Survey participants were asked, “Who is your primary training and development provider?”

For more information regarding training options for care professionals,

*Formerly In the Know and Home Care Institute.

Survey participants were asked, “How many hours of training did your staff complete in 2021?”

Survey participants were asked, “What are your organization’s top priorities in training and development, including for office staff?” 

Other priorities included:  

• Communication and other soft skills 
• Specialized disease/chronic condition training 
• End-of-life care 
• Leadership skills  

• Employee mental health  
• Diversity training  

Based on the data, it’s clear that agencies are focusing time and attention on helping their employees meet all the necessary requirements for training. While required training should certainly be the priority, 57% of turnover happens in the first 90 days of employment and going beyond this can help to foster a stronger culture of engagement and satisfaction. 

Once required and mandated training is complete, the next steps include:  

• Offer soft skills training – According to the 2021 Activated Insights Benchmarking Report, 77% of employers think soft skills training is just as important as technical skills, yet only 33% actually offer soft skills courses. Get started by offering courses in critical thinking skills, professionalism and work ethic, enhancing attention to detail, and more. 
• Allow employees to specialize in their interests – When employees have the chance to focus on their interests and commit to further education, it’s a clear incentive for them to stick around your agency. If they’re passionate about what they’re learning, and you’re enabling that

Key Takeaway

Lack of engagement in training has become a growing issue for agencies across the country. According to figure “2.15 Top 5 Results of Increasing Staff Development and Training”, there is a strong correlation between an increase in staff development/training and more engaged care teams. In short, the message of these two graphs combined, is that the more prominent of a career ladder we can build for our employees, the more likely they are to be active and engaged with training. 

Survey participants were asked, “Has the amount of development and training you offer increased in the last 12 months?”

Key Takeaway

Across the board, post-acute care agencies have increased their training efforts by over 20%, underscoring the importance of staying on top of training for client and employee satisfaction.  

As we learned from the annual Home Care Benchmarking Report, 98% of agencies were negatively impacted by workforce shortages, and about 57% of employees will end up leaving the agency they work for in the first three months of employment.  

Based on the number of agencies that are proactively working on their training offerings, it’s clear that is a strong correlation between training and retention.

Survey participants were asked, “How do you quantify the impact of staff development and training?”

Survey participants were asked, “What have you experienced as a result of an increase in staff development and training?”

Agencies that have increased staff development and training efforts over the past year have seen a significant ROI in five key areas. Placing emphasis on building a strong learning environment with continuous room for growth has give care professionals the chance to become more competent and enthusiastic in their roles, leading to higher client and employee satisfaction (which ultimately leads to higher Net Promoter Scores).

Companies with high Net Promoter Scores grow at more than twice the rate of their competitors on average, and as long as the workforce shortage continues, employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) will be particularly important, because it can help you measure and improve your ability to recruit new employees through your existing employees.

eNPS helps you generate more employee referrals by tracking how well current efforts and new initiatives are working to make employees more likely to refer others. Employees recruited through existing caregivers typically have the lowest turnover rates of any recruitment source. If you would like to find out how your Employee Net Promoter Score compares to that of the industry, contact Activated Insights at info@homecarepulse.com or 877.307.8573.

To calculate your NPS, take the percentage of clients who are promoters and subtract the percentage who are detractors. Dividing the result by 10 will give you your Net Promoter Score on a scale of 1-10.

Survey participants were asked, “How do you track training completed?”

Survey participants were asked, “How do you motivate your staff to complete training?”

*(on social media, through company announcements, etc.)

Survey participants were asked, “What features do you look for when selecting a training program?”

Other features included:  

• Accreditations integrations 
• Engaging videos 
• Admin-friendly platform 
• Multi-language platform 
• Relevant Topics 

Modern learners, according to PulseLearning, have approximately 8 features that they look for when they log into their training program. These include real-world applications, social interactivity, online training library, mobile accessibility, intuitive navigation, dynamic multimedia, visual representation, and gamification.  

It’s important that agencies strike a balance and focus on the features that are important to their employees (like mobile accessibility), as well as the features that are important to them (like pricing).