Join our host Joel, as he chats with Ari Medoff, CEO of Arosa, about his passion for creating a flat org structure, working on the frontlines, and making a lasting impact on frontline employees. In this episode, learn about Arosa’s top-notch in-home senior care services, care management offerings, and commitment to attracting and retaining the best care professionals as a social enterprise. Listen in for valuable insights on leadership, employee engagement, and more.
What is Arosa and who are you?
Arosa is a national provider of in-home senior care and care management services, with almost 30 offices across 8 states. Our team of expert social workers, nurses, and occupational therapists act as guides and navigators for families and clients as they go through the aging journey. As a social enterprise, our mission is to attract, train, retain, and treasure the best care professionals. Being a great employer is ever more important and publicized these days, and we have made it our top priority since 2012.
“Attract, Retain, Train, and Treasure.” “Treasure” is a very specific word choice, share a little more about that.
Treasuring our care professionals and everyone in the company is vital to us. We operate in a distributed, almost gig-like workforce, so we have to be creative about how we show gratitude and make everyone feel part of something bigger than themselves. To us, treasuring means showing gratitude and saying thank you wherever we can, and recognizing good work. We celebrate unique holidays like Mother’s Day and worldwide gratitude day to show appreciation. Our goal is to scale this culture of gratitude and make it a mutual commitment, starting with our management team writing thank-you notes every single week.
How does this impact your turnover at a macro level?
We’re about 20% better than the industry average in terms of turnover. Our industry has a high turnover rate due to factors such as low pay and benefits, loose ties, and the nature of demand for our services. Our clients eventually pass away or move into a senior living community, and turnover is inevitable. However, our focus on treasuring our care professionals and creating a culture of gratitude has helped us retain employees and build a stronger team.
How many steps removed are you from your frontline workers?
It depends on the day. As a CNA myself, sometimes I’m providing direct care myself, but most days I’m speaking directly with our caregiver teammates. We have a strong relationship with our frontline workers and value their input and feedback.
“Giving back is the rent we pay for being on this earth and you feel like doing the little things that make a big difference in the lives of others, and feeling like what you’re doing is meaningful.” Say more about that.
This quote was instilled in me by my grandpa Jean at a young age. He believed that building community and helping others were the most important things in life, and that doing so gave meaning to our existence. At Arosa, we believe in giving back to our clients and our care professionals, and doing the little things that make a big difference in their lives. We strive to make a positive impact on the world and leave it a better place than we found it.
What’s something that you believe that if everyone else in the world believed too, would make the world a better place?
There’s absolutely no substitute for showing up. This is embedded in one of our three core values, walk a mile to build relationships, in a world today where it’s easier to do a zoom call than meet for a coffee, where there are a lot of software systems that will send an automated thank you message, there’s no substitute for building those in-person relationships.
