When your organization employs a team of home healthcare workers, one of the most important things you can do to help new employees succeed at your company is to onboard them properly. Onboarding home healthcare workers gives them the information they need to integrate into your company culture and provide good quality of care to patients. Effective onboarding strategies in healthcare can help employee satisfaction, employee retention, and ultimately, patient outcomes.
There are many things you should do when training new home health care employees. The home health care staff induction process starts before they even begin the job. Here’s what you need to know about improving home health care employee retention.
Reach Out Before the Job Starts
As your employees await the start of their new job, they may start to feel anxious and nervous about the changes awaiting them. You can alleviate their concerns by making them feel welcome to their new position before they even begin.
You can make new employees feel welcome by reaching out with information about what they can expect on their first day. Meanwhile, send an email to everyone at your organization to let them know that a new team member will be joining your organization. Send the new team member company swag, like a t-shirt or hat, to get your new employee excited.
Plan the First Day Orientation
The first day orientation is important for ensuring that your employees get off to a good start. Set up a formal onboarding process including checklist of steps to take to ensure that your new employees have filled out all their new paperwork and have met the key people to do their job. Make the welcome warm and organized to instill confidence in your organization in your new employees.
On this first day, your employees will fill out important paperwork like the I-9 and W-2, so be sure to tell them about the documentation they should bring in advance to make filling out these forms possible. This is also a day when training can begin, but don’t overwhelm your employees. It’s already a big day, so try not to pack in too much.
Provide Specialized Orientation
Home healthcare workers need soft skills as well as hands-on practical training. While your home healthcare workers may come to your organization with a mixture of experience and previous training, it’s important to provide your own training to ensure that all your healthcare workers are on the same page.
Set up a formal training experience for each person to ensure they get the information they need to provide good patient care. This training may take place over several days or even several weeks. Follow a schedule and remain consistent.
Establish Expectations and Check-Ins
Tell employees what the expectations are to succeed at your organization, then schedule regular check-ins to touch base and discuss those expectations. If your employees are not meeting expectations, they will need to be given more information about how they can adjust their behaviors and performance.
These check-ins are a time to ensure that your new employees have the information they need to succeed in your company. Giving employees these check-ins will also help them feel confident about what they’re doing right, and what they need to do to ensure they do well at their new job.
Teach the Company Culture
Integrating new employees into your company’s culture can help your employees feel like they belong. As you train new employees, teach them about your company mission, values and culture. The information you give them may be about dress code, communication expectations, reporting procedures, or even how to handle confidential patient information.
Request Feedback
It’s important to keep refining the employee orientation experience by soliciting feedback from people who go through it. Ask new employees if they’re getting the information they need to succeed. You can also ask employees about this experience after they’ve been at the company for a while. Brand-new employees may hesitate to provide honest feedback, but more experienced employees may feel more comfortable.
Digitize Onboarding
Digitizing the onboarding process is one of the most helpful things your company can do to make the onboarding process go faster and smoother. Working with an online payroll company that provides digitized onboarding processes can help your company stay organized and consistent when onboarding new workers. This can make the experience more efficient for your new employees and for your existing team.
Work With Your Payroll Provider for Onboarding Home Health Care Workers
The team at ASAP Payroll is here to help your company succeed. Contact us for a personalized onboarding consultation to learn more about how we can help you with the onboarding process. You can also contact us to request a quote.
