February 23, 2023
Last Updated on February 23, 2023
Amrit Dhaliwal, Chief Executive of homecare company Walfinch, explains how providers can work collaboratively with staff to create a robust workforce retention plan.
Around 30% of homecare staff leave their jobs every year – but that doesn’t mean your homecare staff will leave you.
Recruiting care staff is tough right now but the best way of solving the recruitment problem is to ensure that existing staff stay. Successful staff retention saves money, time and effort on recruitment. Good retention and recruitment go hand in hand – neglect one at your peril.
Many care staff leave for the retail and hospitality sectors; however, as the son of shopkeepers and former owner of two successful hospitality businesses, I know that the care sector is different and special. I have strong ideas about what it takes to retain care staff.
It’s not just about money
Most carers are not in it solely for the money. According to a Homecare Association/Talent For Care report into carer retention published in Oct 2020, flexible working hours (80%) and regular feedback from line managers (79%) appeared to be more effective in retaining carers than increasing pay (69%).
Don’t neglect pay, though. If care staff can earn more by working at the local supermarket, don’t be surprised if they do leave.
A report in The Grocer showed that in late 2022 the best pay was at Aldi (£12.45 within the M25 and £11 nationally). Some supermarkets offer staff discounts of up to 30% and free or discounted meals. These are attractive packages given the current pressures. Check what your local supermarkets pay and make every effort to beat their rates.
But on top of competitive pay, a retention plan which delivers benefits for staff who stick around can give you a significant edge over other local employers.
Create a strong retention plan
This must be specific and practical. It should be written down and address what your care staff actually want. If you have not got one, and/or the existing one could be improved, start making one now.
First ask your staff
What do they think should be in it? No one knows better than your staff when it comes to incentives to stay, or what benefits would attract new care team members. Include staff at all levels. The factors that retain care managers and supervisors will not always be the same as those that apply to frontline carers.
Consulting staff delivers two benefits: you find out what practical retention measures are likely to work and the very act of consultation is likely to increase employee engagement, which increases retention. Everyone likes to have a say in their workplace conditions.
Find out why people leave
Use exit interviews to try to identify the real reason staff leave. Of course, they often don’t give a genuine reason initially, often because they do not want to criticise their boss, colleagues or the company. Make it a relaxed, gentle, and confidential conversation.
Don’t leave the interview to their immediate manager. Dissatisfaction with the boss is one of the most common reasons for leaving, so they are unlikely to uncover the truth.
When you find the real issue, then you might be able to address it and stop them from leaving.
Improve working conditions
Build a retention plan to improve working conditions. Poor working conditions were identified as one of the reasons for the shortage of care staff by the third report of the House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee on workforce recruitment, training, and retention, in July 2022.
There’s a lot that social care leaders can do to help and those who act on it will enjoy better retention and gain competitive advantage in recruitment.
Offer more training
Are your care supervisors and managers trained in management skills? It’s worth sponsoring all supervisors and managers to do management courses, especially just after promotion because it makes the transition easier for them. It also means ambitious carers need not leave in order to progress their careers. Finally, it means you grow your own management in-house and this helps to be more reliable and cheaper than external recruiting.
Extend training to frontline carers, too. Offer them free specialist courses to keep them engaged and make it clear that training to progress their careers is available. Highlight this in recruitment adverts, so you build retention into your recruitment plans.
Offer flexible hours
Flexible hours are one of the top requirements for candidates. Be prepared to flex carers’ hours to suit their needs. Giving employees control of their working hours helps: a Canadian study of healthcare professionals found that allowing workers to schedule their own hours and manage how they approach work tasks reduced employee burnout.
Introduce mentoring
Neil Eastwood, a specialist in social care recruitment and retention, said, ‘One of the most effective ways of reducing first 90-day survival rates for new care workers is peer mentoring – assigning an experienced staff member to buddy them.’ He calculates that this can boost staff retention by as much as 20% in the first months of employment.
Address carer wellbeing
This is particularly important in homecare, where carers can grow quite close to clients, only to see them deteriorate or pass away. However, carers may be working alone therefore there’s not always immediate team support when they are distressed.
There is no statutory requirement to provide emotional support to other than end-of-life carers, so managers should be trained to offer it. As a former care franchisee who provided end-of-life care, I saw how valuable our support sessions for staff were and I think they should be available to all members of a care team, regardless of their speciality.
Show appreciation in practical ways
Neil Eastwood suggests asking supervisors and managers to look for good work and praise at least one carer every day. He also suggests that the care manager posts thank you notes to carer’s homes – monthly mentioning their good work.
Brainstorm more ideas
You and your team will be able to come up with plenty more ways to increase retention. It benefits the care team, clients, and the business as a whole.