Calling All Angels
Many of us dream of finding our true calling and pursuing a career we are passionate about. Oftentimes, a key reason these “dream” paths are so special is that they allow us to make a difference in the world and do something bigger than ourselves. For this month’s Client Spotlight, we sat down with one of these difference-makers: Lindsey Rehfeld, Founder and Executive Director of Visiting Angels Glendora.
Home is Where the Heart Is
As a third generation of Pomona Valley, Rehfeld has lived in the region her entire life. She grew up here, attended college, and even received her MBA from Claremont Graduate University (CGU). As her grandparents moved to Claremont in the 40s, Rehfeld understands the deep and beautiful history of the area. She explains how, since Glendora was built in the 50s and her organization aids seniors,
The generation we serve are the people who built these communities, and we feel very honored and challenged to make sure they are honored in the way that they should be.
Sixteen years after its start in 2002, Visiting Angels Glendora is now one of San Gabriel Valley’s premier non-medical home care agencies and has served over a thousand seniors in the community. Her brainchild from an MBA project on innovation and demographics, Rehfeld had identified an unmet need in the community to provide care for seniors wanting to remain in their own homes. It was time for a change, and with her strong business acumen and over 15-year long career in Sales and Marketing, she knew that she was ready to start her own business.
Overcoming the initial challenge of entering an industry saturated with owners who had nursing or professional healthcare experience, Rehfeld soon found her business background to be one of her greatest strengths as a Visiting Angels franchise owner. She was able to look at things from a different perspective and problem solve to quickly achieve massive growth and become an in-home care industry leader.
In addition to requiring monitoring and support, another key need of Visiting Angels clients is simply friendship in what can easily become a very lonely time in a person’s life. The Visiting Angels not only provide in-home care, but the promise of joyful companionship in each home they touch. Rehfeld says,
I feel a profound responsibility to the seniors and the communities we serve. Our focus is set upon hiring the best caregivers available and managing our company with excellence, so we can achieve the best possible quality of life for our clients.
Change from Within
One of the greatest challenges facing Rehfeld and her business right now is the shortage of caregivers nation-wide. Though there isn’t a whole lot she can do to increase the supply of caregivers in America, there is quite a lot that she can do (and is doing!) to make Visiting Angels Glendora an even more attractive workplace for her applicants.
To bump up their recruiting efforts, Visiting Angels Glendora upgraded their system to offer their workers a great caregiver portal. As a result of moving to SDPConnect, employees can now access their handbooks, documentation, paperless onboarding, and important messages all in one place.
Paperless onboarding in particular has been a huge asset to the team this past year. With a finite amount of time available for employee training, the service has allowed Rehfeld’s team to maximize their face-to-face time with applicants and new hires. Instead of making copies and filling out forms, they can now focus exclusively on training and answering important questions during these hours.
These developments in conjunction with strategic recruiting tactics and several large retention initiatives have been game changing for the business. With their initiatives including improving training, elevating hiring standards, revisiting HR protocols, and simply being more intentional about showing employees love, the Glendora office has been able to reduce turnover to 37% last year (with an industry average of 67%!), with even lower numbers forecasted for 2018.
Stronger Together
One comment Rehfeld made that really hit home was how valuable it was to her to have a genuine partnership with us. In today’s world where so many interactions have become automated and purely transactional, we are proud to uphold our promise to partner with and support our clients.
As such, Southland Data Processing and Visiting Angels Glendora would like to invite you to attend their fundraising mixer next week! Hosted by their Upland office, the UV Awareness Mixer will be fun, educational, and proceeds will benefit The Robert & Beverly Lewis Family Cancer Care Center. Just as we seek to support our clients, we hope you will join us in supporting our community as a whole!
Register here!
SDP Client Spotlights: Celebrating Our Clients
Every month, we highlight one of our amazing clients with the SDP Client Spotlight. Here at Southland Data Processing, we’re in the people business, and strive to always put our clients first. If you or your organization is interested in becoming our next Client Spotlight, please contact us at [email protected] and we’d love to hear your story! Want to hear more of our client stories? Head over to our Newsletter Archive for all of our Client Spotlights!
Photos by Visiting Angels Glendora