'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring... except a kind, compassionate home care aide who had given up Christmas Eve with her family to care for a frail little old lady who lives all alone.

All across the land this Christmas season, elderly and disabled Americans are able to have a Christmas that is just a little merrier because of the kindness and compassion of caregivers from Private Duty Home Care. As we celebrate this holiday season, let us take a few moments to say thanks for the gifts we have been given this year. The gift of caring, compassionate staff members who give of themselves to care for our clients and their families.

We are truly blessed to be able to work in Private Duty Home Care. As we celebrate this season with our families, let us rejoice in all the opportunities and blessings that have been placed before us.

May each and every one of you, our loyal readers, have a Very Merry Christmas, and a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year!

As someone who receives home care services on a daily basis, one of the most disruptive things in my life is when one of my caregivers leaves, and I need to hire a replacement. At Leading Home Care, our research shows that the number one thing Private Duty clients want is dependability... that their caregiver will show up on time as scheduled. The second most important factor is continuity of care... that they will have the same caregiver every day.

I normally have two caregivers who provide 48 hours of care per week. Since the beginning of the year, one of those caregivers left, and I had to hire a replacement. That means my caregiver retention was 50%.

What is your caregiver retention rate this year?

We've found that most of our readers and clients try to measure turnover of their staff. But turnover is not the really important thing to measure. That's the negative side. I think you want to measure retention.

What percentage of the active caregivers at the beginning of the year are still actively working with you at the end of the year? That's the real telling number.

Most Private Duty owners and administrators don't know what the number is, because calculating it is a manual task that takes a little bit of time. But if you do take the time, you'll learn some interesting things about your company and your caregivers.

Here's how to measure retention:

1. At the beginning of the year, make a list of all of your active caregivers.
2. Each month, scratch off the names of anyone who is no longer active.
3. Count the number who are left, and calculate the percentage of the original list.
4. Do that each month throughout the year. Don't add any new caregivers to the original list.
5. At the end of the year, review the original list, and the scratched off names.
6. See who is still working with you who was there at the beginning of the year.

What do you see?

What is the % of caregivers that you retained for one year?

What do you know about those who have lasted at least a year?

Look at the caregivers that you have retained for three years or more. What do you know about them?

It's not too late to calculate this for 2006. Go back to your payroll records for the first pay period of this year. Get a printed list of everyone who received a paycheck on that day. Then get a list of everyone who has received a paycheck in the last 60 days. Compare the two lists and see how many are left on the original list.

Caregiver retention is really about two factors; selecting the right caregivers when you hire them, and creating a great place to work once they are hired.

Over the next couple of months, you'll see us writing a lot about caregiver selection, because we think there is gold to be mined in Private Duty Home Care when you do a better job of recruiting and selecting caregivers.

Over the past several weeks, we have been sharing research and data with you regarding our new caregiver pre-employment assessments and the powerful effect that this new technology can have on your bottom line. Your response during the past month has been, “When can I get started?” Great News... the answer is... today!

Leading Home Care caregiver assessments will include the following three components, which have been proven by research to be the most effective in predicting job performance, job satisfaction, and retention:

1. Contemporary Integrity Assessment

Measures three core traits:

1. Dependability – Measures the risk that an applicant will be undependable, careless, lazy or disorganized
2. Honesty/Integrity – Measures the risk for dishonest behavior
3. Hostility/Aggression – Measures the risk of a person being aggressive, hostile, disruptive and have poor control of their anger

With three optional scales:

• Substance Abuse – Measures the risk of substantial use of alcohol or illegal drugs
• Sexual Harassment – Measures the risk of behaviors that are likely to be considered harassment by others
• Computer Misuse – Measures the risk of using computers in ways that are unrelated to work

2. Personality and Behavior Assessment

Based on “Big 5” personality research, the most effective available tool compares applicants' scores with scores of successful caregivers. The developers of this powerful tool have already benchmarked the scores for the Home Caregiver job. This portion of the assessment can be administered to current employees to produce a coaching report that will help your current employees be more effective in their job. The personality and behavior section measures six core traits:

1. Conscientiousness – the degree to which the person is persistent, motivated, and organized
2. Tough Minded – the degree to which the person is pleasant and agreeable, warm, tolerant, and tactful
3. Conventional – the degree to which the person is predictable, follows rules, and is structured
4. Extroversion – the degree to which the person is outgoing, dominant, ambitious, and sociable or introverted, shy and quiet
5. Stable – the degree to which the person is emotionally stable and resistant to stress, ranging from well adjusted and calm to being sensitive and anxious
6. Team – measures the person’s attitudes toward teamwork versus individualized work environments

3. Cognitive Reasoning Assessment

This is a general reasoning scale that measures problem solving and learning speed.

The integrity and personality assessments both include a distortion index, a validity scale that measures the degree to which the applicant responded frankly to the assessment items or responded in such a way as to make a good impression (in other words, a “faking” scale). All assessments include behavioral interview questions to follow up on assessment items of concern. These suggested behavioral interview questions will be really helpful to you as you interview prospective caregivers.

Assessments, scoring and reports are available on-line. They can be given on paper, if necessary, and then keyed into your on-line administration area for scoring and accessing reports. Applicants can complete all three assessments in about a half hour.

When you sign up to take advantage of this new technology, you will receive a Leading Home Care training e-manual and my personal assistance by phone to help you get started. The manual includes an in-depth explanation of how to do behavioral interviewing, how to get applicants to open up, how to increase job acceptance rates, and how to improve your reference check process, among other things.

For a complete description of our new process, assessments, reports, pricing and logistics, click on this link. To sign up, email me at Kathy@leadinghomecare.com or call me at (502) 339-0653.

You've heard us say that state and national home care associations are the grass roots of home care in America. We're committed to working closely with all of the associations in our industry to serve their members.

In January, Stephen Tweed, our CEO, will be in Scottsdale, Arizona for the Private Duty Home Care Association Leadership Summit.

Stephen will be presenting a program on how Medicare Certified Home Health Agencies can capitalize on opportunities in Private Duty Home Care.

Join him on Monday morning, January 22, 2007 for this high-impact, interactive presentation.

Later that afternoon, he'll be moderating a panel discussion on Communicating with Baby Boomers. This is a revised version of the panel presented at the NAHC annual meeting in Baltimore in October.

If you want to get the latest information on growing your Private Duty Home Care Business, join us in Scottsdale at PDHCA, January 22-24, 2007.

How do you train your Private Duty sales representatives? When you only have one or two people out calling on referral sources, you can't afford to bring in a sales trainer, and perhaps you don't want to spend the time and money to send them out for training.

There's just not much available in Private Duty Home Care to help your sales reps get the knowledge, skills, and abilities they need to bring in more referrals that turn into admissions.

Leading Home Care can now help you. Through the efforts of our Home Care Sales Training Specialist, Michael Giudicissi, we're now offering a one-on-one sales coaching process for your sales person.

Here's what your sales person will receive:

• A copy of Michael's e-Book, Making the Approach: Advanced Sales Training for Home Care Professionals
• A set of 3 audio CDs from our recent teleseminar series by the same title
• Six one-on-one telephone coaching sessions
• Ongoing access to Michael by e-mail or phone with questions or concerns about specific selling situations.

There's no other place where your sales person can get this type of personal sales coaching to help develop her or his sales skills. Michael can accept a limited number of students for this one on one coaching experience at this time. Please call our office at 502-339-0653 or e-mail Michael or Diane at leadinghomecare.com to reserve a spot today. Personal sales coaching packages start immediately and are priced at only $795

Private Duty Today! is published every other Wednesday by Leading Home Care . . . a Tweed Jeffries company. We invite you to pass this newsletter along to your friends and colleagues in Private Duty Home Care by clicking on the link below.

• Publisher - Stephen Tweed, CSP
• Circulation Manager - Diane West
• Editor - Jason Tweed
• Recruiting & Selection Editor - Kathy Clater

Permission to Reproduce: Permission is granted to home care companies, home care associations, and home care related publications to reproduce articles from this newsletter as long as appropriate credit is given as follows: "Printed with permission from Private Duty Today! Copyright 2006 Leading Home Care ... To sign up for your FREE Subscription, log on to www.privatedutytoday.com."

You may also sign up for your FREE Subscription to Stephen Tweed's Leading Home Care Report. This bi-weekly electronic newsletter is written for home care company CEOs and senior executives who want to grow their businesses and multiply their performance.

email: jason@leadinghomecare.com

phone: 1-888-668-9333

web: http://www.privatedutytoday.com