As modern workplaces fight to remain competitive, they find that they not only have to compete for clients but also for employees. Home care providers are all too familiar with this growing need to compete for quality caregivers and staff. According to the 2016 Home Care Benchmarking Study, caregiver turnover was at 59.7% in 2015 after dropping only slightly from 61.6% in 2014. In order to maintain a competitive edge, many providers are expanding and improving their employee benefits packages as a means to draw qualified caregivers away from their competition.
Benefits packages cost home care companies money, but they also entice quality caregivers to choose one provider over another and to stay with that provider. As noted in the benchmarking study, 67.9% of providers offer some sort of caregiver benefits, and 78.5% of providers offer some sort of office staff benefits, and the greater a home care company’s revenue, the greater the likelihood that they’ll offer benefits.
Even offering a small, basic benefits package can help with recruitment and morale. In a survey conducted by the job site Monster, employees ranked the importance of various benefits. These were the results:
As part of the 2016 Home Care Benchmarking Study, hundreds of providers revealed which benefits they offer their caregivers and office staff. These are the results for caregiver benefits for providers in the $0-799K and $2.4M+ revenue ranges:
These are the results for office staff:
While almost all benefit types increase with revenue, healthcare and paid vacation are among the most significant benefits offered, which aligns with the preferences in Monster’s survey. If these benefits are outside of a provider’s financial reach, it may be beneficial to plan for a future benefits package and offer smaller forms of recognition and perks until you can implement it.
(Related article: 3 Ways Caregivers Want to Be Recognized)
As providers assemble their benefits packages, they should take into consideration what their competition is offering as well as what their employees are seeking. The better providers take care of their current employees, the more likely they’ll be to attract the best new ones.
For a more detailed list of benefit offerings for various revenue ranges along with other helpful industry data, refer to the 2016 Home Care Benchmarking Study.
