By Stephen Tweed
How does the “Culture” of your home care company affect your ability to recruit and retain high quality caregivers? What can you as an owner, CEO, or leader of a large, fast-growing home care company do to create a culture that attracts high quality caregivers?
We define “company culture” as … “The way we do things around here.”
Your company culture is driven by four factors:
- The Leadership Style of the CEO
- The Core Values that guide your actions and decisions
- The behavior you expect
- The behavior you permit
Every Company has a Culture
Every company has a company culture. The question for you as a leader is, “Have I crafted the culture I want intentionally, or did it just evolve?” There are many home care C
EOs we work with who have spent time, talent, and treasures crafting a culture that attracts and retains top talent. One company that comes to mind is Footprints Home Care in Albuquerque, NM.
Footprints has been recognized as as Top Place to Work by the Albuquerque Journal in 2013, 2014 2015, and 2016. The company has also been awarded the Home Care Pulse “Best of Home Care – Employer of Choice” in 2013 and 2014, and “Provider of Choice” in 2015 and 2016. Footprints has clearly developed a culture of attraction and accomplishment.
Brian Fletcher is the CEO of Footprints. When I was working on my new book, Conquering the Crisis: Proven Solutions for Caregiver Recruiting and Retention, I interviewed Brian to get his insights. We talked a lot about company culture at Footprints and the things they do to create that culture.
Brian says, “I used to think leadership was about competence, hard work, and vision. I’ve since learned that leadership is about humility. Competence, hard work, and vision are important traits, but humility matters most because through it I have learned many lessons about the significance of the work we do. I have learned that I am not the boss, I am the steward. The steward of this business and the jobs it creates, the steward of the community impact we have, and most importantly, the steward of our culture.”
A sign in the lobby at Footprints Home Care says,
“I am passionate about creating a best place to work because home care providers are underappreciated and underserved. They deserve to work for an employer that appreciates their service.”
What’s Your Culture?
What is the culture like in your company? What would your employees say if I got twelve of them in a room as asked them about your company culture and your company as a great place to work? Over the years, I’ve done a lot of strategic planning for home care companies. Often we conduct employee focus groups. We get twelve to fourteen employees in a room and ask them the following questions:
- How do you feel right now about this company as a place to work?
- What are you most proud of?
- What frustrates you most?
- If you could wave your magic wand and fix three things about this company, what three things would you fix?
Using these four questions, and then leading an in-depth discussion, we get a real clear picture of the company and how employees view it as a place to work.
Conquering the Crisis Coming Soon
For more on crafting a Culture of Attraction and Accomplishment, you will want to read my new book, Conquering the Crisis. It will be published shortly by Red Letter Press, Austin, TX. You can pre-order your copy and get a 40% discount off the publishers’s list price.
