Do you get upset when your favorite caregiver disappears? So do we. It is very unsettling, inconvenient and sad to us, as the service provider and employer, when we lose a qualified caregiver staff. And we can only imagine it would feel very similar when you, as the care recipient, go through the same experience of losing a caregiver with whom you established that bonding and trust. As we have wrote about it before, caregiver low retention rate and high turnover is one of the major challenges in the Homecare and Homehealth industries nationwide. That is why Redan Medical greatly appreciates its caregivers, who are committed, loyal, and reliable, and are doing caregiving only as a life-long passion and career. Redan Medical is proud that it has been able to do well in maintaining a high retention rate among its qualified caregivers (e.g. retention rate of ~68%) (see here). We were able to reach this goal by being generous in paying our staff. That includes reimbursing for all of their on-boarding cost (such as background check, TB test, drug test), offering a good pay rat –well above the minimum wage, being flexible with their work schedule, understating of their personal emergencies when not being able to cover their shifts, paying generous bonus to caregivers who could do emergency cover ups, among others. This generosity, of course, comes at the cost to Redan Medical, however, we are happily doing this to ensure that our clients and caregivers, alike, are happy with an uninterrupted service. However, some of the recent changes have been making maintaining of a competitive pay rate even more challenging. The recent trend in minimum wage raise in California has been the primary cause to raise in the cost of the service. After the raise in January 2017 and January 2018, the current minimum wage in State of California is $11/h, and is expected to raise to $12/h in January 2019 (see here). Some metropolitan areas have even higher minimum age, such as current $13.25/h in Los Angeles as of July 2018, which becomes $14.25/h in July 2019 (see here). And remember, paying caregivers minimum wage is the last thing we can do to have them leave in the first opportunity they get. So we always make sure that they get well beyond minimum wage, and of course commensurate to their experience, skills, and educations. With the increase in the minimum wage, what comes is also increase in workers compensation insurance, liability insurance and other premiums. And last but not least, as odd and absurd as it may look, but the recent move by Amazon to raise the minimum wage for its workers to $15/h took a direct toll on Homecare industry and the ability to maintain an already-low caregiver retention rate (see here).
So now here is the dilemma to Redan Medical: To make a compromise to the quality of its service and caregivers as a result of the increasing raise in the employee overhead cost, or To strive to maintain its highest quality of service, and to keep its clients and caregivers happy?! The choice is clear; Redan Medical chooses the latter. However, it always needs its clients’ understanding of the challenges in maintain a quality, uninterrupted service, and their support in accomplishing the goal together.
“To make a compromise to the quality of its service and caregivers as a result of the increasing raise in the employee overhead cost, or To strive to maintain its highest quality of service, and to keep its clients and caregivers happy?! The choice is clear; Redan Medical chooses the latter.”
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