Home Instead provides the highest-quality care for thousands of older people in the comfort of their own homes. With over 200 offices in the UK and 10,000 CAREGivers, its vision is to become the UK’s most admired care company through changing the face of ageing.
- Record number of CQC Outstanding ratings
- Response rate increased by 35%
- Customer satisfaction increased by 15%
The problem
Against a backdrop of high attrition in the care sector, Home Instead sought to improve employee engagement and employee retention, whilst ensuring every client had a great experience.
Home Instead first introduced an employee engagement survey in 2010, but only a third of its CAREGivers, most of whom don’t have work email, participated. It wanted to re-launch its engagement strategy and partnered with WorkBuzz.
The solution
WorkBuzz held focus groups with CAREGivers to better understand the reasons for low participation and shape the survey questions and communications.
In keeping with Home Instead’s mission, we reviewed customer feedback. Although this was outstanding, communication was the biggest source of detractors. We aligned the survey questions to this, by getting feedback on areas like collaboration between CAREGivers and their local office.
The survey was branded ‘PEAQ’, which stands for Pursuing Excellence through Advancing Quality. PEAQ branded materials were provided for all offices and Engagement Champions recruited, helping to create a buzz during ‘PEAQ Week’, when the survey was launched:
To reflect its diverse workforce, Home Instead switched from paper to online surveys, with employees being emailed or text their survey link, with thousands completing this on their smart phones.
To help win hearts and minds, WorkBuzz linked employee engagement to business outcomes, demonstrating the most engaged offices had higher levels of client satisfaction, employee retention and regulatory inspection ratings, including 64 Care Quality Commission (CQC) ‘Outstanding’ ratings.
As well as using the insight from WorkBuzz to prioritise Home Instead’s people strategy, we also aligned the survey questions to the regulatory outcomes. When inspected, this enabled Home Instead offices with high levels of employee engagement to demonstrate they were ‘Well-Led’.
The outcome
Over the period of seven years working with WorkBuzz, the CAREGiver response rate has improved from 43% to 78%.
Employee engagement has also increased by 11%, which correlates with a 15% improvement in client satisfaction. During this time, Home Instead has also received a record number of CQC Outstanding ratings, two Princess Royal Training Awards, and was awarded The Queens Award For Enterprise in 2016.
“Working with WorkBuzz provides us with a huge amount of insight into our operation, helping us to improve CAREGiver engagement and retention, and client satisfaction.”
Helen Jones
Communications Manager
Leisure & Hospitality
Business & Professional Services
Employee Engagement