By Stephen Tweed 
What an amazing opportunity to be in Orlando, Florida early this week for the 2022 Home Care Association of America Leadership Conference. It was wonderful to be back together in person with the leading thinkers and business owners in our industry. With over 400 people in attendance, it was terrific that so many people came back after a two year hiatus.
If you were there in Orlando, I hope you are taking away as many great ideas I am. If you were not here, I’ll share with you some of the insights I got from the speakers at the conference.
Opening Keynote – Simon T. Bailey, CSP, CPAE
My long time friend and professional speaking colleague kicked us off with a wonderful keynote presentation on SPARK Customer Love. Simon’s premise is that Customer Service is a department, and Customer Love is a mindset. He gave us the SPARK Formula for getting your clients and referrals sources to recommend your brand to their family and friends.
S – See – see them as guests 
P – Personalize – the Experience
A – Anticipate – and Uncover their needs
R – Respond – with immediate and appropriate service
K – Keep – them Loyal through Kindness.
Monday Keynote – Matt Thornhill
Another professional speaking colleague and business owner in Senior Living, Matt shared some insights on The Future is Now in Home Care: How to Seize the Post-Pandemic Boomer-Fueled Growth.
Matt shared some great information and insights on the future of home care based on:
- Demographics
- Society & Culture
- Government Policies
- The Economic Climate
- The Healthcare Sector
- Technology
- The Legal Environment
He then encouraged us to take the long game to drive our action plans.
Matt made some specific recommendations for the future of the Home Care Industry:
- Make National Standards Happen
- Develop a National Campaign promoting the “Care Pro” career.
Breakout – Stephen Tweed, CSP 
I was delighted to be able to present a session on Scaling Your Business with Data Oriented Decision Making. We began by asking three questions:
- Which referral source gives you the most new clients with the highest hours per week and the longest length of stay?
- Which recruiting source gives you the most job applicants who make it through selection, show up on the first day, and are still with you after one year?
- What is your annual caregiver turnover, and how much of your turnover happens in the first 90 days?
we then looked at the Five Phases of Flow in Home Care, and the key metrics to measure performance in each phase.
The Five Phases of Flow
- The Attraction Phase
- The Conversion Phase
- The Staffing Phase
- The Caregiving Phase
- The Collection Phase.
Breakout – Jensen Jones 
Our colleague at the Home Care CEO Forum, Jensen Jones did a terrific breakout session on Intention Behind Retention. He shared some details about how home care companies can improve 90-Day Retention. We know from industry data that 57% of caregiver turnover happens in the first 90-Days.
Jensen discussed the three big causes of 90-Day turnover:
- Bad Hire
- Paycheck Imbalance
- Lack of Engagement
Then he shared some insights from our research at Caregiver Quality Assurance about factors that affect caregiver retention:
- Economic Fragility
- Screening Out and Screening IN
- Money and Recruiting and Retention
- Gap Pay
- Emergency Grant Funds
- Caregiver Engagement
He discussed in detail a 90-Day Retention Plan that uses increased engagement to keep connected with new hires.
Breakout – Jeff Wiberg 
Jeff Wiberg, CEO of Family Resource Home Care, the conference chair, and a long time member of our Home Care CEO Forum gave a fabulous presentation on developing your recruiting process pipeline. He had, as you might expect from Jeff, some great data to support some of the key strategic decisions that he and his team have made. He talked about:
- Workflow Process Mapping
- Repairing Leaks
- Having Enough Plumbers
- Negating the Negatives
- Creating KPI’s
- Holding Your Organization Accountable
Attend HCAOA
For all of our CEO Report Readers, if you are a member of the Home Care Association of America I encourage to attend next year’s annual Leadership Conference. If you are not a member of HCAOA, I encourage you to become a member and get involved. This is where the thought leaders in our industry gather.
