Posted on Thursday, July 28, 2016 2:50 PM
Finding the right people to care for seniors is hard, but that doesn’t mean home care businesses are feeling gloomy about their ability to recruit home caregivers, according to a recent study.
When it comes to hiring home care business owners, 76% of private duty agencies plan to hire additional caregivers this year than in 2015, a recent survey from CareInHomes Caregivers revealed. While some companies expect growth, other companies are still facing some significant hurdles when finding additional caregivers.
Caregivers continue to be in demand for home care agencies, however caregiver shortages are seen as the top problem agencies face today. For example, 70% of agencies said this was their biggest challenge in 2016, followed by caregiver turnover, which 53% of agencies agreed was a top challenge.
CareInHomes Caregivers faces these challenges daily since their main priority is connecting home care companies with caregivers. The company was launched in 2015 and receives more than 20,000 caregiver applications per month. According to a CareInHomes survey of private duty home care agencies, the majority of agencies hire fewer than 50 caregivers.
When it comes to recruiting, a lack of qualified candidates is the most difficult factor in the process for 55% of survey respondents.
The following issues are at hand for recruiting caregivers:
• “The Fight for $15 is a common concern you hear from agencies,” Hank McWhorter, director at CareInHomes, told Home Health Care News. “But paying competitive wages came in at the bottom.”
• “Rarely does a professional caregiver live on the same street as a client,” the survey explains.
• “The definition of ‘qualified’ varies by agency and state,” the survey reads. “Some focus on soft skills, other agencies require a certain amount of experience, and in some states there are certification requirements.”
• “No one is worried about a lack of applicants, but agencies are not getting the people they want,” McWhorter said. “The overwhelming majority of respondents said the person should be compassionate and personable. That is probably the hardest thing to figure out is someone has that quality. …It’s not that they are not qualified. It is how the individual agency is defining it, and that changes drastically from agency to agency.”
Despite these challenges, home care agencies remain optimistic about the industries growth, as only 1% of companies in the survey said they plan on making fewer hires this year.
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