DISCOVER THE 7 BIGGEST MISTAKES KILLING YOUR HOME CARE RECRUITING RESULTS

RUNNING A HOME CARE BUSINESS IS KIND OF LIKE BEING THIS GUY RIGHT HERE!

So much is going on at any given time…for many home care owners....it makes it difficult to get the whole recruiting thing done right!

Yet, there are some critical mistakes home care owners and/or their team make when it comes to being able to find more quality caregivers and get them on the team that you should be aware of.

This is making it more difficult for home care companies to scale...or worse...causing them many sleepless nights.

I’ve listed the TOP 7 below that I felt were the biggest (but there are A LOT more). Start here andsee if there are things you are doing that are holding you back from success in FINDING AND KEEPING MORE CAREGIVERS.

#1 on this list has to be “NOT making recruiting a priority”.

I can hear it now..some of you are saying “I/We do”, yet, you are still struggling mightily. It’s not your fault.

YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW! What does this mean? It means that you were either never really taught how to properly market and convert caregivers into quality employees or if you were taught….the methods you learned did not get you the results you needed. Sure...things have changed a bit...but some of the same MARKETING PRINCIPLES apply.... and you have yet to fully implement the tools that are available to you. No biggie...no better time than the present to start and make it a focus.

Recruiting is a system…with lots of moving pieces. You may have learned where to post job ads. You may have discovered a few recruiting tactics along the way.

Some worked…but most didn’t and then you got to a point where you felt like you tried everything….EXCEPT YOU DIDN’T! And that is the unique challenge we face as home care owners…..we get so busy that we often stop seeking new ideas and strategies….not realizing that the greatest gift we could give our home care business is the gift of a consistent flow of QUALITY caregivers that stay with us longer.

And please...don't buy into the "story" that the're just not there..or they just don't care. While it's very true the supply has shrunk a bit...while demand for home care is at it's peak...the truth is the "story" and "narrative" you are possibly buying into is only making your life more difficult. I know this is fixable...because I have many clients who have made MAJOR strides..and you can too!

Finding more caregivers and making recruiting systems a focus will solve so many problems and give you the time you need to create …breathe…and/or focus on other important objectives on your mission for growth and scaling of your agency.

#2 on this list is NOT KNOWING YOUR RECRUITING Numbers.

What do I mean by that? Some agencies have established some KPIs (Key Performance indicators*) for recruiting. Some have not. Some have been consistent with it. Some have not. RECRUITING is one of the MOST IMPORTANT function in any home care business.

It’s how you actually source your main product---Your PEOPLE…YOUR AMAZING CAREGIVERS. You need to know many things when it comes to recruiting:

- How many hires do you need a week?

- How many interviews have to happen to reach that number?

- How many do you have to schedule to get the number you need to show up?

- How many applications do you need to schedule that many interviews?

- And what are your conversion %’s when it relates to these data points?

Why does it matter? Well…..it matters greatly. These numbers tell you a story. That story will show you where you need to focus your energy and attention for improvements. No more just applying new tactics blindly...you need to FOCUS on highest priority areas first.

So many times I’ve spoken to home care owners who started focusing on getting more “leads” when their problem wasn’t the leads…it was their conversions and follow ups with the leads. It’s important to know where you are benchmarking and your numbers will drive your decisions. Home Care Pulse has a great Benchmarking study to see how you are stacking up against others in the industry.

(*most know what KPIs is …but for those that don’t. Key Performance indicator is a measurable value for certain functions in a business that drive the majority of the results for that role)

#3 on this list is LACK OF ACCOUNTABILITY for the role

What? Accountability? What’s that? Just kidding! For many home care owners, they do in fact track numbers. However, they don’t have a person on the team who truly OWNS the numbers. What do I mean by that? It’s important that you are running your organization in a way where your team knows their key numbers and the key functions that drive success for that part of the system (that part of the business). They have complete ownership of their numbers. This means that their success and value to the organization is based in large part to their ability to drive a result.

Accountability comes in many shapes and sizes. We used to have weekly meetings where the players on my internal team would report their numbers. We would them compare it to the goal/target/benchmark and if they did not hit the benchmark we would drop it down to our issues list.

Then, if when the issues were prioritized, if that part of the recruiting system was “off”, we would spend time in our meeting brainstorming and problem solving. And ultimately, the person who OWNED the number would then go do some different things to improve the number, and then they would have to report back the following week. NO-ONE wants to show up at a meeting saying “whoops…I didn’t really do my job well…sorry”!

If the pattern kept up, as the owner, you would need to sit down and get feedback and provide guidance and/or eventually possibly find a new person (which leads me to the next mistake).

#4 on this list is you may have THE WRONG PERSON IN THE RIGHT SEAT

Your team is your greatest weapon…or it could be your greatest downfall. Finding quality talent internally at rates we can afford can sometimes be challenging. I should know. We’ve gone through plenty of not so great seeds in our time running our home care agency.

We are so desperate sometimes for help when running the chaos that often happens in a home care agency that sometimes “any help is good help” rules our mind.

Or….we run some ads to find the right candidate and we hire someone who may not be a good fit, but we are desperate for help..so we hire them anyway.

Other times its just that we are looking for one thing in a candidate, but in reality, the traits and skills are completely different from what we think we need. For example, I used to look for HR people to be my recruiter. This is an HR role…right? In truth, to be successful in this role, I FIRMLY believe that the role is 80% recruiting and about 20% HR.

With that, there are certain traits that you should be looking for when it comes to knowing and understanding how to be effective in this role.

I have a client who had a family member helping her in the office with scheduling interviews/etc when he was home for the summer. He basically CRUSHED it and was able to get a much better show up rate with candidates. Then he went back home and their normal person was handling it and the results were quite different. Same systems…same everything…but the person handling the task was different and had different traits and qualities.

I’m not suggesting you go fire your RECRUITER. I am suggesting that you understand very clearly what you need in that person and that role and/or do your best to coach them. Unfortunately, sometimes it’s difficult for a leopard to change their spots.

#5 on this list is TREATING RECRUITING MORE AS A LOGISTICAL PROCESS, THAN A SALES PROCESS

Gosh, even my own company struggled with this early on. I would hear my original recruiters (which were more like HR people than recruiters) would get on the phone with a potential applicant and jump right into “task mode”. “ Are you a certified Home Health Aide?”….”Do you have reliable transportation?”… “Is your background clean?”.

Don’t get me wrong, these things all likely matter to your agency…but this does nothing to get a better understanding of what your caregivers want. (I promise it’s more than just money). It doesn’t tell you their fears, desires, and/or pain points.

So when it comes to getting them excited about YOUR AGENCY (compared to the other dozen they applied to), how do you know the “trigger” points that will get them excited? Yes…it’s a sales job. Don’t think that “sales” is a dirty word. It can be…but when done correctly, it’s not.

Hate to break it to you…but in case you haven’t figure it out yet, the supply of caregivers is less than the demand for them. We have to do everything in our power to stand out from the crowd and provide enough impact and influence to get them to not only say “YES” to us…but to SHOW up..and to stick. So when I say “treating recruiting as a sales process”…there are several pieces that go into making this happen. It’s not just one thing….but it definitely is critical to your success as an organization and your overall recruiting process. Want more caregivers to show up to interviews that say they will? Start here!!!

NOTE: Sales and Marketing to candidates and then eventually hires NEEDS to happen along the entire continuum of your recruiting and retention process

#6 on this list is “Copy-Cat syndrome” with their recruiting

You are probably wondering what this means?!! In truth, I’m a fan of benchmarking success of others. Not copying..but benchmarking…modeling…or whatever you want to call it.

But…here is the problem. Many home care owners will blindly copy what others are doing. And herein lies the problem. MOST home care owners are struggling with getting and keeping caregivers.

Sometimes its because their ad copy (if you are using job boards or any promotions) is not compelling.

For those of you that are part of a franchise, they will often give you good general practices to follow. However, I’ve discovered that Tweaking is often required in these processes to make them your own…to incorporate your own company’s values…and elements that make YOUR company more of a representation of what YOU stand for. This can not be overlooked as it’s a POWERFUL tool for attracting the right people to your company…ones that will get excited about being there and sticking.

Be your own type of UNIQUE!!!

Don’t follow the masses…because the masses (generally speaking) are not having the level of success that you desire, especially in their recruiting process. Fortunately for me, I came from a recruiting background…and those skills …along with my constant study and application of sales and marketing along the way helped position our agency for success with recruiting to a point where some of my competitors came to me for staffing.

#7 on this list is an INEFFICIENT &/OR INEFFECTIVE RECRUITING PROCESS

You’ve likely heard me share multiple times that recruiting and retention is an ENTIRE system…not just 1 or a few tactics that you implement and hope it works.

Lots of little pieces work together to help your agency become a recruiting machine so you can not only grow and scale your agency…but also so that you can provide better care…have more peace of mind for you and your staff….and create more balance in your life.

With that being said, many home care owners have an inefficient and/or ineffective recruiting process.

Inefficient in that you have not looked at ALL of the ways for you to be able to cut down on the time it takes you to get someone ready for work quickly and without cutting any corners.

SPEED is critical in your recruiting and retention process. Your target work class is generally looking for work..and quickly (obviously except those that are ONLY looking for their unemployment pay).

There are many things from a system and process stand point that can delay your ability to get things done quickly. Especially in the COVID era, this matters now more than ever. Your application process, your documents….etc

Ineffecive—Well, in the spirit of tying this into an inefficient process, this can lead to an ineffective process. Not having an applicant tracking system is an example. Even if you create your own, you have to take your potential recruits through a process. This process requires multiple touchpoints along the way…meaning that you reach out to them using multiple mediums.

Part of it is creating that front of mind awareness. Part of it is getting them excited about the opportunity. Much of this can be done efficiently..and most importantly effectively. BTW...we have something else special for you below if you want to go deeper in this whole recruiting thing.

THE RESULT:

More caregivers to choose from…more people that you actually get on board….more amazing caregivers taking care of your lovely clients….and less stress and headaches for you and your team.

Would you say that you might be making some of the mistakes listed above?

My hope is that this will provide more insights into some of the

things that could be keeping you from your ultimate goals as it relates to recruiting/retention and having more quality caregivers on your team. What I’ve found is that when it comes to success with recruiting..its not just 1 or 1 things…its usually a combination of things that are keeping you from reaching your goals. Once you get this recruiting piece right…it changes the game!

We did a FREE Recruiting Masterclass ...and providing updates with "what's working now" in helping home care owners find and keep more caregivers....if you want to see the training.......HERE IS HOW YOU CAN ACCESS IT:

Start here….and keep your eyes peeled for more tips from us!

P.S. If you have not joined our Facebook group where I share the latest recruiting strategies/tactics and tips on how to scale your agency....

please do so by clicking here >>>> HOME CARE BREAKTHROUGH REVENUE GROWTH FACEBOOK GROUP

To your next Home Care Revenue Breakthrough,

Gregg Mazza- Founder

Home Care Breakthrough Solutions