Home care agencies are gearing up for the increased Caregiver Recruitment competition nationwide, and a major area of improvement is Caregiver and CNA training. With 44% of workers citing a lack of training as a reason they left their last job, revamped programs are a necessity not only for recruiting Caregivers, but for retaining them as well.
Overhauling your agency’s current training program can be a big project to tackle, but the potential impact on your Caregiver and CNA recruiting can’t be overstated. Every little improvement is worth making, and a good first step for employers to make is to offer blended learning. This means making training available to your staff in a variety of settings, including classroom, in-office, and online.
Having this flexibility available to your staff shows a commitment to their career growth in the format that best suits them. Caregivers tend to have busy schedules, often times working multiple jobs at any given time. By offering the variety of learning formats, they can choose the ones that fit not only their learning style, but their lives too. You can use this as a selling point when recruiting CNAs and Caregivers, showing you give them the tools they need to succeed.
Online learning offers an additional benefit for comprehension as well. Stacey Tavarez, a Caregiver training expert at InTheKnow, has this to say about online learning: “E-learning is self-paced. That means learners can take more time when they need more help. Then, they can move along once they’ve mastered the skill. It also gives learners a safe space to fail. This is important for adult learners who may be nervous about answering questions in front of peers and their supervisor. When the material is self-paced, and “safe,” there is better comprehension and long-term retention.”
Blended learning is a core piece of a successful Caregiver training program, but offering this flexibility alone won’t be enough to stay competitive. Our latest white paper "7 Guideposts to Turn Caregiver Training into a Recruitment & Retention Tool" focuses on how to use training as a Caregiver and CNA recruitment and retention tool is available for full download below.
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