Care To Stay Home, Senior Helpers, Assistance Home Care Among 2019’s ‘Best Workplaces’ in Aging Services

Fortune’s Best Workplaces in Aging Services list was released on Thursday, highlighting several home-based care companies that stand out in terms of company culture.

Senior Helpers, 24 Hour Home Care and Compass Care are among the many non-medical home care companies to make 2019’s top workplaces list, compiled by analytics firm Great Place to Work. Others include Assistance Home Care, Cherished Companions Home Care and Sheridan In-Home Care.

To determine the final list, Great Place to Work analyzed survey results from more than 200,000 employees in the senior care sector, each questioned about their employee experience.

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Overall, the questions factored into the Great Place to Work’s Trust Index, which measures credibility, respect of management, fairness, pride in the work and camaraderie amongst colleagues.

Earning a spot on the list could make all of the difference for companies that are attempting to attract new caregivers, Activated Insights CEO Jacquelyn Kung told Home Health Care News.

Oakland, California-based Activated Insights is a Great Place to Work subsidiary focused on senior care.

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“Over the years, we have seen a lot of providers actually turn down jobs because they didn’t have enough staff,” Kung said. “Recruiting is a top-of-line issue and, in addition, another challenge is finding the best talent possible. We have seen a lot of the certified companies get an increased number of applicants.”

Since the list is only in its second year, the results are a combination of newcomers and companies that have previously earned a spot on last years list.

Meanwhile, some of the companies that made last year’s list were no longer eligible due to being purchased by health systems that landed on one of Fortune’s other rankings.

“If a parent company is on another list, as a subsidiary, you can’t be,” Kung said “We actually saw that several organizations who were winners last year were purchased by health systems and integrated into them. That is a reflection of the broader health care landscape of consolidation.”

Great Place to Work couldn’t identify any trends in terms of the kinds of home care and home health providers — which include both national franchise companies and regional providers — that made their top 10 rankings.

One of the more interesting takeaways from this year’s list: In-home providers perform better than their aging services counterparts, such as skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) and senior living providers on Great Place to Work’s Trust Index.

Topping this year’s list among home-based care providers was Santa Ana, California-based Care To Stay Home, a non-medical, in-home care services company.

To create a successful workplace, Care To Stay Home has leveraged data and feedback in its decision making, according to Parker Wells, the company’s vice president.

“We feel that we have always done our best to be a Great Place to Work, however, we have learned, through gathering information and more data, that some programs we do work and other programs were not as effective,” Wells told HHCN. “The main strategy has always been to listen to our employees and be open to hearing their feedback. Then, be ready to implement change.”

The company’s emphasis on employee engagement and recognition also saw favorable results from employees.

“We traditionally host an Employee Appreciation Day and, this year, we decided to host an entire Employee Appreciation Week,” Wells said. “We had so many staff turn out to our Employee Appreciation Week and did some wonderful things to recognize our staff. All our staff truly loved the expansion of this program and the recognition we provided to our team.”

Grabbing the No. 2 spot on this year’s list for home-based care providers was Senior Helpers, an international home care franchise with more than 300 locations worldwide, serving roughly 25,000 clients.

“Senior Helpers is keenly aware that prospective employees have choices, and we have implemented many workplace practices designed to attract and retain the best employees,” Peter Ross, CEO and co-founder of Senior Helpers, told HHCN.

In addition to Care To Stay Home (No.1) and Senior Helpers (No. 2), Assistance Home Care (No. 3), 24 Hour Home Care (No.4), Cherished Companions Home Care (No. 5), Care Indeed Inc. (No. 6), Sheridan In-Home Care (No. 7), Compass Care (No. 8), Grandcare Health Services (No. 9) and Integrity Home Care + Hospice (No.10) rounded out the top 10 of home-based care providers.

Grandcare Health Services and Integrity Home Care + Hospice provide non-medical home care and skilled home health services.

Another standout on the list, Care Indeed, utilizes technology in its care strategy for older adults living with dementia.

“With dementia on the rise, we understood the need to reevaluate how to prepare our caregivers better – and that traditional training paradigms were no longer enough,” Dee Bustos, CEO of Care Indeed, told HHCN. “Thus, our Virtual Reality program was born.”

Care Indeed provides non-medical home care — hourly or live-in — throughout the Bay Area in California and Seattle. 

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