With caregiver turnover rate surging for a couple of years, the biggest challenge in the home care industry is to retain skilled caregivers that thrive in success. Quality caregivers are crucial for ensuring long-term success for any home care business or startup delivering personal care services.
While most of the agencies emphasize providing incentives and bonuses to the caregivers, there are certain prolific ways that can help agencies retain their steadfast employees. We’re talking about the efficient use of technology to its peak to manage care delivery for the elderly.
A home care management software like CareSmartz360 helps home care agencies in improving overall revenues and increasing caregiver retention rates in the most cost-efficient way. Here’s why choosing a home care technology partner could be a prudent decision for home care agencies in the long run.
Manual reporting and record maintenance has its own disadvantages that affect an agency’s overall caregiver retention rates. While caregivers need to complete their assigned shift in the total billable hours; a major proportion of their schedule is consumed in record maintenance, which is left uncounted in their final billing. This leads to the extra effort while updating information about the type of service delivered, the number of hours spent, and expenses (if any).
With CareSmartz360, a caregiver need not worry about the manual record maintenance as everything is automated and streamlined for caregiver’s convenience. The GPS-enabled mobile app tracks the exact location of the caregiver and one can electronically punch-in during the start of the shift and punch-out once the shift is over.
The software leverages smart features that lend a hand in digitally storing the data and sending the same to the agency for billing. The most important aspect of this software that contributes to caregiver retention is the fact that total hours of care delivery are recorded. This can be used for claiming overtime expenses, which is a major drawback for the caregivers relying on manual processes.
Every home care agency delivering non-medical care services need to consider a home care software for simplifying the tasks of a caregiver. This would surely help in retaining dedicated caregivers in the long run.
Most of the caregivers aren’t appreciated for all the hard work they put into their job while sacrificing their personal life as well. “Agencies who don’t acknowledge caregivers are more likely to lose their prominent caregivers”- says, industry experts.
It becomes quite daunting for the home care agency owners to judge the performance of a caregiver when they lack data-driven insights. Only a dedicated software for home care management can help agencies to get an insight into the total hours of care delivery along with adequate emphasis to timely delivery of service.
With a home care management solution like CareSmartz360, an agency can sort heaps of data of different caregivers at a single place. This is crucial to analyze the performance of the ones who are enthusiastically working for improving the living of the elderly. The agency can organize a monthly or quarterly caregiver appreciation program that acknowledges hard-working caregivers for all their dedication.
Once you appreciate your caregivers on a regular basis, you’ll see substantial growth in your caregiver retention percentage. Apart from this, the caregiver appreciation programs also give the chance to the caregivers to socialize with the management. This could again help in getting adequate insights regarding any feedback or issues that caregivers are facing.
One of the biggest reasons why most of the home care industry experts recommend the use of technology in empowering home care is the fact that it’s easy, quick, and saves efforts. While caregivers are already exhausted in delivering care and handling behavioral changes of the elderly, a smart mobile app capable of managing schedules and updating caregivers in real-time could be the perfect thing that aids retention.
While using the mobile app, the caregivers get notifications regarding a change in shift or any other crucial information from the agency that helps in managing care delivery with ease. This saves ample time for the caregivers that they can utilize while working overtime for which they get compensation.
A centralized home care solution like CareSmartz360 ensures real-time information is updated in the calendar, which is accessed by the clients and the caregivers delivering care. Apart from this, the caregivers can also notify the agencies regarding their unavailability and automatically another caregiver would be assigned based on the nearest caregiver availability.
These advanced features that help caregivers streamline their daily processes play an important role in developing trust over the agency and improve retention.
Another challenge faced by caregivers is to maintain and provide consistent time records for their shifts. While a majority of home care agencies are already using electronic visit verification, some of them are still relying on conventional attendance methods.
As a home care technology partner, Caresmartz ensures the caregivers get a hassle-free experience of clocking-in and clocking-out with more accuracy. There’s no chance of any missed punch, which was earlier a concern for most of the caregivers as they were not getting adequately paid against the total billable hours.
Also, the caregivers can request the agency regarding the punching issues and the same could be quickly verified and resolved by analyzing the key data. This ensures a good level of job satisfaction among caregivers, which significantly affects the retention rate.
Every home care agency seeking business success needs to understand the importance of real-time information availability for themselves, clients, and caregivers. You cannot expect better care for the elderly if there’s a delay in conveying crucial information.
Moreover, your clients also expect real-time data regarding the type of service and the caregiver assigned along with its precise location. This improves caregiver assigning without any delays and confusion, which was earlier a major issue for the caregivers.
CareSmartz360’s smart app sends push notifications to the clients, caregivers, and agencies regarding any change in schedule. This helps in planning things accordingly for the concerned ones. Caregivers can leverage this feature for reporting any emergency while on their way to the client’s place for delivering care.
Based on the stats and crucial data related to care delivery, home care agencies can now immediately address issues that hamper the overall quality of service. Information related to the availability of caregivers at a particular location is available in the agency’s admin dashboard that can be utilized for planning and distributing tasks efficiently. This ensures minimal confusion and fewer instances of shift clashing or overlapping.
Once any incidence of shift clashing is encountered, the same is resolved by the agency immediately. This results in a flawless experience for the caregivers as they need not worry about their planned shifts and over timing. Your caregivers always have detailed information when and where they need to be on a particular day. This also results in minimal interruptions to their work and provides the assurance that your employees have a pre-planned schedule, which they are following & don’t require any reminder.
A home care management software helps caregivers to manage their personal file records. One can save their academics and certifications related information in the portal itself and can access the same whenever required.
The smart home care management app also helps the caregivers in checking the updates required in the certification. If there’s any certification that requires renewal, the caregiver can work on the same. The caregiver could update records anytime, anywhere with the CareSmartz360 mobile app through a dedicated dashboard for caregivers.
Since it is quite challenging for the home care agencies to get the right feedback from the clients for adequate caregiver assessment. The conventional paper records aren’t reliable and may have a chance of data alteration. On the other hand, CareSmartz360’s caregiver assessment helps clients in providing feedback regarding the delivered care efficiently.
The feedback depends on the type of care, the total number of hours spent, behavior, and attitude towards their job. This makes easier for agencies to analyze the best performers of the month. The caregivers working tirelessly get recognized and are made eligible for a caregiver reward from the agency.
Regular acknowledgment from the home care agencies based on the feedback from the clients encourages caregivers to deliver their best and also ensure adequate retention. Home care agencies should consider relying on CareSmartz360 or similar home care management software for delivering quality care services to their precious clients.
Caregiver retention is undoubtedly a foremost challenge across the entire home care industry. The home care agencies leave no stone unturned in meeting the expectations of the caregivers to ensure they stay for a longer time period.
CareSmartz360 is the finest home care management solution that covers all the aspects of caregiver retention and is proven to enhance care delivery. Agencies can rely on technological solutions that are crafted to aid elderly care and improve overall business revenues.
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