[Sample] The first 90 days decide whether a caregiver stays
Most turnover happens early. Agencies that fix onboarding keep more people.
Sample article for testing the newsroom layout. The agencies, people and figures below are fictional.
In our fictional sample of 30 agencies, more than half of caregivers who left in a year did so in their first 90 days. After six months, turnover dropped sharply. The pattern points to onboarding, not pay alone.
What goes wrong early
- New caregivers get the hardest clients because senior staff have the easy ones.
- Schedules change weekly, so new hires cannot plan childcare.
- Nobody checks in after the first shift.
What the better agencies do
The agencies with the lowest early turnover shared three habits. They paired each new hire with a mentor for the first month. They guaranteed a stable schedule for the first eight weeks. And a supervisor called after the first, third and tenth shifts.
The cost of doing nothing
Replacing one caregiver costs an agency recruiting, background checks and training hours. Multiply that by every early exit and the case for a mentor stipend is easy to make.
Our take
Start with the phone calls. They cost nothing, and they catch problems while they are still small.