A service area or “Territory” is determined a few different ways depending on your business model. Most franchises, for example, determine theirs by measuring the population within a geographic area or within a pre-determined square mileage, while independently owned agencies tend to restrict their service area by town or county. In some states, territories will simply be restricted by the state’s governing body for licensing.
WHAT TO CONSIDER
When we are actively looking at your territory, there are several demographic factors to consider. Some of these variables include median family or household income, age of the population, spoken languages, means of transportation, rental / home ownership, etc.
Being able to analyze and work within your territory will allow for more effective management of time and resources. By the time you’re finished, you should be able to answer:
• Where does your target client live?
• How many hospitals are within these areas?
• What support facilities are within the affective range of those hospitals?
• Are there training schools in the selected service territory?
• Where do your caregivers likely live?
TARGETED RECRUITMENT
Now that we have had a solid look at our territory map let’s consider how we will refine our search to target our recruiting campaigns more effectively. Depending on your individual state regulations, your caregivers may need certifications or licensing to work. For this purpose, we will assume that certification by a state approved organization is required. We will also need to keep in mind:
- The average Home Health Aide (HHA), Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA), or comparable position earns $27,808 per year, nationally.
- 89% of HHAs and CNAs are female.
- Many professional caregivers will work for multiple agencies.
- Range in age from 16 – 65+, with 23% being 45 – 54 y/o.
- Approximately 35% have at least some college education.
- 72% work for agencies that are funded by a government program
Keeping this in mind, lets figure out where we are most likely to find success in our recruitment campaigns. We all know that in the private pay space, our clients and caregivers do not generally live in the same neighborhoods. There are several reasons for this, but the primary reason is that of affordability. For the same financial concerns, caregivers, especially in urban markets, may not have access to private means of transportation and may rely on public transportation to get from place to place. So, how do we target caregivers that will likely be willing to work where our clients live?
- Analyze your territory and identify the hospitals and service providers that support those hospitals, these are usually your Skilled Nursing, Assisted Living Facilities, Hospice, etc. that you would normally seek out to build referral partnerships.
- Now look for demographic information that fits your caregiver, you can find much of this information online.
- Look through your list of current applicants or active caregivers and match the zip codes from your demographic findings to those in your records.
- Focus your recruitment efforts into those areas.
- Having a focused approach based on the relevant data, specific to your office will improve your overall results and allow you to spend your time, resources and money much more efficiently.
