New Tools For Home Health: Comprehensive Orientation Delivers A Competitive Edge.
Way back in the early days when the idea of home healthcare was just taking flight, staff orientation was about welcoming new employees and making them feel at home. Today, in a competitive marketplace and uncertain economy, orientation has grown from a ‘meet and greet’ into one of the most powerful tools you have to build a successful organization.
Orientation is one of the first opportunities to ‘wow’ your new employees and transform them from ‘newbie’ hires into loyal, dedicated team members. Yet, along with teambuilding, orientation is an opportunity to give employees a wide range of tools and skills that separate your agency from the pack.
While it may come as a surprise, cooking and cleaning are the new ‘must have’ skills that are helping agencies across the country achieve success. Clients who hire an agency to provide services usually want an aide whose actions reflect their own standards for fresh-cooked foods, meals prepared from scratch, and a house that is free of dust, dirt, and grime. Yet, ironically, one of the most common complaints I hear is that aides do not know how to cook or clean properly.
Recently, I designed a cooking and housekeeping curriculum for a client in the Northwest to use as part of her orientation. It taught new aides how to cook, prepare a menu, shop for ingredients, store food properly, and present meals in an appetizing manner. The orientation also included housekeeping tips that support health and wellbeing. As a result of this training, my client’s new hire success rate dramatically increased. A win-win situation: her aides felt more confident when they arrived at a new job, and her clients felt they were more than getting their money’s worth from the agency.
Integrating training modules during orientation are the wave of the future. If you have a specialty service such as Alzheimer’s or Dementia, your staff must be properly trained so they can respond to and care for clients with those diseases. Educating your staff to your customer service expectations can be empowering as well. Quality customer service can pay huge dividends down the line in customer satisfaction and build your reputation in the marketplace. Remember, word of mouth is still the best advertiser. Jumpstarting this awareness during the orientation process will give your staff and your agency a leg up.
A comprehensive orientation takes three full days to complete. Often owners feel they cannot afford this kind of investment and try to in-service their trainings throughout the year. The truth is – that never happens. Aide staff gets busy and the administrative staff gets sidetracked. In an overwhelmed work environment, proper training is never completed.
A clear-cut, three-day orientation filled to the brim with vital information on a full range of subjects is the most cost-effective and results-oriented way to train your staff. It is also an invaluable opportunity to send the message that they are valued and that you are willing to invest your time and energy to help them be successful in their jobs.
In my experience as a consultant, it never fails that agencies that offer a comprehensive orientation to new staff discover their investment pays off in the long run. They can see it in retention rates, improved customer satisfaction, and increased revenues.
Category: Articles, Orientation
I love this post! I’m struggling to find statistics to prove that our 8 hour orientation is not sufficient. Do you have any studies or ROI statistics that I could find to help support my request for an additional 4 hours (1.5 days? Thanks for your help!
I love this post! I\’m struggling to find statistics to prove that our 8 hour orientation is not sufficient. Do you have any studies or ROI statistics that I could find to help support my request for an additional 4 hours (1.5 days? Thanks for your help!
There is no research that I know of specific data to your request. The ROI is achieved by retrospective review of your customer satisfacion survey responses, your employee satisfaction surveys and your retention statistics. Assitionally you can look at your financials for reduction in recruitment costs and increase in business and tenure of clients. Your gain is in reduced recruitment and retention costs and the increased satisfaction and retention of your paying clients. Hope this helps. Ginny