St. Louis Home Care Services
What really sets Heavenly Helpers Senior Home Care apart from other St. Louis home care agencies is our careful screening and matching makes all the difference.
Just how do we manage to have such wonderful caregivers? It is not something we leave to chance! We spent a great deal of time creating and perfecting our system of finding the best of the best home care providers in St. Louis.
Let’s be honest. We understand how nervous one can be when even thinking about letting someone you do not know come into the home of the person you love dearly.
We thought if we shared the process of how we find caregivers for our home care services, it will go a long way towards alleviating any concerns that a Heavenly Helper will be anything less than perfect for your loved one!
We feel this should be a question all potential clients should ask of the home care agency they are considering. When talking to prospective St. Louis home care agencies, ask “Just how do you select the caregiver you would be sending out?” If you are not “wowed” by their answer, Keep looking!
One study found to find the perfect employee, a business should interview them seven different times in seven different settings? While that may not be feasible, we get their point. And we do everything we can to ensure your caregiver is going to be just perfect.
By the time our caregiver smiles at you and introduces herself, she has gone through these 4 steps:
The Pre Screening Process
When a person calls to inquire about a caregiving position in St. Louis home health, we conduct a telephone “pre screening”. This will take anywhere from 15 – 20 minutes. We want to have a conversation with the caller and establish some important things. First of all, why does this person want to be a caregiver? What is their prior experience in home care services? What is this person’s feelings towards the elderly? Is the caller polite and articulate?
These things are important to us. By the end of the conversation, Elizabeth will have a good feel for whether it is in the best interest to proceed with an interview. Only 50% of all the people who call are invited in for an interview…
The Main Interview
We schedule a day and time for the main interview in order to evaluate a person’s reliability and punctuality. This sets us apart from many St. Louis home care agencies that have an “open door policy” for people to drop in and fill out applications.
We create a friendly, positive interviewing environment because we know that is the best way for an applicant to relax and be who they are. We utilize a “conversation style” interview because we understand when you let a person feel free to talk and elaborate on things, they relax and let their guard down. We will find out much more about them this way, which is, after all, the point of an interview!
This might surprise you, but our caregivers do not necessarily have to have a medical, nursing, or home care background. Many of our most requested, loved caregivers were teachers, executives, massage therapists, social workers, etc., before coming to work for us. Something happened in their life and they felt a calling for in home care.
And while we certainly have and need Certified Nursing Assistants, we realize that we need a wide range of personalities and backgrounds to fit a wide range of clients!
Reference and Background Checks
If the applicant has impressed us as being someone we would like to join our home care team, we will proceed to check personal and professional references. We require each applicant to have at least two positive professional references, as well as two positive personal references. We also run a background check on each applicant through the Family Care Safety Registry. It is composed of six (6) different entities (i.e., Health and Senior Services, Department of Aging, Missouri Highway Patrol, etc). Each entity runs their own check for elder abuse, sexual offenses, arrest records, etc. If the background check is clean and we have two positive personal and professional references, we move to the final step in the process!
Orientation
Our Orientation is very different from most home care agencies. We keep it to about 4-8 new applicants. It is conducted by Theanna Zika, the owner of Heavenly Helpers. She hosts it on Saturday mornings at the Bread Company – a favorite St. Louis establishment. Everyone sits around bagels and coffee and introduces themselves. We invite questions about the agency and also thoroughly review our Employee Handbook. It is a very interactive, pleasant hour. It helps the new caregivers-to-be get to know each other a bit and also to get to know Theanna, along with the philosophy of Heavenly Helpers. The unique way we conduct our Orientation accomplishes many things. It lets Theanna, as the owner, have the final say on each applicant. It lets us see how the different caregivers interact in a different setting. We encourage them to talk themselves. It is so rewarding, afterward, to hear everyone say what a new way to conduct an Orientation and what a positive experience it was for everyone! Everyone leaves with a great feeling and anticipation about working together!
Give us a call today to learn more about how our St. Louis home care services differ from the rest!
