How Home Care CEOs Propel the Industry’s Growth

How Home Care CEOs Propel the Industry’s Growth

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Ruby Mehta: Welcome to CareSmartz360 on Air, a home care Podcast. I am Ruby Mehta, VP. of sales at Caresmartz.

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Ruby Mehta: Home care CEOs are the architects of successful agencies. They set the vision, steer strategy and ensure the resources are in place to deliver exceptional care.

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Ruby Mehta: Effective CEOs attract and retain top talent by fostering a positive work environment, competitive and competitive compensation. They navigate complex regulations, securing funding and partnerships to expand services.

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Ruby Mehta: their leadership ensures that the agency is financially sound and adapts to the industry. Changes ultimately strengthen homepair. CEOs create a foundation for high-quality, accessible care, raising the bar for the entire industry.

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Ruby Mehta: More than anything they champion advocacy, efforts, influencing policy changes that benefit both the elderly and caregivers, further solidifying the homecare industry’s role in offering adequate support to seniors. Today we have Stephen Tweet, the founder of Homecare, CEO Forum, and the author himself on the panel.

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Ruby Mehta: The Forum offers a platform for CEOs in the top tier of home care to connect, share ideas, solve problems and support one another.

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Ruby Mehta: Welcome to the podcast statement, how are you?

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Stephen Tweed: Well, thank you, Ruby, it’s delightful to be with you today.

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Ruby Mehta: Thank you. Thank you. So this is a podcast. Series. We have been doing stupid. And I am honored that you accepted the invitation and

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Ruby Mehta: share. You’re not accepted to share your knowledge with our audience today.

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Stephen Tweed: Well, I know you have a big following out there, and we’re always delighted to reach out to those that are actively engaged in the homecare industry to share the facts. That data, the information, the experience that we’ve collected over the years. So it’s great to be with you and to be with your audience.

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Ruby Mehta: Thank you. Thank you, Steven.

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Ruby Mehta: So tell. Tell us, Stephen, how did the home care? CEO Forum

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Ruby Mehta: started? And how? How do you see? It’s impacting the industry’s success.

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Stephen Tweed: Well, you know. It’s been a wonderful journey. I’ve been speaking and writing and consulting in the homecare industry now for over 3 decades.

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Stephen Tweed: and so I

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Stephen Tweed: speaks often at association conferences and corporate meetings.

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Stephen Tweed: and a number of years ago

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Stephen Tweed: I was

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Stephen Tweed: speaking at a conference in Missouri, and I met a young man who was the chief operating officer of a Home Care Company, and sometime later he called me in my office and said he was coming through Louisville.

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Stephen Tweed: Could he stop and visit? I said, absolutely sure. And we had. We had a wonderful visit.

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Stephen Tweed: and as part of that conversation.

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Stephen Tweed: he said. You know one of the things that I would love to have

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Stephen Tweed: is a group of home care companies

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Stephen Tweed: That is similar in size to our company.

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Stephen Tweed: But that is in different markets so that we don’t compete with one another where we could share ideas and solve problems and support one another.

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Stephen Tweed: And I thought that was a great idea.

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Stephen Tweed: and

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Stephen Tweed: The idea coincided with our experience. My wife, Elizabeth Jeffries, is my business partner, and we have one company, but 2 different practices, and Elizabeth and I met through professional speaking at our National Association, the National Speakers Association.

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Stephen Tweed: and we had been involved and engaged in a number of mastermind groups with other professional speakers, and the combination of being active in our association and being in mastermind groups

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Stephen Tweed: really were keys to us, growing in our business, in our career as professional speakers and authors and subject matter experts.

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Stephen Tweed: And so I said to this young man. His name is Andrew Huber, and he’s now the owner of his family’s company.

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Ruby Mehta: No.

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Stephen Tweed: Martha’s hands in St. Louis, Missouri.

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Stephen Tweed: and so we talked about it more, and we put together the first group, and at that time this was in February of 2,013.

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Stephen Tweed: We organized what was then called the 5 million Dollar Mastermind Group.

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Stephen Tweed: and at that time 5 million dollars was a big home care company today. That’s sort of just above the media. And it would be in what we call our top 10% group.

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Stephen Tweed: But we organized that group we met in Orlando, Florida, in February, 2,013. We had 5 companies and 8 people.

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Stephen Tweed: and we met for a day and a half, and then said if this was valuable and you would like to keep going, let us know.

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Stephen Tweed: Everybody said Yes, and that was the creation of what is today

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Stephen Tweed: our top 5% mastermind group.

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Stephen Tweed: And these are companies that are at or above the 90-fifth percentile in the industry

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Stephen Tweed: based on annual revenue. And if you look at the home care pulse, benchmarking study, the 90 fifth percentile is just over 10 million dollars. Our members average about 12.5 million dollars in annual revenue. And this group ranges from 10 million to 30 million.

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Stephen Tweed: And so these are clearly the top-tier companies in the industry.

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Stephen Tweed: And that group has continued to meet, and Andrew and his family and home and Martha’s hands are still active in the group. After 11 years.

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Stephen Tweed: And so that’s a real lasting legacy that he has created.

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Stephen Tweed: Home care. CEO Forum now has 5 different mastermind groups.

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Stephen Tweed: different size companies. Nobody competes with anybody else in the same group. We have, I think, 55 companies. Now that are part of the Mastermind series, and each group meets twice a year face to face for a day and a half, and once a month by zoom, and then we offer a monthly event called the Mastermind Town Hall, where we have an outside speaker, and all of the members of all of the groups are invited to

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Stephen Tweed: participate. So the the organization has really come together, it is really gelled

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Stephen Tweed: and continues to grow in terms of number of members, and we’re about to split

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Stephen Tweed: one of our groups into 2,

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Stephen Tweed: a group we call the top 10% group. And these are companies between 3 and 6 million dollars in annual revenue.

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Stephen Tweed: So the second part of your question is, how do we see this impacting the industry’s success?

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Stephen Tweed: And I think there’s a couple of ways.

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Stephen Tweed: First of all, our members are all actively involved in supporting the Home Care Association of America.

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Stephen Tweed: And that’s the large National Association representing non-medical home care.

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Stephen Tweed: And early on in the organization of the Homecare CEO Forum.

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Stephen Tweed: We actually had

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Stephen Tweed: 6 of our members or former members who were on the board of the Homecare Association of America. There. There are 12 members on the board. 6 of them are from franchise organizations, 6 of them for our independence, and at one time all of the Independents were either current or former members of our group. So we’re active supporters of the National Association and

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Stephen Tweed: the advocacy that they do for home care

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Stephen Tweed: and our members are also

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Stephen Tweed: leaders in their States and their State associations in their state chapters of Hcao.

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Stephen Tweed: and they’re also frequent guests on

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Stephen Tweed: podcasts and webinars and other educational events, speaking at association conferences. So these are folks who

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Stephen Tweed: are really leaders in the industry, they’re thought leaders. But they’re also leaders of the top-tier companies in the industry. And obviously, they’re having a huge impact on helping other home care companies grow and serve more clients.

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Ruby Mehta: Yeah, thank you.

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Ruby Mehta: And how do you? Stephen? If someone wants to join mastermind groups, what’s the best way? Who do they reach out to, and how do they join?

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Stephen Tweed: Well, our website is Homecare Celcom, and there’s a section there on Mastermind groups. And as someone is interested in exploring it, there’s a web form on the page they can fill out, and one of our leaders will reach out and set up a.

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Stephen Tweed: a conversation either by phone or by Zoom.

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Stephen Tweed: and

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Stephen Tweed: explain the nature of the mastermind groups and the criteria for membership, and if they are a good fit.

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Stephen Tweed: and if the group

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Stephen Tweed: where they fit

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Stephen Tweed: has an opening because some of the groups are full, and as I mentioned.

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Stephen Tweed: no one in the group can compete with anyone else in the group. So if they’re

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Stephen Tweed: market area is

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Stephen Tweed: taken up by another member of that group, then they either have to go to a different group, or they have to go on a waiting list

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Stephen Tweed: But so once we have that conversation, and it looks like it’s a good fit, and there’s space available.

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Stephen Tweed: Then the next step is, we invite them to visit one of our monthly Zoom Meetings, meet the members, share a little bit about their company, and if it feels like a good fit. Then they’re invited to become a member of the group, and members pay an annual dues

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Stephen Tweed: and that covers the 2 in-person meetings, the 10

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Stephen Tweed: online Zoom Meetings, the Mastermind Town halls, and then unlimited access to their Mastermind group facilitator, and each group has an experienced facilitator who

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Stephen Tweed: has formerly run a home care company.

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Stephen Tweed: and so they bring expertise. But the real

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Stephen Tweed: role is to facilitate, not to teach. So they’re leading and guiding discussions, and the members learn from each other, and that’s

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Stephen Tweed: proven to be the real value of these groups, and many of our members have been here for

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Stephen Tweed: 8 or 9 or 7 years, and then we have new members joining each year as the groups expand, and we add more groups.

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Ruby Mehta: Awesome, awesome. Thank you. I just wanna make sure that the audience, listening to this, podcast should know how to join

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Stephen Tweed: Turn.

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Ruby Mehta: In our openings.

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Stephen Tweed: And we have groups ranging from what we call our strategic growth group, which is from one and a half to 3 million up to the top 5% group, which is 10 to 30 million. So any independent home care company between 1.5 million 30 million

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Stephen Tweed: is, is invited to come and take a look and see if it might be a good fit at this point in time. We do not have any groups for franchise home care companies.

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Stephen Tweed: But we are exploring that. And we have a waiting list of franchise companies that would like to be part of a mastermind group. And so that’s what’s in the works. As soon as we get a critical mass of large franchisees who would like to be part of a group.

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Ruby Mehta: Okay, okay, thank you.

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Ruby Mehta: Alright, coming back to our podcast. Topic here.

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Ruby Mehta: What are some of the key leadership, qualities or strategies that you have observed because you have met with so many CEOs and so many Ceos are part of your mastermind groups? What are some of those leadership qualities, or strategies that you have observed amongst them?

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Stephen Tweed: Well, actually, over the years I have developed what I call the 7 lessons from the Mega companies.

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Stephen Tweed: And these are 7 specific lessons that I’ve crafted from

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Stephen Tweed: 10 years of interaction with these large home care companies. And so the first one is that the leaders of these top-tier companies have a huge vision.

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Stephen Tweed: They see themselves running a big company. They see that company. We have a process we call our executive strategy retreat, and one of the tools in there is our vision planning worksheet. This is where we get participants to look 5 years out and say, What do you see your company looking like 5 years from now? So the the leaders of these top-tier companies by nature have a huge vision

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Stephen Tweed: for what they see their company look like, and they’re always

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Stephen Tweed: fine-tuning. And that vision and pushing it out further into the future.

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Stephen Tweed: The second characteristic of these strong leaders

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Stephen Tweed: is that they create a strong culture.

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Stephen Tweed: and we define culture as the way we do things around here.

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Stephen Tweed: and the culture of a Home Care Company is influenced by 4 factors.

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Stephen Tweed: One is the leadership style of the CEO.

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Stephen Tweed: And so this fits with the question of we’re talking about is that their leadership style

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Stephen Tweed: helps to shape the culture of the company. Second, it’s influenced by the core values that guide decisions in action.

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Stephen Tweed: And in our process. We do a lot of work in helping companies define their core values. And then the third element is the behavior that you expect.

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Stephen Tweed: And so for each of the core values. We get them to define what are the behaviors that go with those core values.

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Stephen Tweed: And then the fourth element is the behavior you permit.

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Stephen Tweed: and that is what are the consequences when people inside the company

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Stephen Tweed: demonstrate behavior that’s not consistent with the core value.

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Stephen Tweed: And so do we have a process, and our leader is willing

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Stephen Tweed: to Carefront

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Stephen Tweed: individuals who are not

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Stephen Tweed: demonstrating behaviors that are consistent with the value.

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Stephen Tweed: and my wife Elizabeth, who coaches physicians, leaders in academic medicine, and I mentioned, we have one company, but 2 practices, and so I’m working on the Home Care side. She works in academic medicine, and one of her messages to these physician leaders is

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Stephen Tweed: the behavior you permit you promote.

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Stephen Tweed: And so that’s why, when we’re talking about company culture, we go back to what are the behaviors we expect and what are the behaviors that we permit?

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Stephen Tweed: The third element is really creating distinction. It’s

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Stephen Tweed: leaders that

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Stephen Tweed: are able to see how their company is different from their competitors in the local marketplace, and to be able to communicate that message in such a way

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Stephen Tweed: that referral partners and individual consumers

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Stephen Tweed: We are able to make a choice that this is the company we want to work with because they’re different from everybody else.

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Stephen Tweed: And, as you know, ruby our, our research suggests, there are about 26,000 companies providing in home personal care

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Stephen Tweed: just in the United States. And there’s a large number in Canada as well.

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Stephen Tweed: The Median Size Company

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Stephen Tweed: last year, according to the Home Care post benchmarking study, was a million 7 in annual revenue. So that’s the middle. So there’s 13,000 companies smaller than a million, 7, 13,000 companies bigger than a million 7. And so most

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Stephen Tweed: communities in America most marketplaces are pretty much saturated with home care companies. So how do you differentiate yourself? How do you create distinction?

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Stephen Tweed: And that leads to the fourth leadership. Quality or competency is

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Stephen Tweed: being on purpose

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Stephen Tweed: and having a clear sense of purpose that’s articulated through stories.

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Stephen Tweed: Leaders are storytellers, and the story comes back to

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Stephen Tweed: some basics. Why did we start our company? Why do we exist today?

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Stephen Tweed: Why should

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Stephen Tweed: consumers do business with us? Why should referral partners refer to us? Why should caregivers work with us?

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Stephen Tweed: And I can give you? I can give you a list of bullet points

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Stephen Tweed: to answer all those questions, but nobody remembers bullet points.

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Stephen Tweed: What people remember is story and stories create emotional connection. And so these leaders each have their own story about how they got into home care, and why they stay in home care, and why people should work for them, and and all of that is woven into this concept of being

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Stephen Tweed: on purpose

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Stephen Tweed: The fifth compass is building an amazing team. And again, these top-tier leaders have amazing teams around them, starting with their leadership team and their management team and their frontline office team, and then their caregivers.

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Stephen Tweed: And so the competency of recruiting and selecting

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Stephen Tweed: high-performance individuals, whether it’s a vice president of sales, or whether it’s frontline caregiver

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Stephen Tweed: are part of the characteristics of these leaders.

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Stephen Tweed: And then the sixth element

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Stephen Tweed: is being a systems thinker

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Stephen Tweed: and being in homecare technology, you know about systems and matter of fact, we encourage our members to think about how they use technology to automate their systems. But in our research we have identified 12 specific systems that exist within a home care company.

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Stephen Tweed: And so then how do we

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Stephen Tweed: refine those systems? And we think about a system as a process plus people.

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Stephen Tweed: So it’s a step-by-step process. Here’s how we go step by step to achieve this result. And here’s what people need to be able to do. So we hire people who have the skills and the discipline

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Stephen Tweed: to implement those steps in the system.

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Stephen Tweed: and then the last competency. The seventh is measuring performance and communicating expectations.

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Stephen Tweed: The leaders of the companies in the top tier of home care are are

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Stephen Tweed: very much in tune with the data and the information

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Stephen Tweed: about their company.

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Stephen Tweed: They make decisions based on data and not based on opinion.

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Stephen Tweed: My favorite quote comes from W. Edwards Deming, who was the quality Guru after World War 2 who said, without the data, you’re just another person with an opinion.

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Stephen Tweed: And so these leaders at the top tier have scorecards, they have metrics, they review those metrics regularly, those metrics become the basis for communication, for

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Stephen Tweed: team meetings, for executive meetings for sales, meetings, for recruiting meetings.

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Stephen Tweed: and they use those data

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Stephen Tweed: to fine tune their decision making.

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Stephen Tweed: And so we look at those 7 things, and these are the lessons that we’ve learned, and that we share frequently with audiences. If I’m speaking, at

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Stephen Tweed: the Home Care Association of America, or I’m speaking at a state conference, or I’m speaking at a franchise organization meeting.

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Stephen Tweed: We’re often sharing

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Stephen Tweed: those lessons and going into detail, but that what that really means, and what it looks like.

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Ruby Mehta: Oh, that’s so beautiful!

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Ruby Mehta: I mean, you explained it so well, so well, you already covered it. My next question I was about to ask the most effective strategy CEOs can use to streamline their operations, and ensure that the caregivers are satisfied. But how beautifully you’ve explained those 7 7 strategies already. Do you do it? Is there something else that comes into your mind on most effective strategies? CEOs can use it.

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Stephen Tweed: Well, I I think there’s 2 of those 7 that we could dig more deeply into the first one. Is it relates to your company and homecare technology is

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Stephen Tweed: refining systems and using technology to automate those systems.

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Stephen Tweed: And we spend a lot of time with our members talking about

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Stephen Tweed: the software that they use and how they use

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Stephen Tweed: the the

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Stephen Tweed: capacity of that software

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Stephen Tweed: to

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Stephen Tweed: create workflows and create step-by-step systems.

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Stephen Tweed: And there’s a lot of different software serving home care companies. They’re all a little bit different. There’s none that’s absolutely perfect.

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Stephen Tweed: And so people make a choice.

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Stephen Tweed: And then, once they make the choice is, how do we take that platform?

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Stephen Tweed: And how do we

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Stephen Tweed: use the workflow that exists in that platform.

00:21:31.030 –> 00:21:37.699
Stephen Tweed: And how do we use our ability to tailor the fields and the reporting and the

00:21:37.920 –> 00:21:41.000
Stephen Tweed: results of that platform, to be able to

00:21:41.230 –> 00:21:43.420
Stephen Tweed: put in place our own system.

00:21:43.690 –> 00:21:46.030
Stephen Tweed: And then how do we get the people

00:21:46.180 –> 00:21:54.229
Stephen Tweed: to follow the workflows and follow the systems? And as I’m sure you know, the biggest challenge for software is getting the people to actually

00:21:54.320 –> 00:22:02.989
Stephen Tweed: follow the workflow and use the capacity. I don’t know about your users, but you know I’m on my computer all day every day, and I use

00:22:03.070 –> 00:22:11.260
Stephen Tweed: Microsoft Word and Powerpoint and I use Zoom and I and I. I’m generous if I say I probably use 10

00:22:11.270 –> 00:22:14.170
Stephen Tweed: of the capacity of those various platforms.

00:22:14.190 –> 00:22:18.260
Stephen Tweed: and I’m not a techie guy, but assuming a home care company is using.

00:22:18.350 –> 00:22:22.109
Stephen Tweed: I don’t know 30 or 40% of the capacity of their

00:22:22.310 –> 00:22:26.360
Stephen Tweed: operating system. What if they use 80 or 90% of the capacity?

00:22:26.550 –> 00:22:30.180
Stephen Tweed: And so that comes down to then.

00:22:30.820 –> 00:22:38.200
Stephen Tweed: having your system laid out, knowing what the platform is capable of doing, knowing what it’s designed to do.

00:22:38.480 –> 00:22:40.600
Stephen Tweed: There’s always several different ways

00:22:40.710 –> 00:22:44.250
Stephen Tweed: to get an outcome. But then, having the people

00:22:44.810 –> 00:22:47.299
Stephen Tweed: who are in the day-to-day operations.

00:22:47.950 –> 00:23:02.669
Stephen Tweed: understanding how the platform works and understanding how to leverage. And obviously scheduling is a big part of home care. And that’s one of the core functions of homecare operating systems. And so are those people doing scheduling, really

00:23:02.890 –> 00:23:07.810
Stephen Tweed: maximizing the system? Are they refining the system? Are they using it

00:23:08.020 –> 00:23:09.790
Stephen Tweed: effectively

00:23:09.910 –> 00:23:11.560
Stephen Tweed: and efficiently

00:23:12.415 –> 00:23:13.629
Stephen Tweed: and then that

00:23:14.360 –> 00:23:25.480
Stephen Tweed: filters out to the recruiting people and the caregivers. It filters out to the salespeople and the referral partners. It filters out to clients and client contact

00:23:25.990 –> 00:23:27.810
Stephen Tweed: care managers and so on.

00:23:28.469 –> 00:23:36.110
Stephen Tweed: And so I think, really, working on those systems becomes an important part of

00:23:36.390 –> 00:23:38.720
Stephen Tweed: the role of leaders in the organization.

00:23:40.208 –> 00:23:42.180
Stephen Tweed: The other one is the culture.

00:23:42.360 –> 00:23:44.980
Stephen Tweed: and our members

00:23:45.740 –> 00:23:49.470
Stephen Tweed: at the top tier of the industry are spending a lot of time

00:23:49.790 –> 00:23:53.700
Stephen Tweed: working on the culture, clarifying their core values, clarifying the

00:23:53.720 –> 00:23:57.740
Stephen Tweed: behaviors, communicating that, reinforcing that

00:23:59.570 –> 00:24:02.240
Stephen Tweed: offering recognition and reward

00:24:02.270 –> 00:24:04.139
Stephen Tweed: to employees

00:24:04.210 –> 00:24:05.430
Stephen Tweed: coaching

00:24:06.410 –> 00:24:14.159
Stephen Tweed: employees, whether it’s senior leaders, coaching middle managers, middle managers, coaching frontline office team members

00:24:15.680 –> 00:24:20.310
Stephen Tweed: caregiver contact people, whether it’s a scheduling coordinator or care coordinator

00:24:20.620 –> 00:24:23.939
Stephen Tweed: coaching their caregivers on

00:24:24.280 –> 00:24:32.720
Stephen Tweed: what’s appropriate behavior. All of those are pieces that go to craft, the culture of the company.

00:24:32.830 –> 00:24:44.089
Stephen Tweed: and the leading companies of our industry. All have a really strong culture, and the CEOs and the C-suite team members are constantly working on crafting that culture.

00:24:45.140 –> 00:25:04.890
Ruby Mehta: Yeah, absolutely. I think on that one technology and making sure that you learn from your data, at least here spots did something. I I know we created some AI dashboards or machine learning dashboards because

00:25:05.511 –> 00:25:16.320
Ruby Mehta: the administration, the CEOs. They are often very busy doing a lot of stuff, especially with the growing agency setup.

00:25:16.320 –> 00:25:35.670
Ruby Mehta: They do a lot of stuff. They have a lot of data, but it’s not. Sometimes it’s not readable. Sometimes they have to spend a lot of time really getting that meaningful analysis of that data. So having those real good dashboards and learning from your own data and trends really helps.

00:25:36.042 –> 00:25:52.179
Ruby Mehta: That’s what I have seen working really well for Ceos, who are keen to learn from their data. But they don’t have time to really put things in Excel. Or maybe people don’t even know how to use excel to that extent, so they can create pivot charts and stuff.

00:25:52.550 –> 00:25:58.189
Stephen Tweed: Well, that’s great Ruby. And years and years ago I learned from a friend and colleague

00:25:58.390 –> 00:26:03.870
Stephen Tweed: who is probably the world’s leading technology forecaster. Name is Daniel Burris

00:26:03.960 –> 00:26:13.589
Stephen Tweed: and Daniel talks about information and data. And he taught us about what I call the 4 levels of your data stream.

00:26:13.930 –> 00:26:22.429
Stephen Tweed: And the First level is raw data that’s bits and bytes of information. And that’s what you store inside your software. And raw data by itself is totally useless.

00:26:23.130 –> 00:26:34.520
Stephen Tweed: It’s only when you take that raw data and tabulate it and organize it. So you mentioned excel spreadsheet. So you take all the data in the software and you print a report.

00:26:34.720 –> 00:26:36.300
Stephen Tweed: And now you have

230
00:26:36.350 –> 00:26:37.570
Stephen Tweed: information.

00:26:38.410 –> 00:26:40.789
Stephen Tweed: but were overloaded with information.

00:26:40.870 –> 00:26:47.549
Stephen Tweed: What we really need to do is take all of that information and analyze it and synthesize it

00:26:47.570 –> 00:26:49.040
Stephen Tweed: to get knowledge.

00:26:49.800 –> 00:26:53.379
Stephen Tweed: And then we mix knowledge with gray hair.

00:26:53.730 –> 00:26:58.540
Stephen Tweed: And we get wisdom, knowledge plus experience equals wisdom.

00:26:58.710 –> 00:27:02.290
Stephen Tweed: and that’s what we see at the top tiers of home care

00:27:02.360 –> 00:27:05.699
Stephen Tweed: is a leader who has been in this business a long time.

00:27:06.390 –> 00:27:09.749
Stephen Tweed: many of whom come to home care from other

00:27:10.040 –> 00:27:21.910
Stephen Tweed: types of experience, other business experience, other healthcare experience. And so they put their personal experience, together with the information and knowledge of their own company and of the industry.

00:27:21.920 –> 00:27:26.970
Stephen Tweed: and they’re then able to put that together and make wise decisions.

00:27:27.240 –> 00:27:29.830
Stephen Tweed: As you said, there’s way too much information.

00:27:30.060 –> 00:27:32.009
Stephen Tweed: And one of the

00:27:32.230 –> 00:27:39.260
Stephen Tweed: one of the big complaints I hear about home care software is the whole report writing capability.

00:27:39.580 –> 00:27:44.709
Stephen Tweed: The data’s in there. How do I get it out in a way that’s meaningful? And then how do I

00:27:45.100 –> 00:27:50.419
Stephen Tweed: put it in a format like an Excel spreadsheet where it can analyze it and synthesize it

00:27:50.480 –> 00:27:55.259
Stephen Tweed: and draw that out. So, for example, one of the things that we often

00:27:55.990 –> 00:27:59.990
Stephen Tweed: Talk with our members about who’s your ideal client.

00:28:00.620 –> 00:28:01.760
Stephen Tweed: That is.

00:28:02.080 –> 00:28:04.439
Stephen Tweed: what’s the type of client

00:28:04.730 –> 00:28:06.399
Stephen Tweed: that brings you

00:28:06.490 –> 00:28:11.159
Stephen Tweed: the highest hours per week of care in the longest length of stay. And so

00:28:11.400 –> 00:28:16.550
Stephen Tweed: what’s their clinical condition, their diagnosis, their disease state.

00:28:17.170 –> 00:28:21.369
Stephen Tweed: How do they come to you? What? Who’s the referral partner that sent them?

00:28:23.020 –> 00:28:31.469
Stephen Tweed: W. Where did they find out about you? From what advertising, marketing, social media, how did they find you? So when you put all of those pieces together?

00:28:31.760 –> 00:28:41.979
Stephen Tweed: Then you can say, Okay, here’s our ideal client, and it sort of like ripples in the pond out there. So you have a bullseye, and then and then ripples coming out

00:28:42.448 –> 00:28:49.620
Stephen Tweed: and so we want to focus our energy and activity on finding more of those best fit clients.

00:28:50.070 –> 00:28:54.840
Stephen Tweed: The same thing is true of caregiver, and what we have learned is that

00:28:54.930 –> 00:29:00.940
Stephen Tweed: if we have a group of best fit caregivers, and we match them up with a group of best fit clients.

00:29:01.100 –> 00:29:06.690
Stephen Tweed: they both stay with us longer, and we have a stable, steady schedule.

00:29:07.590 –> 00:29:21.099
Stephen Tweed: where we have a client that’s getting 40 h of care a week, and they stay with us for 5 years, and we have a caregiver who wants to work 40 HA week with that client, and they stay for 5 years, and we have this stable, steady

00:29:21.560 –> 00:29:22.790
Stephen Tweed: kind of care.

00:29:23.180 –> 00:29:24.619
Stephen Tweed: But we can only

00:29:24.850 –> 00:29:41.809
Stephen Tweed: focus on our best fit client if we have the data and then the information, and then the knowledge, and we take time to work with that and sit down with our salespeople and and help them focus on how do we reach the referral partners who bring us the clients

00:29:42.030 –> 00:29:43.929
Stephen Tweed: who are in that best fit

00:29:44.060 –> 00:29:46.120
Stephen Tweed: category. And we’ve done a lot of

00:29:46.260 –> 00:29:49.290
Stephen Tweed: research with some of our members looking at

00:29:49.360 –> 00:29:51.930
Stephen Tweed: calculating the dollar value of a client.

00:29:52.260 –> 00:29:56.680
Stephen Tweed: We look at the length of stay and the revenue.

00:29:56.930 –> 00:30:00.060
Stephen Tweed: let’s say, on a monthly basis. We’re able to calculate

00:30:00.080 –> 00:30:04.199
Stephen Tweed: the total dollar value of the client over the life of the client.

00:30:04.970 –> 00:30:15.060
Stephen Tweed: Homecare pulse, benchmarking study reports every year on the average length of stay, and it was 1112 months, and last year it dropped down to 9 months.

00:30:15.601 –> 00:30:19.969
Stephen Tweed: And and so we look at our members and we have members in our top

00:30:21.410 –> 00:30:22.780
Stephen Tweed: 5% group

00:30:22.850 –> 00:30:26.390
Stephen Tweed: who have average length of stay of 24 months

00:30:26.880 –> 00:30:35.559
Stephen Tweed: and average hours per client per week in the thirties and forties, when the average hours per client per week across. The industry is in the low to mid twenties.

00:30:35.650 –> 00:30:38.530
Stephen Tweed: And so these are. This is how we use data.

00:30:38.880 –> 00:30:43.370
Stephen Tweed: but analyze it and synthesize the information to figure out

00:30:43.790 –> 00:30:49.949
Stephen Tweed: what we need to know, to focus our sales effort and focus our recruiting efforts

00:30:50.010 –> 00:30:59.739
Stephen Tweed: to get those ideal fit clients and those ideal fit caregivers. And it’s only when you have the raw data, and I know that that you folks in your business

00:31:00.870 –> 00:31:05.000
Stephen Tweed: strive to get your users to put the data in.

00:31:05.400 –> 00:31:06.150
Ruby Mehta: Yep.

00:31:06.150 –> 00:31:07.889
Stephen Tweed: And you know.

00:31:08.330 –> 00:31:12.089
Stephen Tweed: garbage in garbage out. If you don’t have the data, you don’t have the information.

00:31:12.170 –> 00:31:15.019
Stephen Tweed: And and so our message is

00:31:15.670 –> 00:31:17.070
Stephen Tweed: to our members

00:31:17.550 –> 00:31:21.039
Stephen Tweed: every time there’s a touch point a contact

00:31:21.490 –> 00:31:30.209
Stephen Tweed: between anyone outside the Home Care Company and the company that needs to get documented in your operating system.

00:31:30.390 –> 00:31:35.439
Stephen Tweed: And so if we recruit a caregiver and we get an applicant that goes in the system.

00:31:35.560 –> 00:31:38.450
Stephen Tweed: if they get hired, that goes in the system

00:31:38.900 –> 00:31:44.640
Stephen Tweed: when they visit a client that goes in the system when they call off sick, that goes in the system.

00:31:45.303 –> 00:31:50.260
Stephen Tweed: On the client side. Every telephone call gets documented.

00:31:51.424 –> 00:32:00.950
Stephen Tweed: Every conversation with the client, every email, every text, every touch point with the client, every visit, visit, notes, plan of care.

00:32:01.020 –> 00:32:02.260
Stephen Tweed: check off the

00:32:02.280 –> 00:32:03.460
Stephen Tweed: activities.

00:32:04.067 –> 00:32:08.529
Stephen Tweed: And then we look at our referral partners and every touch with a referral partner.

00:32:08.620 –> 00:32:10.710
Stephen Tweed: every referral. They make.

00:32:11.120 –> 00:32:13.099
Stephen Tweed: all that gets documented.

00:32:13.460 –> 00:32:26.270
Stephen Tweed: And so we have, you know, 3 modules. In our operating system. We have a client module, we have a caregiver module. We have a referral module. And every time there’s a touch that gets documented. Now, we’ve got a computer full of raw data.

00:32:26.720 –> 00:32:27.410
Ruby Mehta: Yeah.

00:32:27.410 –> 00:32:32.270
Stephen Tweed: But that’s only useful if we can get it out in a meaningful way.

00:32:32.840 –> 00:32:34.070
Stephen Tweed: and

00:32:34.330 –> 00:32:36.750
Stephen Tweed: I don’t know about your system.

00:32:37.499 –> 00:32:50.800
Stephen Tweed: But what I know from working with lots of different software is that oftentimes the basic reports are created by engineers who say, well, we can get that data. So we’re gonna put it in a report.

00:32:51.670 –> 00:32:54.730
Stephen Tweed: What we like to do is work with our Ceos

00:32:54.760 –> 00:32:57.780
Stephen Tweed: to say, what knowledge do they need

00:32:58.110 –> 00:33:05.449
Stephen Tweed: And what information do they need to get the knowledge? And what data do they need? And how do they get that data out in a report

00:33:05.570 –> 00:33:09.849
Stephen Tweed: that then can be used to analyze and synthesize, to get knowledge.

00:33:10.180 –> 00:33:16.829
Stephen Tweed: And so those are the kinds of conversations that that we’re having with

00:33:16.960 –> 00:33:23.610
Stephen Tweed: home Care company Ceos and operating system companies to really look at how we work together

00:33:23.740 –> 00:33:25.280
Stephen Tweed: to get that knowledge.

00:33:25.875 –> 00:33:31.189
Stephen Tweed: So that’s a long answer to a short question. But I think it illustrates what you were saying about

00:33:31.360 –> 00:33:38.660
Stephen Tweed: systems and culture and data. Oriented decision making is all part of what these top tier companies are doing.

00:33:39.050 –> 00:33:45.309
Ruby Mehta: Right? Exactly. And those are, I think, dial on. Those are the effective strategies

00:33:45.640 –> 00:33:57.599
Ruby Mehta: to optimize operations, have knowledge about your data, make sure to you. Can. You can really take meaningful information out of that data.

00:33:57.610 –> 00:34:00.169
Ruby Mehta: That’s really really great.

00:34:01.000 –> 00:34:04.190
Ruby Mehta: Okay? Moving on

00:34:05.140 –> 00:34:15.739
Ruby Mehta: with this, with this aging population. Stephen. What innovations or what changes do you see shaping the future of home care, home care, delivery.

00:34:16.480 –> 00:34:31.639
Stephen Tweed: Well, that’s a great question, and very timely, because we just did a major industry study with another company looking at the factors that are shaping the future of home care. We looked at

00:34:31.699 –> 00:34:34.589
Stephen Tweed: outside forces and trends.

00:34:34.780 –> 00:34:37.239
Stephen Tweed: We looked at pain points

00:34:37.260 –> 00:34:40.969
Stephen Tweed: that Ceos and other leaders are experiencing.

00:34:41.020 –> 00:34:47.800
Stephen Tweed: We looked at technology. And what respondents see as the future of

00:34:47.820 –> 00:34:49.389
Stephen Tweed: technology.

00:34:49.550 –> 00:34:53.349
Stephen Tweed: We looked at things like industry, consolidation.

00:34:53.590 –> 00:34:59.710
Stephen Tweed: And so you know, this first quarter of 2,024. We’ve been deeply immersed

00:34:59.760 –> 00:35:05.080
Stephen Tweed: in understanding the factors that are going to shape the future of home care.

00:35:05.280 –> 00:35:08.440
Stephen Tweed: And so, if we sort of look in our crystal ball

00:35:08.460 –> 00:35:13.900
Stephen Tweed: And say, What does this industry look like? 5 years from now?

00:35:15.230 –> 00:35:17.270
Stephen Tweed: What I see are things like

00:35:17.420 –> 00:35:22.819
Stephen Tweed: the industry will continue to consolidate. There will be more bigger companies.

00:35:23.960 –> 00:35:31.310
Stephen Tweed: There are more franchise companies, there are more franchisors, and there are more franchisees.

00:35:32.342 –> 00:35:33.670
Stephen Tweed: We’ve seen the

00:35:33.740 –> 00:35:44.969
Stephen Tweed: the entrance of private equity companies into home care. And they’re having a huge impact on technology on the franchise systems and on large independent home care companies. So

00:35:45.130 –> 00:35:47.789
Stephen Tweed: all of these pieces sort of of go together.

00:35:48.912 –> 00:35:53.090
Stephen Tweed: We see technology playing a much bigger role.

00:35:53.840 –> 00:36:09.930
Stephen Tweed: and it falls into a couple of buckets. First of all, operating systems will continue to grow and expand and develop a lot of talk about AI artificial intelligence. Already most software companies are doing some things that would fit under that.

00:36:10.130 –> 00:36:13.249
Stephen Tweed: that umbrella of artificial intelligence.

00:36:14.730 –> 00:36:17.130
Stephen Tweed: some are hyping it more than others.

00:36:17.966 –> 00:36:19.299
Stephen Tweed: Some are

00:36:20.010 –> 00:36:29.680
Stephen Tweed: doing a lot of amazing things with it somewhere, creating false expectations around it. So watching that whole piece becomes really important.

00:36:30.980 –> 00:36:35.770
Stephen Tweed: one of the big challenges in the future will continue to be the shortage of caregivers.

00:36:36.060 –> 00:36:41.079
Stephen Tweed: And so there’s a lot of buzz and activity and investment in technology

343
00:36:41.440 –> 00:36:43.170
Stephen Tweed: to supplement

00:36:43.690 –> 00:36:46.199
Stephen Tweed: the caregiver in the home with

00:36:46.390 –> 00:36:50.479
Stephen Tweed: remote, patient monitoring and tablet based communication

00:36:50.510 –> 00:36:56.520
Stephen Tweed: and some of those other technologies. However, what we we’ve seen over the last decade decade and a half

00:36:56.780 –> 00:36:59.390
Stephen Tweed: is that when people try to

00:37:00.000 –> 00:37:02.910
Stephen Tweed: create new technology that’s

00:37:03.390 –> 00:37:05.540
Stephen Tweed: That’s monitoring.

00:37:06.527 –> 00:37:10.730
Stephen Tweed: Clients in their homes. The clients resist the technology

00:37:11.530 –> 00:37:17.400
Stephen Tweed: because they don’t want to be. They don’t want to have their privacy infringed upon.

00:37:17.890 –> 00:37:19.370
Stephen Tweed: And so

00:37:20.389 –> 00:37:25.930
Stephen Tweed: We’ve seen some great growth in telehealth, for example, on the home healthcare side.

00:37:26.000 –> 00:37:37.260
Stephen Tweed: because patients could see the value of that Daily Telehealth conversation with the nurse back in a central station, monitoring their vital signs and reporting

00:37:37.510 –> 00:37:40.269
Stephen Tweed: those vital signs back to their physician.

00:37:40.610 –> 00:37:42.769
Stephen Tweed: But in nonmedical home care.

00:37:42.780 –> 00:37:44.930
Stephen Tweed: There’s less evidence

00:37:45.040 –> 00:37:46.130
Stephen Tweed: to

00:37:46.810 –> 00:37:53.199
Stephen Tweed: demonstrate the viability of a remote monitor of some sort. And so the clients are resisting

00:37:53.580 –> 00:38:01.849
Stephen Tweed: the technology. And so how do we get past that? Because we’re going to be faced with this shortage of caregivers? So that’s a whole nother arena

00:38:01.880 –> 00:38:09.779
Stephen Tweed: that we look at. And our members, for the most part, have done a much better job of recruiting

00:38:09.870 –> 00:38:11.600
Stephen Tweed: than the industry as a whole.

00:38:12.050 –> 00:38:17.189
Stephen Tweed: and so they have shifted their focus from recruiting over to retention

00:38:17.760 –> 00:38:18.790
Stephen Tweed: and

00:38:19.590 –> 00:38:21.929
Stephen Tweed: engaging their caregivers

00:38:22.110 –> 00:38:23.830
Stephen Tweed: and

00:38:24.530 –> 00:38:29.149
Stephen Tweed: engaging them in the culture of the company and the core values. And so

00:38:29.230 –> 00:38:36.629
Stephen Tweed: retention becomes the focus, not recruiting. It’s not to say that they don’t have a full time effort going into recruiting new caregivers.

00:38:37.100 –> 00:38:42.920
Stephen Tweed: but they’re recruiting a different type of caregiver. They’re increasing the quality of the applicants. They’re not

00:38:43.020 –> 00:38:44.990
Stephen Tweed: constantly churning

00:38:45.210 –> 00:38:57.299
Stephen Tweed: caregivers. There is always some level of churn. But when you look at, you know, the industry average last year was 77.1. So if a company had a hundred caregivers, 77 of them left during a 12 month period.

00:38:57.701 –> 00:39:05.250
Stephen Tweed: That means you had to hire 77 to replace those, and then, if you’re going to grow by 10, you had to hire another 10.

00:39:05.600 –> 00:39:06.160
Ruby Mehta: Well.

00:39:06.160 –> 00:39:08.509
Stephen Tweed: And have them stay for a year. So

00:39:08.640 –> 00:39:13.980
Stephen Tweed: we we see how this this caregiver, recruiting and retention issue

00:39:14.090 –> 00:39:17.109
Stephen Tweed: is a huge issue, and it’s going to be with us forever.

00:39:17.350 –> 00:39:23.209
Stephen Tweed: And so the companies of the future are building that into their systems they’re

00:39:23.580 –> 00:39:25.399
Stephen Tweed: hiring people who are

00:39:25.880 –> 00:39:27.659
Stephen Tweed: top tier high quality.

00:39:28.080 –> 00:39:30.050
Stephen Tweed: energetic recruiters.

00:39:30.644 –> 00:39:34.819
Stephen Tweed: and and retention managers who were focused on retaining

00:39:34.960 –> 00:39:36.279
Stephen Tweed: those caregivers.

00:39:37.042 –> 00:39:45.739
Stephen Tweed: And then we know that home care has a huge future because we have this aging population. You know, the first baby boomers are now turning

00:39:46.223 –> 00:39:51.070
Stephen Tweed: that age of 75 or 80, where they are looking for care

00:39:51.550 –> 00:39:52.640
Stephen Tweed: and

00:39:54.150 –> 00:39:59.019
Stephen Tweed: The good news is that a lot of those baby boomers who are looking for care themselves

00:39:59.340 –> 00:40:04.279
Stephen Tweed: 10 years ago, or 15 years ago, were looking for care for their aging parents.

00:40:04.710 –> 00:40:08.939
Stephen Tweed: and so they’re more familiar with home care than they were 10 years ago.

00:40:09.550 –> 00:40:18.330
Stephen Tweed: but still a significant number of aging adults and their primary family caregivers have little or no knowledge of home care.

00:40:18.580 –> 00:40:20.900
Stephen Tweed: And so we got a big educational

00:40:21.421 –> 00:40:26.090
Stephen Tweed: effort to go through. So those are some of the kinds of things that we see

00:40:26.735 –> 00:40:28.430
Stephen Tweed: in the future.

00:40:28.450 –> 00:40:33.440
Stephen Tweed: and we have our members actively involved, as I mentioned, in the

00:40:34.110 –> 00:40:55.749
Stephen Tweed: Home Care Association of America and in the National Association for Home Care and Hospice. They’re involved in their state chapters. They’re involved in advocacy. They’re connected with their legislators. They’re connected with their local communities, with the local government, with chambers of commerce, with local colleges. There’s also a big effort undergone in many communities

00:40:55.780 –> 00:41:01.769
Stephen Tweed: to attract high school students to want to come to home, care as a profession.

00:41:02.060 –> 00:41:05.160
Stephen Tweed: or come to healthcare in general as a profession.

00:41:05.430 –> 00:41:10.829
Stephen Tweed: And so there’s a lot of things going on at that advocacy level.

00:41:11.120 –> 00:41:14.620
Stephen Tweed: and many of our members are actively involved in that process.

00:41:16.140 –> 00:41:17.130
Ruby Mehta: Trusting

00:41:18.420 –> 00:41:25.900
Ruby Mehta: Stephen. Tell us a little bit about how homecare Ceos can influence policy change.

00:41:26.390 –> 00:41:42.399
Stephen Tweed: Well, I I there’s 3 things there’s one is being actively involved in their National and State Association. And then I mentioned at 1 point. Half of the Board members of the Homecare Association, America were present or former members of home care, CEO form. So our members are actively involved and actively engaged.

00:41:42.810 –> 00:41:47.129
Stephen Tweed: The second is being actively engaged in your local community.

00:41:47.480 –> 00:41:51.419
Stephen Tweed: and many of our members are working with

00:41:51.620 –> 00:42:03.610
Stephen Tweed: local aging care networks. They’re involved in their local Chamber of Commerce, their better business bureau. They’re involved in legislative activities at the local and State level

00:42:04.508 –> 00:42:07.259
Stephen Tweed: and then the third one is

00:42:07.720 –> 00:42:10.490
Stephen Tweed: developing their own companies

00:42:11.210 –> 00:42:13.049
Stephen Tweed: to be significant

00:42:14.220 –> 00:42:15.780
Stephen Tweed: members of the community.

00:42:19.080 –> 00:42:22.179
Stephen Tweed: while bigger is not necessarily better.

00:42:22.400 –> 00:42:28.959
Stephen Tweed: We know that if you have a significant company, you have the opportunity to influence.

00:42:28.960 –> 00:42:29.390
Ruby Mehta: Right.

00:42:29.390 –> 00:42:30.250
Stephen Tweed: Whether it’s

00:42:30.500 –> 00:42:41.039
Stephen Tweed: legislators, regulators, politicians, other members of the healthcare continuum physicians, hospital administrators, and so the stronger your company

00:42:41.340 –> 00:42:44.430
Stephen Tweed: and the more presence you have the more influence you have.

00:42:44.570 –> 00:42:50.790
Stephen Tweed: And so growing a bigger company. And a little bit ago, you were talking about

00:42:51.160 –> 00:42:53.710
Stephen Tweed: Ceos and data and information.

00:42:54.150 –> 00:42:56.489
Stephen Tweed: and what we talk about is

00:42:56.620 –> 00:43:04.700
Stephen Tweed: the bigger your company, the more the owner and CEO is able to work on the business instead of in the business.

00:43:05.010 –> 00:43:10.879
Stephen Tweed: and it gives you that opportunity to be engaged in the community to be engaged in the local marketplace to

00:43:10.940 –> 00:43:13.259
Stephen Tweed: oversee the recruiting and retention

00:43:13.420 –> 00:43:17.389
Stephen Tweed: process because they’re not in the day-to-day

00:43:17.720 –> 00:43:19.830
Stephen Tweed: business of providing care.

00:43:20.260 –> 00:43:30.039
Stephen Tweed: If you’re a small company. If I remember, half the companies in America are under a million 7. If you’re running a company under a million 7. You’re in the business every day.

00:43:30.900 –> 00:43:31.930
Stephen Tweed: You’re not

00:43:32.040 –> 00:43:38.979
Stephen Tweed: having much time to work on the business. And so that’s why we want to bring companies together and help them grow.

00:43:39.010 –> 00:43:43.770
Stephen Tweed: so that they have a bigger influence and make a bigger difference with more clients.

00:43:45.270 –> 00:43:46.520
Ruby Mehta: Absolutely.

00:43:46.540 –> 00:43:49.479
Ruby Mehta: That’s a wealth of knowledge that you have shared. Stephen.

00:43:49.930 –> 00:44:07.401
Ruby Mehta: Thank you so much. Thank you so much for your time today. And I hope that and I’m sure the audience got in depth knowledge about some of those. Some of those questions that we or topics that we discuss today. And

00:44:08.180 –> 00:44:16.359
Ruby Mehta: thank you so much. Everyone tuning in today until the next episode. This is Ruby, and we are signing off. Thank you.

00:44:18.880 –> 00:44:20.280
Ruby Mehta: Alright.