Home Instead Senior Care DON'T USE. Doesn't check references and rips off employees. Lies about bonus $$ in ads. Northbrook Illinois

I have worked for HISC for over 5 years in California. Whoever says that overtime is not paid in California, you have made a very broad accusation that you cannot back up. In our office, we pay overtime quite a bit. I know first-hand, because I do payroll.

I have a feeling some of the responders may not understand the meaning of "each Home Instead franchise office is independently owned and operated." This means that from one franchise to another, there are different owners with different policies. Home Instead, Inc. (the home office) lays out franchise standards and best practices. It is up to the individual franchisees to measure up to those policies, or face removal of the franchise. In other words, there are rules they have to live by, or else they can no longer use the Home Instead Senior Care name.

I know that training is one of those standards. So are introductions each time the CAREGiver works an assignment for the first time. I can only speak for our office, but I know that if these things don't happen, someone (in the office) will probably lose their job. I cannot speak for your franchise, but I know that these issues should be brought to their attention. Chances are, someone in the office is slacking off and either needs to be coached or other corrective action taken.

As for pay, again each office sets their own rates. In CA, we have different laws and regulations. We also do not provide medical services, so CNAs, RNs, VNAs, etc. do not get paid based off of those licensing or credentials. All CAREGivers start off at the same rate of pay and can receive incremental increases based on performance and completion of training in a timely fashion. There is a margin between CAREGiver pay and our fees, which covers worker's compensation (not insignificant in this industry, or CA for that matter), liability insurance, crime insurance, office staff compensation, rent, supplies, training (paying CAREGivers without billing any one client), mileage for networking/quality assurance, advertising, etc. So it's not as simple as charge $20 - pay the CAREGiver $20. That overhead should be reflected in the support/training CAREGivers receive with the company. If not, there is a breakdown somewhere that needs to be addressed.

All of our CAREGivers (and I mean ALL of them) are required to complete orientation as well as 2 hours of training before being considered for an assignment. They must then complete an additional 2 hours within 90 days of hire. They must also complete at least 1 hour of training EVERY MONTH for the entire duration of their employment. To work with a client with a diagnosis of Alzheimer's or another form of dementia, they must undergo 16 hours of specialized care training. So to label "Home Instead Senior Care" as not doing training, is offensive to people like me who spend many hours organizing and facilitating training and then do all we can to support our CAREGivers. 

Please outline that you are speaking of a specific franchise, and not label us all. As for your specific incident, I hope you can remedy the situation. It sounds to me like an office staff member(s) may have dropped the ball. That should be brought to the owner's attention. In our office, if a CAREGiver told me that, and it turned out to be true, heads would be rolling.

Yep.  theyre all owned separately, but they still have to follow the labor laws.
no one gets paid overtime in california.  why?  home care workers are exempt because of the way the laws are set up now.

know what home instead is busy doing right now?  obama wants to make over time mandatory for home care workers.  anything over 40 hours per week.

yey!!!

NO!!!

home instead has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars fighting this.  gee.  they could have used that money to give raises to their employees.  someone who has worked there for 10 years has said the pay has been the same all those 10 years.  no raises ever, but the cost to the client has gone up.

none of that money has EVER gone to the employee. 

knowing things like that makes me want to say screw you guys but...

when you work with a client in their home, youre also not in an office all day long with some idiot manager down your throat all day long intimidating you and making your work day miserable 5 days a week.
you dont have alll the drama of co-workers driving you nuts with all the clashing personalities.

the very worst thing Ive ever had happen was some stupid girl who took the shift the other half of the week leaving me with 8 loads of laundry and never did any herself.  (piled up 10 feet high and I took pictures)
I simply put an end to that by calling the office.  easy.

I am actually very angry as the selfishness of finding out that home instead is fighting better pay for the actually care givers that DO ALL THE WORK THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

but its a very easy job.  If you dont like it.....leave.

No body is bad mouthing the whole organiztion. I know that home instead senior care is independently owned. I had a bad experience working for one of home instead franchise the one that is located in Naperville IL. I have civil rights to speak for myself, defend myself and protect myself. Don't insult people by saying employees. In case you forgot we are human beings too. we have feelings. I have a right to speak inform the public so nobody will go through what i went through.My payments when I work there were never accurate. It is the most disorganize company i have never seen. companies should pay what they promise to pay to the employees. The last time I remember I signed a contract employee and employer contract. what happened to that. I did my job as an employee it is the franchise who does not know what they are doing. It was not my job to run the company for them. The agency should read their own policy. May be their is some where in their booklet that explain employees rights. In case you dont know business have bosses like the federal government. I need to be paid because the government said so. I have employee rights because the labor department said so. Thank God for the government. If your franchise is doing the right thing find a way to differentiate yourself. Don't call the previous employees names. We have a right to speak. We live in America. we have freedom of speech. I do not live in Russia or China.I will never work for home instead company every again even if you pay me million dollar. I do not make the same mistake again. I will work for $5/hr any company that will treat me like a human being. I am proud to defend the care givers.
 

 

Again, all the franchises are independently owned! I understand the frustrations but I do not understand why one must bad mouth an entire organization because of a single group. All the caregivers are licensed and bonded. I do not think an employee would be able to know this for sure because they do not work with the paperwork in an office. I would like to see proof that none of the caregivers were insured since this accusation was thrown out. I am a caregiver and do not get paid $22 an hour. At the same time, I see how much effort my home office puts into the clients. They do so many personal visits. They do advertise on tv and network through out the community. They fill in shifts on weekends when people call out. They do not have days off and never complain. I would think they should get some compensation for what they do. Our last training event was a few weeks back and they provided food and beverages. They gave raffle gifts and awards. There are plenty of good Home Instead Offices out there. Please anyone who is looking for care, do not be discouraged by what two disgruntled employees have to say. There are two sides to every story. I will pray for them and hope they find a job that gives them everything they are looking for. 

I think it important to respond because all Home Instead facilities are Independently owned. If what was written was fact then that is only one specific owner. I work for a HISC in Virginia and absolutely love it. Our owners take the time to train and set up in person introductions for new clients and new caregivers. As far as how much is paid, that is not my concern. I am business savvy and understand that a company must make a profit. When you accept a job for a big company that makes millions, you cannot expect that amount. I would hope that people will read this and judge based off of each different business. Anyone who has had interactions with the business in VA can provide a reference to our services. I hope you get your situation worked out.

I am currently an employee of Home Instead in the SW suburbs of Chicago. I can verify that I too was hired almost instantaneously by them after answering a simple ad on Craig's List. Forget any kind of background check either, I could've easily been an ax murderer for all they cared! But I guess I was brilliant too, just like the first respondent. As far as the training goes, it last about an hour. It was mostly about limiting their liability, less about helping the people they were hired to care for.

Although I like my job I'm not crazy about the agency itself and am just about to quit. For example, whenever they send me out on an assignment they tell me as little as possible about the client. Just recently I accepted an assignment where they told me the person lived in a questionable area, so naturally I drove out there to check it out. However, it turned out the area wasn't all that bad, but what she neglected to tell me was the client had 2 pitbulls....that is until after I accepted the job. I'm not a dog lover to begin with & I especially don't like those kind of dogs. It didn't help either that I later learned the client had a big scar on her leg because one of the dogs scratched her. Not only that but I walked into an extremely stressful family situation where the client's family along with the client were arguing back and forth on a daily basis about her care and exercise routine. The agency has a tendency to leave out some of the little details.

Another problem I have with them is their tendency to call me at the last minute or not have extra staff to fill-in when I need a day off. Even the people they do have for the fill-ins I find questionable. It's like they don't have any standards when it comes to hiring people, they're just warm bodies to fill a slot.

Personally I think the people that run these agency's are irresponsible and not fit to handle all the needs of the elderly. It's about making as much money as possible off the clients and paying the caregivers as little as possible.

In Response to the rebuttal:
"Relative to cost of services, please also keep in mind private pay clients go to people like Home Instead Senior Care because they bear the burden of cost when it comes to hiring, bonding and insuring the caregivers. Out of the $22 or so dollars your agency charged, the majority of it goes to employee wage."

This is an out and out lie, it doesn't cost anything to advertise on Craig's List, I'm not bonded and am not insured by Home Instead. As far as charging $22 an hour and saying the majority goes to the employee wage that's completely false. The majority of us don't even make half that. I don't know where this person gets off making that claim! I suspect she works as a manager or owner of one of the offices.

Please think twice about using Home Instead.

I am sorry to hear you had such an unfortunate experience at your office.

***Please keep in mind every office is independantly owned and operated, therefore, not all locations operate like yours did/do.***

I suggest you take your complaint to the BBB to see if you can resolve the dispute(s) peacefully and professionally. As for the agencies in our area, I can honestly say every reference is checked, all backgrounds are done annually and everyone is paid the stated amount for services provided.

Relative to cost of services, please also keep in mind private pay clients go to people like Home Instead Senior Care because they bear the burden of cost when it comes to hiring, bonding and insuring the caregivers. Out of the $22 or so dollars your agency charged, the majority of it goes to employee wage, then the insurance, bonding, rent, office employee wages, taxes, taxes and more taxes, admin fees, and other costs of doing business (there are many). After everyone else gets their cut, the owner then gets what's left over. Please don't be misled.

Good luck to you on your next endeavour. :)