Healthcare staffing needs continue to grow at a rapid pace. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the home healthcare services industry is projected to add about 711,700 per year on average over the course of a decade. Home health and personal care aides employment is projected to grow 25% from 2021 to 2031 — a faster growth rate on average than is projected for all other occupations.
Your home healthcare agency is likely already feeling the need to fill roles left vacant after workers have moved to different occupations or have retired from your workforce. A short staffed agency means the less patients you can assist — and that means bad news for your bottom line.
Your home healthcare agency is competing fiercely to fill your open roles, so it’s a good time to double check your home health aide job description to ensure you’re capturing the attention of the best talent. Below, you’ll have the guidelines you need to build a home health aide job description that entices candidates to join your team during a time where you need them more than ever.
The intangibles in your home health aide job description
A home health aide (HHA) should be someone who not only has compassion for patients, but also performs their duties with confidence and precision. You should look for someone with soft skills, or personality and career attributes, that match your company culture and the individual expectations of the role along with the prerequisites, like training and certification, required by your state. Here are a few critical attributes to look for in candidates that can be hard to capture in your home health aide job description:
- Compassion – It’s especially necessary for your HHAs to have a compassionate and respectful demeanor. Trusting someone to care for a loved one is oftentimes difficult, so a compassionate home health aide will put clients and their families at ease.
- Organization – Keeping track of medications, collecting information about client conditions, and creating treatment plans for caregivers and family members are all responsibilities of a home health aide. Remaining organized will help your home health aide with the various duties of their job.
- Confidence – Another great way to build trust among clients is to demonstrate confidence in the tasks that are being done. Even if you hire a home health aide without any prior experience in the particular role, they should be able to have confidence in their ability to do their job — especially if you offer on-the-job training.
- Communication – Home health aides will be communicating with your other staff members as well as patient family members and doctors or nurses. It’s vital that your new hire can communicate effectively with various types of people and in high-stress situations.
Download your free copy of The Great Reassessment to learn how your home healthcare agency can give applicants what they really want.
An outline of a home health aide job description
Here’s an example home health aide job description that can guide you in creating your own job posting. To attract the best talent, each of your job postings should include a summary of your company and culture, career growth opportunities, and an acknowledgement of some of the benefits of working for your agency. And to ensure your job postings are seen by as many eligible applicants as possible, make sure you follow SEO best practices when posting each job description.
Sample Home Health Aide Job Description
Job: Home Health Aide (HHA)
Company: Happy Home Healthcare Agency
Benefits:
- Base + bonus compensation
- 401K, medical and dental insurance, paid time off, etc.
- Company issued supplies and scrubs
- Ability to set own schedule
- Any other benefits that your agency may offer to employees
Responsibilities:
- Assist clients with basic personal care, including bathing, dressing, and grooming
- Check and record patient vital signs
- Administer prescription medication
- Replace sterile bandages and dressings
- Perform light housekeeping duties
- Describe all optional equipment available for customer purchase
- Accompany client to doctor’s visits or other appointments/errands
- Assist client in getting into and out of bed, transferring to and from a wheelchair or walker
- Maintain accurate records of home visits, including travel time and time with patient, as well as services performed
Requirements:
- High school diploma
- Excellent communication and organizational skills
- Previous experience as a home health aide preferred but not required
- Access to reliable transportation
- Current CPR (American Heart Association) certification
- Ability to monitor vital signs
- Must be respectful and compassionate with a good bedside manner
- Familiarity with basic nutrition and personal hygiene standards
Best practices for your home health aide job description
When it comes to posting your open roles — including your home health aide job descriptions — there are a few best practices to remember. We’ve compiled them here for you to make sure your open roles get seen by as many applicants as possible:
- Be brief in describing responsibilities and requirements. Job descriptions between 400 and 800 words will get you the most applicants.
- Link every job posting back to your career site for a more detailed description of your company, culture, and benefits.
- Always use inclusive language and eliminate bias in your descriptions. For example, don’t say “he” or “she” when describing tasks.
- Include an equal opportunity statement to improve search results.
- Don’t go overboard on requirements — instead, add a line that states that additional duties may be assigned.
- Know which job boards are reaching top talent so you can improve your ROI and pool of qualified applicants by targeting where you post your job openings
Hiring doesn’t have to be this hard. See how easy attracting talent can be with Hireology today!
Ready to hire your next home health aide?
Creating a compelling home health aide job description to attract the best and brightest is a great first step to help your hiring process run smoothly. For more tips on the most popular home healthcare job descriptions, check out our eBook here.
