This episode of Home Care Heroes and Day Service Stars features Jen Waldron from Augusta Software, addressing the prevalent issue of caregiver job applicants ghosting employers. Jen identifies key challenges in the hiring process and offers insights into optimizing caregiver recruitment.

The episode begins with a discussion of a common question: "Where are the good caregivers?" Jen dispels the myth of hidden talent pools, emphasizing that 84% of caregiver hires originate from Indeed.com. This highlights the need for agencies to focus on optimizing Indeed as a recruitment platform. She notes that applicants coming directly from agency websites, though fewer in number, tend to be highly motivated and convert to hires at a higher rate.

Jen explains the reasons behind caregiver ghosting, including the ease of applying to multiple jobs with one click on platforms like Indeed, leading to applicant burnout and miscommunication. She encourages agency owners to experience the application process firsthand to understand the frustrations caregivers face.

To combat ghosting, Jen advises agencies to:

1. Evaluate the quality of information gathered during the application process.
2. Use clear qualifying standards to ensure only suitable candidates progress.
3. Offer flexible interview formats, especially for candidates applying from distant locations.
4. Respond to applicants quickly, ideally within four days, as delays significantly reduce interview attendance.

Jen highlights the importance of measuring recruitment metrics correctly, suggesting that agencies should assess no-show rates based on the total volume of applicants, rather than just scheduled interviews.

Augusta Software's platform offers solutions tailored to these challenges. It streamlines the hiring funnel by matching caregiver applicants to agencies using AI-driven processes. The platform ensures that candidates provide comprehensive, home care-specific information during the application, including previously overlooked experience like family caregiving. In return, applicants receive tailored job details, such as location, pay, and flexibility, enhancing their confidence and commitment.

A key innovation of Augusta is its caregiver-centric design, featuring simple interfaces optimized for older mobile devices. The platform gamifies the application process, encouraging engagement while reinforcing the job’s relevance to candidates. Augusta also addresses a common caregiver need—flexible hours—helping agencies identify and highlight benefits that align with caregiver priorities.

The episode concludes with Jen providing practical advice for agencies not yet using Augusta, such as using built-in messaging tools on job boards to engage applicants promptly and asking additional screening questions to gauge suitability. For those interested, she invites listeners to learn more about Augusta Software at its website, www.augusta.care.

This episode offers actionable strategies for home care agencies to improve caregiver recruitment, reduce ghosting, and ultimately strengthen their teams.

Home Care Heroes and Day Service Stars is produced and sponsored by Ankota - If you provide services that enable older or disabled people to continue living at home , Ankota can provide you the software to successfully run your agency. Visit us at https://www.ankota.com. 

Let’s face it, every person reading this synopsis (and hopefully listening to the accompanying podcast episode) would benefit by increased employee retention in their organization.  I’m sure that you’ve lamented the loss of caregivers, direct service workers or staff that you had hoped would stick with you longer and tried to think of what causes these losses.  I’m sure that burnout is one of the leading causes that comes to mind.

Our guest, Dr. Lorre Laws, is an author and research scientist who has focused her research on this very problem, and she has learned that “burnout” is an oversimplification. Her research has found that there is job-specific trauma that care professionals experience. 

More importantly, Dr. Laws has ANSWERS!  In her Book, Nursing Our Healer’s Heart, Dr. Laws takes the first chapter to explain her research and methods, but then the rest of the book is a chapter-by-chapter outline of ways that you can train your caregivers to recognize and overcome trauma.

 Since Dr. Laws’ very first job was as a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) in a nursing home she was excited for the change to share her approaches with the home care, day services and IDD services communities.  You can learn more about Dr. Laws, her research and her book by visiting DrLorreLaws.com.

Shifting subjects for a moment, Ankota, the produce of Home Care Heroes and Day Services Stars, is now offering a wonderful caregiver recruiting software solution. You can learn more by visiting Ankota.com/Caregiver-Recruiting-Software. 

Home Care Heroes and Day Service Stars is produced and sponsored by Ankota - If you provide services that enable older or disabled people to continue living at home , Ankota can provide you the software to successfully run your agency. Visit us at https://www.ankota.com. 

In this episode of the podcast, we were honored to meet with the United States Deputy Assistant Secretary for Aging, Kari Benson. Her entire career has been focused on the promotion of Home and Community Based Services for older and disabled individuals.

I asked the secretary what the most important message was that she needed to share in this podcast episode and without hesitation, her answer was to say thanks to our industry and to all that you do to enable our older and disabled neighbors to continue living in their homes.

But her message and mission on the episode were to emphasize the importance of vaccinations to keep our clients safe. She shared the following compelling statistics from the past year:

• 900K older Americans were treated for COVID and those without vaccines suffered more
• 400K older Americans were treated for the FLU and those without vaccines suffered more
• 200K older Americans were treated for RSV and those without vaccines suffered more

The message is clear! We need to make sure that our clients and our caregivers are vaccinated.

The secretary also told us a great deal about her role and her organization: the Administration for Community Living (ACL) a hidden GEM within the department of Health and Human Services (HHS). She also wanted to share the following resources with us:

• Elder Care Locator: 1-800-677-1116 or https://eldercare.act.gov
• Disability Services Locator (DIAL): 1-888-677-1199 or https://DIAL.act.gov

I'd also like to offer a special thanks to our friends at the National Adult Day Services Association (NADSA) who arranged the interview and introduced us to the Risk Less / Do More promotion.

Home Care Heroes and Day Service Stars is produced and sponsored by Ankota - If you provide services that enable older or disabled people to continue living at home , Ankota can provide you the software to successfully run your agency. Visit us at https://www.ankota.com. 

79 year old Sam Simon could tell that his memory was fading and finally was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease.  Faced with this, Sam has dedicated himself to awareness of what Alzheimer's is, how it makes you feel, and how you could and should embrace people experiencing this incurable disease.

Sam started his career in Washington, DC as a lawyer for Ralph Nader’s first advocacy group. He then spent 25 years as head of a public affairs firm. In that work, he was often in the news, with appearances on Face The Nation, Phil Donahue Show, Oprah Winfrey Show, Good Morning America, and many more. His first play, The Actual Dance, Love’s Ultimate Journey Through Breast Cancer, has toured from 2013 to the present. In 2021 The Actual Dance was turned into an award-winning biography.  His new play is called Dementia man.

On this episode of Home Care Heroes and Day Service Stars, Sam performs a preview, that he calls the "Showcase Version" of Dementia Man and then answers questions about his experience and the show.

If you'd like to learn more about Dementia Man, or even book a performance in your town, please visit www.dementiaman.com or email Sam and his wife Susan at [email protected].

Home Care Heroes and Day Service Stars is produced and sponsored by Ankota - If you provide services that enable older or disabled people to continue living at home , Ankota can provide you the software to successfully run your agency. Visit us at https://www.ankota.com. 

Home care is amazing! Older folks overwhelmingly fear loss of independence and institutionalization more than death.  Home Care can save the day for folks when they lose their ability to perform Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) independently.  Caregivers help with hygiene, nutrition, safety, cleanliness and so much more, all while allowing a person to stay in their home and the surroundings that they cherish.

Adult Day Care is also Amazing: Another fear that outweighs death is the loss of family or friends. Day programs combat social isolation, provide nutrition, activity, movement, friends and a reason to get out of bed in the morning. When my mom started with adult day services, she told me "...and now I'm even going to camp."

The first proposed titles of this podcast were "We are not enemies!" and "We are not competition."

Powerhouse guest Liz Barnes, Vice President of Risk Management and Adult Day Services for Easterseals in the national capital area (Washington DC, Virginia, and Maryland) is a great proponent and advocate for all home and community based services. She has a wealth of knowledge and also a great energy and passion, and I especially loved two things about my interview with her:

1. She answers everything from the perspective of the participant
2. For Liz, "taking care of people" isn't enough, she wants them to live their best lives.

Coincidentally Liz is the Chair of the upcoming NADSA conference and comes bearing a Discount Code (Ankota20)

It's not a coincidence that the timing of Liz's episode is just about one month before the National Adult Day Services Association (NADSA) conference. It will be held from September 18th - 20th in the supercool Buckhead neighborhood of Atlanta (Buckhead Marriott). When we recorded the episode, she mentioned that it was one day before the "early bird discount" was coming to an end. I had to share that sadly the episode wouldn't be reaching you until today, but Liz took care of you and arranged for the discount code Ankota20 that will get you 20% off conference admission.  You can register for the conference here.

Please enjoy what Liz has to share.

Liz also graciously shared that she loves helping Home and Community Based Service (HCBS) entrepreneurs and that you can reach her via email at [email protected].

Home Care Heroes and Day Service Stars is produced and sponsored by Ankota - If you provide services that enable older or disabled people to continue living at home , Ankota can provide you the software to successfully run your agency. Visit us at https://www.ankota.com. 

I was skeptical about whether "Virtual Care" would be a good service for home care agencies, but I was proven wrong.  In summary, this is a great way to differentiate your agency and to add a high-margin service. 

Our guest is Stephan Habermeyer who is the CEO at Calico.Care. 

Here are some highlights of what we learned:

• Virtual Care provides a way to monitor the well-being of home care clients throughout the day and night.
• Some agencies are using this for the classic scenario where the family wants home care for their mom, but the mom is not ready. They combine the virtual care with visits (live and/or virtual) from a care coordinator (at a high charge) and usually within a short time, the client agrees to add caregiver hours.
• The margins are high. As an example, some agencies are charging $1/hour for virtual care ($720 a month) and the cost is generally $200. Other agencies are charging $1,000/month or more.
• Another way that agencies are deploying the service is to add virtual care to a 30 or 40 hour a week client.
• The basic system comes with motion sensors and an Amazon Alexa. Plus the system comes with its own internet (no need to connect to wifi)
• Everything comes in a preconfigured kit and the devices are labeled, plus they walk the home care agency through it on facetime.  All they need to do is plug in two plugs and stick the sensors on the wall. Batteries will need to be replaced in around 2 years (but by that time, you'll have made $15,000.
• The family gets to monitor their own loved one with an app, but agencies are also providing a monitoring service by paying overnight caregivers an extra fee for monitoring.

Bottom line, this looks like a great way to add high-margin revenue and to differentiate your service from competitors.

To learn more about the solution, go to the website https://www.calico.care/ or email them at [email protected]. 

Home Care Heroes and Day Service Stars is produced and sponsored by Ankota - If you provide services that enable older or disabled people to continue living at home , Ankota can provide you the software to successfully run your agency. Visit us at https://www.ankota.com. 

When Bill Zagorski took over his family's elder care services agency, they were mostly doing non-medical home care. Now they're mostly providing Adult Day health Services and their revenue per caregiver has more than doubled.

As a research PHD,  the leader of 3 adult day health centers, chairman of the Tennessee state association and board chairman on the National Adult Day Services Association (NADSA), Bill is perhaps the most qualified person in the country to talk about this, and the episode is literally a master-class for anyone interested in adult day services.

This slightly extra long episode  covers the following:

• How Adult Day Services is growing and gaining prominence
• Overcoming Fears and Challenges to adding Adult Day Services (like real estate, meals and transportation)
• Great synergies between home care and ADS
• How to Learn More

One great way to learn more will be to attend the National Adult Day Services Association (NADSA) conference from September 18th - 20th in Atlanta. The conference will be at the Buckhead Marriott. learn more by visiting www.nadsa.org.

As Bill shares in the podcast, he has a hard time saying no when it comes to helping advance home and community based services. You can connect with Bill on LinkedIn here, or email him at [email protected].

Home Care Heroes and Day Service Stars is produced and sponsored by Ankota - If you provide services that enable older or disabled people to continue living at home , Ankota can provide you the software to successfully run your agency. Visit us at https://www.ankota.com. 

Carla Titus is an experienced Chief Financial Officer (CFO) with a strong passion for home care and day services based on her experience attaining the best possible care for her aging father-in-law.  One of her specialties with home care entrepreneurs is making sure that they are personally successful.

Some of the key topics covered in the episode are as follows:

• The importance of bookkeeping
• How to read your statements to understand the state of your business
• The difference between revenue and cash flow (in other words how to manage the delay between the time that you earn income and receive payment)
• Ways to deal with financial shortcomings
• Goal setting and tracking
• Leading and Lagging indicators

Carla's company is called Wealth and Worth Within. They offer a newsletter and lots of educational content on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.  Carla also offers free initial consultations for agencies who are looking for a fractional CFO.

Home Care Heroes and Day Service Stars is produced and sponsored by Ankota - If you provide services that enable older or disabled people to continue living at home , Ankota can provide you the software to successfully run your agency. Visit us at https://www.ankota.com. 

The safety of healthcare workers is a large issue and a large concern.  Home Care workers including Direct Service Professionals (DSPs) who provide supportive services for individuals experiencing intellectual and developmental disabilities are especially vulnerable.

This episode of Home Care Heroes and Day Service Stars takes on the issue of caregiver safety with our guest Ali Al Jabry, founder and CEO of kwema.co.  Ali shared more detailed statistics regarding the safety issue:

• Workplace violence can cost up to $56B per year, and women and healthcare workers are at even higher risk (per this article in Fast Company)
• "Every hour of every day, two healthcare workers experience verbal or physical abuse."
• Per this study, 22% of home care workers experienced verbal abuse in their jobs, and that set of caregivers were 11 times as likely to experience physical abuse

Ali shares great insights on the problem and also talks about the solution offered by his company Kwema (visit www.kwema.co). Recognizing that most healthcare workers and many home care workers wear a name badge, Kwema offers a name badge with a hidden button that contacts 911 in the event of an emergency.

Ali offered that any home care agency or day services center who mentions that they learned about the Kwema solution via this podcast can get free samples.  You can reach Ali and Kwema at www.kwema.co.

Home Care Heroes and Day Service Stars is produced and sponsored by Ankota - If you provide services that enable older or disabled people to continue living at home , Ankota can provide you the software to successfully run your agency. Visit us at https://www.ankota.com. 

This episode of Home Care Heroes and Day Service Stars welcomes Joe Kraus and Linda Donev, a brother and sister team who have had a long and positive impact on the Home Care industry. Joe and Linda created the home care software that eventually became the Resmed / MatrixCare solution.  They're back for an encore performance with a new offering called Perks4Care. 

The episode starts with some fun brother / sister banter as they tell their story, but then they focus on what they learned from years of delivering caregiver rewards and how it inspired their product.

Some of their great suggestions for rewarding caregivers are as follows:

• It's better to give rewards often
• In addition to the monetary value of the reward, caregivers appreciate looking back at these accomplishments
• Gift cards make great rewards, but not every caregiver likes the same things (e.g., a Starbucks card isn't great for a caregiver who doesn't like coffee)
• Being able to cash in rewards and use gift cards on the spot is a great thing (and an app helps with that)
• Raffles (the chance for one lucky caregiver to win a big surprise each month) are a great way to enhance the value of the reward system

One of the things that I love about their offering is that they don't charge per caregiver per month and instead they just charge a small fee on top of the rewards that you purchase, PLUS they pay for the raffles out of their own profit.  This is why we'll be recommending Perks4Care to our Ankota customers.

Please enjoy the full episode with Joe and Linda and take the opportunity to learn more about their offering at perks4care.com.

Home Care Heroes and Day Service Stars is produced and sponsored by Ankota - If you provide services that enable older or disabled people to continue living at home , Ankota can provide you the software to successfully run your agency.. Visit us at https://www.ankota.com.