency’s overall performance and reputation.
Are you confident that top-talented caregivers will continue to choose your agency over your competitors? If not, it’s time to step up your caregiver recruitment and retention strategies for the long haul.
Aaniie’s award-winning caregiver retention toolset includes everything you need to simplify care management and build strong relationships with your caregivers to keep them motivated and loyal to your agency.
Aaniie’s innovative one-stop home care software puts you in complete control to achieve the highest engagement and retention levels in the market.
Call us today or schedule a free demo to see how your caregiver retention dreams can quickly become a reality.