Steven Frost (left) with Martin Jones, CEO of Home Instead Senior Care.
Home Instead Senior Care is the pioneer of relationship led care, helping people to remain at home in familiar surroundings, enjoying a stimulating and enhanced quality of life.
Founded in 1994 by husband and wife team Paul and Lori Hogan in Omaha, U.S., the pair struggled to find personalised care that would suit Paul’s grandmother’s needs, and from this, the concept of Home Instead Senior Care was born.
With the creation of the company, Grandma Manhart was able to stay in her home and lived many years longer than expected. This experience inspired their desire to help other families by providing private home help for ageing loved ones.
Fast forward to 2019, each day thousands of Home Instead CAREGivers provide care to more than 10,000 clients in the UK, supported by a network of over 190 franchise offices. And by any measure, the care is exceptional – a recent independent survey of over 4,500 clients and family members found a whopping 96% would recommend Home Instead. It’s also received a record number of “Outstanding” ratings by the Care Quality Commission.
So how did a fledging care company 4,000 miles away, grow to over 1,000 franchise offices worldwide, whilst maintaining these levels of customer satisfaction?
In short, by relentless focusing on its culture and creating a highly engaged workforce that believes in its vision and really care about their clients.
In July 2019, independent employee engagement experts WorkBuzz surveyed almost 7,000 CAREGivers and found 96% are proud to work for Home Instead; 95% feel motivated to go the extra mile and 9 in 10 see themselves working at Home Instead in twelve months’ time, against a backdrop of high levels of employee turnover in the care sector.
“Home Instead has truly world class levels of employee engagement and it’s culture sets it apart from the competition”, said Steven Frost, CEO of WorkBuzz.
Having a clear mission
Every business needs a clear mission, vision and values which act as a North Star, guiding decisions and behaviours. Home Instead’s vision to be the UK’s most admired care company is well understood – 97% of new CAREGivers say their initial training helps them to understand why Home Instead is different from other care companies.
Get recruitment and onboarding right
Making wrong hires, who don’t share your values and buy-into your vision is a sure-fire way to dilute your culture. Home Instead pays particular attention to this with the “Mum Test” – with hiring managers asking would you be happy with a prospective employee caring for your own family?
Prospective employees are also screened against its values: Choice, Integrity, Listening and Changing the Face of Ageing. And once successful applicants start, they can expect in-depth training about how to deliver care, the Home Instead way.
Focus on growing leaders
Based on feedback from thousands of its employees, WorkBuzz’s algorithms pinpointed what factors engage Home Instead CAREGivers the most – one of the top factors was the quality of leaders in their local office.
Home Instead continues to invest in growing its leaders – over 1,600 managers and franchise owners took part in training courses and workshops throughout 2018, which included Leadership Essential and a 3-day core Human Resources skills. It’s not surprising that 93% of CAREGivers feel their office is effectively managed and well led.
Track and improve employee engagement
Each year, WorkBuzz confidentially surveys all employees, franchise owners and clients, enabling Home Instead to track its culture; benchmark quality across its franchise network; and pinpoint strategic priorities. Since introducing WorkBuzz in 2013, Home Instead has improved CAREGiver employee engagement by 11% and client satisfaction by 15%.
For more information about the Home Instead Senior Care franchise opportunity visit www.homeinstead.co.uk/franchise, email franchiseinfo@homeinstead.co.uk or call 01925 732 460. For more information about WorkBuzz visit www.workbuzz.com or call 03333 446 530.