Ep.6: The State of Training in 2022

Amanda Sternklar (00:00:00):

Hey, Amanda Sternklar here, co-host of Vision, the Care Leaders Podcast. This week, we’re doing things a little differently. Between July 27th and August 19th, 2022, HCP conducted a survey targeting agencies who provide in-home care services. During the 10 minute online survey, agencies were asked to share more about their challenges, successes, and future goals around their employee training programs. My co-host, Linda Leafly, chief Clinical Officer, and Todd Austin, president of hcp, recently shared the insights we gained and their advice for the future. This week’s episode is a recording of that presentation. If you’d like your own copy of the report, go to homecarepulse.com/2022-state-of-training-report. As always, you can find any of our previous episodes at homecarepulse.com/podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Todd Austin (00:00:51):

I’m the President at Home Care Pulse, Todd Austin. I think we’ve probably all shared some screens together before. I know Linda Leekley and I have who is joining me today and as our chief clinical officer and founder of In the Know, so we get a wealth of knowledge packed in today. And I’ll let Linda introduce and tell her a little bit about yourself and your background, Linda.

Linda Leekley (00:01:12):

Sure, absolutely. Thanks Todd. Um, well, as he said, I, I founded in the Know caregiver training, but prior to that, you know, I, I, um, my education background is as a nurse, I started my career in acute care like most nurses do. But, you know, I, I would always find myself wondering, well, what’s happening to my patients when they go home? You know, what, how are they faring? And so I, I transitioned to home care, home health, which I, I loved. Um, and, uh, you know, it was just a little bit more of a holistic care that I could practice versus sort of the rinse and repeat of acute care where they’re in and they’re gone and in and gone. So, um, really enjoyed being a visiting home health nurse for years. And then I transitioned to clinical education first at the local level, and then at, at a corporate level for a, uh, national, uh, home health company.

Linda Leekley (00:02:07):

So, why start my own business? Well, for anyone who is around in home health in 1998, <laugh> Dinosaur years, um, Medicare did one of its reimbursement cuts. And since education was considered a nice to have, it was sort of a budget line item that could be slashed. So I was let go. And after I got over sort of the poor me attitude, I thought, well, you know, educators all over the country, um, are being let go for the same reason. And so I knew that the staff that would really suffer was the direct care worker, the caregiver, the aid level. And so, because there was no one there then to do their, their training, right? So I started in the know by myself at my dining room table. I can still remember, remember that first day clearly sitting down to write my business plan, sitting there with my lunch of cottage cheese and pineapple and, and, uh, you know, get coming up with that plan. And the rest is history. Um, ran in the know for, for 20 plus years and merged with HCP two years ago, and it’s been an awesome experience. I, I love the synergy that we have together, so.

Todd Austin (00:03:23):

Awesome. Thanks for sharing, Linda. And it’s always fun to, to get dive into the background of, you know, true, you know, industry experts that have been in the space. And, and I know you’re gonna share some of the best practices that you’ve learned all of the years, but let’s, let’s kind of jump next step forward and talk a little bit about what brings us all together today. And that is, you know, the state of training Report, home Care Pulse puts out many reports every year. Some, some, you know, and we couldn’t do it without the participation of all of you in the line and sharing your thoughts and insights. You know, we, we take it very serious around being able to aggregate and share these best practices. And, uh, with inside that, what makes up this survey is talking with 80,000, uh, employees and asking them about the training they receive with inside the Home Care segment, and then also taking that report and talking with all of you as owners, operators, administrators, to understand what are the best practices you are doing in your business.

Todd Austin (00:04:28):

And we really took it from an a different angle. We, we always try and think about what problem are we trying to solve. It’s something that we talk about at Hunters often, you know, anytime we we enter initiative, it’s, it’s very much around what problem are we trying to solve. And so the understanding behind this is we really wanted to understand how can we solve some of the top com, you know, client complaints in the industry. And in 2022, as you can see here, there’s a lot of them that are overlapping with potential training opportunities. And so that’s what ventured us down the path to understand where are the gaps in training and where are the gaps in employee engagement? How do they cross into complaints from clients? So you can see adequate training being at the top, you know, um, you know, properly matching staff.

Todd Austin (00:05:22):

So staff, you know, being asked to conduct a service that maybe they don’t have the skill set for. You know, mills is always a big one, you know, with, you know, the elderly population that we typically serve, and making sure that their correct dietary, uh, you know, regimen is in place, you know, and then, you know, any type of confusion around the type of care that they receive, you know, and communication, which is kind of in the, the last two segments here. So, jumping even more further, you know, we asked ourselves, you know, how can we evaluate this? And there were three key components that we thought we could unpack and better understand and deliver some insights to for everybody on the line today. And that, that’s, once again, how are we doing training, and how are we engaging our team? How are we upscaling?

Todd Austin (00:06:12):

How are we setting them up for success? Given that in this workforce, it’s, it’s so diverse from the standpoint of it’s one to one, right? They’re, they’re in the home, typically unsupervised without anybody, you know, providing direct oversight on all the activities they’re doing. So we’ve gotta set them up for success. We’ve gotta set up our, our caregiver professionals for success, and then how do employees respond to it? That’s an important portion of it also, that we may, we may believe that we’re delivering the right actions, but without that feedback, how are we able to make sure that we advance it to the next level? And then what can we do to cultivate a culture of continuous learning? So, would love, you know, to get everybody’s feedback as we talk through this and interaction on what you are doing to really cultivate that environment of continuous learning.

Todd Austin (00:07:07):

I say continuous learning, cuz that’s a core value. At Home Care Pulse, one of our core values is continuous learning. I’m sure we’ll sprinkle in a few of our other core values along the way, but before we get into the full understanding of the report, it’s always good to kind of understand where the data’s coming from. So, survey participation from this study we’re primarily dominated by one or one to five locations, you know, so it makes up, you know, almost 90% of the total respondents in this. So we’ve got a lot of independent operators, um, or single location operators that gave their 2 cents. They may have a corporate entity that’s helping participate or facilitate training, but the insides were truly from the day to day operations, uh, of people within inside organizations, which was important for us from the standpoint of we’re trying to apply best practices at the, at the boots to ground level.

Todd Austin (00:08:09):

On top of that, the revenue ranges were, were fairly diversified, although, you know, as you would typically expect, you know, the more revenue less partition we get, because there’s less agencies that have that amount of revenue, but a very broad range of, of revenue within inside the data set. And that’s, you know, really helps us understand, you know, what can we build from the question set from the individuals, and cross compare the data. So once again, you know, the four objectives that we’re really gonna dive today, you know, are what styles of training are most effective? You know, how can we train, you know, or, or lower turnover through employee training and engagement. Overall engagement can mean a lot of things. It doesn’t have to be just training. And we’ll talk about some of those best practices within inside the conversation today. And then what motivates employees to complete training, and then how you need to contract training is also a key indicator with inside the information.

Todd Austin (00:09:13):

And, and most importantly, how do we understand the ROI of what we’re doing is effective? And we’ll talk about some of those ideas too. But, uh, also, once again, I’ll say it one last time before I turn it over to Linda to, to talk a little more about the number one item on the list, which is what training cells are most effective. But the, this webinar will be recorded and we’ll distribute it, and we’ll also ask and distribute a copy of the report for free to everybody, uh, that participates today. So we’ll remember that this will be recorded. You’ll get a copy of the slides, you’ll give a copy of the, uh, the report that we put together as, as participating in the webinar today. And with that being said, Lynn, tell us a little bit about, uh, most effective training methods.

Linda Leekley (00:09:58):

Sure, absolutely. Um, you know, obviously the, the pandemic affected the very personal business of, of home and community based care. And in so many ways is, I don’t have to tell all of you. Um, you know, when it came to training, uh, gathering in person wasn’t an option. So what that meant is that administrators like yourselves got creative. Um, some of you partnered with an online training vendor for the first time. Um, others conducted training sessions via email over Zoom, or even FaceTime one to one. Um, you know, during this period of virtual interactions, some organizations decided that they liked the convenience and portability of online training. Uh, you know, they realized that using a training partner offers other administrative benefits besides the training piece. Uh, like being able to track your employee training in one place, syncing the training platform with a scheduling software and, and so on. But other organizations really missed in-person training and, and couldn’t wait to get back to it. So let’s look at the data, if you wouldn’t mind the next slide, Todd.

Linda Leekley (00:11:15):

So, as you can see on this slide, most organizations have adopted a blended learning approach. Uh, 12 out of every hundred are sticking with online learning only, and a nearly equal number of of 11% are sticking within person training only. But obviously the vast majority, 77%, have found that a mix of the two is the way to go. And as a longtime nurse educator, I would hardly agree with that. And, you know, the mix that blend can be, uh, by learning style or by topic. So for example, you all know that some learners may not be techy, or they’d rather learn in a group setting where they can interact with their peers. Others prefer the freedom and flexibility of, of completing their training by themselves on their mobile device, on their schedule. So some organizations use blended learning options in order to engage both of those learning styles and keep both of those types of learners involved and, and engaged with training.

Linda Leekley (00:12:25):

But another way organizations incorporate blended learning is to focus on the topic itself rather than on individual learning styles. So a manager might assign to the staff an online course on helping with ambulation, let’s say, and then follow it up with an in-person session where they all get together briefly talk about what they learned in that online course, and then follow that with some hands on practice with mobility devices like canes, crutches, and walkers. So that’s another way of, of putting it together. And the in-person component of blended learning can go beyond classroom-based training. It might be onsite training in a client or patient’s home mentor, mentee training, hands on practice and return demonstration, anything where people are face to face and learning is happening. Um, and blended learning also tends to incorporate auditory visual, um, reading and everything. The, the different methods of, of sensory input to reinforce the learning organizations can develop at the in person piece of blended learning on their own, or partner with a training vendor that offers both online and instructor led formats. Next slide, Todd.

Todd Austin (00:13:54):

Yeah, and I, I love what you said. I think it’s always interesting when we start to talk about, you know, learning patterns, because I know for myself, I forget sometimes the mentee mentor relationship is also an opportunity for blended learning. But like you, like you said, it’s important to have, you know, a structure to that that you can measure against too. So having, you know, um, you know, instructor led PDFs is useful. Sometimes it’s about basic communication, right? That’s an opportunity to have a mentor mentee, you know, structured training conversation that, that you can use in a blended learning format, which you get a lot from that from Body Link, which I thought that was a really good, you know, key takeaway from, from what you just talked about, Linda

Linda Leekley (00:14:40):

Agreed. And having, having a, um, an instructor-led product or material, whether you create yourself or you purchase it from, from a, a partner like us, um, it, it makes, it makes sure that the, that in-person one-on-one training or mentee mentor training or classroom training is consistent with what is being taught online. So, or that multiple people, if multiple people are teaching that same topic, they’re teaching it consistently because they’re using the same material, it’s not a hit or miss kind of thing.

Todd Austin (00:15:15):

So, yeah. Yeah. And I think, um, a lot of us as administrators, you know, we wanna make sure that our investment into a product or a process, so like a mentor mentee relationship, you know, has some form of ROI to it. And so seeing those instructor led courses being completed mm-hmm. <affirmative> can bring peace of mind knowing that, you know, you prepared both parties, not just the caregiver or the mentee and the mentor. They’re both set up for success in that conversation, which I know that’s the hardest part of all of us, is enabling those individuals within our agency to be ready for success. When that opportunity presents, anytime we can provide a resource, you know, it’s gonna increase that chance.

Linda Leekley (00:16:01):

Agreed. So, you know, blended learning can certainly improve staff engagement, but it’s just one piece of the puzzle because if you look at this survey results here, this slide, it gives us some insight into what administrators view as the weaknesses of their current training program, no matter how it’s delivered, whether they’re doing their own in-house training or they utilize a training partner. And you can see on this slide that one of the top, that of the top five issues, the inability to engage staff in training was by far the most commonly cited weakness. So, okay, you have to jive that with the previous slide. We saw that 77% of respondents are utilizing blended learning, and yet half of those same administrators state that they’re unable to engage their staff in training. So there’s obviously more to this story, um, and we will dig deeper into the issue of engagement in just a moment. Next slide, please, Todd.

Linda Leekley (00:17:10):

So, the effects of training, you know, as Todd mentioned a few minutes ago, the number one complaint that clients have expressed in 2022 is that staff members are being sent into their homes without adequate training. So an important part of the state of training survey was to assess the effects of training on an organization. The next slide, please. The survey results showed that across the industry organizations have increased how much training and development they offer by 25%. And on this slide, you can see the top five results that organizations report they’ve, uh, enjoyed because of this increased focus on staff development and training. Now, for those of you who are already honed in on value-based care, right? That buzzword that we’re hearing so much about, right, or phrase, you can see that these results tie directly into the goals for value-based care staff performing at a higher level, increased job satisfaction, increased client patient, resident satisfaction, improved skills, and better outcomes. Now, if value-based care hasn’t hit your radar yet, it will, as it continues to, uh, extend across the continuum and meeting the goals of value-based care is going to require this continued emphasis on training and development. And it will also help ensure that your organization enjoys important results like these, uh, with an increased focus on training.

Linda Leekley (00:19:00):

Next slide. Unless you wanna pop in on that, Todd. Okay. So, um, you know, as I just said, training programs have expanded by 25% that this year. The data also showed that the average number of training hours per care professional was 13.25 residential care organizations led the pack with an average of 16 hours of training. But a training program, obviously is so much more than just a number of hours offered to be successful. A training program should have the three attributes that you see on this slide. Number one, you’ve gotta build in meaningful rewards for prompt completion of training. This increases engagement and it ensures that your organization meets all compliance regulations. And we’ll talk more about rewards and motivation in a moment. Number two, uh, it’s gotta be structured intentionally to upskill your staff so they’re well prepared to address the needs of, of the clients.

Linda Leekley (00:20:09):

I’ll, I’ll use clients, but understand it’s patients, residents, all of the above of that you serve. And this requires, you know, that organizations prioritize training that goes beyond compliance, um, and helps meet that, uh, or, or, uh, overcome that, um, complaint from patients that we’re sending in staff who aren’t prepared. And just a word about compliance training. Um, you know, it’s focused, it’s goal. The goal of compliance training is to ensure that employees follow any rules that are applicable to the, to your company, whether those rules stem from local, state, federal laws, or just your own policies and procedures. So by completing compliance training your employees help reduce risk to themselves, to the clients and to your organization. So while compliance training certainly involves learning, it’s not really focused on employee development. So if all you offer is compliance training, your employees are going to find it difficult to expand their knowledge base and their skills. So a successful training program doesn’t stop with compliance training. It can’t. And the third point, uh, your program needs to be integral to, to the culture, to the why of your organization. As Todd said, at at hcp, one of our core values is continuous learner. We have our own, uh, you know, obviously we have an lms, right? We have online training, and so our own employees are, uh, take courses on that. And, um, it is part of our why to, to encourage that, uh, their development, their professional development.

Linda Leekley (00:22:02):

So let’s look a little more closely at what the data showed on the, um, having your why, uh, be focused on a training program. If you would, go to the next slide, please. All right. I found this really, really interesting. So, when asked if they include employee development and training as part of their core values and performance reviews, more than 79% of administrators said they did. And I love that. I mean, it’s great to see so many organizations valuing employee development, but next slide, Todd, please. You know, as we saw on an earlier slide, and it’s repeated, uh, again, um, administrators report that the number one weakness of their training program is getting employees to engage with it. So that message of training, being part of the organizational why of being a core value is not always getting through to the employees. So I mentioned we would dig more deeply into engagement. Let’s do that now. Next slide, please. For the next few minutes, we’ll talk about the challenges inherent in motivating employees, what methods your peers are using, and some other best practices that you might try. And please be ready, or you can start now to, to pop in any best practices you use for motivation. It’d be great to start sharing those. Next slide. Todd,

Todd Austin (00:23:40):

Linda, Lin. I would, I would love to kinda go back and resonate on this for a second too. Okay. If, if that’s okay. So sure. If we go back and remember, the problem we’re trying to solve here is, you know, some of the complaints we’re receiving from clients, right? And so when we think about why should our program make up of these components is primarily with that thought in mind, along with employer retention, we’ve published, uh, many statistics that show, you know, longer training orientation or ongoing training results in decreased turnover. But I’d also, you know, spare the question to ask everybody on the line today, how often are you doing reassessments with your clients? How often are their needs changing? And are you rematching caregivers with those skills, with those clients, patients or residents? Right? That’s a huge component. And some states require it, some states don’t.

Todd Austin (00:24:45):

But you know, is it every 30 days, every 60 days, every 90 days? You know, and we should be doing these reassessments very often because what this does is, as clients needs change, you know, maybe, maybe there’s, you know, three or four chronic conditions, and we, we’ve moved that up the ring, you know, and now we’re starting to see early signs of dementia’s, Alzheimer’s, and we need to have a caregiver that knows how to coordinate that. And that’s an important part of the component of training too, is as those clients need change, your care planning and caregiver needs change, your staff needs change. So really important to incorporate what you are seeing in those care assessments with how you’re matching clients, which in return, you know, improves outcomes. And that’s really what we’re trying to do with clients, is improve outcomes. And I think this is foundational to understanding around not just why we do it for employees, but why we do it for clients. Hopefully that, that makes sense. And, and I would just make sure that everybody’s thinking about these reassessments on a very often basis. And, and I know you have more insight, insights to share too. So we’ll kind of jump into, you know, training motivation.

Linda Leekley (00:26:06):

Yeah, no, I mean, that’s a, that’s a, you can go the next slide, Todd. Um, that’s a really great point. And I would add in addition to the regular assessments of clients that, that you conduct regular learning assessments of your employees because those, their learning needs also change, um, and can work hand in hand with those, uh, changes in client needs. Um, so yeah, let’s, let’s talk a bit, you know, because <laugh> about engagement, um, you know, because I work at a company that offers online training, it’s, it’s common for me to hear administrators blame the lack of engagement on the lms. You know, they’ll say, I spent money on this great training program, but my employees just aren’t using it. Um, well, if someone who’s been in clinical education for 30 years, I can promise you that lack of engagement is not a new problem. Um, and it is not confined to e-learning. Um, can we go to the next slide, Tom, please.

Linda Leekley (00:27:19):

Um, you know, prior to, to e-learning the problem, and even with, with in-person training, now, you all know if you do, if you do classroom sessions or in-person training at all, the, the struggle there is to get the staff to come into the office, right? And if they’re current employees, then they’re leaving, um, clients, you know, unstaffed so that they can come into the meeting, or you have to have several different sessions in order to, to keep your, um, client staffed. So, you know, there’s a lot of problems inherent with that, that create, uh, a burden for you and low engagement for employees, from employees. Um, so from, from my experience, the issue is not in the training format, but in the attitude toward training in an organization, especially from the top down. Next slide, please.

Linda Leekley (00:28:16):

So, let’s consider for a moment, I’m, I’m sure that you all are gonna fall into the second category that I’m gonna share here. But let’s, let’s look, let’s think of these two possible scenarios you say to a, a, um, a new hire. Okay? Yeah. You know, we wanna hire you. You gotta complete these eight training courses before you can start working with a client. I know it’s a pain, the training’s boring, just get it done. We’ll pay you minimum wage for the time you spend training, and you’ll get that money in your first paycheck. That’s one option. You contrast that with, you know, you are such a great fit for our organization that we wanna start paying you immediately. We also wanna ensure that you have a safe and successful start to your career here at organization abc. So we’ve assigned some important orientation training. After you complete each course, you’ll receive a certificate of completion and $20.

Linda Leekley (00:29:21):

So the first example sets the new hire up to resent training for two reasons. The organization doesn’t value education, at least that’s not the message that’s coming across. And the employee is being paid less to learn. In the second scenario, the organization setting the stage from day one, that education is valued by the administration, and the organization pays more for the time spent training. Now, an alternative to paying $20 per course could be something like a sign on bonus that’s paid as soon as the person completes all the mandatory onboarding and compliance training. And I’m sure that, you know, some of you were thinking it sounds crazy to pay the employees, uh, a higher wage to train, but have any of you tried it? I would love to know if, if you can put in the chat if you’ve tried it, and if not, are you willing to try it to see if in the long run, it saves you money by helping with recruitment, engagement, quality of care, client and employee satisfaction and more? And, and, you know, Todd is going to talk in a few minutes about measuring all of those metrics. Um, but if, if you haven’t tried it, consider it, please. Cause it sends that message right from day one.

Todd Austin (00:30:47):

Yeah. And I would, I would, I would chime in here too, because this is something that we’ve seen for years around, you know, um, you know, paying a lower rate until we’re collecting revenue, right? Like that, that that’s ultimately why, right? A lot of organizations say, you know what, like, we’re not, we’re not collecting money because you’re not working any billable hours yet. And so, in order for us to solve cash flow problems, you know, we, we, we’ve gotta minimize expenses when a caregiver isn’t generating revenue, but in return, you know, sometimes, you know, they either fall off because, you know, they’ve gotta, they’ve gotta, they’re moving from one agency or one organization to the other. And so we’re asking them to take a pay cut in order to start working for our organization, but they’ve gotta complete this first. But we know that the critical item is speed to first shift, right?

Todd Austin (00:31:41):

If we can get them in that first shift, you know, so we’ve gotta motivate them to complete that. And I would ask everybody on the line today, that’s an administrator, if we took someone in your office staff, you know, so you know, your controller or you know, whoever’s over billings, you know, and, and you know, collections. If we, if we took them and said, Hey, we’re gonna pay you minimum wage on accounts receivables, what do we think would happen with our accounts receivables numbers? They, they would go up, right? Collecting money would be harder because we’re demotivating individuals to complete that line of work. And so, when you think about the tasks that we’re asking both administrative employees and our care teams, you know, are, are we incentivizing them or are we de incentivizing them? And this is an instance where we see that de incentivization happening time and time again, knowing though, that gotta get ’em into home facts.

Todd Austin (00:32:41):

Because when that happens, we we’re in win-win solutions and nothing is worse than when we don’t train an individual, we make the introduction to a new client, and then two days later, we’ve gotta repeat the process. So, great opportunities here to be able to help solve some of the issues with inside of this. This doesn’t always have to be a lot of money either. We’re talking about sometimes two to four hours of initial training. So it’s just about speed. And then making sure that we stay consistent with how we compensate around compliance based training. And the ROI is there. We’ve seen it time and time again for those that provide more training. You know, they have lower turnover, which means there’s not all the expenses occur. And I know everybody says, you know, it’s hard to do. Margins are tight, margins are tight, margins are tight because of the rate that we’re having to rehire.

Todd Austin (00:33:38):

And if we can reduce that by a certain percentage, margins will improve, and margins will also improve when we do our care assessments. And we have a caregiver that has more skills that we’re paying more money to, but we’re also charging clients more because the skill set required to take care of that case is different. So I hope that that makes sense. I’m once again, not advocating that we, you know, go and spend all this money. I’m just advocating that when we talk about training and engagement, that it’s equal to other job responsibilities within inside our organization.

Linda Leekley (00:34:16):

Great point. Thank you, Todd. We can go to the next slide. So, you know, in addition to, to demonstrating to your staff how your organization values training, um, you can improve engagement by figuring out what motivational methods are meaningful to them. I, I seen in the chat that some of you say, that’s not money. You know, it’s not always money that’s motivating them. Sometimes it’s as simple as asking them, you know, what motivates you? What gets you up in the morning? What’s, what do you prefer? But let’s take a look at some of the data on motivation from the report. The next slide, Todd.

Linda Leekley (00:35:02):

So when asked how they motivate their staff to complete training, participants mentioned most the five methods that you see on the slide here as we review them. Think about the fact that 79% of these same participants stated that employee development is a core value for their organization. About 38% of, um, participants are reimbursing staff for training time. So that goes back what Todd just said. You know, how excited would you be to start a job if you’re told you’re not gonna get paid while you’re learning your role? Um, and yeah, 38% is pretty low for reimbursing, for training time. 17% say that they praise their staff publicly for completing training. This could include posts on social media, company announcements, um, uh, you know, recognizing them during staff meetings, that sort of thing. This is free, this is a no charge method, but it’s not widely utilized.

Linda Leekley (00:36:16):

16% encourage and enable caregivers and aids to, to take specialized training in an area that interests them. So this is, you know, they’re, they’re having a say so and some control over their own professional development, and they might pick things like a specific disease that interests them. They wanna learn a bunch about it. Infection control, end of life care. Just a few examples, only 12% of respondents say that they have a system of training based promotions. So basically a learning ladder, uh, that has training tied into it as, you know, step rungs up the ladder based on certain milestones. And part of that is training. And 11%, uh, only 11% give out digital or physical rewards when an employee completes a training curriculum.

Linda Leekley (00:37:10):

So, I don’t know, I, do you agree with me that as an industry we can do better than this? You know, I know as administrators, you guys are all super, super busy. Um, but when it comes to motivating and rewarding your staff, you know, that old, uh, quote is true. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, as Todd said, it’s, it’s, you know, the margins are, are are low because, uh, or tight because of the turnover. And so if you can prevent that with that ounce of prevention, um, you know, it goes a long way. So taking an hour or two a week or, or delegating that to somebody on your staff to help you with that, to, to help engage your staff, support the success of your training program, it’s gonna save you money and time in the long run. Um, I’d love to hear, uh, some best practices, um, as in the chat if you’d like to share.

Linda Leekley (00:38:07):

Um, I’ll go through a few that, um, that I know of. Um, one, you know, instead of assuming that a learner isn’t savvy enough to complete their online training, or they’re too disengaged to bother showing up for in-person sessions, maybe check with the person privately. Some adult learners have a real fear of failing. They don’t wanna look stupid in front of a group, or they might suffer from test anxiety and they’re okay taking the, you know, reading through or, or going through an online course. But when it comes to the test, you know, they, they get that real anxiety. So a little reassurance from you walking them through maybe the first test, um, or having a peer work with them who’s gone through the same sort of feelings. That can go a long way. Um, you know, I’m old school, but handwritten thank you notes.

Linda Leekley (00:39:08):

When a staff who’s been struggling with training gets all their training done, I mean, that really lets them know that they’re worth your time and attention. It’s a great way to do, give some praise and express your gratitude that they’re part of your organization. Uh, you know, share praise from clients, um, or their family members. And whenever possible, tie the praise back to the training that the employee has completed. I’ll give you an example. Um, we had a training manager reach out to us with praise about one of her aides, and she asked us to publish the story about this aid on, on, uh, on, in a blog on our website, which we did. So the story went that after com recently completing our course on diabetes, the aid was able to recognize the signs of diabetic shock in her client and get medical assistance.

Linda Leekley (00:40:02):

And the aid said, I never would’ve been able to do that if I hadn’t just taken that course. She was instrumental in saving the client’s life, and the family, of course, was immensely grateful. Um, so, you know, stories like that are so powerful for your staff. And, um, you know, obviously that aid, uh, got that public recognition, which, which was awesome. Um, if your organization has swag, give out some free company apparel or other logo merchandise, uh, at milestones, you know, as they complete their training, uh, spot bonuses. I know I noticed somebody in the chat say, you gotta be careful in some states with labor laws on that. But if it’s not a problem, then you know, a spot bonus for, um, really outstanding work on training can be a powerful motivational tool.

Linda Leekley (00:40:58):

Building a mentorship program into your training program. I, as Todd talked about earlier, and, you know, the peer to peer mentoring program can benefit everyone involved. Both the mentor and the mentee can improve morale, motivate staff to complete their training and really ensure the highest quality of care for your clients, uh, patients, residents, um, and Home Care Pulse does offer a free resource on a mentorship program that you can search. Uh, you can get off our website, um, be happy to share that with you. So those are just a few of the best practices I know with all the creative minds, uh, we have with us today, that you’ve got some additional methods to motivate, uh, your folks and to highlight your core value of employee development. So, Todd, have you’ve been reading these as I’ve been talking and

Todd Austin (00:41:53):

Yeah, I think there’s some, some great ones in here, but I’ll, I’ll share a story, you know, from a, you know, a successful home care operator, um, that, that had shared with me, you know, before. And I would say that they’re, they’re very, very good, um, leader in the space. Um, I, I didn’t ask for permission to share this, so I’ll leave their name unknown at this point, but one of their best practices that they did is, you know, upon completion they would, they would print out the certification or the specialty, and they would take it to them and present it to them, you know, in the home. And their why behind this is that they, they put it on social. They wanted the industry and their community to understand that they were transitioning from caregivers to professional caregivers, and they wanted to stand out from the crowd in a way that others weren’t.

Todd Austin (00:42:50):

So one was, was, you know, for, you know, social media and to make sure that others knew that they were differentiating themselves by making sure that they had professional caregivers. The second was that they shared it on their internal Facebook page that all of their care professionals were in, and to reinforce the purpose of it. And then they would also educate them that this is a certification that goes with you, and this is something you should be proud of, and it, and it means that there is additional value now that you’re certified in this. And I think all of us have probably took a course over our career where we got some certification, maybe it made it to your resume, maybe it, maybe it made it to LinkedIn or other social places, but there’s opportunity to build community around education. That’s, we see that already because it’s part of your core values, but are we recognizing, rewarding, hiring, firing, and reviewing based on that?

Todd Austin (00:43:51):

So I think there’s a, a lot of great ideas, and I think I saw one in here, uh, you know, from, from Todd, um, I’ve gotta scroll up, you know, and he talked about that they give bonuses. This wasn’t me, Todd, Todd <laugh>, but so, so not saying, Hey, Todd, Todd had a great idea talking. Um, but, uh, bonuses within a couple weeks of hire, you know, and then just making sure that they under, you know, caregivers understand if they wanna work with specific clients, they have to have certain education components completed. And that’s, that’s a really good practice that I saw in here. I saw Andrea talk about, I believe the mentor program. Um, and there was a free resource guide shared in there around the mentor program. This, this is great, you know, to sit down with your caregiver during the interview process and talk about how there’s progression for them.

Todd Austin (00:44:45):

And that progression doesn’t mean moving into office staff position. This just means being in a position of being a leader in your organization. And a lot of that can do with, with training too. So I think there’s a lot of motivating factors. And, uh, I also saw, you know, with inside it, you know, Donna, I think it was Donna that had suggested around, you know, that, that there are, there are going to be some, you know, bad apples that are difficult to get to complete training. Yeah, I think that’s, that’s the case everywhere. But I would, I would tell everybody, if you’re taking notes to write down at the top, that you are data driven, people focused, and, you know, that’s gonna always keep you in a north star of making sure that you’re making the right decisions, you know, for what you’re doing in training or within your business. But we always stay people focused and we know that it’s gonna take communication, you know, in order to, to con kind of continually move this, uh, needle inside home based care services.

Linda Leekley (00:45:51):

Well, Todd, I think you better just carry on with the data. So hit the next go

Todd Austin (00:45:56):

For it. We’ll keep going. And, you know, I would also say, you know, if you, if you are checking all these boxes as we talk through this, please reach out to us after, because, you know, our role in the home care space, it’s not just to provide the service, but to make sure we provide the information, utilize best practices in this. So if have, we’ve gone through this, you’re saying, yep, yep, doing that, doing that, and you’re having really great results, please reach out. We would love to talk more about how you’re doing it and, uh, how to measure against it. And that’s really what I’m gonna talk about right now is, you know, the, the thought around, you know, world class results come from world class people. So how do we, how do we do this? How do we create world class people that have world class results?

Todd Austin (00:46:40):

Well, we’ve gotta make sure that we’re tracking it and, uh, we’ve gotta make sure we’ve got the right KPIs in place so that every year when we evaluate this, we are confident that what we’re doing is the right thing. And the item that stuck out to me on this, you know, was around, you know, survey participants identifying and tracking what they were utilizing within the data sets of for training. So less than half of the participants identified, you know, that there is a key metric revolving around improving their training program. So it, it’s no wonder that I see frustration in the comments because we, we don’t know what we’re trying to accomplish. If you are trying to accomplish compliance, measure compliance completion, you know, that’s a great foundation. If you’re trying to get, uh, employees shift ready, measure the time it takes to get an employee shift ready, and that’s your north star that you’re improving in that category.

Todd Austin (00:47:40):

If you’re not number of employees certified in different categories, we talked about dementia all times, those are all items that can help you have an unbiased data point that it’s either true or false. So with inside that, you know, what I would also indicate is some of the items being measured, the impact, you know, stack development training. So you can see here, this is the most common things we’re seeing around being measured. So, you know, outcomes, it’s a great one. We’ve gotta make sure that we’re impacting outcomes, we’ve gotta improve readmissions. What I find interesting here is that the survey participants in the state of training say that, you know, the number one item that they’re measuring training development towards is patient service outcomes, 26.6%. That’s actually 6% higher than the industry says they track readmission rates. So if we’re, if we’re saying patient service outcomes is our North star, but we’re not tracking readmission rates, how do we actually know if we’re doing a better job in this category?

Todd Austin (00:48:50):

Mm-hmm. And then staff improvement came up second on there. And staff improvement is, is a great one because I think a lot of our, uh, people management skills fall into this category. So if I’m onboarding, you know, Linda, uh, as a care professional inside my organization, and I trained her on communication, or I train her on the standard of performance, do I not now have an expectation, I get a hold her to going forward versus just assuming that she has that a new ability to communicate with a client and with the office staff. Those are all items for staff improvement, and they don’t have to be an hour long curriculum. It can be something in your handbook that you make sure that they have completed and they understand. So not just giving them the handbook and printing it out and saying, this is our handbook, but doing skills and knowledge checks against that, making sure that they understand what your standard for communication.

Todd Austin (00:49:48):

Does that make sense? I hope that makes sense for everybody. So moving forward, you know, how do we improve? And I think this goes back to the best practices we’ve talked about today. The most important thing that we have to do is change how we view training and development, change our perception of how we, uh, monetize against training and development to make sure that it’s a plus add for our business. And some of the KPIs that we talked about in the last slide are opportunity to make sure that we’re progressing the business so forward. So the data supports this, that you’ve got to cultivate this once again as part of your core values. So focus on the data, track the metrics and the KPIs, you know, in an unbiased format. Now, time to first shift. That should be part of, you know, your training and development, understanding of your mission, vision values, your core values.

Todd Austin (00:50:46):

Are you handing them the handbook and assuming that they know it, or are you handing them the handbook or having them take a training that involves your handbook and then having them take assessments to make sure that that knowledge is retained. And amongst that, what we saw, you know, is that there’s a clear need, you know, within the di data about a learning management system that is customized, that services onboarding, initial education, continuing education, and blended learning. And that’s what was fun for us at Home Care Pulse that really stuck out is that, you know, there, there was kind of a clear winner. I don’t want to be too much of a self focus here, but if you are having problems with this and you’re, you are a non-Home Care polls customer, reach out. Because we’re seeing with inside the participants that Home Care polls, uh, you know, training partners of ours are seeing great success.

Todd Austin (00:51:41):

And if you are struggling implementing some of this reach out. Also, you know, a lot of times it’s about resetting expectations, going back to the foundation and starting all over once again and saying, okay, I now understand the importance of why we need to do this. And it’s not just about checking a box, but it’s about making sure that my team understands my expectations, so I don’t have to constantly reiterate items. I don’t. That being said, I want give a chance to make sure, you know, everybody understands some of the shortcomings and the benchmarks that provides it. So compare your cell and your agency to the results in the report. And I’ll ask in a second if you want to get a copy of that report and you can say yes and we’ll distribute it. So take this report and, you know, take your data and compare it against it.

Todd Austin (00:52:32):

And if you go into annual planning for next year, this will really help you understand what goals are we trying to accomplish. Once again, what problem are we trying to solve through this? And, uh, you know, part of that is make, make improvements based on those benchmarks. Set some milestones so that we understand and you understand what you wanna accomplish. Like I said, that can just be saying, I want 100% of my employees compliant by X date. Let’s collaborate on that and set up a strategy that you can achieve that that isn’t an administrative burden. And I see a lot of yeses in the chat. What I’m gonna have you do is instead of saying yes in the chat, we’re gonna launch a poll and say yes on the poll and you’ll get the report when you indicate yes on the poll. So sorry for the confusion, so we’ll, yep, here we go.

Todd Austin (00:53:20):

We launched this. So if you want to get a copy of the state of training report, just click yes on here and if you, if you click no, there’s four people that click no, go and click Yes. I’m just kidding. Um, so don’t, don’t don’t, don’t click, no. If you don’t want the report, click yes. So as you, as you think about your, you know, planning for this next stage, you know, this is a great opportunity. Looks like most people have have marked yes on the poll, so happy to answer some questions too while we continually filter in some of these poll responses.

Todd Austin (00:53:58):

So we’re getting questions around, uh, is there, is there a way to survey learners through our learning management system in home care poll? So we obviously have employee engagement as, as one, uh, opportunity for employee surveys, and then we’ve got our learning management system and, uh, great opportunity to do both. Um, but one is specifically around a core set of questions that we’ve seen improve employee outcomes and then the learning management system. There are, there are questions and surveys in the learning management system, but it’s primarily used to make sure that they’re retaining information. I know Linda, there’s, you know, some new product releases right around the corner that maybe you can share too, that talk about surveying learner learners too, or, or doing, um, competency type assessments too.

Linda Leekley (00:54:53):

Yes. Yeah, we do have, that’s a little bit of a tangent, but it’s an exciting tangent, so I’ll certainly share it. It’s, um, we have, uh, coming up with a competency assessment program. I know many of you are in states where a competency assessment is required or, or an option instead of training for home care, um, or if you’re in home health or hospice, uh, the, uh, competency assessment is mandatory annually. So we are going to, um, have a competency program in our LMS where you can assign the competencies that you want, the specific skill that you want your, uh, staff, um, tested on, and then you can track their return demonstration right in the LMS so that it’s all in there with, uh, with all the other transcript information for each learner, which is great for when you’re surveyed, uh, and very convenient. So look for that, uh, in the next quarter or so.

Todd Austin (00:55:57):

Yeah, and, and I’m getting a lot of questions too around if, if they can get in contact with someone at Home Care Pulse to learn more about this. So if, if you want to get a hold of, um, you know, someone at Home Care polls to learn about some of these products here, here’s an opportunity to answer the poll question so that we know who to get a hold of. One item too that I would say is very underutilized in learning management systems as a whole is that employee handbook and custom c content that you want to make sure that your staff is knowledgeable on. And I saw that earlier in the comments around best practices. Linda, would you mind sharing with, with everybody some of the best practices around utilizing learning management systems and your own custom content that you have, you know, with inside your organization?

Linda Leekley (00:56:46):

Yeah, I mean, if, if your learning management system allows, uh, you to upload your own content, um, hopefully it’s, it’s broad so that you could do a pdf, a Word doc, uh, a short video. Um, but some of the best practices are, um, definitely the handbook. But as Todd said, don’t just slap the handbook up there. Pick a few key, um, maybe five to 10 key points within the handbook that you want to ensure that every employee understands and make a quiz and attach that to the handbooks so that you have, um, you know, that they’re retaining that knowledge or, or learning that about your handbook. Um, otherwise it’s too easy for them to, you know, say, okay, yeah, I read it, you know, when maybe they didn’t, you know, you can do that with a new memo or a new policy that comes out.

Linda Leekley (00:57:47):

Put, put the policy up in the lms. Anything that you want your whole crew to know about that’s important, get it up there. But I would always encourage you to make a little quiz, whether it’s, you know, even three questions, one question, even if it’s, if it’s a powerful question, question, um, that, that tracks that that learner has actually reviewed what you want them to, to know. Um, and, uh, I don’t know about every, um, lms. I know with HCP you can put unlimited numbers of, uh, custom contents on the LMS and, um, use it as email.

Todd Austin (00:58:27):

I, I I always feel like that’s an underutilized, you know, portion because we, you know, it takes a little bit of your, you know, time to build that out up front or to work with our team here at Home cares to build out what, what that custom content looks like. But, you know, it’s a great opportunity to streamline. So when we’re talking about speed to first shift, you know, these are all things that can be done on the mobile app or on the web browser. Um, you know, so, so if, if you have questions on that too, feel free to reach out to any of us at Home Care Pulse, um, and, and we’re happy to help with that. Um, and, and kind of a in closing, we’re two minutes over. If, if, if you, if we weren’t able to get ahold of you or if you, uh, need additional report, uh, support, um, right here on this questions page, there’s a phone number and email.

Todd Austin (00:59:17):

So info home care pulse.com or this phone number, feel free to reach out and, uh, we’ll make sure to get in contact and, and work with all of you to get the information you’re needing. Once again, uh, thank you all for joining. This will be available within 24 hours along with the resources. If you have additional question or comments, you can find Linda, myself, uh, on, on LinkedIn or other social sites, or feel free to use the Info Home Care Pulse. We’d love to continue the conversation and thank you all for attending and, uh, we’ll all be in touch soon. And that’s all for today.

Linda Leekley (00:59:54):

Yeah, thanks so much. Uh, we know your time is so valuable and we appreciate you spending it with us.

Amanda Sternklar (01:00:01):

Again, if you want your own copy of the data Todd and Linda shared, go to home care pulse.com/ 2022 State of dash training dashport. As always, you can find any of our previous [email protected] slash podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts. We’ll be back in two weeks.