Welcome,

...to this edition of Stephen Tweed's Leading Home Care Report. This special report is for CEOs and senior executives of America's leading home care companies. This report is published every other Wednesday by Leading Home Care ... a Tweed Jeffries company for our clients, friends, and advocates who want to grow their home care businesses.

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Last evening, I was working in our rose garden cutting back and digging out some old rose bushes and replacing them with new ones. I was hot, dirty, and sweaty... and loving every minute of it. I love playing in the dirt working in the garden, and I love sitting on the sun porch enjoying the beauty that our rose garden brings.

As I was hacking away at the old bushes and digging out the roots, I began thinking about the parallels between roses and home care nurses. Here are some ways that home health nurses are like roses:

• They are beautiful people
• They bring great joy and comfort to those around them
• They can be thorny at times
• They require food, water, and nurturing
• Some live a long time and are dependable... they come up every year
• Some rose bushes never take hold, and need to be replaced the first year
• Some rose bushes prosper for a few years, and then need to be replaced
• Roses need to be pruned back from time to time
• Just because you have one bad rose, you don't dig up and disrupt the whole garden
• Working with your roses... and your nurses... is a rich, rewarding experience that gives great results

What do you think? Are your nurses like roses? If so... read on.

1. Select the best. To grow a beautiful rose garden, start with the best rose bushes you can find. To have terrific nurses... or therapists, social workers, clinical mangers, or office staff... start with the very best job candidates.

2. Plant them carefully. When planting new roses, I take extra care to prepare the soil, carefully plant the new bushes, add fertilizer or "root booster", and water. When hiring new nurses, their orientation and initial training are critical.

3. Give them food and water. I feed my roses several times during the growing season, and my automatic sprinkler system gives them just the right amount of water. You need to feed your nurses with information, feedback, praise, and affirmation... and a little chocolate now and then can't hurt.

4. Talk to your roses. My wife, Elizabeth, loves to work in the garden too. Early in the morning she goes out with her shears. She carefully prunes the dead flowers, cleans the leaves, and she talks to them. You can laugh if you want, but I'm convinced that talking to the roses helps them grow healthier.

Talk to your nurses. Take a few minutes every morning to talk with one or two of them. Find out about them as individuals. Find out what's working for them. Find out what's frustrating them. Ask what you can do to help them serve their patients better.

5. Prune away the dead wood. Roses go through a life cycle, and on a regular basis we have to go through the garden and prune away the dead branches, clip off the dead flowers, and sometimes replace dead bushes with new ones. You need to do the same thing with your staff. Pay close attention to those that are healthy, and prune away those that are not. Dead wood in your home care company will cause the rest of the staff to slowly rot away.

6. Harvest the flowers. Elizabeth loves to have fresh flowers in the house, especially when we are entertaining guests. Often before dinner, I'm given the assignment to go out to the garden to bring in some fresh roses. Take time to bring in your best roses and let everyone see how wonderful they are. Find the nurses who are in full bloom and bring them in so others can see what they look like, what they do, and how they make a difference in the lives of their patients.

7. Celebrate your rose garden. There's nothing like coming home at the end of the day, changing clothes, and going out to the sun porch to relax, perhaps sip a glass of wine, and enjoy the scenery. The roses are in full bloom. The Clematis covering the trellis are spectacular. The grass is lush green, and the birds and the bees are singing and buzzing.

It's hard work to grow a spectacular garden, but it's great exercise along the way and the result is so rewarding. The same thing is true of growing a happy, healthy home care team... nurses, theraplists, social workers, clinical managers, quality professionals, sales & marketing specialists, financial experts... it takes a whole team of people to run a growing home health care company. It's hard work, but it's great exercise for the mind and the spirit. And the results are spectacular. Enjoy your roses... and your nurses.

For more information on Finding and Keeping Nurses

We'll work with you to assess the current reality of your current recruting and retention situation. Then we'll help you develop a clear, focused recruiting and retention plan. We'll provide resources to help you develop the knowledge and skills you need to execute your plan.

Then we'll help you implement your plan with our six-month or one-year coaching process. We'll walk with you as you improve your recruiting and retention. And we'll give you a Strategic Staffing Scorecard to help measure the results.

If you would like to improve your results in recruting and retention in home health care, call us today toll free at 866-209-5101.

Click here for more information on Strategic Staffing in Home Care

Staffing as a Strategic Issue

Our work with home care agencies across the country suggests that the ability to attract and retain capable people can be a major source of competitive advantage in your marketplace. We are convinced that your ability to grow your business and get ready for the future will be based on your ability to recruit people and market your business. The key to your success will be to keep your recruiting and your marketing in balance.

As a leader in home care, you recognize the importance that staffing plays in the growth of your company. Your ability to serve more clients will be determined by your ability to attract and retain capable staff. The fastest growing segment of staffing is personal caregivers, home care aides, companions, homemakers, and personal care attendants.

Before you can provide service to your first client, you must have recruited someone to actually do the work. If you want to have a growing profitable business with many delighted clients, you’ll need to begin by finding and keeping capable staff members.

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Order the Strategic Staffing e-Manual and you'll receive an email within seconds with your personal download link. You may download your complete 116-page e-Manual anytime within the next 24 hours. Order now and you can begin learning about Strategic Staffing within minutes. This manual is in PDF format and requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

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Stephen is a past-President of the National Speakers Association, a 3500 member international society of experts who speak professionally. He is also the father of a 37 year-old son who is physically disabled and uses the services of home care on a daily basis.

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