When Allen Hager launched Right at Home in 1995, his ambition was to fill a caregiving void in his own Omaha, Nebraska, community. Five years later, he began replicating his home care mission in other communities. Today, more than 700 Right at Home franchises are using the model that Allen introduced 31 years ago in territories across the U.S.
So how did Right at Home achieve such incredible growth over the last three decades? And what are we doing to make sure we continue growing without sacrificing the quality of care that makes us different? To find out, VP of Franchise Development Jen Chaney caught up with Chief Growth and Strategic Operations Officer Brady Schwab on a recent Tuesday Talk.
So what exactly does a Growth and Strategic Operations Officer do? Well, as the name implies, and as Brady confirms, there are two basic sides to his job: strategic growth and operational planning.
Connecting Strategic Growth and Operational Planning
It’s Brady’s job to make sure Right at Home is always looking for new ways to move forward while mapping clear paths to get there. He describes the “strategic growth” portion of his role as “thinking about how we grow the organization from an inorganic perspective. So that means discovering new business lines, new service opportunities, and new sorts of referral relationships.”
On the operational planning side, it’s also Brady’s job to determine how to act on these discoveries – how to open up new business lines, how to seize those service opportunities, how to nurture those relationships. In short, Brady works every day with franchisees and with the home office to make sure growth objectives and planning measures remain aligned.
As he says, “It’s my pleasure to help make sure that we connect all of those things and execute as a team in service of our franchisees and the clients that they ultimately serve.”
Whether he’s focused on growth or planning, Brady tells us, “I have the best job in the company. I love what I get to do at Right at Home, and I love what we ultimately do as part of our mission.”
Moving Forward While Staying Centered On the Mission
So what is it that makes the Right at Home mission so special? Brady highlights the amazing balance we’ve achieved between ongoing growth and innovation on one hand, and an unwavering commitment to our core values on the other.
“We have a wonderful combination of brand reputation and support model for our franchisees,” says Brady. “We have our national partnerships and well-established relationships, and we have an innovation roadmap.”
But even as we grow and innovate, personal relationships remain at the center of everything we do. As Brady explains, “our culture here in Omaha and the selection process in our franchise system really keeps it very personal.”
This remains unchanged even as the Right at Home network continues to grow, and even as we back this growth with exciting new technology. Brady acknowledges that “we can invest in technologies that a smaller organization simply can’t. But at the end of the day, the focus for the 110 people that work in this building is really supporting that individual office and building a sustainable and profitable business.”
Staying Ahead of the Care Curve
This culture of personalized support informs everything we do, including the steps we take to grow, innovate, and meet the changing expectations of those we serve. As technology advances, rules change, and caregiving practices evolve, we owe it to our franchisees and their communities to stay ahead of the curve.
This is why a big part of Brady’s job is to ensure that we are proactive in the face of changing demographics and market expectations. As Brady notes on a personal level, “my parents are in their late 70s. Our average client is five or six years older than my parents, who have expectations that are very different from the expectations of the clients we serve today.”
“So how do we get in front of that?” asks Brady. “How can we be prepared for that? That’s something that we’ve baked organizationally into what we do.”
Brady explains that “these principles extend to the technology – how we continue to evolve as the regulatory environment changes; how we recruit caregivers as the labor force changes; how effectively we embrace the move into digital marketing, social media, and now AI; how we align our care models with expectations on the clinical and payer sides.”
Navigating a Complex Payer Landscape
Speaking of changing expectations on the payer side, Brady acknowledges that this is one of the more complicated parts of running your own franchise. As Brady explains, the payer mix is a patchwork of different revenue sources. Not only that, but reimbursement rates are always changing.
“As a business owner and a home care operator, you need to be really mindful of how payer rates, VA rates, and Medicaid rates can change annually,” says Brady. “We love VAs. We love serving our seniors. We love the Medicaid mission as well. But as CEO Margaret Haynes likes to point out, ‘If there’s no margin, there’s no mission.’ If you can’t sustain your business, you won’t be there tomorrow to help your clients.”
This means that we have to work together – the corporate home office and individual franchisees – to stay current on changing rates in our payer mix.
“We have to serve our vets,” says Brady. “But we recognize that ultimately, these rate changes are out of our hands. You can wake up on January 1 and have a whole new pressure on your business if you haven’t planned for it. But business ownership is nothing if not planning for the things that you never expected to happen.”
Planning With the Help of Emergent Tech
Indeed, planning is at the heart of what Brady does. But he also points out that technology can help a lot these days. As he notes, AI-powered technology is getting more accessible and easier to implement all the time. We have the ability to build out new AI tools with incredible speed. This presents some exciting possibilities for improved operational efficiency and data-driven planning.
But it’s also important to approach this new technology with care and caution. Brady notes that we deal with a lot of sensitive information in our business. He explains that “We have personal health information. We have HIPAA-protected information. We have information that carries real risk and penalties if we’re not thoughtful.”
“That’s why,” says Brady, “we have a team that’s really focused on starting with technology that’s secure and safe to use.”
Building Out Our Most Valuable Commodity – Relationships
Even as we look for ways to incorporate emergent technology into our business models, our growth as a company is still rooted in the work of caring human beings. As Brady notes, “So much of the investment and expense from a business owner is in the direct caregiver. And that’s where it should be.”
That’s why, when it comes to choosing the right technology, there are a few key questions we ask ourselves first.
“How do we get really efficient in our back office functions?” asks Brady. “How do we get more efficient around marketing? How do we use technology to make people’s day-to-day jobs better and easier? How can we make them more productive so they can focus more on the relationship business?”
Ultimately, these are the big questions that we’re asking as we embrace certain innovations while approaching others with caution. As Brady resolves, “We want more human connection as we get older. That’s certainly been my experience working with seniors. I don’t think AI is going to be a big disruptor in that area. But the efficiency gains that we can have in those other areas are real.”
Joining a Growing Home Care Network
Ultimately, these efficiency gains all point toward the same goal – growing together, both as individual franchisees and as a national network of home care providers. And that’s a major part of what we do as corporate. We ensure that franchisees have everything they need to seize this growth.
“We are here to walk through the process every step of the way with you,” says Brady. “Your job is to be really curious and ask lots of questions. Talk to other franchisees. Determine if this is the right fit for your goals and values because we would love the opportunity to welcome you to Right at Home.”
Learn more about franchise opportunities with Right at Home: https://rightathomefranchise.com/.