Final 12 months, Consolation Keepers aspired to turn into a 100% franchise firm. This meant that every one 69 Consolation Keepers places needed to be re-franchised.

Ramzi Abdine, chief working officer of Consolation Keepers, as soon as described the method of refranchising Consolation Keepers' company places as a “Herculean effort.”

On the 12 months's summit, Natalie Black, CEO of Consolation Keepers, stated she believes the corporate is nicely on its solution to attaining its finish purpose. Finally, the corporate needs to shift its consideration and sources again to franchisees.

House Well being Care Information not too long ago spoke with Black concerning the newest replace on Consolation Keepers' re-franchsing initiative, why the labor market continues to be a serious ache level and a few of the greatest regulatory challenges going through the trade.

HHCN: Let's begin with a quick overview of your organization's highlights in 2024?

Black: 2024 was a giant 12 months for us. Our greatest initiative has been our refranchising efforts. We had a really giant company presence and we determined to maneuver to 100% franchising. That was a reasonably large and profitable initiative for us. We're not fully there, however we're largely there. That additionally created numerous pleasure inside our franchise system. It's simply led to Consolation Keepers having unimaginable progress right here.

One of many massive initiatives the corporate had on its plate final 12 months was refranchising its company-owned places. Are you able to present an replace on how that's going and what route you wish to take the corporate in mild of this transfer?

We're virtually there. We nonetheless have a handful of enterprise actions, however they’re additionally nicely underway. It wasn't the simplest journey, however the Consolation Keepers staff did a improbable job right here. A big proportion of the workplaces went internally to present franchisees and staff, which was a terrific outcome. I feel it speaks volumes about how folks really feel about Consolation Keepers after which wish to increase their enterprise or begin as a franchisee. It was only a phenomenal outcome.

What this does imply for us is that we will focus all our consideration on our franchisees. Consideration was divided in enterprise operations. Typically the corporate wants the identical issues as a franchisee, generally not. We needed to divide our consideration and our sources. Now we focus totally on serving to our franchisees develop and succeed.

Has the labor market turn into much less difficult and are you implementing new workforce initiatives to strengthen recruitment or retention?

I’d say that for essentially the most half the job market has turn into rather less difficult. That doesn't imply it's simpler for our franchisees. Earlier than we confronted challenges within the job market, we have been actually centered on recruiting and retaining purchasers, however then that modified and we centered very closely on recruiting and retaining caregivers.

Now we frequently discover ourselves in a spot the place the main target must be on each. That's not essentially simple. Sure, the labor market has turn into much less difficult, however that doesn’t imply that it’s much less difficult as a complete for our franchisees. At Consolation Keepers we’re really centered on our caregivers. That hasn't modified. We give attention to recruiting compassionate folks and expert people.

All this results in the standard of care we will present. We spend money on healthcare suppliers' progress and profession progress. I feel that's an necessary one as a result of some caregivers wish to be caregivers and don't wish to develop of their careers. Some healthcare suppliers wish to be healthcare suppliers straight away and wish to develop into different roles sooner or later. We would like folks to have the chance to try this. Our caregivers are usually not simply our staff, they’re valued members of our Consolation Keepers household. That's such an necessary mindset to have.

How has expertise performed a task in making recruitment and retention much less of a ache level inside your organization?

We embrace expertise and can proceed to take action. It’s evolving rapidly and I feel that we at Consolation Keepers, but in addition as an trade, should proceed to be versatile with this.

AI is only a phenomenal software that we’re beginning to use and leverage. We wish to give ourselves that flexibility once more, as a result of AI in the present day could look totally different than AI in 5 years. We would like to have the ability to embrace expertise over time. We implement scheduling platforms to present healthcare suppliers extra flexibility and visibility.

This goes again to our query concerning the retention of healthcare suppliers. What we frequently hear from caregivers is that they don't need their schedule dictated to them, and that's most likely not a shock to anybody. They wish to be a part of that. We’re more and more permitting this. We’ve got some improbable companions that we are going to be working with on that.

We’ve got all the time carried out that, however now much more so. We use knowledge and analytics to grasp caregiver satisfaction in a extra real-time approach. We will reply and maybe retain caregivers, quite than discovering out after we lose the caregiver.

The place do you see the most important enterprise alternatives? Are there nonetheless untapped alternatives?

House care is now a big sector and there may be nonetheless room for progress and to tackle extra. Positive, the demographics are on our facet from the consumer's perspective, however not from the supplier's perspective.

Our choices are there, how can we proceed to supply high quality care at dwelling, figuring out that sooner or later we could have limitations on the caregivers' facet, and we’re specializing in that half.

At Consolation Keepers we’re centered on bringing in additional franchisees. We nonetheless have fairly a little bit of room the place we will develop this additional. There are specific areas the place we’re not but offering service within the nation, and we wish to attain all areas within the nation in order that we will present high quality assist.

What are a few of the hardest regulatory challenges presently going through dwelling care suppliers? How will your organization tackle or put together for these points?

One of many greater challenges is that these regulatory issues occur on the state stage. The place one state could not have an issue, it is going to be a regulatory problem in one other. It's about having the ability to adapt and assist our franchisees throughout all of the totally different states as a complete.

I’d say it's a problem to steadiness high-quality care with our reimbursement limitations, particularly for Medicaid. We advocate for honest compensation charges for healthcare suppliers in order that we will ship the standard care we’re recognized for. In some states we will do this very nicely with the Medicaid charges as they’re. In some states it’s rather more difficult.

One other half, I’d say, is the altering compliance necessities, particularly round healthcare supplier coaching and documentation. At Consolation Keepers, we’re very centered on making certain that our caregivers are correctly skilled, however when [state requirements] are continuously altering, which might generally trigger obstacles. It could additionally create an extended window for once we can onboard caregivers, which is only a recruitment problem.

What are some notable or distinctive partnerships your organization has constructed over time, and the way are they driving your online business ahead?

Our most up-to-date was with PBS on the documentary Caregiving. It was truly produced by Bradley Cooper, and the primary focus is on the essential position of healthcare suppliers. We're sponsoring that documentary and we expect it's going to be fairly superior.

We additionally proceed to assist a few of the different initiatives we have now centered on prior to now. Stroll to Finish Alzheimer's is a superb partnership for us. To this point we have now raised $700,000. Elevating cash for this can be a focus of our franchisees, staff and healthcare suppliers.

A lot of our different focus is on our area people organizations. As everyone knows, dwelling care is an area enterprise. So ensure we assist our franchisees work with their native organizations.

How do you wish to develop in 2025?

Guaranteeing that we assist our present franchise homeowners in each approach potential. That we proceed to convey the expertise that places us on the forefront of the trade, and that we offer the very best stage of discipline assist and assist in our dwelling workplace in order that they’ve all of the instruments and sources they want and so they can give attention to rising their enterprise . We’re very consciously engaged on that progress.

We’re additionally specializing in franchise growth and making certain that we proceed to increase our franchise base, and never simply develop, however convey on unimaginable new franchisees.