For the home-based care industry to capitalize on its growing demographic opportunities, it must embrace emerging leaders with fresh perspectives. Companies like VNS Health, Andwell Health Partners, and UVA Continuum Home Health are leading the charge by supporting the next generation of leaders.
One such leader, RJ Gagnon, is making strides at Andwell. The company is focused on developing future leaders. “Our organization has really focused on development of leadership,” Gagnon shared during a panel at the National Association for Home Care & Hospice’s (NAHC) Financial Management Conference. “When we look at our budgets, sometimes that’s one of the things that’s first cut. That’s something we need to invest in.” Formerly known as Androscoggin Home Healthcare + Hospice, Andwell is a nonprofit offering home health, hospice, palliative, behavioral health, and pediatric care services with over 500 employees across 16 counties in Maine.
In addition to nurturing new leaders, companies are learning to work effectively with a multi-generational workforce.
UVA Continuum Home Health, for example, has staff spanning four generations. Catherine Harris, the home health director, tailors her approach to individuals based on their life stages. This dynamic allows Harris to learn from her more experienced colleagues. “When you think generationally, you’re really thinking about where that person is in life,” she explained. “My younger partners are just starting to have kids. They’re taking leave, [it’s about] giving space for that, and celebrating that, versus the generation before us, the baby boomers … who are preparing to retire. Am I listening to them? Am I focused on the lessons that they’ve learned?”
UVA Continuum Home Health, an academic agency associated with the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, serves several cities across the state.
Matt Chadwick, CFO of Well Care Health, emphasized the importance of avoiding assumptions about generational abilities. “It’s about, [for example], not going in with the perception that a younger person might know technology better than the older person, but listening to their concerns, hearing what their skill sets are and really trying to find the right space for them,” he said. Well Care Health, based in Wilmington, North Carolina, provides home health and hospice services to over 4,000 patients and employs more than 600 workers across 40 counties in North and South Carolina. Chadwick highlighted the importance of placing people in roles where they can excel.
At VNS Health, leaders addressed high turnover rates among younger nurses by creating a nursing grad program focused on mentorship. “They’re learning about home care,” said Sarani Doshi, vice president of corporate financial planning and analysis at VNS Health. “They’re getting their feet wet and taking care of patients in the homes for real now, and we’re giving them the tools they need to be successful, to grow and develop in the way that they’d like to.” This New York-based full-service home care organization, which serves nearly 40,000 daily patients, has seen reduced turnover among younger nurses since implementing the program.
VNS Health has also strengthened partnerships with local nursing schools, educating students about home care and providing scholarships to those interested in the field. “We’re spending a little bit more time in the school, educating students around home care, the value of home care and the benefits of home care, and providing scholarships to students who are showing interest in coming into home care post-graduation,” Doshi noted. “That, coupled with our nursing graduate program, has started to gain some traction, and we’re seeing some of that affect turnover and retention.”
Gagnon believes in the importance of professional development for employee success. “We need to let the teams know that they matter,” he said. “We have management meetings where the first half is business as usual. The second half is very direct leadership development with strategies where we bring in facilitators. We are investing in that team. That lets them know, ‘We want you to be successful.’ Our No. 1 job is for our team to be successful.”
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