The Reputation Screen
Almost everyone is afraid to let a complete stranger come into his or her home to provide care and have the run of the house. One wants to know, "Is this person trustworthy, reliable, compassionate, and competent?"
Before that stranger enters, a senior person wants to know if the home care business that hired the caregiver is first trustworthy, reliable, compassionate, and competent. Such a business is likely to have caregivers with the same qualities.
The question is, what level of these qualities is required by each home care business? For example, does the home care company tolerate a large amount of tardiness or does the office staff allow only a few tardy arrivals before the caregiver's employment is terminated?
Obviously the quality of the caregivers is a reflection of what the business owner believes to be important. I have reluctantly referred potential clients to other agencies because I did not have enough high quality staff to provide immediate service for that person.
I could have claimed to have the staff and hired less than optimal caregivers just to get another client. But that would have backfired badly. The client would have been dissappointed with the poor quality of care and would have told others about the poor service. In the long run, my business reputation and consequently, my business revenue would suffer.
People rightly place a good deal of faith in the recommendations of their friends, which is why the reputation is so important to protect with good business practices.
But how does the office staff screen out the poor qualities and find the caregiver treasures? Some of that is just experience. After thousands of applications and hundreds of interviews over the past ten years, there is nothing major that gets past us. There is always a clue about anything serious.
Part of it is the quality of character of the interviewer. Someone of good character will hire someone of good character, having no tolerance for poor quality of attitude or behavior.
(This is the first of a five-part series.)
Almost everyone is afraid to let a complete stranger come into his or her home to provide care and have the run of the house. One wants to know, "Is this person trustworthy, reliable, compassionate, and competent?"
Before that stranger enters, a senior person wants to know if the home care business that hired the caregiver is first trustworthy, reliable, compassionate, and competent. Such a business is likely to have caregivers with the same qualities.
The question is, what level of these qualities is required by each home care business? For example, does the home care company tolerate a large amount of tardiness or does the office staff allow only a few tardy arrivals before the caregiver's employment is terminated?
Obviously the quality of the caregivers is a reflection of what the business owner believes to be important. I have reluctantly referred potential clients to other agencies because I did not have enough high quality staff to provide immediate service for that person.
I could have claimed to have the staff and hired less than optimal caregivers just to get another client. But that would have backfired badly. The client would have been dissappointed with the poor quality of care and would have told others about the poor service. In the long run, my business reputation and consequently, my business revenue would suffer.
People rightly place a good deal of faith in the recommendations of their friends, which is why the reputation is so important to protect with good business practices.
But how does the office staff screen out the poor qualities and find the caregiver treasures? Some of that is just experience. After thousands of applications and hundreds of interviews over the past ten years, there is nothing major that gets past us. There is always a clue about anything serious.
Part of it is the quality of character of the interviewer. Someone of good character will hire someone of good character, having no tolerance for poor quality of attitude or behavior.
(This is the first of a five-part series.)
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