When the pandemic hit and many workers suddenly found themselves out of a job, this seemed to present an opportunity for home care providers. Many hoped they would see their pool of potential workers grow exponentially. Well, that did happen…and it didn’t. According to data from a new study:
- 57% of home care agencies say they’re struggling with recruiting.
- 71% say they have turned away a new case or requests from a current client because they had insufficient caregiver staff.
- 89% of agencies consider their organization to be competitive in terms of pay.
- Not quite half (38%) of agencies say that COVID has increased their business, 67% are “bullish” about growth in the new year.
- 72% say COVID has made retention harder, while 87% say the pandemic has made recruiting harder.
- Most say COVID hasn’t impacted their internal teams. Only 14% say the pandemic caused a reduction in staff, while 29% they’ve increased their staff.
- About half of respondents say that both caregivers and clients are less concerned about COVID than they were in July; just over a tenth say caregivers and clients are more concerned.
- Two-third (67%) of respondents say their agencies isn’t accepting COVID clients.
