Over the years, home-based care companies have thrown their weight behind enhanced benefits packages to attract more caregivers. Maxim Healthcare Services is one example of a company taking this effort to the next level.

Last month, Maxim announced that it expanded its caregiver benefits program. The revamped benefits program is estimated to offer more than $10 million in added benefits.

The road to $10 million in added benefits began with Maxim’s employee survey. Every year, the company conducts a survey — known as the “voices of experience.”

“Over the course of time, our caregivers have been telling us they want more,” Maxim Healthcare Services CEO Jarrod DePriest told Home Health Care News. “They wanted more PTO. Generally, benefits seemed to be a common theme throughout our survey process.”

The Maryland-based Maxim Healthcare Services provides home health care, companion care and behavioral care services.

The response from the surveys led to Maxim putting together town halls with cohorts of caregivers across the country, which took place last fall.

“We had 50 or 60 caregivers from four different parts of the country, and what we found talking to the caregivers directly, was that it wasn’t a one-size-fits-all approach,” DePriest said. “What’s important to caregiver A might be different from what’s important to caregiver B.”

After these town halls, Maxim’s goal was to create a compelling caregiver benefits program that caught the attention of both job seekers and longtime employees.

Maxim has changed its business model over the years. In the original business model, caregiver benefits were not always top of mind.

“When I started with Maxim 26 years ago, we started as a staffing company,” DePriest said. “In 1993, we began to provide private-duty nursing. That was really our entrance into the home care setting. Because our origins were really staffing centric, we didn’t really have a robust benefit offering.”

In 2022, Maxim announced that it split its two business units into independently operated companies — Maxim Healthcare Services and Maxim Healthcare Staffing.

In order to catch up with the company’s evolution as a business, Maxim has enhanced its caregiver benefits package in a few ways. The company has increased its paid time off, almost doubling it.

Additionally, Maxim gave caregivers who work more than 2,000 hours a year the opportunity to choose between expanded PTO or cash bonuses, known as the company’s MaxCares program.

Plus, the company implemented the ability for caregivers to set up a health savings account (HSA).

The company also offers an array of family care benefits, such as parental leave and more.

With all of these enhancements in place, Maxim is looking to measure what the impact will be on the company.

“We’re definitely measuring both 90-day and 12-month retention rates for our caregivers,” DePriest said. “We’re also measuring if the benefit package that we’re rolling out is appealing enough to result in more time from people. Currently, roughly 10% to 15% of our total employees work 50% of the total hours every single week. By rolling out a better package, maybe we can gain more of their time, where they don’t have to split time with another employer or multiple employers.”

Ultimately, DePriest believes that the company is well positioned to continue improving the experience of its caregivers.

“We don’t have to meet shareholders or Wall Street,” he said. “We really do get to make decisions based on what is going to be best for our patients and caregivers. This was a really great example of being able to focus on our mission, post-splitting the company, it’s just a natural next step.”