Seniors Helping Seniors of Central East, FL Cuts Caregiver Turnover in Half with Augusta

Background: Seniors Helping Seniors Central East, FL

Seniors Helping Seniors (SHS) is a leading home care agency that specializes in matching seniors who need assistance with compassionate, experienced caregivers—many of whom are seniors themselves. This unique peer-to-peer care model fosters strong relationships, ensuring that clients receive not just help, but companionship as well. The thriving agency is dedicated to providing exceptional care in the greater Orlando area. Emily Drinkwater, who leads community engagement at SHS Central East, FL, quickly recognized Augusta’s key role in building a high-performing team.

The Hiring Challenges Before Augusta

Like many home care agencies, SHS Central East, FL faced significant challenges in the hiring process. The industry is known for high turnover and a competitive job market, making it difficult to find and retain reliable caregivers. Before implementing Augusta, SHS struggled with:

Unsatisfactory Turnover Rates: Like most home care agencies, SHS’s had trouble managing their employee turnover rate, requiring a continuous recruitment effort just to keep clients.
Low Interview-to-Hire Rates: With a manual prequalification process, it was challenging to find the right candidates quickly and easily.
Time-Consuming Screening Process: Sorting through hundreds of applications manually took hours each week. The team had to call and text applicants just to determine if they were qualified—many of whom never responded.
Applicant Overload in Their Scheduling System: Prior to Augusta, every applicant was automatically added to WellSky, cluttering the system with unqualified candidates.

How Augusta Helped

In Fall 2024, SHS Central East, FL implemented Augusta to streamline its hiring process and improve efficiency. With Augusta, the agency was able to:

Reduce Turnover

Prior to Augusta, SHS had a 7.7% quarterly turnover rate in Q2 2024. In Q3, while beginning to implement Augusta, turnover improved to 5%. After using Augusta for a full quarter, Q4 turnover dropped further to 4.7%, indicating better hiring decisions and more good candidates getting to the interview stage.

Improve Interview-to-Hire Rates

In Q4 2024, SHS conducted 24 interviews and hired 18 caregivers, achieving a 75% interview-to-hire ratio. Augusta’s filtering process ensured that only strong candidates moved forward, making interviews more productive and resulting in a higher conversion rate.

Automate Pre-qualification & Save Time

In October 2024, SHS received 382 applications, but only 27 were deemed qualified. Augusta’s automated pre-qualification process eliminated the need for Rachel to manually sort through hundreds of applications, saving her approximately five hours per week.

Increase Application Completion Rates

Since launching Augusta, SHS has seen an average 97% application completion rate, meaning nearly all candidates who start an application finish it—providing the right applicant data upfront.

Maintain a Clean System of Record

Previously, all applicants were entered into the scheduling system regardless of quality. With Augusta, only candidates who successfully attended interviews were added, ensuring a more organized and relevant applicant pool, ready to match with new clients.

This thorough filtering process also increased efficiency—allowing the team to focus only on the best candidates.

Results, Impact and Conclusion

With Augusta, SHS Central East, FL now operates with a more efficient, data-driven hiring process that saves time, improves applicant quality, and increases interview success rates. The system allows the team to focus on high-quality candidates, rather than sorting through unqualified applicants, leading to faster hires and better long-term caregiver retention.

The partnership between SHS Central East, FL and Augusta has led to a cleaner applicant pool, a higher interview-to-hire rate, reduced turnover, and significant time savings. Augusta’s automated pre-qualification and streamlined hiring process have empowered SHS to focus on what truly matters—providing exceptional care to seniors in their community.

Learn more about Seniors Helping Seniors Central East, FL

What Sets SHS Apart

SHS Central East, FL differentiates itself from other home care agencies through its focus on hiring caregivers aged 40 and above, ensuring that clients receive care from people just like them: experienced, mature professionals. Their thorough screening process, facilitated in part by Augusta, prioritizes applicants who align with their values and possess a genuine passion for caregiving. The hiring process includes:

Augusta: Helps them find and interview the right caregivers that will help the agency grow.
Phone Screening: Determines whether applicants share the agency’s values and have the right heart for caregiving.
In-Person Interviews: Further assesses qualifications, demeanor, and compatibility.
Comprehensive Orientation & Training: Ensures new hires are well-prepared and fully understand the expectations of the role.
Personal Introductions to Clients: Unlike many agencies, SHS personally introduces caregivers to clients, helping build trust from the very first interaction.

This structured and relationship-driven approach ensures that caregivers are well-matched with clients, leading to stronger bonds and higher satisfaction rates.