Caring for our employees in the workplace

Ensuring workplace safety
is a unique challenge for
in-home care providers.

The pending resignation of our mayor here in San Diego has made national headlines of late. It's been the source of many jokes and some public embarrassment, but also provides an opportunity to reflect on the need to protect and care for our employees in their workplaces. The allegations being made against Bob Filner paint the picture of a manager who ran an office filled with fear, intimidation, and harassment. At Elder Care Guides, we are committed to a work environment that is safe, secure, and free of unlawful harassment or discrimination. As an employer of many clinicians and hands-on care providers who work in private homes, we face a unique challenge in ensuring that we’re providing a safe and positive work environment. The Care Manager plays a key role in assessing the home and addressing any potential safety concerns that may put either the client or the caregiver employee at risk. Clients with advanced dementia or serious mental illness occasionally exhibit difficult behaviors, and even a well-trained and experienced caregiver can benefit from the 24/7 availability of the Care Manager, to whom they can reach out for support and guidance.

Our obligations to our employees run far deeper than just providing a safe and secure workplace. We believe that employees who understand and utilize their personal strengths are fundamental to our success, and that their full engagement enhances the services we provide. When we are making a “match” between our caregiver employees and the clients that we serve, we are paying close attention to the strengths and personalities of both. It brings tremendous satisfaction to help a client find that “just right” caregiver, and it’s even more gratifying when we’ve also done the same for our employee.

Nine Years of Service (Part 1 of 3)

This month, our company celebrates nine years in business. As a founding partner of Elder Care Guides, I've enjoyed this opportunity to reflect on how far we've come, and how much we've accomplished for and with our clients. In these next few posts, I'll recount nine of my favorite memories from my first nine years as a part of this company:

1) Our first day in business together, I woke up in the morning excited to head over to the home of Norman Hannay (Elder Care Guides' founder and President) to get to work. Full of energy and enthusiasm, I headed outside, only to find that my car wouldn't start. I called Norman, we had a good laugh, and then spent our first couple of hours as business partners getting my car towed to the mechanic. It was a frustrating start, but from the beginning, it was clear that we were creating a place where employees would feel cared for and supported.

2) Receiving our first call. A social worker from a local hospital system called to describe a difficult situation she had on her hands, and to ask if it sounded like an appropriate referral to a geriatric care manager. We served her patient for years, helping to get his dirty apartment cleaned up, finding him a companion caregiver who was a perfect match for his personality and interests, and keeping his long-distance family caregiver connected and informed. We kept Mr. S, who had lived alone all of his life and had resisted assistance, safe and happy in his home for several years, and I still think of him often.

3) Our first company holiday party (in 2004) was just myself, Norman, and my husband -- the three of us sharing a meal together around Norman's dining table. Every year since, I've thought back to this old memory as our company has grown, and note that our holiday gatherings today involve a big, bustling room full of people that I'm very proud to call my colleagues.

We Love Carrots!

I recently attended the 62nd Annual SHRM Conference, the largest HR Conference in the world with over 11,000 attendees from 140 countries. As you can imagine, the general and breakout sessions were packed with valuable information on managing, supervising, and engaging employees. However, one session that stood out above the rest was "The Carrot Principle: How the Best Managers Use Recognition to Engage Their People, Retain Talent and Accelerate Results," presented by Chester Elton.

Elton is a dynamic and insightful speaker, who engaged the audience by encouraging participation, using multiple types of visual aides, and even throwing stuffed carrots into the audience. His message, backed by years of research, was simple: recognize your employees for a job well done frequently, specifically, and immediately, and they will feel valued and appreciated. As mentioned before on this blog, valued and appreciated employees stick around. The metaphor of the carrot as it relates to business is "something used to inspire and motivate the employee." In Elton and Adrian Gostick's book, it states:

"When employees know that their strengths and potential will be praised and recognized, they are significantly more likely to produce value."

So how does this relate to employees that care for elders for a living? The demographic that makes up the majority of caregivers, are those that live paycheck to paycheck. Don't those employees just want more money? Nope. At least, that's not what Elton and Gostick reported. One-third of people you give a cash award to will use that money to pay bills, and one in five won't remember in a few months how much they received or where they spent the money. But they will remember receiving a hand-written note from their direct supervisor, or better yet, the President of the company, thanking them specifically and timely for something they did that was above and beyond. If those appreciative notes and phone calls keep coming, employees will keep going above and beyond, because rewarded behavior gets repeated.

I highly recommend Elton and Gostick's book and website. Read them, study them, and implement a recognition program. Your employees will appreciate it, and become motivated to do better and be more committed, which directly translates to your companies mission, goals, and values.

Looking "Up"

On a recent cross-country flight, I enjoyed the opportunity to watch Disney/Pixar's most recent animated feature, "Up." The main character, Carl, is an elderly and childless man who, upon losing his wife Ellie with whom he'd led a long and happy life, finds himself being forced out of their beloved little house and into a retirement home when he is deemed a "public menace." He and his wife had an unfulfilled, lifelong fantasy of moving to a place called Paradise Falls in South America, and on the day the staff from the retirement home come to take him, Carl ties hundreds of balloons to his house and flies away in pursuit of his and Ellie's dream. Once in the air, he realizes he's accidentally taken along a neighborhood boy, Russell, who had been on his porch attempting to earn a merit badge for "assisting the elderly." The movie is focused on the adventures that Carl and Russell experience while in South America (and I won't spoil the plot, for those who haven't seen it!), but it brought to light some issues and themes about which I often reflect both as a professional geriatric care manager, and as a person who cares deeply about the inner lives of our elders.

Carl is a cantankerous old grump of a character, and Russell is a loud, high-energy schoolboy and "Wilderness Explorer" scout. Through the course of their journey, we learn that Russell is being raised by his single mother, and wishes he spent more time with his re-married father. Russell eventually endears himself to his aged traveling companion, and a deep friendship is born. They learn about the world and about life from one another, and fulfill important roles in each other's lives. It is a sweet demonstration of the value of intergenerational relationships, and I hope that "Up's" younger audiences will internalize this lesson and seek out friendships with the elders in their communities, and value time spent with their own parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles.

When Carl and Russell's balloon-powered house lands in South America, they realize that they've made it close to Paradise Falls, but have an arduous journey ahead of them, to relocate the house to the precise spot about which he and Ellie had dreamed. When faced with a difficult choice, Carl comes to the realization that "it's just a house." Until then, he had been very focused on it, and the things therein, as essential to his happiness and to the fulfillment of this particular dream. This brings to mind the complex relationship that many elders have with their family homes, as symbols of independence and a source of connection to memories and former roles and relationships. For my own grandmother, leaving her house meant not only accepting a new type of dependence on others, but relinquishing an important role - her home would no longer be the gathering place for celebrations and holidays, and she would no longer be able to provide a warm meal or a bed for visiting friends and family. Warm hospitality was a central feature of my grandmother's character, and looking back with hindsight, I wish we'd found more ways as a family to continue to foster that part of her after she moved into her assisted living apartment. For my grandmother, and for many others, letting go of her house felt like a loss of independence, but was in reality only a shift to a new type of interdependence.

The most important message I received from "Up" was that setting goals and achieving dreams is an ongoing process that should take place throughout our lives. Carl and Ellie had dreamed of children - and did not have them. They had dreamed of Paradise Falls - and did not get there. But they adapted to their circumstances, set new goals, and lived a happy and full life together. When things are looking grim in South America, Carl finds a message that Ellie had left for him before her death, which reads "Thanks for the adventure - now go have a new one!" and is renewed in his efforts. Carl's dreams of a life in South America with his beloved Ellie were not realized, but through the journey and his friendship with Russell, a new purpose for his later life was revealed. We see this in our work with our clients, and know it to be true: we are always growing, it is never too late to set and achieve goals, and there is purpose in every moment lived.

The Culture of Caregiving

The caregiving profession is one that attracts individuals from all types of cultures. One quality they all have in common, however, is their desire to help the elderly in a way only a few can.


One needs to dig deep in the screening process to find out about experience, and the quality of that experience, in order to determine if the candidate would make a good caregiver for your company. Sometimes, the best caregivers won't articulate their experience in a way that portrays their desire and/or ability to do the job. Upon initial judgment, many candidates might be turned away. Once their personal history and background are considered, however, their experience can be more than sufficient to be an outstanding caregiver.


A perfect example of this was when I didn't schedule an interview with a potential caregiver because she told me she didn't have any experience. However, since she was referred by a current, long standing employee, I reconsidered later and invited her for an interview. Upon asking her again, "Do you have any experience caring for an elderly individual?" Her response was, "Well not really. Just my husband who was over 70, had Alzheimer's, and was bed bound for the last 4 years of his life." BINGO! She is now one of our highly respected, dependable caregivers.


Caregiving comes from the heart. If an individual's culture and experience come from the same caring, positive attitude, you can rarely go wrong.