Despite wages going up, staff turnover in post-acute care remains a top priority.
Pay matters, but compensation alone isn’t enough to keep caregivers long-term. Schedules, supervisors, consistency, safety, and the overall work environment can all influence whether someone stays or starts looking elsewhere.
The good news? Many of those factors are within your control.
Why “better pay” doesn't tell the whole story
A national survey of more than 3,000 home health aides found that hourly wages weren't meaningfully different between those who planned to leave and those who planned to stay. Job satisfaction was: 67% of dissatisfied aides intended to leave, compared with just 8% of extremely satisfied aides.
Research among CNAs found a similar pattern. Pay did not predict who left, rather, aides who left reported less respect from their supervisors.
And many caregivers aren't leaving the field entirely. PHI found that 81% of direct care workers remain in the direct care workforce year over year. As we discussed in our onboarding post, high turnover often means caregivers are changing employers, not careers.
So, what can organizations do differently?
1. Ask why people stay, not just why they leave
Exit interviews can tell you why someone is leaving, but by then, it's usually too late to change their mind.
Stay interviews give you the chance to learn what's working and what isn't while you can still do something about it. Ask questions like:
“What's keeping you here?”
“What could make you consider leaving?”
Look for patterns across teams, locations or supervisors. If you're hearing the same concern repeatedly, you've found an area worth addressing before it leads to more turnover.
2. Get new hires working and earning faster
The time between accepting a job and actually starting work matters. A lengthy onboarding process can leave new hires waiting to get on the schedule and start earning.
Look for unnecessary delays in your onboarding process. Are employees waiting on paperwork? Training? Someone to manually enroll them in courses or follow up on incomplete requirements?
A streamlined training process can help new hires complete requirements faster and get into the field sooner. With Showd.me, organizations can automate training enrollment, reminders and tracking so new employees can move through required onboarding without your team having to manage every step manually.
3. Prepare caregivers to feel confident in their assignments
Completing required training doesn't necessarily mean someone feels ready to walk into an assignment.
Caregivers need training that connects to the skills they'll actually use on the job. Skill-based learning and competency validation can help employees understand what's expected of them and give organizations greater confidence that staff are prepared to perform those skills in practice.
Showd.me helps organizations go beyond course completion with structured learning and competency management, giving caregivers a clearer path from learning a skill to demonstrating it.
When employees feel prepared for the work they're being asked to do, they're more likely to enter assignments with confidence rather than uncertainty.
4. Make ongoing development part of the employee experience
Training shouldn't stop once onboarding is complete.
Giving employees opportunities to continue building their skills shows that their development matters beyond meeting an annual requirement. It also creates a clearer path for employees who want to grow within the organization.
Structured learning pathways can help organizations deliver training based on an employee's role, responsibilities and development needs rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach.
With Showd.me, organizations can manage training throughout the employee lifecycle, making continued learning easier to deliver and track without creating another administrative burden for managers.
5. Invest in the people leading your caregivers
A caregiver's experience with their supervisor can have a major impact on how they feel about their job. Research has linked supervisor support, respect and employee input with a lower intention to leave.
But good caregivers don't automatically become good managers when they're promoted.
New and existing leaders need training of their own, particularly around communication, coaching, feedback and handling difficult conversations. Investing in leadership development gives supervisors the tools to better support their teams and helps create a more consistent employee experience across the organization.
Showd.me makes it easier to incorporate leadership training into your broader learning strategy, so development isn't limited to frontline staff.
How Showd.me can help
Your team only has so many hours in a day. Time spent chasing training completions, sending reminders and tracking down documentation is time they can't spend supporting their teams.
Showd.me manages new hire and annual training from enrollment through completion, including employee follow-up, reminders and documentation.
That gives supervisors more time to focus on the work technology can't replace: checking in with your team, coaching employees and addressing problems before they become reasons to leave.
See how Showd.me can help your team spend less time chasing training and more time supporting your people.
