Caretech is taking a technology-focused approach to addressing some of the industry’s biggest pain points, such as caregiver recruitment and retention, as well as operational efficiency.

Caretech is taking what Chief Operating Officer Kerin Zuger describes as a “holistic approach” to its technology strategy and has recently implemented a series of new technology-focused initiatives to manage its caregivers more efficiently, enhance employee engagement and improve its hiring process.

“I think people have a tendency, especially when you’ve been around for a long time, to sort of take a one-off approach to technology,” she told Home Health Care News. “Having a technology roadmap that really shows how these technologies work with each other, so you’re not duplicating processes, so you’re not duplicating dollars spent on different technologies that do the same things, is super important. [Leaders should be] analyzing their business, figuring out what technologies are already in place, where the gaps are, and then making those technologies talk to each other.”

Omaha, Nebraska-based Caretech is an independent home care company that offers a variety of non-medical services, such as personal care, companionship and household assistance. The company operates across Nebraska, Wyoming and Iowa.

When Zuger first stepped into the role of COO last year, she saw numerous opportunities to professionalize and update many of Caretech’s technology systems from end to end.

“I sat down and looked at the total journey for the caregiver from beginning to end and said, ‘Where do we need to plug in technologies to help create overall efficiencies and improve caregiver engagement and satisfaction and just stay connected,”’ she said.

One of the technology initiatives that resulted from Zuger’s strategy was Caretech’s adoption of a recruitment platform, Hireology, which it integrated with Indeed. The goal was to revamp its applicant tracking and onboarding process to support the company’s larger growth strategy.

As part of this initiative, the company meets with Indeed and Hireology monthly to ensure alignment on Caretech’s hiring strategy.

“We talk about that monthly, and then we also get this report, which shows us where we’re posting [job openings], and what we need to do to improve the results of our posting,” Zuger said. “How much time are we wasting with candidates that aren’t super serious? It’s just given us so much data and insight to have these two organizations synced up with us, and talking to each other to ensure that we’re super efficient on the front end.”

To beef up operational and scheduling efficiency, Caretech transitioned to AxisCare, a home care operations platform. Zuger explained that prior to this, scheduling was one of the company’s biggest administrative burdens.

Caretech used manual scheduling, which meant the company wasn’t always scheduling its caregivers effectively, Zuger said.

“When you’ve got a large pool of caregivers, and we have over 400 caregivers across the three states, you have to have automation in order to really maximize the hours,” Zuger said. “We were seeing our utilization rates not where we want them. When I say utilization, I mean a caregiver says they’re available for 40 hours, and we’re only able to schedule 20, and then in meetings later, we’re like ‘Oh, we don’t have enough caregivers to cover clients,’ when we just weren’t effectively scheduling.”

Zuger noted that the transition has also eased the administrative burden on Caretech’s team of schedulers.

Over the years, home care companies, including Care Advantage and Arosa, have embraced engagement platforms in order to improve retention. Similarly, Caretech implemented the CoachUp Care platform to increase caregiver engagement.

The company has successfully utilized the platform to establish a rewards system and monitor caregiver engagement.

“Anything that happens — if they pick up an extra shift or if it’s their birthday — the platform automatically sends out these notifications, giving huge kudos to caregivers and awarding them points,” Zuger said. “Those points go into their bank, and they can exchange them for gift cards. There are also opportunities to pull open shifts, so it’ll post available shifts for caregivers who want to pick up extra hours.”

The platform also allows caregivers to refer job candidates to Caretech. These recommendations include referral bonuses for caregivers.

Caretech also uses the platform to post company announcements, training videos and more. The company currently has a 97% engagement rate among its caregiver staff.

Ultimately, Zuger believes that the company’s tech-forward efforts have accelerated efficiency across the organization.

“We’re just saving man-hours,” she said. “When you’re a larger organization, you have to figure out efficient ways to do things.”