Caregiver Retention and the Burnout Issue 

Across the US, caregiver retention poses a major challenge. The country is facing a professional caregiver shortage fuelled by an aging population, a growing preference for in-home care, and widespread caregiver burnout.

For home care agencies, this adds up to difficulties in providing caregiver services, additional recruiting costs, and lower client care quality. Caregiver recruitment and retention are becoming fundamental to home care business success. 

But tackling employee retention means tackling burnout. Employee mental health needs to play a decisive role in all your caregiver management strategies.

How to Reduce Employee Turnover by Tackling Caregiver Burnout

#1 Offer On-the-Job Support 

Lack of support is a significant contributing factor to caregiver turnout rates. It exacerbates stress and gives the impression that your agency doesn’t value your home care staff. This can create resentment and quickly pave the way to burnout.

Technology can help you better support your caregivers so you can reduce their stress levels, empower them to provide better home care services, and show that your agency cares about the employee experience. 

Using software with a built-in caregiver app will allow your caregiving team to access vital information, such as client care plans and recent care notes. Ensure that your caregivers also know how to request help and report problems if needed.

#2 Give Caregivers Control Over Their Work-Life Balance

Long work hours and inflexible schedules can be draining. On the other hand, being assigned too few shifts can heap financial stress on caregivers and cause them to look for more work elsewhere. The solution is to give your caregivers a greater say over their schedules.

Encourage your care team to set their preferred availability via the caregiver app. While you might worry that this will increase your admin work, modern home care software eases the burden of manual scheduling. 

With an in-software job board, you can also allow your caregivers to bid on additional shifts. They can decide how many hours they’re assigned, while you can cut down on the time you spend manually offering work.

Finally, make sure your caregivers receive advance notice of their schedule so that they can make plans around their work shifts. Set up recurring shifts in your home care software to help you quickly build your weekly schedule. Sharing the schedule in-app will also avoid the issue of missed shift assignments.

#3 Set Realistic Workloads 

“Too much work” is a frequent complaint among caregivers suffering from work-related stress. “Too much paperwork” is another common iteration of it, from caregivers who would prefer to spend their time delivering quality home care services instead of filling out forms.

Caregiving can be a demanding role, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t lighten your team’s workload. Focus on streamlining their admin tasks and making their essential paperwork easier to complete. 

Enable your team to write client care notes on their phone, using voice-to-text features if they want. Add care note templates to your home care software so that your caregivers can quickly add high-quality notes. 

#4 Pay Caregivers Promptly and Correctly

Payroll errors can exacerbate burnout and lead to higher caregiver turnover rates. To prevent this, integrate your home care software with your accounting and payroll tech. Make sure you can auto-generate payroll based on shift records. 

For increased efficiency, ask your caregivers to attach proof of any expenses to their shift record so that they’re not overlooked. By automating your payroll, you’ll cut down on errors, reduce your workload, and avoid frustrating your staff.

#5 Give Regular Positive Feedback

With caregivers working from a client’s home instead of an office, it’s easy for home care agencies to forget to give praise. But not providing employees with feedback can increase resentment and decrease caregiver retention rates. A lack of positive feedback has also been linked to burnout among healthcare workers. 

Add giving feedback to your schedule, and then use your home care software to send SMS messages to your team. The more personalized the feedback, the better, so pass on positive comments from their clients or express approval of their client care note quality. 

A Home Care Tool that Supports Your Caregivers

ShiftCare’s home care software helps you run your business more efficiently and effectively, plus it comes with a wide range of caregiver management tools. Your care team can set their availability, bid on additional shifts, view their schedule and shift details, access client documentation, quickly add client notes, and more.

Discover how the right tools will help your caregivers thrive, so they can feel their best and deliver their best at work. Try ShiftCare for free.