As home care business owners, we all operate on systems that we’ve so eloquently built in order to achieve proper care for our clients. Once we’ve mastered those systems and our care units are running efficiently and effectively, we naturally start to think about how to scale to the next level. In this series, we explore the key components to scaling your home care business while maintaining the highest quality care, optimal efficiency, and meeting your financial goals.
Today, we focus on setting boundaries- a lesson that can be learned the hard way, or here in the next five minutes as you read these words of caution.
First, a reminder. The care of your clients always comes first. Occasionally that means extra hours for us, and going beyond.
But often in this industry, we have to recognize when to say when. It’s hard for our agencies to grow when our caregivers- and we ourselves!- are pulled in directions we aren’t meant to tread our roles. Setting boundaries and communicating clear expectations to both employees and clients is key to home care business success… and sanity.
Why Do We Need Boundaries?
The hero complex. Some of the best people on the planet “do it all”. You’ve seen them, and perhaps you know them, or are one. They’re the ones staying late after their shift is over, doing tasks for clients outside the realm of their responsibilities, showing up for a no-show co-worker, and unknowingly signing on the next day for more of the same. Maybe your caregiver has a client who sweet-talks them into fetching a beloved photo box from an attic, necessitating climbing a ladder to get to it- a task specifically prohibited in your caregivers’ contracts. She’s the sweetest client ever, after all. (She really is!)
Remember: quality comes first. These heroes have earned their spot in paradise, to be certain- helping others and selflessness comes naturally to them. But filling in for team members who consistently lag in their own commitments to their job, and stepping outside their realm of responsibilities in the home environment, in fact, damages the team. Even the strong eventually buckle in fatigue, after pulling more than their own weight- finding themselves perhaps on a slippery slope with a dear client. If boundaries are weak or absent, the resulting load on humble heroes breaks down the integrity of the team’s structure.
Without accountability and appropriate reporting by the caregiver at risk of being suckered into doing more than they should, it won’t be long until the quality of your care suffers.
If compromising quality of care is unthinkable, then being lax in setting boundaries is a non-starter.
Who Needs Boundaries?
Let’s start with you. Setting boundaries for yourself- clearly defining who does what – and what you do and don’t do – is a valuable control lever on your own can-do entrepreneurial spirit, aiding you in self-discipline and defining your own lane so that you can focus on what you do best: running your home care business. Blurring your own lines and doing too much will quickly bring you down. A ship with an ailing captain is vulnerable to getting off course, and a home care agency with a run-down director is in jeopardy of letting the quality of care suffer.
Your employees, who look to you. When you model for your caregivers the crucial role of firm boundaries in your work environment, you give them the gift of enforcing their own boundaries. Clear boundaries in the workspace afford your team members the tools to prevent the hero complex from creeping in. Your incredible, talented team members need to have, “Sorry, I can’t do that, Ms. Smith” in their toolboxes, just as they know they won’t be asked to work overtime hours.
From caregivers to bookkeepers, you establish the expectation that respect for people and policies matter in your home care agency.
Data continues to suggest that quality caregivers value a work environment with established boundaries and resulting respect, even over compensation when choosing employers.
We will say it today, and over this series: there’s nothing easy about growth. You’re not alone if it feels challenging. But if you remain grounded in your commitment to boundaries for yourself and your team, you have laid a critical foundation for growth. Setting boundaries shouldn’t be an afterthought; it’s the first thought.
