The owners of home care agencies or franchises know how rewarding it can be to help others. When providing at-home care to seniors, it’s easy to see and feel the impact our work is making every day. Caring for People Means Caring About Caregivers
But as home care business owners, it can be easy to lose sight of just how many people our services affect. While it’s rewarding to see seniors’ lives bettered by our care, those rewards are undercut if they come at a cost to the care staff in our employ. Caring for People Means Caring About Caregivers
Caregivers at the Core of Our Business
These days, the business benefits to caring for caregivers are becoming more and more obvious. It’s no secret that the home care industry is struggling to keep pace with the demand for our services, a reality that’s made staffing difficult for agency owners. Simply put, it’s becoming tougher and tougher to find quality caregivers. In a market like this, keeping staff happy is essential to limiting turnover.
But even when things are going smoothly, those of us in the home care industry should be thinking about ways to make our caregivers lives easier. After all, caregivers are at the core of our business. In practical terms, keeping our care staff happy and healthy will improve the quality of service we provide. In human terms, it’s just the right thing to do to make sure our employees are cared for.
At Visiting Angels, we’ve been supporting our home care franchise owners since 1998. We know from experience that the success of any independent or franchised home care agency is inextricably tied in the quality of people who make up that agency. We think it’s important to raise awareness industry-wide about the importance of caring for caregivers.
How to Care for Your Care Staff
There are a number of ways that you can better take care of your care staff — some more obvious than others. Pay is always the biggest area of concern, and it’s an issue that almost every home care agency owner will grapple with at one time or another.
At Visiting Angels, we’ve found that many of our franchisees have found success largely because of the way they value their care staff. While home care can be a major investment, most Americans are willing to pay more for the confidence that comes with quality care. When it is clear that a higher hourly rate is tied to better care, many clients are more than happy to make the commitment.
There are other ways that you can provide support to care staff. Most caregivers deal with stressful situations, so making investments in the emotional and mental well-being of your staff can pay big benefits. One way to do this is to ensure you are always giving caregivers a manageable schedule, one that allows them to take care of themselves and live life outside of work in a way that makes sense.
Finally, there are out-of-the-box solutions to supporting care staff. Recently, one of our franchise owners has seen enormous success in caregiver retention. One of his strategies? Providing group day care* for caregivers with young children. While this might not be the right fit for your agency’s model, but that doesn’t mean you can’t take similar — if smaller — steps. Listen to your care staff’s biggest challenges, and try to think of ways you can lessen these concerns.
Visiting Angels is one of America’s largest home care franchise networks. Visit us online for information on our franchise opportunities.
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