Setting Standards for Home Care Onboarding
Chapter 7 of 'From Healthy Aides To Healthier Agency'
Sneak peak of Chapter 7!
As you have gone through this guide we hope that your confidence in how to successfully expand your agency has grown. We’ve laid out some of the exams and procedures that can be put in place to streamline your onboarding, make sure you hiring the right person and reduce turnover.
All in all though, our focus has been on increasing the quality of care you deliver.
We’ve demonstrated how PAT tests can determine if a recruit has the skills needed for the position, 
how background checks and a drug -free policy can reduce risks in hiring the wrong candidate while also save you valuable money through premium discounts, and how investing on your home care workers health through tuberculosis testing and titers will keep them working and reduce risk of exposure to clients.
These are all valuable steps in making sure your home care workers, your employees, continue to increase the reputation of your agency and deliver data that will convince more clients to choose your agency over the competition.
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There are inevitably a couple of questions or challenges that might have cropped up throughout your journey with us that can ultimately act as roadblocks if not handled head on.
We’ve devoted this chapter to answering some of these challenges for you in the hope that you will not them to deter you from the success you envision for your agency. Below are the top three flag that are raised for most agencies after reading this guide and our suggestion on how to dovetail them.
Employer Sponsored Exams
You might agree with everything you’ve read so far but have one big factor keeping you from moving forward: your agency makes workers pay for their exams. And, therefore, also choose which providers to use making you the middle man running after exams.
You running after exams
Because your workers are paying for their own exams, this also puts you in tough negotiating space. Employees making minimum wage are probably wary about spending more money on exams that might not be a requirement at other agencies.
So, are you isolating yourself by requiring more from recruits?
Absolutely not. That’s just fear of change talking. Below are solutions we’ve seen home care agencies use to overcome this challenge.
- Switch to Employer Sponsored Exams. The advantage of this solution strictly depends on the involvement your agency already has with the process of getting home care workers ready for employment. If you are simply sending recruits away and asking them to come back once tests have been done and play no role in this part of their onboarding then switching to agency pay may a large undertaking. If your agency, however, is already involved in the process by booking appointments, reimbursing expenses or deducting expenses from payroll, then agency pay can become a better way for your agency to control this segment of your onboarding process.
- Streamline The Process With A Vendor of Choice. Another solution is to mandate home care workers to go through one particular vendor instead of chasing after their primary physicians. This, is after all, is about making your onboarding more seamless and that means placing home care workers faster. Taking control on which provider your home care agency workers visit means faster scheduling, delivery of exams and placements. That’s a win win for everyone involved.
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