Promoting Sustainability in Frontline Home Care Aides: Understanding Factors Affecting Job Retention in the Home Care Workforce

Abstract

With the growth of the older adult population increasing at an exponential rate, caring for this population has become increasingly difficult. As many choose to age in place (i.e., in the home environment), both the public and private sectors are being forced to respond. The emergence of home health care and the employment of home care aides is one of the ways that the industry has evolved to meet this crisis. However, retention of home care aides has proven problematic. This study explores factors affecting home care aide retention in agencies that employ home care aides. A sample of 116 home care aides employed by three agencies was surveyed to identify retention issues relative to the home care aide. A hypothetical model of home care aid job retention was tested with a hierarchical regression analysis, where 11 variables were entered in five steps, using a time-sequenced order. The results indicated that the hypothetical model was able to explain 41% of the variance in months employed as home care aides, with age, education, wages earned, and intrinsic satisfaction as the most significant contributors to the model. Being able to predict retention of home care aides allows employing agencies to realign themselves to retain workers and improve quality of care. However, it is important to realize that the same traits that predict retention among home care aides may also leave these workers vulnerable to exploitation.