Staffing should be Briggs House Care’s greatest problem, however the firm is taking a novel method to recruiting new expertise.
As an alternative of going the standard route to seek out new caregivers, the Iowa-based dwelling care supplier has begun constructing a large community of employees by reaching out to church teams and related group organizations.
“We’re making an attempt to suppose exterior the field of conventional recruiting channels,” John Phillips, CEO of Briggs House Care, informed House Well being Care Information. “There are compassionate individuals, many occasions inside church teams, who cared for his or her deceased partner after which discover that they not have that sense of function, they usually have a calling to return to that. So by entering into these areas that you’d take into account out-of-the-box, we are inclined to get somewhat bit extra curiosity.”
Briggs House Care, based mostly in Des Moines, Iowa, is a franchisee with 15 dwelling care places positioned primarily within the Midwest. Since 2015, Briggs has made 14 acquisitions that now function as 11 separate companies.
Phillips understands that the variety of caregivers determines the success of Briggs House Care. To remain on the trail of fixed progress, he and his staff needed to get inventive.
The corporate’s efforts, plus some exterior tailwinds, are serving to it.
“We’re seeing an increasing number of individuals return into the workforce,” Phillips mentioned. “The demand is all the time there. Now that persons are beginning to return to work, we see it in our apps, we see it in our hiring numbers. We’re beginning to see income develop just about throughout the board.”
Briggs House Care, below the 75-year-old Briggs Healthcare umbrella, has been round for seven years. Phillips has served as CEO from the beginning.
He additionally serves as President and COO of Briggs’ latest division, Briggs House Care Franchising.
Briggs House Care supplies companies that assist with actions of day by day dwelling for shoppers, with over 700 caregivers throughout its community. Some companies have extra shoppers than others, however the consumer base is between 450 and 500.
Like all dwelling care firms, Briggs struggled so much with staffing throughout the pandemic. Just a few years earlier, Briggs was busy in progress mode each organically and thru acquisition.
“That was stopped, because it has been with many companies, by means of COVID,” Phillips mentioned. “Proper now, we’re again in a progress mode, however their progress is shifting in direction of restoration. We discover that restoration is harder in smaller communities than in bigger city settings. Nevertheless it’s nonetheless thrilling as a result of the demand remains to be there.”
A novel personnel technique
Phillips mentioned one of many nice issues concerning the dwelling care business is that an company would not need to create demand, it has to fill it.
“Staffing is by far the primary problem,” Phillips mentioned. “When you’ll be able to determine that out, I feel you could have a transparent path to success. We tried varied strategies to attempt to appeal to new caregivers and retain new caregivers and typically simply throwing extra money on the state of affairs is not actually an excellent factor as a result of individuals are inclined to wish to have a way of function.”
That is the place the concept of reaching out to group teams began.
“One of the best factor we discovered is that we have to symbolize our companies as a spot the place you wish to work,” he mentioned. “The place you might be valued, the place you might be acknowledged, the place you could have potential within the funding we make.”
For instance, Briggs has an schooling program that’s not the everyday 10 hours per 12 months. It’s an academic program that provides as much as 120 hours a 12 months and goes past care. It touches on private enrichment, socializing, and different areas of your life exterior of labor.
Whereas the expansion plan has slowed considerably because the pandemic, Phillips mentioned Briggs House Care will proceed to develop organically because it brings in new staff.
Briggs will all the time be looking out for merger and acquisition alternatives, Phillips mentioned, however franchising will stay its major progress technique.
“I could not be extra excited concerning the potential of franchising, given the truth that when you may inform a franchisee or potential franchisee, you do not have to create the demand,” Phillips mentioned. “It is about how you discover your caregivers and the way you deal with them.”
