By Stephen Tweed
If you have been reading the Home Care CEO Report for any length of time, you know that I am a huge fan of Aaron Marcum and the annual Home Care Benchmarking Study from Home Care Pulse. I carry my copy with me every where I go so that I can access the latest facts and data about the private pay in-home care industry.
This year, I waited patiently for the latest facts and data about the Caregiver Recruiting and Retention Crisis in home care. My copy arrived a couple of weeks ago as I was on my way out the door for a speaking engagement in California. That gave me a long plane ride to read the report and study the data.
What the Data Say
I spent a lot of time going over the data in the Caregiver Recruitment and Retention section of the report to see if there were any new insights that would help us in conquering the crisis. This year’s report reinforced some data points that we’ve seen for the past four our five years:
- The number one factor that sets a provider apart from other agencies is Caregiver Quality
- The biggest threat facing home care providers is Caregiver Shortages
- Turnover went up again this year to 65.7%
- The best sources of caregivers is the internet – Indeed.com and Craigslist
- The best non-internet source of caregivers is employee referrals
- Median caregiver acquisition costs ranged from $216.17 to $512.52
Some New Insights
In reviewing the data, I found a couple of key insights that may help you find and keep higher quality caregivers.
- The recruitment sources with the highest turnover are the internet; specifically Indeed.com, Craigslist, and myCNAjobs.com.
- The recruitment source with the lowest acquisition cost had the highest turnover rate – myCNAjobs.com
- The recruitment sources with the lowest turnover rate had the highest acquisition cost – Referral Sources and Employee Referrals
The Data Reinforce our Recommendation
In my forthcoming book, Conquering the Crisis: Proven Solutions for Caregiver Recruiting and Retention, I propose a three-pronged strategy for caregiver recruiting:
- Employee Referrals
- Digital Recruiting
- Face to Face Recruiting
In the chapter on Attract the Best, I give you the results of our 2015 Caregiver Recruiting Study, and show how you can implement this three-pronged approach. While the study is two years old, this year’s Home Care Benchmarking Study shows that the data from our study is still relevant, reliable, and valid.
Conquering the Crisis will be published on June 1, 2017 by Red Letter Press in Austin, TX. You can pre-order a copy today, and save 40% off the cover price.
