Bruce McReynolds, the owner of Griswold Home Care of Greensboro and Burlington, North Carolina, joins Franchising with Purpose to discuss how he establishes a culture of compassion and purpose with his team. Also, Christina Sommerfield, the Vice President of Company Operations here at the Home Office, joins us to talk about her 6 “C’s” and maintaining culture across several locations
Bruce’s first tidbit of advice is to “have the right players on the bus.” Let’s look at what that means and how it contributes to the making of a successful home care business.
We like to stay involved with as many community programs as we can. Each community has an array of programs and services to investigate. Know your community and seek out some of these programs. Staying involved, volunteering, and contributing financial support to community programs not only gets your name out in the community, but also supports your brand. Some of the programs we support and participate in are:
The six C’s are the key to a great office culture.
To create a successful culture in the office, the first three points, communication, consistency, and compliance are essential. Effective communication between team members keeps everyone on the same page.
We must be consistent in how we treat our clients and our caregivers, and we must be fully compliant with all state regulations, guidelines, and policies and procedures in the running of our business. All while keeping a close eye on cost control and maintaining our census.
Above all, we are looking for people who are compassionate and who take caregiving to heart. Our founder, the late Jean Griswold, created a 15-step screening process to weed out prospective candidates for hire who do not possess the compassion and caring personality we are looking for. Although Jean passed away in 2017 at the age of 86, she would be pleased to know that her values live on in Griswold Home Care today.
We also conduct a behavioral interview with prospective candidates to assure they will be a good fit and will provide the kind of compassionate care that makes Griswold unique in the industry.
We have a robust orientation training, and we provide ongoing training after the orientation is complete. We want our caregivers to feel valued and appreciated so they will be proud to be a part of the culture we have created.
What do you look for when hiring office staff?
Again, we cannot stress it enough. The first thing we look for is compassion. Our office staff must feel compassion if they are to deal with families, clients, and caregivers. They are the face of our business, and they are the people who make the first impression on everyone who comes through our door.
We try to make sure the office team feels like family and that they work well together as a team.
We conduct peer to peer interviews to get feedback from our staff when we are seeking a new person to fill a position on our team.
Our goal is to have an office and caregiving staff that not only enjoys what they do, but also enjoys and understands the work environment we have created at Griswold.
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