Guide 2: Care Provider Retention Ideas 

You should hold regular meetings with care teams and their supervisors. This is a good opportunity to involve employees in creating a retention plan.

Explain why retention is important to you and record everyone’s ideas. Observe which staff members show the most enthusiasm as they could help to implement the plan.

Here are some good practices that achieve high levels of retention:

Company Events

  • Get the office team involved in creating a thank you video to be shared on social media or even on your website

  • Organise a monthly raffle for the care team, you could purchase small items or get the office team involved in donating gifts for the raffle. Carers receive a raffle ticket for a particular achievement or an especially caring thing they did for a client/colleague

  • Invite local artisans to create gifts for staff so the wider community understand your staff are appreciated

  • Run a contest for concert, cinema or evening meal vouchers 

  • Buy vouchers from local restaurants and cafes so the word spreads locally about your company

  • Have a special pizza and wine evening run by the team supervisor

  • Introduce monthly birthday celebrations, invite carers celebrating their birthday to come into the office for cake

  • Have a free car wash day where the office team washes the carers cars

  • Have free treats available for when carers visit the office, like chocolate, small pampering gifts, sweets or stationery

Incentive and Promotion

  • Develop an award programme, e.g., carer of the month, provide a certificate and celebrate the award on social media. Provide a little thank you gift too

  • Compliments Scheme – reward carers when a compliment is received with perhaps a small gift with a copy of the compliment

  • Upgrade carers to care mentors when they are performing well, this will help new staff members and improve the morale of existing ones

  • Upgrade carers to Care Specialist when they achieve a certain level, e.g., pass Level 2 diploma

  • Introduce a points program so that compliments, outstanding care and good performance lead to points they can use for paid time off

Financial Rewards

  • Monthly payment schemes for going the extra mile, e.g., paid time off or bonus scheme

  • Retention bonus schemes, provide a bonus when they reach particular milestones, i.e. 1 year/3years/5years

  • Reward staff with a paid night in a hotel/spa package etc.

  • Provide an annual staff holiday draw where the winner wins a week in the sun

Recognition Opportunities 

There are three distinct areas that provide opportunities to recognise the contributions made by your care staff. These come from the managers in company, the clients & their families and your staffs peers.

Company Recognition

  • Make gift cards personal to their likes/hobbies

  • Collect personal compliments and recognition for each carer and share them at the quarterly/annual appraisals

  • Have a recognition board in the office with pictures of the most recent carer of the month carers, recently promoted carers etc.

  • Recognition Budget – provide supervisors in each team with a budget to use for appreciation activities such as spa packages, concert tickets, chocolates, wine or care team activities. Encourage them to look for events and ways to show appreciation and use up their budget every month.

  • Carers need understanding partners so why not send a personal thanks to their spouse if they have been working long hours

  • Include positive notes in their payslip or other correspondence

  • If their client dies, send them a card and some flowers

  • Take carers out for lunch when they have received a wonderful compliment or dealt with an emergency situation or lost a close client

  • If you publish a company annual report, include a section that celebrates employee achievements 

Client & Family Recognition

  • Encourage clients and families that provide compliments to speak to the carer directly or send them a personal card

  • Gather compliments for a particular care team and then share them at team meetings and events. Include the teams’ compliments on social media and on your website

  • Reward carers with the most compliments every year with a celebration in the office, i.e. get a takeout in the office or get the team to bake them a cake

  • Invite clients and family members to record a video sharing their compliments about the carer. Share on social media or your website 

Peer Recognition

  • Carer of the month could be given special rights, i.e., the first choice of time they want to book off/more flexible shift options

  • For long-serving carers have a Lifetime Achievement Award

  • Carers that win monthly achievements/yearly achievements – ask them to share positive feedback at the team meetings

  • Reward carers or office team members that come up with good ideas to improve care

  • Create a monthly recognition newsletter and email it to staff

Community Recognition

  • Make social media posts that recognise staff achievements

  • Carer of the year – get a local person such as the mayor to make the award, write an article about them and publish this on social media and share it with the local press

  • Speaking at, or facilitating the mention of the carer at the funerals of passed clients

  • Make a press release about your staff members achievements and email this to local newspapers etc

Further information

Read Guide 1

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