94% of employees would stay with a company longer if they felt their learning and development was encouraged. Learn how to motivate your caregivers to complete their training before they’re motivated to find employment elsewhere.
The secret is out: we know what motivates you to offer caregiver training. Equipping your caregivers with at least 8 hours of onboarding training and 12 hours of ongoing training can increase your agency’s annual revenue by $6,814 per caregiver!
But what is motivating your caregivers to complete training?
Training can make or break your agency’s success and the caregiver experience. In fact, lack of training is one of the top complaints we hear from caregivers.
Implementing a training program isn’t enough; you need to ensure your program is resonating with your caregivers to reap the benefits. Here are 6 easy techniques you can use to motivate your caregivers to be excited about training and complete it with ease:
Make Training Easier to Access With Blended Learning
Why this works:
Caregivers lead very busy lives: over 80% of them are working for multiple agencies to make ends meet. It can be hard for caregivers to find time to complete training and soak in all the information presented to them.
Since 2020, almost half of all home care agencies have introduced online training options. Approximately 90% of employees want to choose their own training schedule and believe training should be available anywhere/anytime—which means the time to update your training modules was yesterday.
As an employer, you can simplify training for your caregivers by offering training that accommodates their schedules and learning preferences.
How to motivate your caregivers with it:
Display your training flexibility by offering blended learning options that allow each caregiver to learn at their own pace.
Blended learning can help caregivers with all 4 learning styles:
We believe blended learning is crucial for a successful training program—which is why HCP Training is the only provider to offer a true blended solution that includes both online and hands-on learning.
Enable Caregivers to Specialize in Their Interests
Why this works:
Personalizing training shifts the focus off agency compliance and shows your caregivers that you are making an investment in their growth.
70% of employees would leave their current job to work for an organization that invested in employee development and learning. Yet, many employers find themselves clipping their employees’ wings in an effort to make them stay longer.
In today’s competitive job market, businesses are offering unprecedented bonuses, benefits, and wages, making it difficult for most home care agencies to compete. Stand out as an employer of choice by offering what entry-level employees really want: career development.
If you want to keep loyal employees, invest in their individual potential by enabling them to specialize in topics of their choice.
How to motivate your caregivers with it:
You can be known as the agency that prepares, equips, and advances their employees simply by reconstructing your definition of training. Use training as an opportunity to build your caregivers into confident experts from the ground up, while simultaneously improving your clients’ care and satisfaction.
You can differentiate yourself from the competition by offering career advancement and learning opportunities to introduce your caregivers to a future they couldn’t get anywhere else. Help your caregivers to envision how working with your agency will launch their career:
Along with increased caregiver retention, training your caregivers to specialize in their interests and client needs will equip your agency to provide better care to your clients.
Cultivate a Safe Space for Questions
Why this works:
As they say in the home care industry: don’t wait until it’s too late to teach your caregivers how to use a Hoyer lift—or at least we should start saying it, because it’s becoming a real problem.
Although caregivers want to begin their first shift as soon as possible, they’d prefer their client’s home to not be their first training room. In fact, alongside lack of training, caregivers ranked lack of communication as their top complaint.
Caregivers want to feel more prepared going into the field and need a welcoming environment in which to ask questions to do that.
How to motivate your caregivers with it:
Intentionally set your agency up to be a safe space for asking and answering questions in real time so that your caregivers feel more equipped to tackle the tasks their clients require of them.
Use training as an opportunity for caregivers to bring specific client questions and concerns to the table—before they need to learn how to use a Hoyer lift:
As much as training is about teaching, let it also be a time for listening. Giving space to hear your caregivers’ questions will help you know what skills your clients require. You’ll be able to fine-tune your training program while you cultivate a culture for open dialogue.
Make Training Fun with Gamification
Why this works:
From the apps that reward you for hitting your daily step goals to the free coffee you get after 10 visits, gamification is intertwined in every aspect of life, making mundane tasks a little more satisfying to complete.
Every time we make an accomplishment, hit a goal, or complete a task, our brain releases dopamine to make us feel good about doing it and encourage us to do it again. Gamification is the process of enhancing these dopamine surges by adding game-like features into non-game settings to encourage engagement and motivate interaction.
It’s no surprise, then, that gamified training programs have a 94% completion rate.
How to motivate your caregivers with it:
People learn better when they are having fun. Help your caregivers want to complete training by rewarding them with a dopamine surge throughout the experience.
Gamify your training program to naturally incentivize the feel-good chemicals in your caregivers’ brains:
Not only will gamified training help your caregivers feel like they are in control of their learning, but it will help them retain the information they learn in a more fun and interactive way.
Offer Soft-Skill Training
Why this works:
In an employee’s job market, applicants aren’t just looking for a steady income anymore. Instead, job seekers want a company culture that resonates with them and an employer who will invest in their personal development.
According to our 2021 Home Care Benchmarking Study, 77% of employers think soft skills are just as important as technical skills—but only 33% are currently offering soft skills training to their employees.
Become one of the first agencies to offer soft skills training to your employees and see a 250% return on investment with increased productivity and retention.
How to motivate your caregivers with it:
Stand apart from the 10.4 million job postings in the workforce right now by highlighting the professional development courses you offer to your employees.
You‘ll also be able to ease your caregivers’ concerns by preparing them to handle any situation they could face in the field.
(Note: To take a closer look at the image above, right-click to “open in new tab.”)
By offering professional growth courses such as: Critical Thinking Skills, Professionalism & Work Ethic, Enhancing Attention to Detail, and Dealing With the Bully At Work—you’ll be guaranteed to motivate caregivers to choose your agency.
Reward Caregivers for Completing Trainings
Why this works:
You’ve heard that people go where they are appreciated; are your caregivers feeling the love?
Companies with incentive programs saw a 79% success rate in achieving their goals when the correct reward was offered and found that employee performance improved by 44%.
This is because rewards validate the effort behind completing a task, resulting in your employees feeling appreciated. Recognizing your employees’ accomplishments will help your caregivers feel valued as priceless assets instead of replaceable commodities.
How to motivate your caregivers with it:
Thank your caregivers for the time they put into trainings. Their effort to improve their skills is a direct benefit to your agency and shouldn’t be taken for granted.
Recognize the value your caregivers bring to your agency by:
Jensen Jones and Jill Scott put it best in our 2021 Benchmarking Study, “We all like to feel appreciated. I wish there were a better word besides retention when talking about keeping our most valued employees. Nobody wants to be retained; they want to be invested in, and they want to be seen and valued. Employees want to feel like they’re a part of something bigger than themselves.”
Leave Them A Little Better Than When They Applied
94% of employees reported that they would stay at a company longer if it invested in their learning and development, but currently only 66% of home care providers use a professional training program.
Angels on Call saw a 26.6% increase in new hires with their training plan. You can read more about their story here.
Leave your employees a little better than when they applied. You don’t have to create a training program from scratch; check out how HCP Training can help your caregivers get excited about training like never before.
This was great!! Thank you!
We are so glad you liked it. Thanks for reading, Lori!