Caregiver Onboarding Funnel Cost Worksheet

This worksheet works out what an agency's onboarding funnel costs per caregiver who reaches a first shift. It takes three inputs: candidates who began onboarding, recruiting cost per candidate, and the share who finished. Every figure here concerns candidates who never reached a first shift. The numbers in the examples are illustrative; the arithmetic is what transfers.

What counts as recruiting cost per candidate

The per-candidate figure is the agency's own. What it includes:

Job board and sponsored listing spend, divided by candidates who began onboarding
Coordinator or recruiter hours spent sourcing, screening, and interviewing
Referral bonuses, where paid at hire rather than at a tenure milestone
Paid screening items already ordered when the candidate stopped: background check, drug screen, physical, fingerprinting

The last item varies with where in the sequence a candidate stops. One who goes quiet before submitting documents costs almost nothing. One who stops after screening is ordered costs the full package.

The arithmetic

Step 1. Total recruiting spend. Candidates who began onboarding × recruiting cost per candidate.

Step 2. Caregivers who reached a first shift. Candidates who began onboarding × completion rate.

Step 3. Effective cost per working caregiver. Total recruiting spend ÷ caregivers who reached a first shift.

Step 3 is the figure the first two exist to produce. It depends on cost per candidate and completion rate alone, so it does not improve with volume. Volume decides only how many dollars sit in the gap between steps 1 and 2.

Three worked examples

All three use an illustrative $400 per candidate.

Ten candidates a month, 40% completion. Spend $4,000. Four caregivers reach a first shift. Effective cost per working caregiver $1,000. Spend on candidates who never reached a shift: $2,400 a month, $28,800 a year.

Thirty candidates a month, 40% completion. Spend $12,000. Twelve reach a first shift. Effective cost per working caregiver $1,000, unchanged from the smaller agency. The gap widens to $7,200 a month, $86,400 a year.

Thirty candidates a month, 80% completion. Spend $12,000, unchanged from the scenario above. Twenty-four reach a first shift. Effective cost per working caregiver $500. The gap narrows to $2,400 a month.

The third scenario spends the same money as the second and puts twice as many caregivers on the floor.

The worksheet

Candidates who began onboarding (month or quarter): ______

Recruiting cost per candidate: $______

Step 1. Total recruiting spend: ______ × $______ = $______

Onboarding completion rate: ______%

Step 2. Caregivers who reached a first shift: ______ × ______% = ______

Step 3. Effective cost per working caregiver: $______ ÷ ______ = $______

Spend on candidates who never reached a shift: $______ × (100% − ______%) = $______

What the gap represents

Every dollar in that gap went to a caregiver the agency wanted and did not get. Fewer than half the caregivers an agency wants to hire complete onboarding and reach a first shift, which puts most agencies nearer the second scenario than the third. The spend is already committed. The completion rate decides what it buys.

Homecare Pro moves the completion rate rather than the spend. Caregivers receive tasks by SMS through links that need no app and no account, reminders continue daily until each item is done, and the follow-up that stalls candidates comes off the office's hands. Agencies see onboarding completion roughly double, which is the distance between the second scenario and the third.

Running the worksheet at a doubled completion rate produces the annual figure. Seeing how completion gets there is the next step.

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