November 18, 2022 • 26 mins
Thank you to all who joined our inaugural Mastermind Session. Join our mailing list to get information on how to register for our next session.
Today's mastermind we tackled the complex topic of recruiting caregivers. This is something that many agencies struggle with, but today we are joined by Samuel Sanchez, co founder of @Augusta and digital marketing / caregiver expert to help us navigate the process.
Want to learn more about how the Augusta team can help you with your recruiting needs? Visit them online and book a demo today!
https://www.augusta.care/
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Today's mastermind we tackled the complex topic of recruiting caregivers. This is something that many agencies struggle with, but today we are joined by Samuel Sanchez, co founder of @Augusta and digital marketing / caregiver expert to help us navigate the process.
Want to learn more about how the Augusta team can help you with your recruiting needs? Visit them online and book a demo today!
https://www.augusta.care/
Join the Owner's Corner Mailing List
https://www.thebrionesgroup.com/owners-corner/
Sign up with EZactis (Background Checks)
https://clients.ezactis.com/register/bcg
https://www.linkedin.com/company/thebrionesgroup/
Rapid Pay USA
https://rapidpayusa.com/BCG
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
All right, welcome everybody to the very first edition of
our Owner's Corners Mastermind. So today we are very fortunate
to have with us as our guest expert Samuel Sanchez
of Augusta Home Care Recruiting. And you know, let me
tell you guys, you you you're in store for a treat.
(00:23):
You know, sam really is probably one of the one
of the most expert people I've ever met when it
comes to caregiver recruiting and it specifically work how to
recruit people that understand the caregiving process, how to convert
those those people that are caregivers at home and bring
(00:44):
them into the fold of your agency so they provide
a great service and they're you know, if you ever
want to reach out to them, all the information will
be available, you know, for those who are attending us
live in the you know, Owner's Corner Mastermind member page,
and for those who are watching us on Facebook, YouTube,
(01:06):
you know, LinkedIn anywhere anywhere that you see our videos
or hear this, you know, you'll have all the information
in the description and everything else. So let's run through
because this is our first one so that people have
a better understanding as to what to expect every one
of our Owner's Corner Masterminds number one. First and foremost,
(01:28):
these are free. They are a free resource for you
homecare agency owners that you know that you're interested in
growing your business and you want to learn more about
specific aspects. We'll be doing these on a regular basis.
The more participation we get, the more often I'll do these,
you know, but for now, let's just count on it
being at least once a month, if not more often.
(01:50):
And they're all going to start out the same way,
same format every time. You'll know exactly what to expect.
We are going to have a quick ten to fifteen
minute training on it very specific topic by one of
our guest panel experts or by me. You know. Either way,
whether we have somebody as a guest or not, you're
going to get ten to fifteen minutes of training. This
(02:10):
is no fluff training. You're not here to get pitched to.
You are here to get taught. Right at the end
of this training, we are going to open up. You know,
We're going to ask a few questions. I'm going to
really try to get to the heart of what I've
seen as a consultant, what you guys are all asking
all the time. So this way the guest expert will
(02:32):
be able to answer a few questions, a few more
questions go maybe a little bit deeper than what they've
already decided to come in on, and then the cameras
come off, because now we get into the mastermind section,
the recording comes off, not the cameras, but with this
is where we get into the heart of the matter.
We're going to pick a random participant and we're going
(02:55):
to work through a problem as it relates to the
topic at hand. Today it's recruiting, you know, strategic recruiting
of caregivers. So we're going to take one lucky participant,
maybe two depending on time, and we're gonna run through this.
We're gonna get here, what issues are they having related
to this subject in their agency. We're gonna we're going
(03:18):
to share some thoughts as a group to try to
help them work through it. And then they're going to
get a free consulting session with myself and with the
guests expert. We're going to help them get to the
root of the matter, ask the right questions, bring them
the solutions. So this way it becomes everybody can learn
from the experience and hardships of others. This is the
(03:39):
owner's Corners mastermind. If you haven't become a member, and
if you haven't signed up, you know, keep an eye out.
Join our mailing mailing list and you'll be able to
participate in our next one. Without further ado, let's let's
welcome mister Samuel Sanchez. How's it going, Sam?
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Thank you so much Julio for having me on today.
Actually very excited to be chatting with you all today.
That's joined us. And then also just I love talking
about home care and I love talking about recruiting caregivers.
So as an honor to have this opportunity to speak
with you all today. So with that being said, I
just want to give a quick background about myself. An
intro is my name is Samuel Sanchez and I'm the
(04:21):
co founder in chief of customer Success at Augusta Care
and Augusta Care is an intelligence software company that helps
senior care businesses hire the best caregivers easily. Now further
background about myself. Prior to Augusta, I've been a digital
marketer for home care and senior care agencies for six
going on seven years now, helping them recruit thousands of caregivers.
(04:44):
So today I'm wanting to share some strategies I've learned
throughout my experience to help you recruit more caregivers for
your agency. So the first topic we're going to be
talking about today is improve your hiring funnel. As an operator,
you need to simplify your hiring funnel to only entail
the steps that are truly pertinent to the queer opportunity
(05:07):
your offering. The more in depth questions and steps on
more one on one understanding who they are as a
person can really be covered during your in person interview
or your onboarding calls. Really, I've noticed when speaking with
thousands of operators, is it really bubbles down to win
this applicant space to face with you. So mitigating that
(05:27):
back and forth before you getting him into office is
going to be truly game changing when it comes to
getting more people into your funnel and at the end
result hired. One thing I really suggest for an operator
to do to really understand how you can simplify your
funnel and make it more efficient is actually applying to
(05:49):
your own agency go through the process yourself. I really
suggest don't tell your recruiter, don't tell your staff but
actually applying with a fake name, use a family your
friend's phone number, a different email, and really put yourself
in the caregiver shoes. Are there repetitive questions, do you
feel disconnected and not knowing what's going on? And on
(06:10):
the flip side, it also gives you an opportunity to
understand maybe steps that you're currently missing that should be
implemented to your existing funnel. Now, I want to also
talk about your response time. Your response time matters. At
the bare minimum, you need to apply to an applicant
within twenty four hours. That's at the bare minimum, even
(06:30):
if it's a simple application confirmation, a confirmation message saying
hey XYZ applicant, thank you for submitting your application. We'll
be reaching out to you from this number, so expect
the call from this time to this time. Something as
simple as that can just make the applicant film more
confident and comfortable that they've chosen the right agency and
(06:53):
they could be more willing to wait to hear back
from you, rather than going and applying to three to
four more agencies. Now, realistically, ideally you really need to
be replying to an applicant within the first hour, if
not the first second, they've submitted their application. But if
you're already taking twenty four to forty eight hours to
(07:13):
get back to an applicant, the first goal you should
be focusing on is replying to them within twenty four
hours of their application submission.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Sam, sorry to interrupt here, I have a question. Would
automation be a good way to respond to people when
they're doing this?
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Yeah? All right, so automation. Automation is going to be
beneficial to making this more of an efficient process. I
know home care owners like to throw around the word
it's a high touch industry, which is true, but you
also need to make sure it's an efficient industry as well.
(07:51):
Senior care is kind of behind the curve, so to say.
So having this automation of messaging applicants, even if it's
just an automated text message or you're using a calendly
link that sends them dripp reminders as simple as that,
is really going to help you stand out compared to
others in your service area. So automation to address it, Julio,
(08:13):
don't be scared of it, actually embrace it. It's going
to help you streamline this process. Now, the next topic
is be an agency that helps nurture caregivers to enter
this industry. Really don't be a gatekeeper to industry entrants.
We're in a caregiver shortage. You need to focus on
(08:33):
bringing in more caregivers into this industry. Offering training opportunities
and mentorship for new caregivers is going to be key
for growing and retaining your caregiver bench. Now. I'm in
Los Angeles, California, and one common bottleneck here is caregivers
need to be HCA registered with the state of California.
(08:54):
That's becoming a home care aid and I've talked a
countless owners that state. Sam there's not enough caregivers in
my service area. I've talked to them all. I can't
get any more. Yet. When we dive into their funnel,
we're noticing that they're denying sixty family caregivers off BAT
(09:15):
because they're not EHTA registered. They're sending them a PDF saying, hey,
go to this link, register here, and come back to
me when you're done. You just pushed away sixty people
that are showing they want to enter the industry because
you don't want to take the time out of your
day to just be like, hey, let me help you
with this takes fifteen minutes out of your day to
(09:35):
hire or to bring in a new entrant and possibly
hire them in the back end. And if worst case
scenario you don't hire them, you just helped increase the
pool of qualified cargivers in your service area and you
could swing back around to them in the near future.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
Yeah, that's actually a common problem in a number of states,
not just California, Like, for example, Florida is like that.
New Jersey's like that it there, while in states other
states like maybe Ohio, for example, where they don't need
to be registered, they still you know, people prefer that's
(10:10):
CNA because of the higher level of training instead of
really taking advantage of that person down the street that's
taking care of their grandmother for the last ten years,
you know, and that really knows what they're doing, just
because they don't, you know, they don't have fancy initials
at the end of their at the end of their
job application. That's fantastic.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Yeah, it truly is. It's leveraging what you have. Essentially,
play the cards. You're a dealt and once you know
how to leverage what's in front of you, you're really
going to be able to stand out in front of
the with the competitors in your service area and riffing
off that worst case scenario of you not hiring this
person that you spent fifteen to thirty minutes helping enter
(10:53):
the industry. Worst case scenario is you're going to be
talked very highly amongst the applicant pull in your community.
They didn't hire me, but I am now certified or
registered to something I've shown interest in and that's always
going to be a token of gratitude in their end
when they share with their.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Friends and family exactly.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
And then lastly on the slide is always be hiring.
I mean it sounds very simple, but don't stop hiring
caregivers even if you have no senior to place them with.
When you're hiring a new caregiver, having a caregiver bench
that is ready to go is far more valuable than
saving a couple hundred bucks a week not having them,
(11:35):
So I really suggest finding activities you could fill up
their schedule with in the meantime until you find a
senior you could place them with. And there's a plethora
of ideas you can do to help them. I guess
come into the fold of the workflow you off top.
I suggest if you have a new hire, pairing them
(11:55):
with a tenured caregiver and having them shadow a caregiver
so they can actually understand and what's going to go
on in this industry, what should they expect, what's the
world day to day. One thing I really suggest doing
is if you have a caregiver that you can't pair
right now, is hire them and bring them in office,
have them help you market around the neighborhood. Give them
(12:16):
a stack of flyers to go to hand out or
to go to potential referral providers. The fact that a
real caregiver is going to them is going to make
a huge difference. And then lastly, also give them an
opportunity to shad out with your care coordinators and your schedulers.
Giving the caregivers an opportunity to understand what's going on
when a caregiver calls out last minute and seeing the
(12:39):
hair pulling and the anxiety that fosters with that is
going to be game changing, So they can actually understand
the impact they have if they feel like they're going
to call out one minute before their scheduled time when
they are out in the field.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Yeah, that's actually great advice. It's one of the things
when I work with my own clients when we're starting
to put in the strategic operation models, I actually always
suggest them to do that. Part of the orientation should
be spend a day in the office and see the
reality of what people are going through. It really improves
the long term operational functionality of the business, and it
(13:18):
reduces call outs, and it improves client relations, and it
actually helps save you money in the long run. Spending
an extra hundred bucks on that first day of orientation
will save you tens of thousands of dollars over the
next year with that one caregiver. Hell, if you can
(13:40):
just use that one day experience, spend an extra hundred
bucks or one hundred fifty dollars to keep the caregiver
there all day and she stays for one more client,
you're talking about an average of eleven to fifteen thousand
dollars an additional profit in that first year from not
having to replace that caregiver. That's fantastic advice.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
I'm glad you. Actually you preach that to your clients
all the time. It's game changing. Honestly, they have they
have a hot lead in their hands, so you know
whether you can place them or not utilize it. It's
an opportunity to really foster connection. Ye. So now this
next topic is speak your applicants language. So let's just
(14:25):
be honest. The fact of the matter is we're in
a seller's market. If you're a home care agency and
the caregivers are the sellers of their services and you're
the buyer of their services, caregivers have a lot of
choices right now in terms of the best employer for them.
So to differentiate yourself in the interview process, try making
it friendly. Try making it a friendly discussion. Within the interview,
(14:49):
begin by setting the tone of the conversation in a
way that opens it to more dialogue and produces more
open conversations. Don't try just reading a script, going line
the line and keeping it structured. Obviously that's a little
bit deterring from when I say be efficient in the
previous slide, but it really opens up the book to
(15:10):
discover more things. So I really suggest talk to the
points that matter most to them. If they are adamant
about flexible schedules, then only talk to what you can
do to accommodate their flexible schedule. Or accommodate that flexible
schedule for them, and then learn why they need this flexibility.
Are they caring for a loved one at home? Do
(15:30):
they have a second job. Taking the time to learn
about their life outside of work will lessen the surprises
down the road on both ends of the relationship. You
now won't have to worry about a caregiver coming in saying, hey,
you called me four times on my day off I
told you I have another job, or ghosting you and
making you feel like, hey, this caregiver is unresponsive. Now,
(15:54):
provide transparency about your agency. I've seen countless times where
operators state that a caregiver comes in demanding all of
these high level benefits and pay and these requirements they need,
but yet the operator doesn't try to investigate where they
got this expectation from. So setting realistic expectations as to
(16:15):
what your agency can provide is going to be key
to establishing and fostering a relationship that is going to
be retained throughout your business's life. One example I give
here actually is stating that you offer a four to
one K pay, time off, health, dental, vision, insurance on
a part time job post yet all of those benefits
(16:38):
are not attainable until you become full time. Those are
the type of miscommunications and misrepresentations that maybe are beneficial
to getting more applicants in the front end, but in
the long end, you're hurting. You're hurting your ROI, you're
hurting your investment of getting more hired applicants in your agency.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Yeah, that's that's actually a big trend you'll see. Like
one of the things that I usually tell home care
agency owners is to include an up to range, you know,
like when on the application, and but it's got to
be realistic. Don't put that you can earn up to
thirty dollars an hour when you know very well that
(17:23):
you're not paying anybody in your agency more than eighteen.
All right, but you have people have to know realistically
what to expect, you know. I've seen hundreds of ads
like that that just people they're talking about mileage reimbursement.
But then when they come in and I hear it
from the caregivers, Oh yeah, you know, they've talked about
milage reimbursement, but it's only during certain specific circumstances and
(17:47):
it's not really you know, what it is where they're
billing the client at the dollar fifty an hour for
the mileage, but they're only passing along fifty two cents
to me, you know like that. Yeah, that's that's a problem.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
Yeah, it's it's from you know, from not only being
a part of August, in my own digital marketing experience
working with agencies. It's just it's common and you know,
to be the devil's advocate. Not many operators understand what
they're doing in this. You know, they're just thinking, I
have these benefits, I'm already paying for them, already had
to fall in line with it, so I'm going to
(18:23):
promote the heck out of it, right, But in reality, yeah,
it's going what you said earlier. It was like, don't
say you offer a four to one cave, but you
have to work three years right to get that four
one k Or don't say you're hiring it thirty dollars
an hour when only one person in your one hundred
caregiver bench is actually giving thirty dollars.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
An hour, right right. Or another big one is that
they'll talk about health vision and dental, but it's only
available to office staff, but they put it out there
for the caregivers Look, you know, at the end of
the day, there's going back on what you were saying.
And you know, this has just been my experience because
I get I get a lot of calls from agency
(19:05):
owners that listened to a lot of the Look, there's
a lot of really good people in this industry, but
there's a lot of shisters out there. And there's there's
people out there claiming the role of being an expert
in home care that maybe worked for an agency for
ten minutes, and they're charging people a lot of money
and they're giving them this terrible advice, you know, And
(19:29):
this is where a lot of this is coming from,
from people that have no industry knowledge, never understood what
it is to be in this industry, and they're telling them, yeah,
you know, cast a wide net, tell them everything in
a perfect world scenario and get them in the door. Oh,
they'll figure it out once they're hired. Yeah, And that's
(19:50):
just bad.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
And that's why just so many agencies are struggling with retention. Yes,
what I've noticed through August is when we're talking with
a lot of agencies is we've noticed a little spike
in it's easier to get a higher volume of applicants. Yes,
but with that increase of higher volume, there's no increase
with hires and casting. That wide net is good in theory,
(20:16):
it truly is. There's benefits with it. But where in
senior care that wide net is really a small niche.
We're looking at a certain type of person that has
a compassionate heart and the willingness to learn, and that
can care for someone else's family as if they were
own they were their own. And then add on the
(20:38):
fact that now they have to be in your service area,
they have to be registered, they have to be trained,
that wide net becomes very very small, very fast.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Yes, agreed, agreed.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Now this is my last slide. It's create your sourcing strategy.
You must be different, not only in what you say,
but also where you say it. Word of mouth and
employee referrals are two of the top recruitment sources today
according to Home Care Pulse. If you see here in
this report, this is listing the top recruitment platforms. Obviously
(21:15):
Internet meaning indeed employees again Internet with social media, but
you can see here employees of employees referrals and social
media are the top two. So I really suggest that
you need to leverage your social media handles to extend
this to micro environments within your service area. There is
a vast pool of people waiting and wanting to see
(21:37):
your content and they're wanting to share your agency. You
just need to make it easier for them to do so,
and leveraging social media it makes it as simple as
a click of a button to share your agency. One
thing I'd also like to add on here is don't
be dependent on one funnel of caregiver sourcing. Don't just
(21:58):
think that, Okay, well, employee referrals are working, so I'm
going to dive one hundred into that. Make sure to
diversify your funnels. Right now, we're still in an if
you market where you kind of have to be in
that mentality of I want to be there in the
right place at the right time. But keeping a diversified
portfolio of funnels is really going to help you understand
(22:21):
the market as a whole and where you can give
and take in certain areas of what optimizations you need
to focus on.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
All right, all right, that's fantastic, fantastic, Definitely, uh, definitely
want want to have you know again, that's just one
of those issues that we talk about that I talk
about all the time on our YouTube channel and everything else.
You know, you you have to you have to know
where to talk to people, how to talk to people,
(22:52):
get your messaging the right way. And I can't stress
this enough. I mean, companies like what you guys did,
like you guys and other companies that use technology as
part of the tools, don't be afraid of it. All right,
We're not. We are high touch as an industry, but
we also need to learn how to be high value.
(23:14):
And the more you're avoiding implementing technology to provide that
additional value to your caregivers, to your clients, the more
damage you're doing to yourself as an agency. You know,
it's believe me. I've got clients that have gone, you know,
from that three to four million dollar range and over
the years just because they're afraid of technology, because the
(23:36):
owners maybe they're a little bit up there in age,
or they're just they don't want to they have that
fixed mindset. It brings their business down and once you
get into that downward spiral, you get that bad reputation,
especially with caregivers. And I'm just saying speaking because from
personal experience, Sam was you were a caregiver yourself. My
(23:58):
wife was a caregiver. That's actually how I'm met her
at being a camera. I've had my house filled with
caregivers most of my married life, so I hear all
of this all the time. Oh yeah, you know, this
agency is no good. That one's no good because of this,
that and the third and most of the time. You know,
Sam's absolutely right. They're finding the jobs on social media.
(24:19):
They're who's hiring. Oh well, such and such put out
a post. You know, I saw this company on my
Twitter account. You oh, Instagram or TikTok or that's the
new the new one where everybody's advertising on. It helps,
It really does. So if you guys want to get
a hold of Augusta or Sam, here's all their information
(24:42):
on the screen. Please, by all means, do yourselves a
favor reach out. You're really not going to find a
more qualified group of experts in this realm. There's a
lot of people that do recruiting on different levels. Their
methods are very unique and you're not going to find
them again, like I said, not in too many places.
So this brings us to a close on the first
(25:05):
part of our of our Mastermind group. Now we're going
to start transitioning into you know, the portion of the
Owner's Corner where we actually start working with individuals. As
far as our video goes, this is it for now.
This is all we're we're doing because we want to
make sure that we respect people's privacy, that we respect
(25:29):
their you know, uh, their space. You know, undo competition,
don't want to find out, don't want to put people's
dirty secrets out there, you know that whole thing. So
just keep in mind, you know, if you're watching this
replay somewhere on on our one of our social media platforms,
there are going to be links in the description on
how you can sign up for the Owner's Corner newsletter
(25:51):
where we'll give out a bunch of great information and
tips and everything on all everything related to strategically operating
your home care space, especially if you're in the private
pay market, and you know, keep an eye out because
that's where we first put inform everybody on when when
our next Owner's Corner mastermind is going to be and
(26:12):
what the topics. And we've got a lot of great
experts you know, lined up for you moving on everything
from you recruiting today to business development sales and marketing,
to content writing and even we even have a few
people coming on that will help you with wealth management
and transferring ownership of your business, you know. So keep
(26:36):
keep this all in mind, let's start moving forward and
let's figure out, you know how we can help you
become a better home care agency owner. See you guys
next time. We're moving on now to the next segment.
Thanks again for being here, Sam. We appreciate your time.
All right, welcome everybody to the very first edition of
our Owner's Corners Mastermind. So today we are very fortunate
to have with us as our guest expert Samuel Sanchez
of Augusta Home Care Recruiting. And you know, let me
tell you guys, you you you're in store for a treat.
(00:23):
You know, sam really is probably one of the one
of the most expert people I've ever met when it
comes to caregiver recruiting and it specifically work how to
recruit people that understand the caregiving process, how to convert
those those people that are caregivers at home and bring
(00:44):
them into the fold of your agency so they provide
a great service and they're you know, if you ever
want to reach out to them, all the information will
be available, you know, for those who are attending us
live in the you know, Owner's Corner Mastermind member page,
and for those who are watching us on Facebook, YouTube,
(01:06):
you know, LinkedIn anywhere anywhere that you see our videos
or hear this, you know, you'll have all the information
in the description and everything else. So let's run through
because this is our first one so that people have
a better understanding as to what to expect every one
of our Owner's Corner Masterminds number one. First and foremost,
(01:28):
these are free. They are a free resource for you
homecare agency owners that you know that you're interested in
growing your business and you want to learn more about
specific aspects. We'll be doing these on a regular basis.
The more participation we get, the more often I'll do these,
you know, but for now, let's just count on it
being at least once a month, if not more often.
(01:50):
And they're all going to start out the same way,
same format every time. You'll know exactly what to expect.
We are going to have a quick ten to fifteen
minute training on it very specific topic by one of
our guest panel experts or by me. You know. Either way,
whether we have somebody as a guest or not, you're
going to get ten to fifteen minutes of training. This
(02:10):
is no fluff training. You're not here to get pitched to.
You are here to get taught. Right at the end
of this training, we are going to open up. You know,
We're going to ask a few questions. I'm going to
really try to get to the heart of what I've
seen as a consultant, what you guys are all asking
all the time. So this way the guest expert will
(02:32):
be able to answer a few questions, a few more
questions go maybe a little bit deeper than what they've
already decided to come in on, and then the cameras
come off, because now we get into the mastermind section,
the recording comes off, not the cameras, but with this
is where we get into the heart of the matter.
We're going to pick a random participant and we're going
(02:55):
to work through a problem as it relates to the
topic at hand. Today it's recruiting, you know, strategic recruiting
of caregivers. So we're going to take one lucky participant,
maybe two depending on time, and we're gonna run through this.
We're gonna get here, what issues are they having related
to this subject in their agency. We're gonna we're going
(03:18):
to share some thoughts as a group to try to
help them work through it. And then they're going to
get a free consulting session with myself and with the
guests expert. We're going to help them get to the
root of the matter, ask the right questions, bring them
the solutions. So this way it becomes everybody can learn
from the experience and hardships of others. This is the
(03:39):
owner's Corners mastermind. If you haven't become a member, and
if you haven't signed up, you know, keep an eye out.
Join our mailing mailing list and you'll be able to
participate in our next one. Without further ado, let's let's
welcome mister Samuel Sanchez. How's it going, Sam?
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Thank you so much Julio for having me on today.
Actually very excited to be chatting with you all today.
That's joined us. And then also just I love talking
about home care and I love talking about recruiting caregivers.
So as an honor to have this opportunity to speak
with you all today. So with that being said, I
just want to give a quick background about myself. An
intro is my name is Samuel Sanchez and I'm the
(04:21):
co founder in chief of customer Success at Augusta Care
and Augusta Care is an intelligence software company that helps
senior care businesses hire the best caregivers easily. Now further
background about myself. Prior to Augusta, I've been a digital
marketer for home care and senior care agencies for six
going on seven years now, helping them recruit thousands of caregivers.
(04:44):
So today I'm wanting to share some strategies I've learned
throughout my experience to help you recruit more caregivers for
your agency. So the first topic we're going to be
talking about today is improve your hiring funnel. As an operator,
you need to simplify your hiring funnel to only entail
the steps that are truly pertinent to the queer opportunity
(05:07):
your offering. The more in depth questions and steps on
more one on one understanding who they are as a
person can really be covered during your in person interview
or your onboarding calls. Really, I've noticed when speaking with
thousands of operators, is it really bubbles down to win
this applicant space to face with you. So mitigating that
(05:27):
back and forth before you getting him into office is
going to be truly game changing when it comes to
getting more people into your funnel and at the end
result hired. One thing I really suggest for an operator
to do to really understand how you can simplify your
funnel and make it more efficient is actually applying to
(05:49):
your own agency go through the process yourself. I really
suggest don't tell your recruiter, don't tell your staff but
actually applying with a fake name, use a family your
friend's phone number, a different email, and really put yourself
in the caregiver shoes. Are there repetitive questions, do you
feel disconnected and not knowing what's going on? And on
(06:10):
the flip side, it also gives you an opportunity to
understand maybe steps that you're currently missing that should be
implemented to your existing funnel. Now, I want to also
talk about your response time. Your response time matters. At
the bare minimum, you need to apply to an applicant
within twenty four hours. That's at the bare minimum, even
(06:30):
if it's a simple application confirmation, a confirmation message saying
hey XYZ applicant, thank you for submitting your application. We'll
be reaching out to you from this number, so expect
the call from this time to this time. Something as
simple as that can just make the applicant film more
confident and comfortable that they've chosen the right agency and
(06:53):
they could be more willing to wait to hear back
from you, rather than going and applying to three to
four more agencies. Now, realistically, ideally you really need to
be replying to an applicant within the first hour, if
not the first second, they've submitted their application. But if
you're already taking twenty four to forty eight hours to
(07:13):
get back to an applicant, the first goal you should
be focusing on is replying to them within twenty four
hours of their application submission.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Sam, sorry to interrupt here, I have a question. Would
automation be a good way to respond to people when
they're doing this?
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Yeah? All right, so automation. Automation is going to be
beneficial to making this more of an efficient process. I
know home care owners like to throw around the word
it's a high touch industry, which is true, but you
also need to make sure it's an efficient industry as well.
(07:51):
Senior care is kind of behind the curve, so to say.
So having this automation of messaging applicants, even if it's
just an automated text message or you're using a calendly
link that sends them dripp reminders as simple as that,
is really going to help you stand out compared to
others in your service area. So automation to address it, Julio,
(08:13):
don't be scared of it, actually embrace it. It's going
to help you streamline this process. Now, the next topic
is be an agency that helps nurture caregivers to enter
this industry. Really don't be a gatekeeper to industry entrants.
We're in a caregiver shortage. You need to focus on
(08:33):
bringing in more caregivers into this industry. Offering training opportunities
and mentorship for new caregivers is going to be key
for growing and retaining your caregiver bench. Now. I'm in
Los Angeles, California, and one common bottleneck here is caregivers
need to be HCA registered with the state of California.
(08:54):
That's becoming a home care aid and I've talked a
countless owners that state. Sam there's not enough caregivers in
my service area. I've talked to them all. I can't
get any more. Yet. When we dive into their funnel,
we're noticing that they're denying sixty family caregivers off BAT
(09:15):
because they're not EHTA registered. They're sending them a PDF saying, hey,
go to this link, register here, and come back to
me when you're done. You just pushed away sixty people
that are showing they want to enter the industry because
you don't want to take the time out of your
day to just be like, hey, let me help you
with this takes fifteen minutes out of your day to
(09:35):
hire or to bring in a new entrant and possibly
hire them in the back end. And if worst case
scenario you don't hire them, you just helped increase the
pool of qualified cargivers in your service area and you
could swing back around to them in the near future.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
Yeah, that's actually a common problem in a number of states,
not just California, Like, for example, Florida is like that.
New Jersey's like that it there, while in states other
states like maybe Ohio, for example, where they don't need
to be registered, they still you know, people prefer that's
(10:10):
CNA because of the higher level of training instead of
really taking advantage of that person down the street that's
taking care of their grandmother for the last ten years,
you know, and that really knows what they're doing, just
because they don't, you know, they don't have fancy initials
at the end of their at the end of their
job application. That's fantastic.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Yeah, it truly is. It's leveraging what you have. Essentially,
play the cards. You're a dealt and once you know
how to leverage what's in front of you, you're really
going to be able to stand out in front of
the with the competitors in your service area and riffing
off that worst case scenario of you not hiring this
person that you spent fifteen to thirty minutes helping enter
(10:53):
the industry. Worst case scenario is you're going to be
talked very highly amongst the applicant pull in your community.
They didn't hire me, but I am now certified or
registered to something I've shown interest in and that's always
going to be a token of gratitude in their end
when they share with their.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Friends and family exactly.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
And then lastly on the slide is always be hiring.
I mean it sounds very simple, but don't stop hiring
caregivers even if you have no senior to place them with.
When you're hiring a new caregiver, having a caregiver bench
that is ready to go is far more valuable than
saving a couple hundred bucks a week not having them,
(11:35):
So I really suggest finding activities you could fill up
their schedule with in the meantime until you find a
senior you could place them with. And there's a plethora
of ideas you can do to help them. I guess
come into the fold of the workflow you off top.
I suggest if you have a new hire, pairing them
(11:55):
with a tenured caregiver and having them shadow a caregiver
so they can actually understand and what's going to go
on in this industry, what should they expect, what's the
world day to day. One thing I really suggest doing
is if you have a caregiver that you can't pair
right now, is hire them and bring them in office,
have them help you market around the neighborhood. Give them
(12:16):
a stack of flyers to go to hand out or
to go to potential referral providers. The fact that a
real caregiver is going to them is going to make
a huge difference. And then lastly, also give them an
opportunity to shad out with your care coordinators and your schedulers.
Giving the caregivers an opportunity to understand what's going on
when a caregiver calls out last minute and seeing the
(12:39):
hair pulling and the anxiety that fosters with that is
going to be game changing, So they can actually understand
the impact they have if they feel like they're going
to call out one minute before their scheduled time when
they are out in the field.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Yeah, that's actually great advice. It's one of the things
when I work with my own clients when we're starting
to put in the strategic operation models, I actually always
suggest them to do that. Part of the orientation should
be spend a day in the office and see the
reality of what people are going through. It really improves
the long term operational functionality of the business, and it
(13:18):
reduces call outs, and it improves client relations, and it
actually helps save you money in the long run. Spending
an extra hundred bucks on that first day of orientation
will save you tens of thousands of dollars over the
next year with that one caregiver. Hell, if you can
(13:40):
just use that one day experience, spend an extra hundred
bucks or one hundred fifty dollars to keep the caregiver
there all day and she stays for one more client,
you're talking about an average of eleven to fifteen thousand
dollars an additional profit in that first year from not
having to replace that caregiver. That's fantastic advice.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
I'm glad you. Actually you preach that to your clients
all the time. It's game changing. Honestly, they have they
have a hot lead in their hands, so you know
whether you can place them or not utilize it. It's
an opportunity to really foster connection. Ye. So now this
next topic is speak your applicants language. So let's just
(14:25):
be honest. The fact of the matter is we're in
a seller's market. If you're a home care agency and
the caregivers are the sellers of their services and you're
the buyer of their services, caregivers have a lot of
choices right now in terms of the best employer for them.
So to differentiate yourself in the interview process, try making
it friendly. Try making it a friendly discussion. Within the interview,
(14:49):
begin by setting the tone of the conversation in a
way that opens it to more dialogue and produces more
open conversations. Don't try just reading a script, going line
the line and keeping it structured. Obviously that's a little
bit deterring from when I say be efficient in the
previous slide, but it really opens up the book to
(15:10):
discover more things. So I really suggest talk to the
points that matter most to them. If they are adamant
about flexible schedules, then only talk to what you can
do to accommodate their flexible schedule. Or accommodate that flexible
schedule for them, and then learn why they need this flexibility.
Are they caring for a loved one at home? Do
(15:30):
they have a second job. Taking the time to learn
about their life outside of work will lessen the surprises
down the road on both ends of the relationship. You
now won't have to worry about a caregiver coming in saying, hey,
you called me four times on my day off I
told you I have another job, or ghosting you and
making you feel like, hey, this caregiver is unresponsive. Now,
(15:54):
provide transparency about your agency. I've seen countless times where
operators state that a caregiver comes in demanding all of
these high level benefits and pay and these requirements they need,
but yet the operator doesn't try to investigate where they
got this expectation from. So setting realistic expectations as to
(16:15):
what your agency can provide is going to be key
to establishing and fostering a relationship that is going to
be retained throughout your business's life. One example I give
here actually is stating that you offer a four to
one K pay, time off, health, dental, vision, insurance on
a part time job post yet all of those benefits
(16:38):
are not attainable until you become full time. Those are
the type of miscommunications and misrepresentations that maybe are beneficial
to getting more applicants in the front end, but in
the long end, you're hurting. You're hurting your ROI, you're
hurting your investment of getting more hired applicants in your agency.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Yeah, that's that's actually a big trend you'll see. Like
one of the things that I usually tell home care
agency owners is to include an up to range, you know,
like when on the application, and but it's got to
be realistic. Don't put that you can earn up to
thirty dollars an hour when you know very well that
(17:23):
you're not paying anybody in your agency more than eighteen.
All right, but you have people have to know realistically
what to expect, you know. I've seen hundreds of ads
like that that just people they're talking about mileage reimbursement.
But then when they come in and I hear it
from the caregivers, Oh yeah, you know, they've talked about
milage reimbursement, but it's only during certain specific circumstances and
(17:47):
it's not really you know, what it is where they're
billing the client at the dollar fifty an hour for
the mileage, but they're only passing along fifty two cents
to me, you know like that. Yeah, that's that's a problem.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
Yeah, it's it's from you know, from not only being
a part of August, in my own digital marketing experience
working with agencies. It's just it's common and you know,
to be the devil's advocate. Not many operators understand what
they're doing in this. You know, they're just thinking, I
have these benefits, I'm already paying for them, already had
to fall in line with it, so I'm going to
(18:23):
promote the heck out of it, right, But in reality, yeah,
it's going what you said earlier. It was like, don't
say you offer a four to one cave, but you
have to work three years right to get that four
one k Or don't say you're hiring it thirty dollars
an hour when only one person in your one hundred
caregiver bench is actually giving thirty dollars.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
An hour, right right. Or another big one is that
they'll talk about health vision and dental, but it's only
available to office staff, but they put it out there
for the caregivers Look, you know, at the end of
the day, there's going back on what you were saying.
And you know, this has just been my experience because
I get I get a lot of calls from agency
(19:05):
owners that listened to a lot of the Look, there's
a lot of really good people in this industry, but
there's a lot of shisters out there. And there's there's
people out there claiming the role of being an expert
in home care that maybe worked for an agency for
ten minutes, and they're charging people a lot of money
and they're giving them this terrible advice, you know, And
(19:29):
this is where a lot of this is coming from,
from people that have no industry knowledge, never understood what
it is to be in this industry, and they're telling them, yeah,
you know, cast a wide net, tell them everything in
a perfect world scenario and get them in the door. Oh,
they'll figure it out once they're hired. Yeah, And that's
(19:50):
just bad.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
And that's why just so many agencies are struggling with retention. Yes,
what I've noticed through August is when we're talking with
a lot of agencies is we've noticed a little spike
in it's easier to get a higher volume of applicants. Yes,
but with that increase of higher volume, there's no increase
with hires and casting. That wide net is good in theory,
(20:16):
it truly is. There's benefits with it. But where in
senior care that wide net is really a small niche.
We're looking at a certain type of person that has
a compassionate heart and the willingness to learn, and that
can care for someone else's family as if they were
own they were their own. And then add on the
(20:38):
fact that now they have to be in your service area,
they have to be registered, they have to be trained,
that wide net becomes very very small, very fast.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Yes, agreed, agreed.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Now this is my last slide. It's create your sourcing strategy.
You must be different, not only in what you say,
but also where you say it. Word of mouth and
employee referrals are two of the top recruitment sources today
according to Home Care Pulse. If you see here in
this report, this is listing the top recruitment platforms. Obviously
(21:15):
Internet meaning indeed employees again Internet with social media, but
you can see here employees of employees referrals and social
media are the top two. So I really suggest that
you need to leverage your social media handles to extend
this to micro environments within your service area. There is
a vast pool of people waiting and wanting to see
(21:37):
your content and they're wanting to share your agency. You
just need to make it easier for them to do so,
and leveraging social media it makes it as simple as
a click of a button to share your agency. One
thing I'd also like to add on here is don't
be dependent on one funnel of caregiver sourcing. Don't just
(21:58):
think that, Okay, well, employee referrals are working, so I'm
going to dive one hundred into that. Make sure to
diversify your funnels. Right now, we're still in an if
you market where you kind of have to be in
that mentality of I want to be there in the
right place at the right time. But keeping a diversified
portfolio of funnels is really going to help you understand
(22:21):
the market as a whole and where you can give
and take in certain areas of what optimizations you need
to focus on.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
All right, all right, that's fantastic, fantastic, Definitely, uh, definitely
want want to have you know again, that's just one
of those issues that we talk about that I talk
about all the time on our YouTube channel and everything else.
You know, you you have to you have to know
where to talk to people, how to talk to people,
(22:52):
get your messaging the right way. And I can't stress
this enough. I mean, companies like what you guys did,
like you guys and other companies that use technology as
part of the tools, don't be afraid of it. All right,
We're not. We are high touch as an industry, but
we also need to learn how to be high value.
(23:14):
And the more you're avoiding implementing technology to provide that
additional value to your caregivers, to your clients, the more
damage you're doing to yourself as an agency. You know,
it's believe me. I've got clients that have gone, you know,
from that three to four million dollar range and over
the years just because they're afraid of technology, because the
(23:36):
owners maybe they're a little bit up there in age,
or they're just they don't want to they have that
fixed mindset. It brings their business down and once you
get into that downward spiral, you get that bad reputation,
especially with caregivers. And I'm just saying speaking because from
personal experience, Sam was you were a caregiver yourself. My
(23:58):
wife was a caregiver. That's actually how I'm met her
at being a camera. I've had my house filled with
caregivers most of my married life, so I hear all
of this all the time. Oh yeah, you know, this
agency is no good. That one's no good because of this,
that and the third and most of the time. You know,
Sam's absolutely right. They're finding the jobs on social media.
(24:19):
They're who's hiring. Oh well, such and such put out
a post. You know, I saw this company on my
Twitter account. You oh, Instagram or TikTok or that's the
new the new one where everybody's advertising on. It helps,
It really does. So if you guys want to get
a hold of Augusta or Sam, here's all their information
(24:42):
on the screen. Please, by all means, do yourselves a
favor reach out. You're really not going to find a
more qualified group of experts in this realm. There's a
lot of people that do recruiting on different levels. Their
methods are very unique and you're not going to find
them again, like I said, not in too many places.
So this brings us to a close on the first
(25:05):
part of our of our Mastermind group. Now we're going
to start transitioning into you know, the portion of the
Owner's Corner where we actually start working with individuals. As
far as our video goes, this is it for now.
This is all we're we're doing because we want to
make sure that we respect people's privacy, that we respect
(25:29):
their you know, uh, their space. You know, undo competition,
don't want to find out, don't want to put people's
dirty secrets out there, you know that whole thing. So
just keep in mind, you know, if you're watching this
replay somewhere on on our one of our social media platforms,
there are going to be links in the description on
how you can sign up for the Owner's Corner newsletter
(25:51):
where we'll give out a bunch of great information and
tips and everything on all everything related to strategically operating
your home care space, especially if you're in the private
pay market, and you know, keep an eye out because
that's where we first put inform everybody on when when
our next Owner's Corner mastermind is going to be and
(26:12):
what the topics. And we've got a lot of great
experts you know, lined up for you moving on everything
from you recruiting today to business development sales and marketing,
to content writing and even we even have a few
people coming on that will help you with wealth management
and transferring ownership of your business, you know. So keep
(26:36):
keep this all in mind, let's start moving forward and
let's figure out, you know how we can help you
become a better home care agency owner. See you guys
next time. We're moving on now to the next segment.
Thanks again for being here, Sam. We appreciate your time.
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