Home Care U - Rethinking Caregiver Retention with Small Gestures That Create a Big Impact (Becky Reel)

Episode Date: November 25, 2024

Without your caregivers, your agency doesn’t exist. So how do you keep them happy and engaged? Becky Reel, Founder of Reel Home Care Consulting is here to explain the magic of small, unexpected gestures—like surprising a caregiver with their favorite coffee or celebrating their work anniversary with a personal touch. We’ll also discuss how creating a culture where caregivers feel genuinely valued translates directly into better client care. When your caregivers are thriving, your agency is too.Enjoying the show? Send me a text and let me know!Learn more about Careswitch at: careswitch.comConnect with the host on LinkedIn: Miriam Allred This episode was produced by parkerkane.co

Welcome back to Home Care U. It's great to be with you. Happy Wednesday. Happy November. I hope everyone is having the best fall. I'm Miriam Allred, your host and head of partnerships here at CareSwitch. For those of you that don't know, CareSwitch is an AI-powered operating system for home care businesses. You can learn more about how AI can save you and your team hours every single day at CareSwitch.com. Today we're in for a treat. We're going to get right to the chase. I've got a good friend and industry colleague, Becky Rieu with us today. Many of you know her, but if you don't, it really is my pleasure to introduce you to her today. Becky has a background in corporate marketing, and then she stepped in to help her family's home care business.

Long story short, they became the number one rated home care agency in the US by Home Care Pulse, and she's learned a thing or two about running and scaling a home care business. So Becky, I'm keeping it brief so that you can paint in the details, but first, thank you so much for being here. So happy to be here. Let's start with your introduction. Again, I just gave the cliff notes, but I want you to really dive into your background, maybe pre-home care, how you got into your family's business, and then kind of the later years and what you're up to today. Yeah.

So it's important to share kind of my why. I'm always a big believer of sharing your why, no matter what you're doing. So my why was really my parents. I grew up with a single mom. We didn't have a lot of money. So when they started a home care agency that was named after my grandfather to pay tribute to his life and they were struggling, I just needed to do something to help them. And I said, let me come in for a few years. I'll help you build this up using

my marketing and sales background, knowing nothing about home care and didn't realize what a gift it was actually going to be to me and how much I was actually going to love it. But that was always our goal. We're going to build it up. We're going to be the best and we're going to sell it. And I thought that would naively happen in two, three years, but I loved it so much. So we just kept going. We kept growing. And it was amazing. But that was kind of the why I stepped into the role. And we did end up selling last year to private equity. But I didn't want to leave the industry. I love this industry.

I love what we're doing. There's such a need for higher quality. And so, yeah, now I'm taking everything I learned and all the mistakes I learned along the way and helping other agencies, whether they're starting out or early in the process, helping use those best practices to move the needle in this industry. Amazing. I love the story. I could hear that over and over and over. Just the fact that you came with a sales and marketing background and have come in to help your family grow the business, you're obsessed, you got so into it. You stayed for much longer and then really helped sell, which was the ultimate goal, to help your parents, which is just so impactful. Before we jumped on, I asked you, what are all

the topics that we could cover? You're so well-versed in so many topics. But one of the things that we both kind of landed on was actually caregiver retention. I have heard you speak about this and share different nuggets about different things that you've done with your office staff and with your caregivers. And so today we're going to focus in on retention and some of the really unique and interesting things that you did. Because as we all know, growing and scaling this business, our people are the most important part and retaining them long term is how you really can scale long term. So the thing that I want to start with, if you can take yourself back to when you first

started and jumped into the business, you are someone that's very relationship-driven and empathetic, but you didn't know these people. You didn't know the office. You didn't know the caregivers. And so what did you do in those early days to start building real relationships with the care staff? So first, I actually stepped in as a caregiver initially. Not by choice. I had to because we were so limited. We talk about the

staffing shortage. Like 10 years ago, there was still a staffing shortage. But in retrospect, it was the best thing I could have done because it really made me understand and be very empathetic to the caregivers. And I have several clients now that do that now. One actually went through the CNA program, which I just think is the coolest thing that he did that before he even opened up, right? But I think it really humanizes you. Same kind of concept where I feel like everybody should do some kind of customer service job in their life. I think everyone should be a server or bartender, right? You learn how to treat people. You learn

a lot about respect. And I think being a caregiver early on really helped me understand what the caregivers are going through. It helped me understand their world and what we're asking of them. So that was kind of the first thing I did. And it opened my eyes. It opened my eyes to the way clients treat them, to the things we have to do, to things we have to say no to. And it really just helped me relate to our caregivers on a deeper level. I love that. And I love that you're mentioning that some of your clients are doing that. I'm sure you maybe encourage that a little bit. Not everyone does it. Not everyone has to do it. But I think it is the best way to start to see things from their lens because it's easy in the office or as the owner to disconnect from what they're going through day in and day out. So let's take

it one step further. So after you were kind of like walking in their shoes, you wanted to start building relationships with them. What did that look like? Were you texting, calling, meeting them out in the field? Or what were some of those next steps? It was all of those things, right? You have, if you look at all the different segments of caregivers, they all respond differently to different tactics. And I think that's something that agencies need to kind of wrap their heads around is it's not a one-size-fits-all communication model.

You don't just send mass messages consistently. Sometimes you need to, right? It's a policy thing or updating them about weather or whatever. But I really tried to understand what my caregivers were resonating with. Some were not tech savvy, so text was not the best way to get a hold of them. Also, as we just advance in our technology, our world of technology, we're so afraid to pick up the phone and talk to people. And even me, if you call me, I'm still the person that's, you know, I'm not probably going to answer the phone right away. But when the time is right, I will. You know, and I think that that human element of actually being able to talk to people is still very important.

And making eye contact with people is so important. So I made it a point to be visible, right? I stopped by my clients' homes outside of the mandated times we were supposed, you know, in Illinois, we have to visit quarterly. We went more than quarterly to visit our team. And it was little things, right? Like if somebody did a favor for us, if a caregiver did a favor for us and we had the bandwidth, we would drop off their favorite coffee drink, you know? And those little touches show them that we cared and we were there for them. Was that feasible all the time?

No. But we were there when we could. But yeah, it was texting. It's the little things. I mean, this might sound crazy, but even just like adding an emoji, right, to a text can lighten the text. People misread text all the time. So little things like that seem so simple-minded, but we forget because we're in the minutia of putting off fires left and right all

day long, right? So little things like that and being mindful of being empathetic even via text, via email. Sometimes we even send videos, right, via text, if it was too long, but text. So there's a lot of different methods of communication that you have to really figure out like what's going to resonate with specific caregivers. Speaking of demographic, we know how diverse the demographic of caregivers are in this industry. Was the demographic of caregivers that you this industry was the demographic of caregivers that you walked into the full gamut like we talk about like 18 to 65 or were you guys kind of focused on a specific demographic generation or what what did it look like when you started when I stopped

and we it was a it was it was it was a mess I love my parents dearly and they know this, but there was not any specific. It was anything and anyone, but I will say the caliber of what we were looking for was not there at that time. There was really no understanding of who we were as an agency, who we wanted to serve, the demographic of who we wanted to serve. And I think that takes time to figure out who you are as an agency in your community. And then it's easier to figure out what type of demographic caregiver you're really trying to align with. So no, it was all

over. It was 18 to even 70 plus at that time. But we didn't really have a good gauge on who they were, what they were looking for. There was no plan for them, right? They were simply caregivers. And that was probably the biggest initiative that we made right from the start was, no, no, no, they're not a commodity. They're not just a number. These are human beings. And that's how we took it to the next level with the caregivers. Yeah, that's interesting. You use kind of this phrase of like, you know, they didn't really know who we were or the business that we were operating. That's not uncommon, you know, for a care pro to be working for several different businesses. They get them confused. They don't know who's texting. They don't know the name. Like they jumble all that together. And that

is honestly a missed opportunity for the business to really drive home who you are, the value, the mission, like your purpose there. And so it sounds like that who you are, the value, the mission, like your purpose there. And so it sounds like that, you know, wasn't there. And that was one of the things that you wanted to lean into. How fast forward into like, you're trying to like, figure this out and solve this for this company. How, what processes did you put in place, maybe an onboarding or documentation to learn about them? Because there needs to be that time where you learn about them and you learn their hobbies, you learn their favorite Starbucks. You need to learn all those details. What processes did you put in place to be able to do that at scale? So I mean, we all know that, what's the standard? Like 30% of new hires barely make it past the 90-day period, right? So I took a very strong stance on onboarding. We wanted that

onboarding experience to be unlike any other. And it didn't happen overnight. But I really wanted people to know who we were, understand the culture, understand that why we're different, right? And I say this all the time, but home care agencies essentially are all the same when it comes to ADLs. We all perform the same functions for the most part. There are some differences, but high level, home care is home care is home care. But what is different is that story. It's that why mission. And that's that connective piece that will keep caregivers really connected to your agency, right? So we really made sure that onboarding process was very clear about who we are, why we're doing this, and what our expectations are. So we expected a

lot, though, of our team, right? We were really good to our team, but I have very high expectations if you're going to work for me. And I think caregivers really respect that and appreciate that and know that we were just as much looking out for them as we were for our clients. This had to go both ways. So I think that's the number one piece and just really holding their hand through the process and make sure they feel supported. That included a mentorship program, right? I also believe that caregivers don't need a ton of experience to be successful in this industry. You don't match them with somebody who's high level or hospice, but if it's pure companionship and somebody needs

somebody to sit with them and watch TV and play games, you don't need a ton of experience. If they have the right, if their heart's in the right place, you can train them on all of the caregiving things, right? But those people that come here without the experience, they need that handholding. They've never worked for an agency possibly. They need that mentorship. And so we would take a very focused look at the mentors and who they were being matched with, with the mentees. Because while I had a team, initially it was just me and, you know, I grew my team, but I couldn't be everything to everybody. So we had mentors really be an extension. So those, you know, obviously having pay is important. We all know that. But I don't think pay is the most important piece of attracting really good caregivers. It's respect. And you talked about this a lot at Home Care Association America Conference when you were interviewing caregivers. It's about respect. It's about dignity. It's about not treating them like a number. And that was something I just really focused on when we were looking at our hiring and

onboarding process for our caregivers. Also, what do they want long-term? I was also very direct with the caregivers. I get that this is not maybe your long-term goal. It's perfectly fine. In fact, I would argue that those caregivers that have more ambition to go to nursing school, to get their CNAs license, to do bigger, better things, right? I'd argue that those are some harder workers than people that have been doing this for 20, 30 years. Again, not all the time, but they're ambitious. They want to learn. They want to grow.

And I think it's important to have those conversations to be very direct and say like, hey, listen, I want to be a launching pad for you. I want to help you get to your next stage. How can I help you? Right? And being very transparent about that. So I think that was kind of the mentality I took. Can we go into like when these conversations took place? Because I think that conversation alone of like, what is your career path? Like, what are your career goals? That's probably not happening or not happening enough. Did that

conversation take place like in the interview setting or was it an onboarding setting? And were you having that one-on-one with them at what point? Like when did those conversations actually take place and who was holding them? We all know the interview process is quick, right? Sometimes it's, you know, boom, boom, boom. I don't think you get into the meat of it, but I do think it's important to highlight that during the interview. Because they might be having three different interviews in the same day with three different agencies, right? If that's something you address even quickly, it still will make you stand apart. During onboarding though is when I think you really dive heavy

into that. So, you know, whether you do like a few times throughout that first week check-in, that first full month check-in, 30-day, first full month, 30-day, 60, 90-day check-in points. Like you're building that relationship during that point. And I think it's important to have that conversation within that first 90 days because we know that's when they typically will turn out. And this goes for office staff too. Like I had tuition reimbursement for my office staff. I encouraged them to go back and find lessons in different seminars, right?

Finish your degree, get your MBA, whatever, like get your master's. I wanted my team to better themselves. And I remember I had a manager very early on in my career. I might have mentioned him on our first session, but he was the one that was pushing me to interview for other jobs. And I don't think it was because he wanted me off his team. I think it's because he knew I was either going to leave the company or I was going to, you know, I was outgrowing the position. And I just, I remember him still to this day. And I always wanted to be like him because I still very much think of him very fondly. But I encouraged my office team to continue to grow and learn. And one of my

favorite examples of this is I had a young woman on my team who was with me, I don't know, I think five years. And she went and got her master's in hospital administration. And I felt like she had gone as high as she could have with our organization. She had been with me a long time. I didn't think there was much room for her to grow. And she had just gotten her master's. And I encouraged her to start looking for other jobs. And we had an agreement. Just be transparent with me. Tell me when you have an interview and I'll work around your schedule. I wanted to see her succeed because I also didn't want to be the reason people looked back and had resentment and wasted time. So she did get a job at the hospital and we keep in touch and I'm just

so proud of her. And that's what I want. And I think that's what really good leaders do. You train your team to lead and you hope they don't. But in some cases they do and that's okay. Yeah, I love all of these concepts. You kind of started at caregivers and worked to office staff and we'll talk more about office staff in a little bit. No, that's okay. Because of the impact that the office has

on the caregivers is so important. But I just love this concept all around of you want these people to move on. It sounds like counterproductive, but you want the caregivers and you want your office staff to move on because they likely will hit a ceiling at this business. And not always, you know, depending on how you scale and the number of people you need, but likely there will be other opportunities for them and you want to encourage them and get them there. One of the things that stood out to me that you said is actually focusing on the caregiver's career path in the first 90 days. Again, that might sound counterintuitive. Usually you start

thinking about career paths maybe a year or two years in, but making it a focus at the start so that their head is already in that space of, you know, I'm working with different clients. I'm learning different things. What do I like? What do I not like? What do I want, you know, a year or two years from now? So actually making that a core part of the communication and the feedback loop in those first 90 days, I think that's amazing. Something else that you said that stood out to me was you have really high expectations of the caregivers and maybe that was a surprise to them or, you know, rub some of them the wrong way or just like caught them off guard because they may, they maybe work for other agencies. Can you, can you be specific? Like when you,

when maybe you weren't onboarding or orientation and you were communicating expectations, what were some of those high expectations that you had for them? In this industry, it's, it's funny. Cause like when I think of high expectations, like, you know, you need to be on time, like it's simple things, right. But in this industry, it's funny because when I think of high expectations, you need to be on time. It's simple things, right? But in this industry, it is pretty simple. But besides the basics of you're on time, you are doing your job plus some. I think for me, when I say high expectations beyond the main jobs or functions and ADLs that they need to perform. I really expect my team to go above and beyond. I believe in doing the unexpected.

And that is every aspect of my life. That is with my friends. That is with my family, strangers. We live in this world, this dark world, right, where we're negativities everywhere and we only focus on what's going wrong. But when somebody buys you a coffee, right, if you're in line at Starbucks and the person in front of you buys you a coffee or simply just, you know, things that you're just not expecting. Doesn't that just make your day a million times better? And I wanted to instill that for my team. So I would really coach them on do the unexpected, go above and beyond, right? And sometimes it's simple that if they did an extra load of laundry or they made cookies at home and they brought them to the client or, you know, the client missed food from their,

you know, from their country, you know, from their, their, where they're from. And, and maybe they learned a recipe and they brought it to them, like that unexpected piece. And I would really coach them on, on that.'s what – when I say high expectations, like you're doing your job, but you're also thinking a step ahead. And that's what I really truly was looking for. You know, you get back to us. Simple things too. And, you know, you get back to us. You pick up ships when you need to.

You know, this industry is funny to me sometimes because when I come from corporate, right, you have to realign expectations quite a bit in this industry. But that, you know, I really wanted people that were going to go above and beyond, that were team players, that understood this was more than a job. Yeah. The thing that comes to mind for me is just like professionalizing caregiving. And I think you were doing that. You were setting high expectations. You were expecting more from that comes to mind for me is just like professionalizing caregiving. And I think you were doing that. You were setting high expectations. You were expecting more from them than just the day-to-day ADLs that everybody's doing. You wanted more from them and that empowers people, you know, that helps them strive and push themselves. And I think that's, that's what we're trying to do is professionalize this role. And it starts with the office.

It starts with the expectations. It starts with the communication from us. And then they kind of follow our lead of, wow, these people are expecting a lot from me. I do need to deliver. Right. And I think Bob Roth talks about that too all the time, right? About these, our caregivers are the ones that are the hardest working people out there.

They deserve more respect than we're giving them. And part of that just, again, like we said, it's about making this much more of a professional level experience for them too. But I expect a lot, but then also we give a lot. They need to expect a lot of us too. We need to be able to get back to them quickly and be responsive. There's a lot on our side that I held expectations to too. It goes both ways. Also from the client side, I expect my clients to treat my caregivers and my team with respect.

And if they didn't, they were not a good client for us. Yeah. I love that. Elevating everyone, elevating the office, elevating the clients, elevating the caregivers. Everything is about elevating the office, elevating the clients, elevating the care. Everything is about elevating this industry. Exactly. Everyone has to be on the same level because you all have these high expectations for each other, which I think just, you know, the rising tide lifts all boats, which really does happen. And you saw that in your business. I want to talk about more specific retention things that you did. You know, you've kind of like sprinkled some in already, but maybe think back to any specific stories with caregivers where you or your team in the office did something

really specific for a specific caregiver that just meant the world to them. Like what were some specific things that you can recall that you all did? So, I mean, besides the, I mean, there's so many, right? I think we really focused on the recognition piece, but outside of the traditional generic acknowledgement. So obviously we did the work anniversaries, the birthdays, personal milestones, but we really tried to make those personal. So instead – and we were really, I really believe social media is a huge platform to move agencies forward and build culture. So we would make a point to share birthdays and anniversaries and all those things on social media. But we wouldn't just say,

happy birthday, Miriam. It's detailed about Miriam and something special about her. We wanted everything to feel very, very empathetic and just high touch points, right? We wanted them to know, to put thought into it. And sometimes that's what people are really looking for is that humanistic attachment that we just don't have anymore. So I think that's something we did. We did that for everybody. We post a picture of them and we would write something very sentimental and very specific to them. Like, we don't know how you do it being in school and raising four kids and, you know, you're really an inspiration to us all, something that is going to make them feel really good, right? And then oftentimes they're

sharing that on their own social media, right? And then what do you think that does? It helps expand the brand. And then you best believe that their friends are seeing that and they want to work for a company like that, right? So all the time I talk to my clients about social media, they roll their eyes because they don't understand the impact it can truly have. But that's why you do it. And you're referring to a Facebook group. Can you explain? Because I think this is actually really important that you created a Facebook group where all these people live and this is where you're posting that, right? So two things. No. So Facebook and Instagram, just our public pages, we would post all of these things because I thought it was really important for the community to see the culture that we were building.

So this was to your company page? Yes. Yes. Okay. Sorry. Yes. And I think so much of social media is about building culture and people being able to see through that culture. Because then I think as potential clients are following you and referral partners, they're getting to know you, right? You're building that trust. And that was why we did it. Also, we wanted to share these milestones with the caregivers. We also, and those are the ones that they would share to their friends and

everything like that. We also had this private Facebook group. And that actually came from an idea of a caregiver. So I was very open-minded to what my team, their suggestions. But we had a private Facebook group. And the thought process with this was that this is an isolating world that we live in, especially as a caregiver. And our teams work together, but they don't always get to see each other. So we built this private Facebook group where it was just our team. It was private.

You couldn't find it. You had to be personally invited to it. We had to manage it and make sure that caregivers that were no longer with us had to – no longer on our team had to be removed, things like that. But it was a really cool experience to watch the caregivers interact with each other and be like, oh, we're working on the same client. I've never actually met you. Or, hey, does anybody have any good recipes for diabetes? I'm really drawing a blank, right? And there was never anybody that shared anything inappropriate or, you know, there was no HIPAA issues. It was really just a way to uplift the team and have a community for the team.

We would also share the milestones and birthdays on that as well. And then for all of them to chime in and be like, happy birthday, happy birthday. It was really nice. Talk about a great retention tool is letting the caregivers build this camaraderie amongst themselves. You were referencing when I was interviewing all these caregivers over the last few months, this was the thing that they were longing for was more camaraderie with their peers, because that is so limited, so, so minimal. Maybe every quarter there's an in-house training or luncheon, not very many people show up and it's pretty tactical. It's not really social. But something like this, a Facebook group, I think some people might be listening to this

and thinking like, oh, it could get out of hand and people would say, you know, all sorts of things. But that comes back to expectation setting and setting the bar really high where, you know, they know the boundaries and they know what they can and can't share. But I think that camaraderie, like talk about, again, retention of just like building a community of friends that can relate because their day to day is so similar. So I'm sure that alone had such a huge impact on retention. And I like what you were saying, actually. That was my misunderstanding. You posting all of these milestones and birthdays on your company page. To be honest, I don't see a lot of people doing that. I see maybe caregiver of the month or maybe big milestones. But I think

everyone's looking for more social content. what do we post on a regular basis? I like your caregivers as much as possible. And like you said, it's good for them. It's good for the clients. It's good for the community. Like everyone should actually be seeing how caregiver centric you are. And, you know, your clients are following you. So then your clients are chiming in with, oh, Miriam's so wonderful. We're so glad to have her with our family. And that makes them feel so good. And oftentimes, we don't know when each other's birthdays are. We're not always sharing that information. So it's a great way to make sure people really know and connect. It was a non-negotiable for me. That was something we had to do.

And it was really important for me. And I do have clients that when I tell them this idea, they think exactly what you said. Like, no, it's going to get out of hand. They're going to rally against us. And, you know, it's like, well, if that's the thought process you have, then there's something else going on that we need to dig in deeper to. But that's why you manage it, right? And that's, you can't,

if they're going to connect with each other to, you know, rally for whatever reason, like they're going to find a way to do that anyway. Like you're not going to stop them. Exactly. My thoughts exactly. If you're worried about what they're going to say to their peers, there's deeper rooted

issues. And so you need to solve those first. Any other, you know, specific instances or retention that comes to mind that you could share? Yeah. I also, I mean, obviously like, you know, we were really proactive when it came to bonuses and compensation, rewards. We didn't wait oftentimes for them to come to us, right? We would be

proactive in that regard. You know, we did caregiver of the month, caregiver of the year. We also had different awards for, you know, if somebody went above and beyond, right? We had a few instances where the caregiver actually saved the client's life and did, you know, was either proactive and saw something that was alarming and we took action. And I remember it ended up being a blood clot in the leg. And thank goodness we got the client checked out. But if it weren't for that caregiver looking for those red flags and being proactive, again, going above and beyond, it could have been detrimental. One caregiver actually had to do the Heimlich on a client and save their life.

We celebrated that. We made sure people knew, right? We obviously kept the client information private, but we made sure people understood what a hero this was. And we, you know, they got a pin and a bonus and a certificate and like just things that make people feel valued. And I think another just piece of retention was really that ongoing training and development.

So we all do, if you're in a state mandated, if you're in a state, if you're in a mandated state that, you know, does require training, even if you don't require training, you should be doing training, right? But go above what the state's mandating for training. Build out specializations. What that's going to do is it's going to empower the caregiver to feel more successful in their job, feel more confident in their job. It's going to

make you as an agency look better. So when you go out to market and you go visit with a potential client and they're like, why are you different? Well, our caregivers are trained more than the state says we have to. But even further, we have some caregivers that are specialized in Alzheimer's and in diabetes, right? And that was a really strong tool that we use from a retention standpoint because then also if they got specialized, the caregivers can make more money. So that was something that we really worked on for the team too. I want to dive into two of these. The first one is bonuses. Can you share specifics on what kind of like your bonus structure look like if you're willing to share? Because I think that's always a little bit ambiguous. It's like, oh, we give bonuses, but oftentimes there's not like structure. And so caregivers are left in limbo wondering when is my next bonus or how do bonuses work? Like, did you have a pretty core process or structure to it? or a raise. It was really based on performance. And I had somebody specific on my team that that

was their job was to, I mean, it was under the HR umbrella, but their job was to make sure the caregivers were happy. That was all I cared about. I wanted to make sure they were supported. I wanted to make sure they were taken care of, that they felt like they were really on a team. So sometimes those raises and bonuses came much earlier, but typically we rewarded based on going above and beyond. So if somebody really stepped up that month and helped us out in significant ways, we typically would do bonuses somewhere between $50 and $100 for those cases, right? Caregiver of the month, if I'm recalling correctly, that was a $100 bonus.

We also would give out, they could pick like a swag item from the office, whether it's a new polo or a branded cup. They got that along with a certificate. And then caregiver of the year, we oftentimes had more than one because it was just so hard to pick. That was somewhere between $500 and $1,000 bonus, along with a trophy kind of similar to the ones back here, like a nice crystal trophy, certificate, things like that. We also had bonuses for referring caregivers, and that would range from $250 to $500, depending on how many hours their referral worked after the first 90 days. And then we also had a bonus for referring clients, which is kind of a strange one,

some people think, but there's a strategy there that I don't want to get too much into because it's long-winded and I can talk, but that would basically be a percentage of whatever we would bill out that first billable. And so it was another tactic to get, you know, if caregivers are struggling for money, it's another avenue to make additional money. And if your team is really behind your agency, you build out the sales team, essentially, out in the field, out at the grocery stores, in the doctor's appointments with their clients. That's what you're doing. You're building out this foundation of ambassadors for you that will highly recommend you, right? But they're also being incentivized to do that too.

I think as important as bonuses are, I think as equally important is the consistency and the communication of the bonuses. Again, when I was talking to caregivers, a lot of them said to me, they'd been with agencies for two, three, four years, and they were saying, I don't actually know what the bonuses are when they come. So I think a lot of agencies, they have, like you just detailed out a bunch of different bonuses and options. I think the pitfall here is not being able to communicate those consistently to the caregiver so they know what to expect and they know what to work towards. So you mentioned having your HR person oversee all of this, making sure the caregivers are happy. What would you say to,

how did you communicate these things consistently? How did you keep, maybe it was the Facebook group and posting so often what people were earning and how they were being recognized. But what would you say to just making sure they were aware of all of these opportunities and bonuses? And I think it's, again, it's trying different avenues because everyone's going to resonate with different ways of communication. So Facebook was a way of communication.

We also would use our scheduling software to communicate messages as well. I'm also a, again, because I think there's something to be said about like actually seeing people. And even though it's via Zoom, I'm still looking you in the eyes, right? Hosting town halls once a quarter and getting everybody together. Again, you're building that culture. People are coming together. It's no longer me against the world. I actually can see there's people behind this, right? And sometimes it's the office staff that they don't really get to engage with very often. But I'm a big advocate of hosting town halls via Zoom, and you probably have to do like more than one to accommodate everybody's schedule. But it's a really good opportunity to bring people together, review, do some housekeeping,

review policies, procedures, things that maybe people are just not getting, review any kind of bonus structure you want to review if you have any new additions you want to include. And then also, like, let your team speak. Let your caregivers, like, hey, guys, what are you struggling with? What's something you out in the field, like what are we not hearing? And you really want to make it an equal playing field where people feel comfortable to come to you and speak up. Because I guarantee if one caregiver is feeling a struggle, somebody else's too, right? And so I liked those formats because it was really a easy, low-key way to get people together. You don't have to worry about getting dressed up. You can be very casual. But you're able to talk about real

things that are happening. Yeah. I like this. I don't think email, like obviously we do email too, but like I just don't think people read. Like I don't know about you, but like when I get an email that's too long, like I just can't read it. My brain just, I just can't. Right. So I feel like caregivers especially don't want to read long emails. Yeah. I like this town hall concept a lot because it can be as formal as informal as you want. But I like the concept of like reviewing policies, procedures, bonuses. Like it's, it's too often that you're going months or years without communicating these things and people are, you know, relying on what they heard and or onboarding orientation like that is just, you know, could be years ago and so they forget. So just reviewing that consistently. And I like what you're saying, too, about like, let the caregivers speak up, let them be involved, make it a conversation, like make it informal and give them the opportunity to speak.

I think all of those efforts go a really long way in keeping people there because they feel a part of something. Truly, some of our best ideas came from our caregivers. And so you need to have them. I like to hire people that think differently, right? That push me. My office team, they pushed me and held me accountable to things, right? I want my caregivers to come to us with ideas and make me think differently. And those were some of our best ideas. I mean, and obviously, there's a lot of growth opportunity too for the caregivers that speak up, that have opinions. That's the best way to figure out who's going to be able to grow within your organization. I want to talk too about training you mentioned as a retention tool.

When I first hear that, sometimes I think like, oh, that's a little bit buzzy. Like, you know, does that actually work? Do caregivers take their own time to like do additional training, you know, to what end? Do you feel like that was really effective or do you feel like the money aspect, the raise aspect was what motivated them? Or what did you see from your caregivers? Were there people that were just willing to go and kind of learn on their own because they wanted to progress or that wishful

thinking? Well, so it's funny because like if you look at, we used Target Pulse, no activated insights. And the only area that we consistently didn't rank super high on, we, you know, we weren't doing terrible in it, but the area that there was always area for improvement was training. They wanted more training, right? So we would consistently, all right, we're going to do a CPR class through the fire department or we're going to do this.

And then no one wanted to do it. So it was like this uphill battle, right? But what I did find was, yeah, I think when we would develop these specializations, I think they did it a little bit for the money, but they also did it because we got to celebrate. They got that recognition that they did it. I also think for the people that were doing it because they want to advance their career, it gave them more tools. It gave them more things to put on their resume. It helped professionalize them a little bit more. So I think it was part money, part

growth strategy, and then just the recognition and celebration that they're a little bit more advanced, right? I appreciate the honesty because again, that's why I asked you like, was it really effective? Was it not? What worked? But I think like you said, there's like different motivations for different people. Maybe the younger demographic that were in nursing school or, you know, aspired into healthcare, like the training actually meant something to them. For others, it may be pay. For others, like you're saying, recognition, you know, like I feel like I want to be recognized. We all seek recognition, but maybe public recognition is like part of their love language. And so even doing it for that intention is fine.

So I like, again, like the transparency there, because I think a lot of agencies struggle with this. Obviously, there's the mandated compliance-based training. And a lot of caregivers, like you said, say they want more additional training. But then when it comes down to it, it's like crickets, you know, they're not doing it or they're not showing up. And so I think the important part is like getting to their motivation behind training and communicating that and putting the right messaging in front of the right people. You know, what are they looking

for? Again, back to asking them, what training are you looking for and why and how can we deliver it to you in the way and the time that would be most conducive to you. I want to talk a little bit about, go back to the office staff a little bit, because I think why we talk about office staff retention, when people leave the office, caregivers leave. There are stats that's like for every office staff member that leaves, on average, five caregivers leave. And you probably experienced some of that. So you did some really interesting things to retain your office staff. One of those being like rewards, incentives, trips for your office staff. Can you share a little bit more about what you did

and why you did that? Yeah, and I get that this is not gonna, every agency can't do this. I wanna remind everybody that this is something we did many, many years into running our agency. So if you're your first year in and what I'm about to say is going to make your jaw just drop, give yourself some time. I'm a big believer in balance. So I'm at the point in my life like, and I'm getting to what you're, I'm getting there, don't worry. I have two little kids.

I did not want to be bothered with like the, you know, I just want to be, when I'm home, I want to be home with my kids. They're my priority, my husband. I just, I just want to focus on that. So having an office team and that infrastructure to me was the most important thing, right? I needed to know that my caregivers were being taken care of, clients were set. I needed to know that my caregivers were being taken care of, clients were set. I needed that confidence. And so I was willing to take a little bit of a cut in my bottom line to make that happen. So I did, it was after three years in good standing in my office, you would get

a trip anywhere in the world up to $10,000 for you and a guest. That is something that I don't think a lot of agencies do, and I understand why. But to get three years out of somebody in the office, for me, was priceless because it allowed me to be home with my family. It allowed me to take tricks, to be at a wedding and not have to worry about a call-off. That, to me, was my priority. And that's also when I talk to my clients now, agencies, everyone's priorities and goals are different. Six, seven years in of managing that agency, my goal was not growth, right? I knew we were going to grow because we did the right thing and we had a really good reputation and a good team, but my goal was balance. I wanted to go to the gym. I

wanted to be with my family, right? I wanted to run a really good agency. So that was one way I retained my team. I also just am very good to my team. And you and I were talking before we started, and I think a really good example that I could say this stuff all day long and you could think this is lip service, fine. But my very first employee at my agency, my very first hire, she was my coordinator, whatever, but really she was my jack of all trades. And then we grew together and she was instrumental to our growth. She's the reason we grew as much as we did those first few years while I was there. She left after a few years for various reasons. It just wasn't a good fit for her lifestyle because this is a 24-7 business, things like

that. But we've kept in touch. I'm looking for somebody from my consulting firm to be my first hire to help me expand. And she reached out to me. And she's like, we should talk. And she will be starting with me early next year. And I think that made me feel really good because that made me realize, again, you just never, this is why you treat people well.

This is why you train them to lead because you never know how it's going to come back. Right? I trained her to lead. I gave her what she needed to go on and excel and move her career forward. And now she's going to help me build another business. And I'm so excited. But that's, I think, a good way to kind of share full circle of why you treat people really well. I also really believe in that I don't micromanage people, right? Like you get the job done or you don't. You're an adult. And I think people really respect that. And I know if you're not doing

your job or not, again, I have high expectations. And so I think that really played well for retention because I'm not – like if you want to go work out in the middle of the day, go work out, right? If you're running 30 minutes late, like don't stress about it. This is life. Life happens. And I think I just – that mentality, right? It's not about how much you pay them. You should pay them well. It's not about the hours in the office. It's about being flexible and humanistic in everything we do. And so I think that's really my retention model in a nutshell. I love this so much. I don't know if you just saw like the people reacting in the audience, which is awesome. I couldn't agree more.

And the reason I have you talk about how you treat it and what you did for your office staff is because again, their happiness, their satisfaction, their mood is reflected onto the caregivers. You know, if they're grumpy, if they haven't had time off in six months, like they pick up the phone and they're talking to clients and caregivers, like their attitude and mood is reflected. And so it's so important to do practice what you preach and do all of this extra above and beyond for your office staff, because then again, in turn, they're going to be the ones talking to your clients and caregivers. And I was also the same person actually specifically

that's joining my team. I would have to push her to take time off, right? People, if they're so bought into your mission, right, they're bought in. You know that. But sometimes then that means that they're prioritizing the business over their own life. And I'm really scared of people getting burnt out. And so I would have to force her to take a Friday off and take a long weekend. And that sounds crazy. I'm sure some of you might think that, but I did not want my team getting burnt out. So it was worth me giving somebody an extra day or two off to go and recoup and go get a massage. Just take a day for yourself. And it pays off. Earlier, we were talking about professionalizing caregiving. I think the same goes for the office. I've talked to a lot of schedulers, care coordinators, RNs. I think they

too sometimes feel micromanaged and like they're not being taken seriously and they may not even see a career path in the office. And I think all these things that you're saying is you're professionalizing them as well. Like you run your schedule, you take care of your family, like you take care of things and, and the business will stay afloat. Like everything works together again, if those expectations are set and are being met, which I think, again, all of this ties back to the caregiver retention, because when everyone's happy, you know, things really can grow and progress. I think the place that I kind of want to wrap up this conversation is about retention that's long lasting. I'm sure maybe you experienced

this. Everyone has experienced this where you, you know, prioritize retention for a quarter or for a few months and it really does get better. But then, you know, months go by and you're back in the same rut. You're not doing all that recognition. Like, how do you ensure that retention remains a focus always? Yeah, that's a really, I'm glad you brought that up. So I remember, you know, you're always looking at the new and shiny object, right? You're not really paying attention to the, you know, what's been there for a while and what's stable. So I remember this one situation just comes to mind, but I remember we had a caregiver that was with a client for a few years.

And it was just like, we never had to think about it. We knew they were always there. It just was very easy. But because it was this perfect clockwork system, we failed to recognize that. So we, when, you know, we would do caregiver of the year, like we didn't, we didn't take into account the people that are just consistently reliable. And that is important too. So that was, again, that was an, I made a lot of mistakes over my 10 years of running an agency, and that was something that was very eye-opening for me. So we started really digging more into the data, right? So data is

only as good as what you're going to do with it. Data is just a bunch of numbers unless you actually take action on it, right? That's why I love Home Care Pulse and Activate Insights so much because there's so much good data in there. But specifically, your CRM scheduling software, use that data. Look at how many call-offs, clock-ins, consistency, requested time off. Look at all of that data that the caregivers are giving you and base your bonuses and raises off of that, you might have some really great caregivers that are flying under the radar because they're doing their job and they deserve just as much recognition as Becky who stepped in last minute the other day doing a last minute fill-in.

So I think it's both, but I guess my biggest piece of feedback there is to really look at the data and understand your data. I like what you're saying too about don't forget about the people that are doing good work consistently. Those are the people two years in, three years in, they get forgotten about, but they are working hard consistently and they get forgotten and they leave. They're like, I don't talk to the office. Nobody knows who I am or what I'm doing or recognize me. I'm out. It's so often that we're focused on putting out the fires, the people that are top of mind, the new people. But it's like oftentimes there's this other most important group that's doing maybe 80% of the work

that you oftentimes fail to recognize because you forget about them. And I like what you're saying about focusing on the data. I wanted to let you speak a little bit about Home Care Pulse because I think it was really instrumental in the feedback loops, getting that consistent feedback from the caregivers and you being able to recognize that. And then, like you said, act on that. We do have a lot of data in home care, you know, from all of our different systems and technology, but the data that matters and then what you actually do with that. So can you speak a little bit about the surveys, you know, the feedback that you got and then the influence and the impact and then like what actions you took based off of that? Yeah. And it's, you know,

I'm a big, big fan of activated insights, as you all know, formerly home care polls. I, that was really a huge growth strategy for us, but it was know, formerly Home Care Pulse. That was really a huge growth strategy for us. But it was really because I was trying to understand our caregivers and our clients. I was really trying to understand what we were doing well and not doing well. And I talked to clients all day long about this. And we look at their surveys and I'm like, what did you do with this? And they're like, nothing. If you're taking a survey for a company, you always get them from hotels and things like that, and you give negative feedback and you don't hear anything, why would you continue to take those surveys? And then also, why would you

continue to stay at that hotel brand if they're not taking your feedback seriously? Same with restaurants, right? I think we're all human. We all make mistakes. No one's perfect. But it's often how we react, I think, that really says who we are and how serious we are about our world. And so I think it's important to respond to both good and negative feedback. Why are you responding to good feedback? Well, why are you not – you know you have a happy client or happy caregiver. Why are you not trying to leverage that into a Google review or Yelp review or testimonial, right? If you have a – I mean, that's the easiest way right there.

You know they're happy. Boom. Do you mind sharing that to a broader community? And then, you know, negative, like you potentially could be saving a client or caregiver. There's red flags you're going to be seeing. If somebody's saying like, I don't feel appreciated. I'm not getting enough hours. You can very easily see if there's an issue and you can address it. Maybe they're saying they're not getting enough hours because their schedule changed and you weren't aware of it. So pick up the phone and have a conversation. You're very likely going to save that caregiver. And same for the client,

your revenue side. If a client is giving you red flags that they're not 100% satisfied with you, why would you not try to have a conversation and try to fix something before it breaks? And that's really, we called every single survey or we emailed every single person. And that was, I didn't wait till the end of the month. I was in there like a neurotic, crazy person almost every day. Like, okay, who got surveyed yesterday? And we responded timely. You don't want to wait till it gets too far out because then it loses its luster.

They might be like, what are you talking about? Because it was too long ago. So you want to do it in real time. Yeah, I think every time I've heard you speak about this, you are the perfect example of using the tool or the technology leading with that. You know, it's kind of the starting place for creating a feedback loop,

but then it's the human connection, the human touch, the phone call afterward that really, afterward that really comes full circle and makes it impactful and important. And I think you all did that really well. And that's why you retain people for so long and you had all of this great satisfaction and the best numbers in the country is because you took that information really seriously and followed it all the way through. And there's just like room for gaps in that process that a lot of people stumble upon. But it really is like full circle, making sure you follow it all the way through. I mean, listen, if you're running an agency, a starting agency, you likely didn't

just wake up one day and think, I'm going to start a home care agency because that sounds fun. You did it because there's a reason, there's a mission, there's a purpose, right? So if you're going to do it, do it right. Don't just be mediocre. Set yourself apart. There's many, many agencies and no matter where you are in the country, you need to set yourself apart. And this is a very easy way to do it. And the thing that comes to mind for me is buy-in. We talk a lot about the office staff needing to buy into your mission and vision, but I would go as far as to the caregivers, you know, like where we started. They may not know who you are, what you are, what your why is, or what your even mission is. And that's, that's a huge missed opportunity. So even getting buy-in

from the caregivers, they should believe in what you're doing in what they're doing. And that will make them work harder for you. Okay, we're about out of time here. I want to give you just a couple of minutes to talk about your consulting services. I think a lot of people are interested in what you're doing. So share who you're best suited to help and a little bit about kind of your process and what sets you apart as a consultant.

Sure. So I think I take a unique approach in this industry. It's consulting and coaching more than anything. And I really don't, there's, you know, I don't focus on just one area. It's not just operations. It's not just sales. There's five different pillars we look at from an agency standpoint. I really love helping agencies that are getting started. I think it's amazing hearing the stories. It's usually people that have done something in corporate and they're like, now it's my time. I want to do something meaningful with my life. And I love watching that evolve and being a part of that story. I love hearing the stories. And then my other sweet spot is really leaning into those agencies that are kind of new, that are still under a million, maybe a million

and a half and kind of in that hamster wheel of just not moving the needle. So we look at everything. We develop policies, procedures. I can help agencies with their licensing. The sales and marketing, obviously, that's my background. That's when you hear me talk, you know I'm passionate when my hands are just everywhere, right? And that's typically where my hands go crazy because I think there is so much opportunity from a sales and marketing side and it's not sales, right? It's relationships. There's a lot of creative ways to embed yourself in the community besides going to hospitals and facilities. So I really take a holistic approach with my clients and we really, we work one-on-one. You're not getting past somebody else on my team. We're meeting, we're really uncovering what's

happening, how we can fix it. And I ultimately want to become a partner, an extension of your agency and watch you grow and be so successful that ultimately you don't need me down the road. But I'm loving every minute of this. And this has been, I mean, honestly, the best part is that I get to work with you, Miriam. And I just, like, this has, these relationships mean so much to me and I'm so grateful to be able to do what I do. Yeah. I could vouch for you all day. I didn't look through the attendees. You probably have some of your clients on here or will be listening to this. I hear only good things. And I just have an awe that you like the startup phase. You know, there's a lot of different consultants. I hear that from people all the time. That specialize in different things, but you have the tenacity and the drive to

help people get started, which is oftentimes the most difficult stage. So I just think like hats off to you for wanting to coach, you know, the early stages and maybe the most challenging stages, but it just speaks to who you are and what you're best at and what you're best suited to help with. So this has been so awesome. People are chiming in here. Thank you. So Becky, thank you so much. This hour has gone by so fast. I don't know about for you, but it just feels like such a fun conversation. And here we are at the end. So thank you for being here. What's the best way for people to get in contact with you? Your website, LinkedIn, email? Yeah. I mean, all of, all of, I'm, I'm everywhere. I'm on Instagram. I'm on the LinkedIn.

My website is Real Home Care Consulting. And my last name is spelled R-E-E-L. So it's Real Home Care Consulting. You can fill out a form there and it'll go right to my email. Also feel free to, you can call me at 312-590-3225. And my email is becky at realhomecareconsulting.com. If you want to find me, you'll find me. I'm on the web. Amazing. And you've got an event coming up in Chicago in February. Do you want to speak to that just briefly in case anyone's interested? Yeah. So we are going to try. So I love intimate settings. I'm not a rah-rah. I'm not going to go

out with pom-poms. I really love intimate conversations. This is why I love Miriam so much. I'm the number one fan. Like I'm the president of Miriam's fan club, but I love intimate settings. I think we can get a lot done and really be vulnerable together. And I think this industry is very isolating. So we are going to start a dinner series. We're going to try it in Chicago and expand. We're going to do one in San Francisco too. But our first one is going to be Thursday, February 6th in Arlington Heights, which is about 20 minutes out from O'Hare, not too far from the city, but it's a very small intimate event where we're going to discuss really all things home care in a very intimate setting over some delicious food and wine. And I'm very excited about it. I think we're going to open up some

very interesting conversations. Amazing. I'm super excited for you. I attended, you know, one of your events in Chicago earlier this year, and I still talk to all of those people that I sat down at dinner with. It's just, you're so good at hosting and facilitating those like really intimate, friendly, honest conversations. And so look into that. I know you're promoting that. So if that so if you if you shoot becky an email or reach out to her know that she can get you some of that information so we'll go ahead and cap here becky thank you so much our live audience thank you for being here it's been so fun and uh we'll go ahead and wrap here hope everyone has a great rest of their day

thank you take care that's a wrap this podcast was made by the team at care switch the first ai powered management software for home care agencies if you want to automate away the menial of your day-to-day with