Poor communication, lack of recognition or exhausting workhours are among the top reasons that lead to caregivers quitting their jobs. According to the latest insights provided by the official website of Home Health Care News, more than 80% of caregiver quits their jobs or leave home care agencies because of poor workplace communication, unfair compensation and draining work hours and travelling requirements involved. Undoubtedly, there are plenty of reasons, triggers and explanations at caregivers’ end that provoke them to quit their jobs. But, what’s worse is that majority of the factors that cause caregivers quitting their jobs are controllable by employers. And, if employers of the home care agencies start to control these factors, a really big impact can be made to the overall industry employee turnover rate.
In this blog post, I will be discussing the top 10 reasons that why caregivers quit their jobs. If we look closely at the statistics of recent years within the industry, it is very much evident that an average turnover rate for caregivers remains between 40% to 67% on annual basis, while retention and recruitment of qualified, skilled and professional caregivers persist as the biggest threat to the home care agencies’ viability and competitiveness. According to the latest data of Home Healthcare News, an average home care agency is only capable of retaining its caregivers for about 15 months, while some of those lose caregiver between 6months to 1 years.
To figure out why caregivers quite their jobs has become critical so that home care agencies and even individual clients can help improving hiring terms, conditions and compensations so that they can linger on for a longer period of time.
- Poor Communication
Communication is a two-way process and it is only successful when it is done in the right way. In terms of caregiving, communication is usually referred between the caregiver and the home care agency or individual client. If there is no effective, efficient and transparent communication in place, then it becomes really difficult for a caregiver to reach out the concerned, and this is where the problems start to begin. Factors like lack of touch points and lack of formalized process result in poor communication within the caregiving industry.
- Working Hours & Scheduling
If we consider the job and working hours of a family caregiver, they are supposed to be with the patient most of the time. Family caregivers and caregivers for elderly usually get little or no time for leisurely activities. They are typically hired over very inflexible care plans, and cannot get any free-time until there is someone to fill-in for their role and caregiving duties. On the other hand, caregiver paid on hourly basis usually get a day off in a week, however, they do not get the perks offered to a caregiver with a standard 8-hour shift job.
- Excessive Workload & Unfair Remuneration
A large number of caregivers show dissatisfaction with their remuneration, pay rate and work-life balance. Because the work stress that they are getting from their caregiving job is already too much, and when their working hours got stretched for whatsoever reason, it become really exhausting and tiring for them on daily basis. This is what encourage many caregivers to look for jobs that are relatively less exhaustive and pay fair amount of money for the hard work. In caregiving industry, caregivers are commonly appointed and allocated by home care agencies that agreed to clients on certain rates. And caregivers got a small part of what the agency earned.
- Little or No Training
Caregiving is not an easy job. Especially it become very demanding for elderlies and patient with severe illnesses and have complete dependency. A caregiver who is not professionally trained can easily become strenuous and draining after few days, and he/she may end up quitting the job. Hence, it is very necessary that only professional trained caregivers are hired and appointed to job to avoid increased turnover.
- Lack of Recognition
Recognizing someone’s effort is crucial in every job no matter how big or small it is. It becomes even more important in caregiving, because the job is already very tough and challenging in nature. Failure to recognize one’s effort who is providing assistance and caregiving to a patient may result in feeling less or unvalued and demotivated; as a result, caregivers usually give up.
- Ambiguous Expectations
Giving clear expectation is very important for both the caregiver and the client; and these expectations must get finalized before the caregiver start his job. This must be done to avoid any kind of problems and misunderstanding at work related to client’s or his patient’s compatibility and needs. Normally, caregivers are not clearly communicated client’s expectations; nor the job responsibilities are shared with client; which often lead to vague expectation of client and caregiver with each other. This situation, most of the time ends up with caregivers changing their jobs or client requesting for switching to a new caregiver.
- Lack of Client Compatibility
A lot of times clients and caregivers fail to get along with each due to unknown factors. Sometimes the client find caregiver less involved in the job, or less involved with their loved ones. Even sometimes clients complain that they loved ones don’t get along really well with the caregiver may be because he is straightforward to his job or less talkative. Such factors may also result in caregivers giving up their jobs ultimately.
- Career Change
Sometimes caregivers start getting a feeling of being stagnant in their jobs due to monotonous routine of work that they do. Feeling that they have been doing the same thing every day for a very long time may push them to change their career, and taking a job that is relatively exciting. Hence, career change could be another reason for caregivers to quit their jobs.
- No Work Life Balance & Personal Time
Since caregivers are required to spent much of the time with patient, they hardly get anytime for themselves. A lot of caregivers also complained about growing distanced and difference with their families and partners due to the nature of their job. This is why, they obviously opt for quitting on caregiving career and chose another to make money without compromising their family and personal time.
- Travelling or Commutation
Travelling or commutation is another reason that push many caregivers to quit their jobs. Most of the time, the clients are located way too far from the caregiver’s location and the excessive cost of travelling does not get covered. Also, the scheduling and work hours are also driven by clients most of the time, which also lead to dissatisfaction among caregivers regarding their job and eventually they end up quitting.