If you’re looking to improve caregiver retention, or even keep it stable at your facility, it’s important to understand the factors that cause caregivers to stay or leave. Facility operators can avoid this by knowing what leads to caregiver burnout, and factors in caregiver job satisfaction. Facility operators should ensure their employees have the right tools to provide the best level of care, and support and training. If you are not at the forefront of employee job satisfaction, you are at risk of losing staff and not providing an appropriate level of care to residents/patients.
The caregiver could be considered the most important part of a person’s care team. They are with your resident/patients 24/7 and see first-hand to their health. As such, it is crucial that caregiver staff feel valued and feel like what they do makes a positive difference in their lives.
Caregivers also need to be able to take pride in their work–to know that they are doing something worthwhile for their patients and families. If a caregiver feels that their job satisfaction isn’t what it should be, they will likely quit or look for another position elsewhere.
According to a study published on PubMed, the job satisfaction of in-home elderly caregivers is negatively associated with their burnout levels. This means that unhappy staff are more likely to burnout, leading to higher staff churn. The study found that gender, age, marital status, how they earned the job, relation with clients, social insurance, and work experience are significantly associated with the job satisfaction of in-home elderly caregivers (Rong et al, 2022).
So what can facility owners and leaders do to keep their staff engaged and employed? The Rong et al, 2022 study also found that training and working conditions have little significant effect on the job satisfaction of in-home elderly caregivers. Unfortunately, providing extra training might not contribute much to caregiver staff retention. Ultimately, it comes down to keeping staff excited about their job. Caregivers are happiest when they can provide the best level of care for their patients/ residents. As a facility owner/operator, be sure to meet your staff’s needs with the necessary tools so that they can provide a high standard of care.
One of the elements that helps any facility provide better care is consistency of care through lower churn rates of caregivers. If you are in the senior living, assisted living space, employee retention may or may not be at the top of your mind. But with the increasing job market competition and the lack of caregivers in the market, it’s vital to keep your staff engaged, happy, and motivated. Here are some tips for general employee satisfaction.
Many senior living facilities are suffering in caregiver retention over the past 5 years, especially due to COVID-19. Integracare CEO, Lee Grunberg united with AlayaCare to analyze caregiver retention rates through these crucial predictors to caregiver job satisfaction: total shifts, length of shifts and travel logistics. Grunberg focused on reducing churn to as one of the elements to providing better care. Their study found that caregiver turnover rates hovered at 65.2%. This is moderately stable, but is still a high turnover rate which can ultimately disrupt patient care. Their efforts also found that younger employees tend to leave at a far higher turnover rate (Home Healthcare News).
The best way to make sure your caregivers are happy is to take the time to get to know each one. This can be done in several ways:
Providing caregivers with the right tools and training can greatly improve their job satisfaction.
The American Psychological Association (APA) reports that many family caregivers report positive experiences from caregiving. These include a sense of giving back to someone who has cared for them, the satisfaction of knowing that their loved one is getting excellent care, personal growth and increased meaning and purpose in one’s life (Beach et al, 2000).
Most caregivers want to do a good job and make a difference in the lives of their patients. They want to know that their efforts are appreciated and valued by their employer. Implementing these 3 strategies- taking time to know your caregivers, providing them with top-of-the-line tools, and helping them make a difference at your company- will increase caregiver retention and job satisfaction and decrease caregiver churn. You can ensure that your caregiver staff feel valued and supported so they can be as satisfied with their jobs as possible.