February 19, 2025 • 32 mins
In this episode, Rachel Gartner, founder and CEO of Carework, shares how home-based care agencies can transform recruitment and hiring from a major challenge into a strategic advantage. Rachel, a former home care recruiter, explains what it means to adopt a “caregiver-first mindset” and how this approach drives improved recruitment results, positive employee experience, better client care, and ultimately overall agency success by focusing on caregivers’ needs during the hiring process.
Rachel discusses several important issues affecting the recruiting and hiring processes that can be improved by seeing situations from a caregiver’s perspective. In addition, Rachel shares many practical strategies for improving your agency’s recruitment process, such as creative ways to engage potential hires, tips for leveraging referral programs, integrating technology without losing the personal touch, utilizing metrics to track recruitment success and improve processes, and more. Check out this episode to drive greater success in your recruitment process by prioritizing caregiver needs so you can attract the right applicants and meet the growing demand for care workers.
Episode resources:
- Carework – Home care’s hiring experts
- HireEd – Caregiver hiring accelerator course
- Podcast: How good leadership improves employee retention and client outcomes with Peter Svenneby
- Blog: Embracing AI technology to recruit and retain caregivers
- Blog: Tackling the caregiver shortage – 5 effective strategies for retention
- Blog: 4 ways to retain caregivers in home-based care
- Blog: 4 tips to improve caregiver experience through scheduling and route optimization
- Blog: The future of home-based care – Predictions for 2025 and beyond
- Webinar: Critical Strategies for Caregiver Retention – The First 90 Days
- Video: How Elara Caring prioritizes caregiver experience with AlayaCare
- Video: Employee experience as the cornerstone of competitive advantage
If you liked this episode and want to learn more about all things home-based care, you can explore all our episodes at alayacare.com/homehealth360.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Rachel Gartner (00:00):
It's really straightforward math.
So for an agency, what you'regoing to do is look at how many
people have I been hiring andhow many of them worked out, and
that's my percentage of peoplethat work out, and we come back
to this concept.
If you look at it and go that'sterrible.
Okay.
Long-term, we want to improvethat.
We want to improve ourretention.
We want to improve all of this.
(00:21):
Short-term, right now, this ishow many people I have to hire
to find the ones that stickaround.
I'm going to hire that manypeople.
What too many agencies do isthey get so set on what I'm
considering a long term plan.
How do I improve the reality infront of me that they don't
plan for what's in front of themand they miss their hiring
goals month after month becauseit's a wish.
Erin Vallier (00:58):
Welcome to another episode of the Home Health 360
podcast, where we speak tohome-based care professionals
from around the globe.
I'm your host, Erin Vallier,and today we are joined by
Rachel Gartner, founder and CEOof CareWork and CareWork's
sister brand, Hire Ed.
Rachel founded CareWork in 2018after working as a home care
recruiter.
I'm sure she saw all theproblems she needed to solve,
(01:21):
and now she is an army wife, amom of two and currently lives
in Statesboro.
Thank you so much for joiningtoday, Rachel.
Rachel Gartner (01:28):
Thank you so much for having me, Erin.
I'm excited to be here.
Erin Vallier (01:31):
Yeah, this is going to be a really important
conversation because the demandfor home care continues to
increase year over year.
I think I read Home Health CareNews predicts that by 2040,
we're going to need somethinglike a million care workers and
we're already at a huge deficitgoing into 2025.
So I think nailing down therecruitment process, which is
(01:53):
what we're talking about today,is going to be monumental for
agencies as we enter into thenew year.
Rachel Gartner (02:00):
Absolutely.
I tell people it's the make orbreak skill of if you're going
to have a successful home careagency or not is how well can
you recruit.
But people have to actuallytake it seriously as a skill,
not just hire a recruiter andkind of say good luck, try and
do good.
Erin Vallier (02:15):
Well, let's talk about all that.
I'd like to start with learninga bit more about CareWork.
Why did you start the company?
What do you provide?
Who are your clients?
All the stuff.
Rachel Gartner (02:31):
Let's learn a little bit about you both,
absolutely so.
My story to starting thisbusiness is a funny one.
I was planning on applying tomedical school or PA school.
I was a new mom, I had had mydaughter and we found out that
my husband, who is a traditionalpart-time National Guardsman at
the time, was going to bedeploying and we had to move
really suddenly and he was onorders and then he was going to
deploy and in that time I gotoffered a job as a
(02:55):
work-from-home recruiter for ahome care company and it went
really well.
I did have the experience Italk about for recruiters that I
don't want them to have, ofhere's an Indeed login.
Here's you need to be reallynice on the phone and there was
just there wasn't a lot ofstrategy behind it, there wasn't
a lot of data, but it was areally great company and I got
(03:15):
to work with them for a whileand really help them grow their
recruiting processes and itbecame evident pretty quickly
that we were really ontosomething and that it was a
repeatable process and I wasreally passionate about.
I want to start a business togive other military spouses and
other people who, for whateverreason, cannot work at a desk,
(03:36):
40 hours a week, the sameopportunities that I have and at
the same time, I'm a licensedCNA.
I had worked in CARESOM.
I had applied to work in homecare and had a really bad
experience with the recruitingprocess.
That really scared me that Iwas not going to be supported as
a caregiver, and I'm reallypassionate about working with
home care agencies to improvetheir recruiting processes to
(03:58):
make sure that every caregiverthat applies to work with them
has a great experience everytime, so that we can expand
access to care in thecommunities that need us.
People need home care and forus to fill that need, we have to
take recruiting reallyseriously and be very good at it
.
So we started back in 2018officially, and now we work all
(04:18):
over the country.
I have a team of over 70employees who work with us here
at CareWork and we do all of therecruiting until a qualified
caregiver walks in the country.
I have a team of over 70employees who work with us here
at CareWork and we do all of therecruiting until a qualified
caregiver walks in the door.
So we help agencies post theirjob ads, we call text screen
schedule, do all the day-to-daylegwork of recruiting.
We advise them on theirrecruiting strategy, track all
(04:40):
their data and our goal is tohelp agencies grow.
So I tell people, care work isa point of growth solution.
When an agency is meeting thatbottleneck where they can't
provide every applicant with agreat experience, that happens
for a brand new agency, whenit's just an owner doing it
themselves.
It happens again when afull-time recruiter can't do it
all themselves.
It happens again withmulti-location agencies or
(05:03):
really fast growing agencies.
Again with multi-locationagencies or really fast growing
agencies, we can come in andprovide a really scalable
recruiting team and make surethat this make or break skill is
being done well and being donewell consistently.
So that is what we do atCareWork and we love it.
We love it.
Erin Vallier (05:19):
I can tell you're super passionate about it and I
love a good inception story.
Again, you solve the problemswith the process.
You figured out how to repeatit and now you're helping to
solve a problem.
There's almost a half a millionpeople on wait lists for home
care.
We need to get some more careworkers in the door for sure.
Now you mentioned to me beforethe podcast you have a new
(05:41):
sister brand.
Is this a good time to talkabout that?
It's Hire Ed, correct.
Rachel Gartner (05:48):
Yes, we're so excited about Hire Ed.
I've worked so much over thepast several years.
We've put a ton of time andeffort into training for the
recruiters at CareWork onstrategy, best practices,
day-to-day workflow, logistics,job ads, what to say on the
phone, how to say it.
We've put so much time into itand as we've grown and I've
(06:11):
really gotten more involved inthe industry, traveling and
speaking I've been asked timeand time again could you just
come to my office and teach myrecruiters?
And I wish that I could,because I believe in elevating
this industry and elevating theway that we do recruiting.
HireE d is the answer to that.
To say yeah, we have helpedhome care agencies all across
the country hire over 25,000caregivers that we have
(06:31):
personally spoken to everysingle one of those 25,000.
So how do we take everythingwe've learned and make it
accessible for home carerecruiting teams if they're not
working with care work but theywant to know how we're doing
what we're doing?
learnhire.
com, that's where you can findmore information.
But we're so excited we'redoing an accelerator program
right now.
(06:52):
That's really small group,really deep work together and in
the beginning of next yearwe're going to be launching all
kinds of new programs to rollthat out.
So we are really excited.
Erin Vallier (07:02):
Oh, that's amazing .
We'll have to make sure that inthe show notes we have a link
to HireEd.
If you're sharing your secretsauce, like that's amazing, Now
let's get into the hiringprocess.
I know you're a big proponentof a caregiver first process.
Can you share what that reallyentails and what does it look
(07:23):
like in practice?
Rachel Gartner (07:24):
Absolutely, and I will try to not get too much
on my soapbox here.
But I'm so glad you asked thisfirst because I get a ton of
really specific logisticalquestions from agencies that
time and time again I come backto.
If you really embrace andunderstand the caregiver first
mindset, the logistical problemswill work themselves out.
(07:45):
So when we talk about acaregiver first hiring mindset
it's all the logistics of theprocess flow out of a mindset
that says we're going to put thecaregiver's needs first at
every point in the process andwe're going to do that without
judgment, which is the harderpart sometimes for people.
And this range is all throughyour hiring process.
So in job ads we're making surethat we're putting the
(08:05):
information the caregiver needs,that any information we're
giving about the agency we'redoing with the caregiver's
perspective in mind, not withour own perspective in mind.
And then all the logistics ofthe process.
We want to assume that everycaregiver that we are speaking
to is the best, highest qualityhire that we dream of, that's
going to be reliable, that'sgoing to provide incredible care
(08:25):
, and we're going to take thatmindset to every person that we
speak with and to the way webuild our process, and we're
going to do it without judging.
That I come across all the timeare things like if they can't
even get their paperwork donebefore they come to orientation,
I don't want to meet with them,or yeah, they'll just go down
the street for a dollar more anhour.
(08:46):
We want to take that and walkit back and say this person that
you're trying to hire can get ajob anywhere, anytime, and it's
not their responsibility tostaff your business.
That's your job.
If you want them to work foryou, you need to make it the
best place to work and we needto get out of this mindset that
there's something wrong if apotential hire goes no, I don't
(09:08):
want to work here because thisother place pays a dollar more
an hour which I've heard all thetime and I want to come back
and go.
No, let's put that caregiverfirst mindset on without
judgment and think, if I was indire financial straits, if I was
desperate to find a job and wehave no idea where they're
coming from they could be comingfrom a really toxic workplace.
They could be coming fromsomeone who told them they were
going to get plenty of hours andthey didn't.
(09:30):
We're not going to judge, butif I'm at a point where I'm
struggling to put gas in the caror to pay the bills to keep the
lights on, a dollar more anhour makes a really big
difference.
So this caregiver first mindsetcomes back to this idea that
it's not their job to staff mybusiness.
That's my job.
And throughout the entireprocess, without judging or
(09:50):
putting down caregivers, I'mgoing to put their needs first.
If somebody is going to riskwasting their time, okay, the
paperwork thing, the paperwork,the process.
A lot of times I don't want tomeet with somebody if they don't
have their paperwork done.
It's a waste of my time.
You've protected yourself fromwasting your time by asking the
caregiver fill out all thispaperwork for a job you don't
(10:11):
even know if you're going to getyet for a place.
You don't even know if you wantto work.
So we're transferring all thatrisk to the caregiver and
caregiver first.
If you get that mindset thatwe're going to treat every
single person that I interactwith like they're the best
person, like I trust them, likeI respect them not just saying
it but actually doing itEverything else in your hiring
(10:32):
process will align better.
If you come back to that everysingle time.
What's the best way at thisstep, I can put this person
first, not myself.
Erin Vallier (10:40):
That's a great perspective, because you hit on
a really important point.
They don't make a lot of money.
The median annual earning for acare worker is like 22
grand-ish.
A lot of them need federalassistance, public assistance of
some sort.
A lot of them don't even havehealth coverage and they live
below poverty level.
A lot of them don't even havehealth coverage and they live
(11:02):
below poverty level.
So we do need to take a reallyempathetic and caring stance for
them.
I think the challenging part ison the provider side.
We're also being crunched forreimbursement rates.
So can you speak a little bitmore about how to balance that
that caregiver first, but alsokeeping in mind that I might not
be able to offer healthcareinsurance or whatever?
(11:23):
How does that translate intothe process for you guys?
Rachel Gartner (11:27):
Absolutely.
I know that's a really hard.
You're stuck between a rock anda hard place for so many people
and so many providers.
I completely understand that.
I think, first of all beinghonest with yourself about what
you can do, because some of thebusinesses that I have seen grow
the largest and provideincredible care in their
communities are charging themost if they're on the private
(11:49):
pay side and if they're not,they are so intentional about
their costs in other areas ofthe business to say my first
priority is how I'm going to paythe people providing the care.
Say my first priority is howI'm going to pay the people
providing the care.
Everything else comes second tothat and that takes ongoing
vigilance to watch other areasof the business.
But when there are things thatyou want to be able to offer and
can't, or you want to raise payand you can't, a lot of it
(12:12):
comes down to communication.
So when we think about thebusiness wanting to be
competitive to attract thesepotential hires, if you can't
compete on benefits with, say,amazon or Target or fast food,
compete on the environment,compete on the way that you
treat them, compete on thedifference they can make in
people's lives and don't justsay the words, truly live that
(12:34):
out.
So communicate early in thehiring process.
Be transparent.
This is the pay that we offer.
This is what we can offerbenefits wise and then make sure
that at every step, you'reactually living out the culture
that you're telling them about.
We're going to treat you reallywell.
We're going to work around yourschedule.
We're going to prioritize yourneeds.
We're going to be upfront withyou and compete on that and then
(12:56):
provide them the support theyneed to provide excellent care,
because so many care workerswant to provide better care and
maybe coming from a situationwhere they felt like they did
not have the support or they hadtoo many patients they were
trying to care for at once.
Give them the communication ofyes, this is where we're limited
pay.
Here's how we're going tosupport you in truly making a
(13:18):
difference in somebody's life.
Here's the training that weoffer.
Here's how you can reach out tous if you have questions.
Compete in all the other areasthat you can and communicate
honestly about it.
Don't try and be shady and putthese vague statements in job
ads oh, we offer competitive paybecause you're ashamed.
Be upfront about your pay andcommunicate about the other
(13:41):
areas that make this a greatplace to work.
Erin Vallier (13:44):
Yeah, that's a great point.
It's not always about thedollars, although they do matter
.
I know that people stay at acompany because they love the
people and love the culture.
Self-included.
I have stayed in places where Iwas like, why am I working for
this dollar per hour amount?
But I just loved what I wasdoing and who I was doing it
with so much.
That really meant a lot to mein terms of enjoyment of life.
(14:08):
Right, let's take this a littlebit further.
On the provider side, I've runinto this myself where you hire
a caregiver and they're likeI'll work 24, 7, 8 days a week
and then when they actually getinto being scheduled, they only
want to work the third Tuesdayof the month from four to 7 pm.
Like, how do you have thiscaregiver first hiring process
(14:32):
while managing the risk ofhiring somebody who initially
appears very eager but then theydon't follow through on that
commitment.
Rachel Gartner (14:40):
I have so many ideas for where we could go with
this, but first I just want toshare an overarching principle
that I try to encourage peopleon in recruiting is that we have
to have two I don't want to saymodes of attack, but two
planning strategies.
We have to look first of all atthe long term.
How do I improve this so thatover time, I am attracting more
(15:01):
and more people who will staywith me, who will work the
longer hours?
That's a long term strategy.
The short term strategy toensure you have adequate
staffing is how do I recognizethe reality in front of me and
plan for it?
And that's where this conceptthat I call quality through
quantity comes in.
If we look at it and go out, ofall these people I hire, it's a
fairly small percentage ofpeople that stick with me for
(15:23):
the long term, that truly havethe availability, that truly do
this.
The hope that we all have iswe're going to build this
magical hiring process where wedon't get anybody through the
door who doesn't work out.
The reality is there are goingto be a lot of those people and
it's, frankly, very hard topredict.
We have all interviewedsomebody that was phenomenal and
then didn't work out.
And on the flip side, peoplewho you go oh, I don't know, I'm
(15:46):
going to give them a chance andthen they're the best employee
you've ever had.
So the quality through quantitycomes from this.
We can't really predict itearly in the hiring process.
So to plan as a business, we'regoing to just factor that in
that we're going to have to geta lot of quantity, a lot of
people in the door to find thequality people that do work out.
We're going to factor into ourplanning that a certain
(16:07):
percentage of these people arenot going to have the
availability and then we'regoing to build our hiring
process so that need forquantity isn't a huge day-to-day
burden and time suck for ouremployees.
How do we build a process thatsays this has to be efficient
because we have to get a lot ofpeople through the door to find
the right hires?
So we start with this long-term, I want to improve by
(16:28):
attracting higher quality people.
Short-term, I need to plan forwhat's in front of me, which
means I need a lot of quantityto find the quality.
I need to build a reallyefficient hiring process that
can support that.
Erin Vallier (16:40):
Gotcha.
So you're planning for a fairamount of attrition, because not
everybody's going to shake out.
Is there a formula, apercentage that you can map your
brain around?
Rachel Gartner (16:49):
Yeah, it's really straightforward math.
So for an agency, what you'regoing to do is look at how many
people have I been hiring andhow many of them worked out, and
that's my percentage of peoplethat work out, and we come back
to this concept.
If you look at it and go,that's terrible.
Okay, Long-term, we want toimprove that.
We want to improve ourretention.
(17:09):
We want to improve all of this.
Short-term, right now, this ishow many people I have to hire
to find the ones that stickaround.
I'm going to hire that manypeople.
What too many agencies do isthey get so set on what I'm
considering a long-term plan.
How do I improve the reality infront of me that they don't
plan for what's in front of themand they miss their hiring
(17:30):
goals month after month.
Because it's a wish I did get25 people to schedule interviews
.
If they had shown up, we wouldhave been fine.
They didn't.
I did get 15 people throughorientation.
If they would actually work, Iwould have been fine.
Well, they didn't.
How many months are we going todo the same thing and go?
But next month if the peoplewho get through orientation are
all work out and go.
(17:51):
But next month if the peoplewho get through orientation are
all work out, we'll be fine.
That's a long term.
Short term, this is what it is.
You need to backwards plan yournumbers to know your applicant
target and plan for yourrecruiting team, and all of that
around the reality, even thoughdoing that math can be a little
bit depressing.
It's not fun to look at thosenumbers.
Erin Vallier (18:12):
No, but what's common among the 80% that did
not work out?
Do you help?
Rachel Gartner (18:21):
people diagnose their problem and help them fix
it as well.
Yes, we absolutely do, and atCareWork, if we're not getting
enough people in the door thatwork out, we lose our customers.
So it's personal to us how dowe give them this advice?
What's tough is a lot of timespeople don't like the advice at
first.
Our best, longest standingpartnerships are people who go
wow, I had never thought of itthat way, but I'm willing to
(18:42):
give it a try.
Because what happens is peopleget so burnt out on that 80%
that don't work out that theystart building their hiring
process to weed out those 80%and they end up repelling a lot
of people that would have beengood hires and just went
somewhere else.
Because they call and go okay,it's nice to meet, I'm going to
send you all this paperwork andonce you get it done, then we
(19:03):
can schedule your next step.
And then somebody else callsthe same person and goes hey,
it's so great to meet you, Canyou come in tomorrow morning?
We'll do your paperworktogether.
I'm going to have a coffeeready for you and the agency
that's going no, don't come inuntil you have it done.
They're building a process tosay I don't want to waste my
time on the 80% of people thataren't going to get it done and
the other agency is buildingtheir process on.
(19:24):
I want to be so friendly, that20% that is going to work out
feels welcomed and invited andcared for, and that's who's
going to win out in the end.
Erin Vallier (19:35):
It's really more of a customer service job than a
recruiting job in some aspects.
Right yeah, sales and customerservice.
So for agencies who arestruggling to even get that 80%,
that's going to not work out.
Where can you findnon-traditional sources for your
caregiving candidates?
(19:55):
Do you have any advice there?
Rachel Gartner (19:58):
I do.
I'm going to start with onethat's not at all non
traditional but is neglected,and that's referral programs.
I can't tell you the number oftimes I've been on a strategy
call with an agency and said,what's your referral bonus?
And they go oh I know we haveone and they kind of look around
each other.
Do you know what it is?
If you don't know what it is, Iguarantee your caregivers don't
(20:19):
know what it is.
So I would start first of allwith really well funding a
referral program and the kind ofcost target I like to give
people is spend twice whatyou're spending on your cost per
hire on online job ads.
So if you're running online jobads and your cost per hire
there is about $300, spend 600on your referral program in
total, because we know that theretention is so much better for
(20:40):
referred caregivers.
And then, to get creative evenwith that, I love seasonal
pushes for the referral program.
So I just spoke to somebody acouple months ago that said,
yeah, we do a big referral pushand I think it was September of
every year, end of August, earlySeptember with the mindset that
they're going to get a bonus at90 days and they can get it
right before Christmas.
So they did a whole Christmasthemed referral push that can
(21:03):
work for sign-on bonuses as well.
And then one little lastcreative thing that we find is
really small incentives.
One little last creative thingthat we find is really small
incentives.
Our favorite example is thecandy bar.
At the interview or atorientation they were asking on
a phone screen what's yourfavorite candy bar?
Oh, that's so great.
I'm going to have that for youtomorrow.
There are a hundred little waysthat you can add, even
(21:24):
non-expensive ways to show thiscare and concern.
Start with your referralprogram all day, every day.
Start with your referralprogram and see if it's actually
being used and communicated andtracked and well funded.
I think most providers would bebest served to start there
before trying to get into reallyoff-the-wall ideas.
Erin Vallier (21:47):
I think that's great advice, but do you have
any off the wall ideas thatcould also work for people?
Rachel Gartner (21:53):
Yeah, I've seen some really cool ideas to
attract walk-ins.
So one agency did a MarchMadness thing where they put out
signs in the community thatwere March Madness hiring and if
you come in, we're going togive you a basketball or
something.
I think those can be really fun.
I love anything seasonal likethat If you can't fun.
I love anything seasonal likethat If you can't tell.
I love these seasonal ideasthat are fun.
(22:14):
They attract more attention.
Community partnerships can begreat.
I've spoken to some providerswho have great relationships
with each other to say, if youget an applicant and they're on
the east side of your market,too far, you send them my way,
and if I get somebody that's toofar west, I'll send them your
way.
So I think the partnershipsbetween different providers are
often underlooked.
(22:35):
I've worked with people who say, yeah, I have two or three
people that we all know ourworkers need more hours.
And we talk to them and say,hey, if you need another shift,
let me talk to some otheragencies I know in the area.
See if they can get you those.
And they work together toretain the employees but share
between them.
And then the last one is socialmedia, often underutilized,
(22:58):
especially after Facebook, jobswent away.
But you can create even a localFacebook page to find great
jobs in this town and kind ofrun it yourself, feature other
opportunities in the area, butmaybe primarily push your
business and create resourcesthere that functions to the
person coming to the group, ashere are some resources if
(23:19):
you're looking for work in ourtown and then for you as the
business, you can share youropportunities frequently and
also get feedback.
It's a fair amount of work tomanage, but it can be really
impactful.
Erin Vallier (23:33):
Those are great recommendations.
Thank you so much for sharing.
I'm going to pivot just alittle bit because I read
recently that technology andpower recruiting and onboarding
processes are going to be realcrucial for attracting top
talent, and I'm already seeingan increased use of automation
and some AI tools.
But we're in the home carespace it's the people business,
(23:57):
right.
So I'm curious what youropinion is of the processes that
leverage some of thatautomation and the AI.
How can agencies with limitedstaff use these tools but not
lose the personal touch aspectthat you've been selling to me
this whole time, which soundsappealing Like if I'm going to
get a candy bar when I gointerview?
(24:17):
Heck, yeah, I'm going to showup.
Rachel Gartner (24:20):
No, I love the human connection and there's
data that supports that.
It's one of the top reasonscaregivers choose a job is
feeling connected with therecruiter.
So our mindset towards AI andautomation, first of all, it's
very exciting I've gotten reallyinto AI stuff this year how we
can use it.
We're definitely exploring thatat CareWork and we've started
(24:41):
just with internal tools tosupport our team with chatbots
that read all of our training sothey can ask a question and
things like that.
But I think in the recruitingspace and in home care, we do
want to keep the human elementto it, and that's a
differentiator, for care work ishey, we're going to do it all
for you, but it's real humansthat are going to do it.
We do use automation and AI tosupport the human interaction.
(25:04):
So I think for providers, thatwould be my challenge Make sure
you're not signing up forsomething like this with the
idea that you're not gonna haveto touch it, because, first of
all, it's not true.
Any of these tools need to havea human being checking on them
engaging in it.
They need somebody to pick upthe phone and say hey, I saw
that you started to schedule andyou didn't complete it.
(25:24):
Our heart behind it is how dowe use automation and AI to
increase human connection, notreplace it?
Use automation and AI toincrease human connection, not
replace it.
But I think it would be foolishto put our heads in the sand
and say, oh, we'll just have ahuman do it.
We are big believers intechnology, so we start with
tools that track the dailyworkflow for our recruiters,
that make it really easy forthem to see this is who needs to
(25:46):
be called today.
This is what needs to be done.
We automate outgoing messages.
These outgoing messages.
Hey, it's Rachel.
I haven't heard from you in awhile, but we still have work
available.
I'd love to speak with you.
We automate those outgoingmessages, but the way we have it
set up is when they reply, it'sa real human that they're going
to talk to.
So there's a whole spectrum ofways to implement it, but make
(26:08):
sure, whenever you're using atool like this, you have
somebody in your business whoseprimary job is to monitor it and
take care of it, because theydon't take care of themselves.
These tech tools need somebodyto log in, make adjustments,
reach out for support from thesoftware company from time to
time.
Make sure that you have a humanavailable, that if your
(26:29):
applicant wants to speak to ahuman, they always can, so
that's made available to them.
And really use these tools toautomate all the things that
aren't actually human connection, because sending a text to
every single applicant everythree months is not human
connection.
So automate the outgoing partsof it and then automate and use
AI to make us better at our jobs, and I'm talking about things
(26:53):
like quality assurance, onlinelead magnets.
There's a hundred ways agenciesand providers could do that.
Erin Vallier (27:00):
I love that advice .
Just the task stuff, thebrainless task stuff that is
very cold and impersonal.
Automate that and use the toolto get the other person in front
of you so that you can havethat connection.
I think that's great advice.
And I just have one morequestion for you, as we are
getting close to time, becauseyou've given so much good advice
(27:21):
today.
I want to know what the singlemost important thing agencies
can start doing today to improvetheir hiring process.
Rachel Gartner (27:30):
I'm so glad you asked that.
This is something that I talkabout all the time and it's
track, the metrics of yourhiring process.
If anybody listening has heardme speak, they've heard me talk
about this.
I will never get in front ofpeople and not say start
tracking your metrics themetrics that we like to look at
just as a baseline for yourfunnel of recruiting how many
(27:51):
applicants are you getting, howmany book a time to come in
either for interview ororientation, how many of those
show up, how many complete thehiring process and what are we
spending to attract theseapplicants?
A lot of times, agencies wait tofind this information until
they have a problem and thenthey're going back and trying to
pull reports and find it, andthe problem is it's not going to
(28:12):
be as accurate.
So what we really recommend topeople is start some kind of a
spreadsheet, start a simpletracker, and I know there are
people out there that aretracking like we called seven
times and we texted 100 peopletoday.
It's really easy to get caughtup in that stuff.
Fundamentally, where are yourapplicants coming from, how many
are making it through theprocess, and then what that does
(28:35):
is it illuminates where tofocus, because in recruiting and
we've covered a lot of thistoday but there's so many more
things you could do to improvehiring different tools that you
can try, including those AI andautomation tools different
companies, you can try differentstrategies, different pay rates
, and what happens is providersgo out and they hear this great
advice and they go.
(28:55):
I'm going to try that.
I'm going to invest my time andmoney in that, but it may
address a part of the hiringfunnel where this particular
business is already performingabove the national average and
doing really well and they'reunlikely to see that move the
needle very much and they'lltalk to somebody and go oh, it
worked really well for thatperson, but it didn't work that
well for me and it's because itaddresses an area that they're
(29:16):
not struggling.
If you have your funnel metricsthat I'm talking about, it's
much easier to zero in and go oh, our percentage of people who
book an interview is too low.
We need to look at tools thatget the applicants to engage in
that first step of the process.
That's where we need to focus.
Or people are bookinginterviews but they're not
showing up.
(29:36):
We need to focus specificallyon getting more people from that
to walking in the door.
They're not completingorientation.
Why not?
How can we make it faster, makeit better?
And it helps providers who haveso many things they're trying to
do and fires they're trying toput out and amazing things
they're trying to do and firesthey're trying to put out and
amazing things they're trying todo.
Tracking these metrics givesthem a baseline to know when to
(29:56):
pay more attention and where toput their time and resources,
because we can't put themeverywhere and every recruiting
tool out there is not for everyprovider.
So tracking the metrics givesthem an area to focus on their
energy and a baseline so that ifthings change, they're not
going.
We used to get 20 people amonth, now we're only getting 10
.
The recruiter's really bad attheir job.
Hey, we used to get 20 a month,now we're getting 10.
(30:19):
Where in the funnel did itchange?
What changes do we make thatimpacted that metric?
That's where we need to focusour time.
So data I like people to trackit every week and then, once you
have that, you can do so muchwith that information.
Erin Vallier (30:33):
So everybody, you've heard it from Rachel If
it's not measured, it's notmanaged.
Yep, it's fantastic.
So, rachel, if folks want toget in touch with you after this
, how can they best reach you?
Rachel Gartner (30:45):
Absolutely we have.
Our website is careworkus.
com.
You can book a strategy callwith us.
There.
You can find all kinds ofresources for what we do and I
would encourage people to dothat if you wanna learn more
about CareWorks services.
But also just do that.
If you're like I don't knowwhat we're doing wrong, I'm not
sure.
If there's a problem, we wouldlove to chat about that with you
(31:07):
.
And then learnhireedcom, andthat's hirehireedcom.
That's where they can findinformation about our recruiter
training.
So if you have a greatrecruiter that you love and you
feel like maybe I have justthrown them to the wolves a
little sink or swim a little,hey, here's our login go try and
do it.
We would love to help them withsome professional development
(31:30):
to really become excellentrecruiters and help our industry
grow and meet the need for care.
Erin Vallier (31:37):
Wonderful Again.
Thank you so much for your time, Rachel.
This has been such a wonderfulconversation.
Rachel Gartner (31:43):
Thank you so much, Erin.
Erin Vallier (31:46):
HomeHealth 360 is presented by AlayaCare and
hosted by Erin Vallier.
First, we want to thank ouramazing guests and listeners.
Second, new episodes air everymonth, so be sure to subscribe
today so you don't miss anepisode.
And, last but not least, if youlike this episode and want to
learn more about all thingshome-based care, you can explore
(32:07):
all of our episodes atalayacare.
com/ homehealth360 or visit uson your favorite podcast
platform.
It's really straightforward math.
So for an agency, what you'regoing to do is look at how many
people have I been hiring andhow many of them worked out, and
that's my percentage of peoplethat work out, and we come back
to this concept.
If you look at it and go that'sterrible.
Okay.
Long-term, we want to improvethat.
We want to improve ourretention.
We want to improve all of this.
(00:21):
Short-term, right now, this ishow many people I have to hire
to find the ones that stickaround.
I'm going to hire that manypeople.
What too many agencies do isthey get so set on what I'm
considering a long term plan.
How do I improve the reality infront of me that they don't
plan for what's in front of themand they miss their hiring
goals month after month becauseit's a wish.
Erin Vallier (00:58):
Welcome to another episode of the Home Health 360
podcast, where we speak tohome-based care professionals
from around the globe.
I'm your host, Erin Vallier,and today we are joined by
Rachel Gartner, founder and CEOof CareWork and CareWork's
sister brand, Hire Ed.
Rachel founded CareWork in 2018after working as a home care
recruiter.
I'm sure she saw all theproblems she needed to solve,
(01:21):
and now she is an army wife, amom of two and currently lives
in Statesboro.
Thank you so much for joiningtoday, Rachel.
Rachel Gartner (01:28):
Thank you so much for having me, Erin.
I'm excited to be here.
Erin Vallier (01:31):
Yeah, this is going to be a really important
conversation because the demandfor home care continues to
increase year over year.
I think I read Home Health CareNews predicts that by 2040,
we're going to need somethinglike a million care workers and
we're already at a huge deficitgoing into 2025.
So I think nailing down therecruitment process, which is
(01:53):
what we're talking about today,is going to be monumental for
agencies as we enter into thenew year.
Rachel Gartner (02:00):
Absolutely.
I tell people it's the make orbreak skill of if you're going
to have a successful home careagency or not is how well can
you recruit.
But people have to actuallytake it seriously as a skill,
not just hire a recruiter andkind of say good luck, try and
do good.
Erin Vallier (02:15):
Well, let's talk about all that.
I'd like to start with learninga bit more about CareWork.
Why did you start the company?
What do you provide?
Who are your clients?
All the stuff.
Rachel Gartner (02:31):
Let's learn a little bit about you both,
absolutely so.
My story to starting thisbusiness is a funny one.
I was planning on applying tomedical school or PA school.
I was a new mom, I had had mydaughter and we found out that
my husband, who is a traditionalpart-time National Guardsman at
the time, was going to bedeploying and we had to move
really suddenly and he was onorders and then he was going to
deploy and in that time I gotoffered a job as a
(02:55):
work-from-home recruiter for ahome care company and it went
really well.
I did have the experience Italk about for recruiters that I
don't want them to have, ofhere's an Indeed login.
Here's you need to be reallynice on the phone and there was
just there wasn't a lot ofstrategy behind it, there wasn't
a lot of data, but it was areally great company and I got
(03:15):
to work with them for a whileand really help them grow their
recruiting processes and itbecame evident pretty quickly
that we were really ontosomething and that it was a
repeatable process and I wasreally passionate about.
I want to start a business togive other military spouses and
other people who, for whateverreason, cannot work at a desk,
(03:36):
40 hours a week, the sameopportunities that I have and at
the same time, I'm a licensedCNA.
I had worked in CARESOM.
I had applied to work in homecare and had a really bad
experience with the recruitingprocess.
That really scared me that Iwas not going to be supported as
a caregiver, and I'm reallypassionate about working with
home care agencies to improvetheir recruiting processes to
(03:58):
make sure that every caregiverthat applies to work with them
has a great experience everytime, so that we can expand
access to care in thecommunities that need us.
People need home care and forus to fill that need, we have to
take recruiting reallyseriously and be very good at it
.
So we started back in 2018officially, and now we work all
(04:18):
over the country.
I have a team of over 70employees who work with us here
at CareWork and we do all of therecruiting until a qualified
caregiver walks in the country.
I have a team of over 70employees who work with us here
at CareWork and we do all of therecruiting until a qualified
caregiver walks in the door.
So we help agencies post theirjob ads, we call text screen
schedule, do all the day-to-daylegwork of recruiting.
We advise them on theirrecruiting strategy, track all
(04:40):
their data and our goal is tohelp agencies grow.
So I tell people, care work isa point of growth solution.
When an agency is meeting thatbottleneck where they can't
provide every applicant with agreat experience, that happens
for a brand new agency, whenit's just an owner doing it
themselves.
It happens again when afull-time recruiter can't do it
all themselves.
It happens again withmulti-location agencies or
(05:03):
really fast growing agencies.
Again with multi-locationagencies or really fast growing
agencies, we can come in andprovide a really scalable
recruiting team and make surethat this make or break skill is
being done well and being donewell consistently.
So that is what we do atCareWork and we love it.
We love it.
Erin Vallier (05:19):
I can tell you're super passionate about it and I
love a good inception story.
Again, you solve the problemswith the process.
You figured out how to repeatit and now you're helping to
solve a problem.
There's almost a half a millionpeople on wait lists for home
care.
We need to get some more careworkers in the door for sure.
Now you mentioned to me beforethe podcast you have a new
(05:41):
sister brand.
Is this a good time to talkabout that?
It's Hire Ed, correct.
Rachel Gartner (05:48):
Yes, we're so excited about Hire Ed.
I've worked so much over thepast several years.
We've put a ton of time andeffort into training for the
recruiters at CareWork onstrategy, best practices,
day-to-day workflow, logistics,job ads, what to say on the
phone, how to say it.
We've put so much time into itand as we've grown and I've
(06:11):
really gotten more involved inthe industry, traveling and
speaking I've been asked timeand time again could you just
come to my office and teach myrecruiters?
And I wish that I could,because I believe in elevating
this industry and elevating theway that we do recruiting.
HireE d is the answer to that.
To say yeah, we have helpedhome care agencies all across
the country hire over 25,000caregivers that we have
(06:31):
personally spoken to everysingle one of those 25,000.
So how do we take everythingwe've learned and make it
accessible for home carerecruiting teams if they're not
working with care work but theywant to know how we're doing
what we're doing?
learnhire.
com, that's where you can findmore information.
But we're so excited we'redoing an accelerator program
right now.
(06:52):
That's really small group,really deep work together and in
the beginning of next yearwe're going to be launching all
kinds of new programs to rollthat out.
So we are really excited.
Erin Vallier (07:02):
Oh, that's amazing .
We'll have to make sure that inthe show notes we have a link
to HireEd.
If you're sharing your secretsauce, like that's amazing, Now
let's get into the hiringprocess.
I know you're a big proponentof a caregiver first process.
Can you share what that reallyentails and what does it look
(07:23):
like in practice?
Rachel Gartner (07:24):
Absolutely, and I will try to not get too much
on my soapbox here.
But I'm so glad you asked thisfirst because I get a ton of
really specific logisticalquestions from agencies that
time and time again I come backto.
If you really embrace andunderstand the caregiver first
mindset, the logistical problemswill work themselves out.
(07:45):
So when we talk about acaregiver first hiring mindset
it's all the logistics of theprocess flow out of a mindset
that says we're going to put thecaregiver's needs first at
every point in the process andwe're going to do that without
judgment, which is the harderpart sometimes for people.
And this range is all throughyour hiring process.
So in job ads we're making surethat we're putting the
(08:05):
information the caregiver needs,that any information we're
giving about the agency we'redoing with the caregiver's
perspective in mind, not withour own perspective in mind.
And then all the logistics ofthe process.
We want to assume that everycaregiver that we are speaking
to is the best, highest qualityhire that we dream of, that's
going to be reliable, that'sgoing to provide incredible care
(08:25):
, and we're going to take thatmindset to every person that we
speak with and to the way webuild our process, and we're
going to do it without judging.
That I come across all the timeare things like if they can't
even get their paperwork donebefore they come to orientation,
I don't want to meet with them,or yeah, they'll just go down
the street for a dollar more anhour.
(08:46):
We want to take that and walkit back and say this person that
you're trying to hire can get ajob anywhere, anytime, and it's
not their responsibility tostaff your business.
That's your job.
If you want them to work foryou, you need to make it the
best place to work and we needto get out of this mindset that
there's something wrong if apotential hire goes no, I don't
(09:08):
want to work here because thisother place pays a dollar more
an hour which I've heard all thetime and I want to come back
and go.
No, let's put that caregiverfirst mindset on without
judgment and think, if I was indire financial straits, if I was
desperate to find a job and wehave no idea where they're
coming from they could be comingfrom a really toxic workplace.
They could be coming fromsomeone who told them they were
going to get plenty of hours andthey didn't.
(09:30):
We're not going to judge, butif I'm at a point where I'm
struggling to put gas in the caror to pay the bills to keep the
lights on, a dollar more anhour makes a really big
difference.
So this caregiver first mindsetcomes back to this idea that
it's not their job to staff mybusiness.
That's my job.
And throughout the entireprocess, without judging or
(09:50):
putting down caregivers, I'mgoing to put their needs first.
If somebody is going to riskwasting their time, okay, the
paperwork thing, the paperwork,the process.
A lot of times I don't want tomeet with somebody if they don't
have their paperwork done.
It's a waste of my time.
You've protected yourself fromwasting your time by asking the
caregiver fill out all thispaperwork for a job you don't
(10:11):
even know if you're going to getyet for a place.
You don't even know if you wantto work.
So we're transferring all thatrisk to the caregiver and
caregiver first.
If you get that mindset thatwe're going to treat every
single person that I interactwith like they're the best
person, like I trust them, likeI respect them not just saying
it but actually doing itEverything else in your hiring
(10:32):
process will align better.
If you come back to that everysingle time.
What's the best way at thisstep, I can put this person
first, not myself.
Erin Vallier (10:40):
That's a great perspective, because you hit on
a really important point.
They don't make a lot of money.
The median annual earning for acare worker is like 22
grand-ish.
A lot of them need federalassistance, public assistance of
some sort.
A lot of them don't even havehealth coverage and they live
below poverty level.
A lot of them don't even havehealth coverage and they live
(11:02):
below poverty level.
So we do need to take a reallyempathetic and caring stance for
them.
I think the challenging part ison the provider side.
We're also being crunched forreimbursement rates.
So can you speak a little bitmore about how to balance that
that caregiver first, but alsokeeping in mind that I might not
be able to offer healthcareinsurance or whatever?
(11:23):
How does that translate intothe process for you guys?
Rachel Gartner (11:27):
Absolutely.
I know that's a really hard.
You're stuck between a rock anda hard place for so many people
and so many providers.
I completely understand that.
I think, first of all beinghonest with yourself about what
you can do, because some of thebusinesses that I have seen grow
the largest and provideincredible care in their
communities are charging themost if they're on the private
(11:49):
pay side and if they're not,they are so intentional about
their costs in other areas ofthe business to say my first
priority is how I'm going to paythe people providing the care.
Say my first priority is howI'm going to pay the people
providing the care.
Everything else comes second tothat and that takes ongoing
vigilance to watch other areasof the business.
But when there are things thatyou want to be able to offer and
can't, or you want to raise payand you can't, a lot of it
(12:12):
comes down to communication.
So when we think about thebusiness wanting to be
competitive to attract thesepotential hires, if you can't
compete on benefits with, say,amazon or Target or fast food,
compete on the environment,compete on the way that you
treat them, compete on thedifference they can make in
people's lives and don't justsay the words, truly live that
(12:34):
out.
So communicate early in thehiring process.
Be transparent.
This is the pay that we offer.
This is what we can offerbenefits wise and then make sure
that at every step, you'reactually living out the culture
that you're telling them about.
We're going to treat you reallywell.
We're going to work around yourschedule.
We're going to prioritize yourneeds.
We're going to be upfront withyou and compete on that and then
(12:56):
provide them the support theyneed to provide excellent care,
because so many care workerswant to provide better care and
maybe coming from a situationwhere they felt like they did
not have the support or they hadtoo many patients they were
trying to care for at once.
Give them the communication ofyes, this is where we're limited
pay.
Here's how we're going tosupport you in truly making a
(13:18):
difference in somebody's life.
Here's the training that weoffer.
Here's how you can reach out tous if you have questions.
Compete in all the other areasthat you can and communicate
honestly about it.
Don't try and be shady and putthese vague statements in job
ads oh, we offer competitive paybecause you're ashamed.
Be upfront about your pay andcommunicate about the other
(13:41):
areas that make this a greatplace to work.
Erin Vallier (13:44):
Yeah, that's a great point.
It's not always about thedollars, although they do matter
.
I know that people stay at acompany because they love the
people and love the culture.
Self-included.
I have stayed in places where Iwas like, why am I working for
this dollar per hour amount?
But I just loved what I wasdoing and who I was doing it
with so much.
That really meant a lot to mein terms of enjoyment of life.
(14:08):
Right, let's take this a littlebit further.
On the provider side, I've runinto this myself where you hire
a caregiver and they're likeI'll work 24, 7, 8 days a week
and then when they actually getinto being scheduled, they only
want to work the third Tuesdayof the month from four to 7 pm.
Like, how do you have thiscaregiver first hiring process
(14:32):
while managing the risk ofhiring somebody who initially
appears very eager but then theydon't follow through on that
commitment.
Rachel Gartner (14:40):
I have so many ideas for where we could go with
this, but first I just want toshare an overarching principle
that I try to encourage peopleon in recruiting is that we have
to have two I don't want to saymodes of attack, but two
planning strategies.
We have to look first of all atthe long term.
How do I improve this so thatover time, I am attracting more
(15:01):
and more people who will staywith me, who will work the
longer hours?
That's a long term strategy.
The short term strategy toensure you have adequate
staffing is how do I recognizethe reality in front of me and
plan for it?
And that's where this conceptthat I call quality through
quantity comes in.
If we look at it and go out, ofall these people I hire, it's a
fairly small percentage ofpeople that stick with me for
(15:23):
the long term, that truly havethe availability, that truly do
this.
The hope that we all have iswe're going to build this
magical hiring process where wedon't get anybody through the
door who doesn't work out.
The reality is there are goingto be a lot of those people and
it's, frankly, very hard topredict.
We have all interviewedsomebody that was phenomenal and
then didn't work out.
And on the flip side, peoplewho you go oh, I don't know, I'm
(15:46):
going to give them a chance andthen they're the best employee
you've ever had.
So the quality through quantitycomes from this.
We can't really predict itearly in the hiring process.
So to plan as a business, we'regoing to just factor that in
that we're going to have to geta lot of quantity, a lot of
people in the door to find thequality people that do work out.
We're going to factor into ourplanning that a certain
(16:07):
percentage of these people arenot going to have the
availability and then we'regoing to build our hiring
process so that need forquantity isn't a huge day-to-day
burden and time suck for ouremployees.
How do we build a process thatsays this has to be efficient
because we have to get a lot ofpeople through the door to find
the right hires?
So we start with this long-term, I want to improve by
(16:28):
attracting higher quality people.
Short-term, I need to plan forwhat's in front of me, which
means I need a lot of quantityto find the quality.
I need to build a reallyefficient hiring process that
can support that.
Erin Vallier (16:40):
Gotcha.
So you're planning for a fairamount of attrition, because not
everybody's going to shake out.
Is there a formula, apercentage that you can map your
brain around?
Rachel Gartner (16:49):
Yeah, it's really straightforward math.
So for an agency, what you'regoing to do is look at how many
people have I been hiring andhow many of them worked out, and
that's my percentage of peoplethat work out, and we come back
to this concept.
If you look at it and go,that's terrible.
Okay, Long-term, we want toimprove that.
We want to improve ourretention.
(17:09):
We want to improve all of this.
Short-term, right now, this ishow many people I have to hire
to find the ones that stickaround.
I'm going to hire that manypeople.
What too many agencies do isthey get so set on what I'm
considering a long-term plan.
How do I improve the reality infront of me that they don't
plan for what's in front of themand they miss their hiring
(17:30):
goals month after month.
Because it's a wish I did get25 people to schedule interviews
.
If they had shown up, we wouldhave been fine.
They didn't.
I did get 15 people throughorientation.
If they would actually work, Iwould have been fine.
Well, they didn't.
How many months are we going todo the same thing and go?
But next month if the peoplewho get through orientation are
all work out and go.
(17:51):
But next month if the peoplewho get through orientation are
all work out, we'll be fine.
That's a long term.
Short term, this is what it is.
You need to backwards plan yournumbers to know your applicant
target and plan for yourrecruiting team, and all of that
around the reality, even thoughdoing that math can be a little
bit depressing.
It's not fun to look at thosenumbers.
Erin Vallier (18:12):
No, but what's common among the 80% that did
not work out?
Do you help?
Rachel Gartner (18:21):
people diagnose their problem and help them fix
it as well.
Yes, we absolutely do, and atCareWork, if we're not getting
enough people in the door thatwork out, we lose our customers.
So it's personal to us how dowe give them this advice?
What's tough is a lot of timespeople don't like the advice at
first.
Our best, longest standingpartnerships are people who go
wow, I had never thought of itthat way, but I'm willing to
(18:42):
give it a try.
Because what happens is peopleget so burnt out on that 80%
that don't work out that theystart building their hiring
process to weed out those 80%and they end up repelling a lot
of people that would have beengood hires and just went
somewhere else.
Because they call and go okay,it's nice to meet, I'm going to
send you all this paperwork andonce you get it done, then we
(19:03):
can schedule your next step.
And then somebody else callsthe same person and goes hey,
it's so great to meet you, Canyou come in tomorrow morning?
We'll do your paperworktogether.
I'm going to have a coffeeready for you and the agency
that's going no, don't come inuntil you have it done.
They're building a process tosay I don't want to waste my
time on the 80% of people thataren't going to get it done and
the other agency is buildingtheir process on.
(19:24):
I want to be so friendly, that20% that is going to work out
feels welcomed and invited andcared for, and that's who's
going to win out in the end.
Erin Vallier (19:35):
It's really more of a customer service job than a
recruiting job in some aspects.
Right yeah, sales and customerservice.
So for agencies who arestruggling to even get that 80%,
that's going to not work out.
Where can you findnon-traditional sources for your
caregiving candidates?
(19:55):
Do you have any advice there?
Rachel Gartner (19:58):
I do.
I'm going to start with onethat's not at all non
traditional but is neglected,and that's referral programs.
I can't tell you the number oftimes I've been on a strategy
call with an agency and said,what's your referral bonus?
And they go oh I know we haveone and they kind of look around
each other.
Do you know what it is?
If you don't know what it is, Iguarantee your caregivers don't
(20:19):
know what it is.
So I would start first of allwith really well funding a
referral program and the kind ofcost target I like to give
people is spend twice whatyou're spending on your cost per
hire on online job ads.
So if you're running online jobads and your cost per hire
there is about $300, spend 600on your referral program in
total, because we know that theretention is so much better for
(20:40):
referred caregivers.
And then, to get creative evenwith that, I love seasonal
pushes for the referral program.
So I just spoke to somebody acouple months ago that said,
yeah, we do a big referral pushand I think it was September of
every year, end of August, earlySeptember with the mindset that
they're going to get a bonus at90 days and they can get it
right before Christmas.
So they did a whole Christmasthemed referral push that can
(21:03):
work for sign-on bonuses as well.
And then one little lastcreative thing that we find is
really small incentives.
One little last creative thingthat we find is really small
incentives.
Our favorite example is thecandy bar.
At the interview or atorientation they were asking on
a phone screen what's yourfavorite candy bar?
Oh, that's so great.
I'm going to have that for youtomorrow.
There are a hundred little waysthat you can add, even
(21:24):
non-expensive ways to show thiscare and concern.
Start with your referralprogram all day, every day.
Start with your referralprogram and see if it's actually
being used and communicated andtracked and well funded.
I think most providers would bebest served to start there
before trying to get into reallyoff-the-wall ideas.
Erin Vallier (21:47):
I think that's great advice, but do you have
any off the wall ideas thatcould also work for people?
Rachel Gartner (21:53):
Yeah, I've seen some really cool ideas to
attract walk-ins.
So one agency did a MarchMadness thing where they put out
signs in the community thatwere March Madness hiring and if
you come in, we're going togive you a basketball or
something.
I think those can be really fun.
I love anything seasonal likethat If you can't fun.
I love anything seasonal likethat If you can't tell.
I love these seasonal ideasthat are fun.
(22:14):
They attract more attention.
Community partnerships can begreat.
I've spoken to some providerswho have great relationships
with each other to say, if youget an applicant and they're on
the east side of your market,too far, you send them my way,
and if I get somebody that's toofar west, I'll send them your
way.
So I think the partnershipsbetween different providers are
often underlooked.
(22:35):
I've worked with people who say, yeah, I have two or three
people that we all know ourworkers need more hours.
And we talk to them and say,hey, if you need another shift,
let me talk to some otheragencies I know in the area.
See if they can get you those.
And they work together toretain the employees but share
between them.
And then the last one is socialmedia, often underutilized,
(22:58):
especially after Facebook, jobswent away.
But you can create even a localFacebook page to find great
jobs in this town and kind ofrun it yourself, feature other
opportunities in the area, butmaybe primarily push your
business and create resourcesthere that functions to the
person coming to the group, ashere are some resources if
(23:19):
you're looking for work in ourtown and then for you as the
business, you can share youropportunities frequently and
also get feedback.
It's a fair amount of work tomanage, but it can be really
impactful.
Erin Vallier (23:33):
Those are great recommendations.
Thank you so much for sharing.
I'm going to pivot just alittle bit because I read
recently that technology andpower recruiting and onboarding
processes are going to be realcrucial for attracting top
talent, and I'm already seeingan increased use of automation
and some AI tools.
But we're in the home carespace it's the people business,
(23:57):
right.
So I'm curious what youropinion is of the processes that
leverage some of thatautomation and the AI.
How can agencies with limitedstaff use these tools but not
lose the personal touch aspectthat you've been selling to me
this whole time, which soundsappealing Like if I'm going to
get a candy bar when I gointerview?
(24:17):
Heck, yeah, I'm going to showup.
Rachel Gartner (24:20):
No, I love the human connection and there's
data that supports that.
It's one of the top reasonscaregivers choose a job is
feeling connected with therecruiter.
So our mindset towards AI andautomation, first of all, it's
very exciting I've gotten reallyinto AI stuff this year how we
can use it.
We're definitely exploring thatat CareWork and we've started
(24:41):
just with internal tools tosupport our team with chatbots
that read all of our training sothey can ask a question and
things like that.
But I think in the recruitingspace and in home care, we do
want to keep the human elementto it, and that's a
differentiator, for care work ishey, we're going to do it all
for you, but it's real humansthat are going to do it.
We do use automation and AI tosupport the human interaction.
(25:04):
So I think for providers, thatwould be my challenge Make sure
you're not signing up forsomething like this with the
idea that you're not gonna haveto touch it, because, first of
all, it's not true.
Any of these tools need to havea human being checking on them
engaging in it.
They need somebody to pick upthe phone and say hey, I saw
that you started to schedule andyou didn't complete it.
(25:24):
Our heart behind it is how dowe use automation and AI to
increase human connection, notreplace it?
Use automation and AI toincrease human connection, not
replace it.
But I think it would be foolishto put our heads in the sand
and say, oh, we'll just have ahuman do it.
We are big believers intechnology, so we start with
tools that track the dailyworkflow for our recruiters,
that make it really easy forthem to see this is who needs to
(25:46):
be called today.
This is what needs to be done.
We automate outgoing messages.
These outgoing messages.
Hey, it's Rachel.
I haven't heard from you in awhile, but we still have work
available.
I'd love to speak with you.
We automate those outgoingmessages, but the way we have it
set up is when they reply, it'sa real human that they're going
to talk to.
So there's a whole spectrum ofways to implement it, but make
(26:08):
sure, whenever you're using atool like this, you have
somebody in your business whoseprimary job is to monitor it and
take care of it, because theydon't take care of themselves.
These tech tools need somebodyto log in, make adjustments,
reach out for support from thesoftware company from time to
time.
Make sure that you have a humanavailable, that if your
(26:29):
applicant wants to speak to ahuman, they always can, so
that's made available to them.
And really use these tools toautomate all the things that
aren't actually human connection, because sending a text to
every single applicant everythree months is not human
connection.
So automate the outgoing partsof it and then automate and use
AI to make us better at our jobs, and I'm talking about things
(26:53):
like quality assurance, onlinelead magnets.
There's a hundred ways agenciesand providers could do that.
Erin Vallier (27:00):
I love that advice .
Just the task stuff, thebrainless task stuff that is
very cold and impersonal.
Automate that and use the toolto get the other person in front
of you so that you can havethat connection.
I think that's great advice.
And I just have one morequestion for you, as we are
getting close to time, becauseyou've given so much good advice
(27:21):
today.
I want to know what the singlemost important thing agencies
can start doing today to improvetheir hiring process.
Rachel Gartner (27:30):
I'm so glad you asked that.
This is something that I talkabout all the time and it's
track, the metrics of yourhiring process.
If anybody listening has heardme speak, they've heard me talk
about this.
I will never get in front ofpeople and not say start
tracking your metrics themetrics that we like to look at
just as a baseline for yourfunnel of recruiting how many
(27:51):
applicants are you getting, howmany book a time to come in
either for interview ororientation, how many of those
show up, how many complete thehiring process and what are we
spending to attract theseapplicants?
A lot of times, agencies wait tofind this information until
they have a problem and thenthey're going back and trying to
pull reports and find it, andthe problem is it's not going to
(28:12):
be as accurate.
So what we really recommend topeople is start some kind of a
spreadsheet, start a simpletracker, and I know there are
people out there that aretracking like we called seven
times and we texted 100 peopletoday.
It's really easy to get caughtup in that stuff.
Fundamentally, where are yourapplicants coming from, how many
are making it through theprocess, and then what that does
(28:35):
is it illuminates where tofocus, because in recruiting and
we've covered a lot of thistoday but there's so many more
things you could do to improvehiring different tools that you
can try, including those AI andautomation tools different
companies, you can try differentstrategies, different pay rates
, and what happens is providersgo out and they hear this great
advice and they go.
(28:55):
I'm going to try that.
I'm going to invest my time andmoney in that, but it may
address a part of the hiringfunnel where this particular
business is already performingabove the national average and
doing really well and they'reunlikely to see that move the
needle very much and they'lltalk to somebody and go oh, it
worked really well for thatperson, but it didn't work that
well for me and it's because itaddresses an area that they're
(29:16):
not struggling.
If you have your funnel metricsthat I'm talking about, it's
much easier to zero in and go oh, our percentage of people who
book an interview is too low.
We need to look at tools thatget the applicants to engage in
that first step of the process.
That's where we need to focus.
Or people are bookinginterviews but they're not
showing up.
(29:36):
We need to focus specificallyon getting more people from that
to walking in the door.
They're not completingorientation.
Why not?
How can we make it faster, makeit better?
And it helps providers who haveso many things they're trying to
do and fires they're trying toput out and amazing things
they're trying to do and firesthey're trying to put out and
amazing things they're trying todo.
Tracking these metrics givesthem a baseline to know when to
(29:56):
pay more attention and where toput their time and resources,
because we can't put themeverywhere and every recruiting
tool out there is not for everyprovider.
So tracking the metrics givesthem an area to focus on their
energy and a baseline so that ifthings change, they're not
going.
We used to get 20 people amonth, now we're only getting 10
.
The recruiter's really bad attheir job.
Hey, we used to get 20 a month,now we're getting 10.
(30:19):
Where in the funnel did itchange?
What changes do we make thatimpacted that metric?
That's where we need to focusour time.
So data I like people to trackit every week and then, once you
have that, you can do so muchwith that information.
Erin Vallier (30:33):
So everybody, you've heard it from Rachel If
it's not measured, it's notmanaged.
Yep, it's fantastic.
So, rachel, if folks want toget in touch with you after this
, how can they best reach you?
Rachel Gartner (30:45):
Absolutely we have.
Our website is careworkus.
com.
You can book a strategy callwith us.
There.
You can find all kinds ofresources for what we do and I
would encourage people to dothat if you wanna learn more
about CareWorks services.
But also just do that.
If you're like I don't knowwhat we're doing wrong, I'm not
sure.
If there's a problem, we wouldlove to chat about that with you
(31:07):
.
And then learnhireedcom, andthat's hirehireedcom.
That's where they can findinformation about our recruiter
training.
So if you have a greatrecruiter that you love and you
feel like maybe I have justthrown them to the wolves a
little sink or swim a little,hey, here's our login go try and
do it.
We would love to help them withsome professional development
(31:30):
to really become excellentrecruiters and help our industry
grow and meet the need for care.
Erin Vallier (31:37):
Wonderful Again.
Thank you so much for your time, Rachel.
This has been such a wonderfulconversation.
Rachel Gartner (31:43):
Thank you so much, Erin.
Erin Vallier (31:46):
HomeHealth 360 is presented by AlayaCare and
hosted by Erin Vallier.
First, we want to thank ouramazing guests and listeners.
Second, new episodes air everymonth, so be sure to subscribe
today so you don't miss anepisode.
And, last but not least, if youlike this episode and want to
learn more about all thingshome-based care, you can explore
(32:07):
all of our episodes atalayacare.
com/ homehealth360 or visit uson your favorite podcast
platform.
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