Our 2006 poll indicated that marketing was a topic you believed to be most critical to your success in 2007.  We responded by expanding our products and services to help you boost sales and strengthen your market position.

Our 2007 poll, launched in November, saw very different results.  We asked readers to choose from a list of 17 topics that they believed to be critical to the business in 2008.  Of the 17 topics, four of those topics were recruitment, retention, selection and training for caregivers.  These four topics ranked first through fourth!  Finding and keeping quality staff is going to be critical in 2008 for two out of every three Private Duty companies.

Recruitment -- Almost 72% identified recruitment as critical.  Today, you must compete against other home care agencies and healthcare facilities for quality caregivers.  Additionally, you compete against lots of other service careers.  When your caregivers can earn the same money in food service, in cleaning services, or working at The Gap, you have to recruit with something other than the bottom dollar.

Retention -- A core principle in marketing is that it's less expensive and easier to sell to an existing customer than it is to recruit a new customer.  The same thing is true with staff.  It's less expensive and easier to keep the quality caregiver than it is to recruit a new one.  Creating a strong retention program will lessen your burden on the recruitment portion of your HR budget.  Nearly 64% of you see retention as critical in 2008.

Selection -- Your business is only as good as your inventory.  In 2008 the economy is going to impact our industry.  We're somewhat lucky in that Private Duty home care is somewhat recession proof.  People don't stop needing care.  Where it impacts us is that people want more value for their money during a recession.  People buy a Ford rather than a Hummer.  They purchase clothing at the mall rather than the boutiques.  They vacation with family rather than touring Europe.  Value for their dollar becomes more important.

Selection of better quality caregivers directly correlates to value.  There are two important ways that value impacts your business.  One way is real value.  If you have better overall quality caregivers this year than last, your quality is improving, and so is your value.  The second way is perceived value.  Real value only impacts existing customers.  Perceived value impacts future customers as well.

Increasing your perceived value can be done in two ways.  It can be done by contrast, which simply stated is that "this year our product is better than last year."  This has been done successfully by many companies who have had image problems.  Contrasting past performance with current performance is relatively easy if your customers have an understanding of the problem.  In our business, however, new customers don't often know much about our previous reputation.

You can also influence your perceived value by comparison.  You compare the value a customer gets with your company to the value that the customer will get using another company.  This technique works very well in Private Duty by demonstrating the things that your company does differently to ensure quality.

For example, virtually all of you conduct background checks on new caregivers.  You can't use this as a way of comparing value, because the background checks are identical to all of your competitors.  If your company, however, uses an advanced selection system, specialized training, or unique motivation to ensure quality this is where you can compare value and win.

Over 59% of our respondents identified selection of better quality caregivers as critical.

Training and Orientation -- A new area that's been gathering focus lately is training and orientation.  Approximately 59% of respondents to a survey identified this as critical. 

To be frank, this is an area we've avoided in the past.  Our firm is excellent at helping you develop the strategies, leadership, and identify competitive advantages to make your companies strong.

I get asked frequently to recommend training DVDs or programs for caregivers.  I also get asked to create quality customer service programming.  I decline these requests because it's outside of our business focus.  That's going to change, however, in a unique way.

This is where a firm like ours comes into play.  Our expertise is in studying the industry, studying the trends, identifying and disseminating best practices, and to a degree, predicting the future.

Here are the things that Private Duty Today will be doing in 2008 to enhance your ability to improve your overall caregiver quality and value.

Recruitment Best Practices Survey

Starting within a week Leading Home Care, the publisher of Private Duty Today, will be launching a two phase Private Duty Recruitment Best Practices Survey.  We want to identify the recruitment methods, the effectiveness, and the return on investment Private Duty companies are seeing.

Should you buy minutes on radio?  Is the Sunday paper a good investment?  How much should we be paying our staff when they recruit a new caregiver?  Are job fairs or health fairs a better use of time?  How much should I be spending on recruitment?

These are just a couple of the questions we expect to be able to answer.  Stay tuned to your e-mail.  All Private Duty Today subscribers will be invited to participate.  If your human resources manager is not currently a Private Duty Today subscriber, sign them up on our website today.

Caregiver Retention

Later on this year we're going to take an in-depth look at Caregiver Retention.  Subscribers to Private Duty Today will be active participants in this exciting process.  I could tell you more, but then I'd have to kill you.

Caregiver Selection

As I mentioned in the first article, selection is becoming more critical.  Additionally, demonstrating perceived value is becoming more critical.  We launched our Caregiver Selection System in 2007.  In 2008 we're launching a program for users of the Caregiver Selection System that will make it easier for them to demonstrate to referral services and potential customers the value of selecting better caregivers.

Not only will you be able to use the Caregiver Selection System as a pre-employment assessment tool, you will also be able to use the Caregiver Selection System to establish competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Caregiver Training and Orientation

If I did a caregiver training program it would be AWESOME.  Your caregivers would end up with a Ph.D. and they would be able to meet the needs of every disabled person in America!  They would never, ever miss a day of work.  They would never get sick.  They would never have family problems.  Their cars would never break down.  And they would love their jobs so much, they'd want to work for free.  Unfortunately, as I've discussed in many other issues of Private Duty Today and in our teleseminars, "I am your toughest customer."  If I did your caregiver training, far too many caregivers would quit before they started.

On a more serious note, there are far better qualified people to develop caregiver training and orientation programs than anyone in our company.  But rather than ignore this critical issue, we are going to rely on you.  Caregiver training and orientation will be the first topic of discussion on our new Private Duty Today Blog.

by Diane West