"We don’t want to be the biggest. We just want to be the best."
Ken and Robin Helfers are a dream team running Always Best Care Louisville together. Before she started Always Best Care Louisville, Robin was the VP of marketing at United Way and worked at other health care and health insurance companies. Prior to joining Robin at ABC, Ken was working in national sales roles and as a strategic account manager. Robin’s strengths in strategy, marketing and communications complement Ken’s strengths in sales and customer facing roles. Alzheimer's care was especially near to Robin’s heart. Her grandmother suffered from Alzheimer's and her father was the caregiver, as there were no other resources at the time. This was a difficult task and put a lot of strain on the entire family. Ken says, “We seek provide an alternative to our clients that wasn’t available to Robin’s grandmother at the time.” Ken and Robin have utilized ClearCare in order to allow them to focus on quality and growth.
For Ken and Robin, running a successful agency all starts with finding the right caregivers. Hiring and maintaining quality caregivers is a constant job and can be very difficult, so the team is meticulous in their hiring process and try to hire on a weekly basis. They focus on hiring employees that demonstrate a genuine passion for the industry.
To ensure that passion is real, they even use a personality questionnaire in addition to their job application. Applicants take the questionnaire — which assesses stress, tolerance, attention to detail, sociability, etc. — through Care Profiler. Before Ken and Robin implemented the questionnaire in the hiring process, they asked caregivers who have worked at their agency for a long time to respond, in order to test the model. Ken and Robin now use these results as a reference when looking at an applicant’s scores. After the questionnaire, applicants are directed to the job application. Once employees are selected for an interview, the process is very hands-on. Robin and Ken themselves conduct the group and individual interviews as a way to be sure that they know each caregiver. Ken emphasizes how ClearCare has “helped tighten up the hiring process” through tracking, mass messaging capabilities and information consolidation.
Before sending a caregiver out on a job, Ken and Robin pay a lot of attention to the matchmaking process. The caregiver-client matches emerge from the over 60 criteria by using ClearCare’s Carefinder feature. These criteria include everything from physical abilities and preferences to personal interests and hobbies. Next, either Robin or Ken introduces the caregiver to the client in person, and the caregiver shadows an existing caregiver until the new hire feels comfortable with the client’s needs.
This hands-on hiring and matchmaking process has helped Ken and Robin grow their business and keep both their clients and caregivers happy. Ken emphasizes that his process allows him to really get to know everyone and create a team feeling between the agency, caregivers and clients. He also stresses that “if you’ve got the tools that make managing the business easier, it allows you to have a better personal touch.” Always Best Care Louisville has such a strong personal touch that some client families even mention the care they received from Always Best Care in obituaries and eulogies.
