The Relatedness Gap

Why your care professionals are not recommending you and what to do about it

Last week, I wrote about the day I became the bottleneck at Home Care Pulse. About how staying in everyone's lane, under the guise of leadership, was actually the biggest threat to our culture.

Giving your team autonomy was the first unlock.

But autonomy alone isn't enough.

Because here's what I've learned: people don't stay in places where they feel alone, even if they have the freedom to do their work.

The Number That Should Stop You in Your Tracks

According to the Home Care Benchmarking Study by Activated Insights (formerly Home Care Pulse), one of the highest correlated factors driving low caregiver recommendation scores isn't pay. It's not scheduling. It's not even benefits.

It's how connected care professionals feel to their direct supervisor.

When a caregiver doesn't feel seen, known, or genuinely connected to the person they report to -- they don't recommend working for you. And when they stop recommending you, your pipeline dries up, your turnover compounds, and your agency's reputation quietly erodes.

This is what I call The Relatedness Gap. And most home care agencies have one.

The R in ARCC

If you've been following along, you know the ARCC of Retention: Autonomy, Relatedness, Capability, and Confidence, is rooted in Self-Determination Theory and designed to help home care founders build cultures where great people actually stay.

Two weeks ago, we focused on Autonomy: giving your team the room to own their work.

But autonomy without Relatedness is just isolation.

People need to feel connected, to their supervisor, to their team, and to the people they care for.

Relatedness is the psychological need to belong. To matter. To know that someone who leads them genuinely cares about them as a human being, not just as a caregiver on a schedule.

When Relatedness is missing, no benefit, bonus, or flexible schedule fills the gap.

 

What PERMA(V) Tells Us About Connection

Martin Seligman's PERMA model, the backbone of Positive Psychology, identifies five pillars of human flourishing: Positive Emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment.

Notice the R.  Relationships are a core condition for a thriving team.

Here's what each pillar looks like inside your agency:

Positive Emotion: Supervisors who lead with warmth and genuine interest create caregivers who feel better about coming to work. Small moments of encouragement matter more than most leaders realize.

Engagement: Caregivers who feel connected to their supervisors are more engaged with their clients. Relational energy transfers directly to the quality of care being delivered.

Relationships: The direct supervisor relationship is the single most influential one a caregiver has inside your agency. Not HR. Not the owner. Their direct supervisor.

Meaning: Connection deepens meaning. When a caregiver feels known, not just scheduled, their work becomes more than a job.

Accomplishment: Teams that feel connected hold each other accountable in healthy ways. They celebrate wins together. Shared success becomes possible.

And then there's the V.

Vitality: added to PERMA by researchers studying what sustains high performance over time,  refers to physical and emotional energy. Relatedness fuels it. When people feel connected, they show up with more of themselves. Disconnection, on the other hand, is exhausting. A caregiver who feels invisible doesn't just underperform…They burn out, quietly, before you ever see it coming.

The EntreConnections Principle

In EntreThrive, I dedicated an entire chapter to what I call the Law of EntreConnections:

"The strength of your relationships often mirror the success of your business."

One of the most powerful ideas in that chapter is the concept of High Quality Connections (HQCs), coined by Dr. Jane Dutton. An HQC doesn't require a deep friendship or a long conversation. It just requires respectful engagement: genuine presence, active listening, and a sincere interest in the other person.

Your supervisors don't need to be best friends with their care professionals.

They just need to show up like people who genuinely care about them.

That kind of connection, even in a brief check-in call, even in a short conversation at the start or ending of a shift, creates the sense of belonging that narrows The Relatedness Gap faster than any policy or perk ever will. 

Relatedness isn't a feeling you manufacture. It's a culture you design, through how supervisors are trained, how check-ins are structured, and how connection is made a daily priority. 

Quick note about self-awareness and relatedness. To relate with our care professionals and office teams, we must be self-aware of any ill feelings, preconceived notions, and even prejudices that may thwart our efforts to relate. People will know quickly if you and your leadership team are being authentic or not.  

The data is clear. Care professionals who feel connected recommend you. Those who don't leave quietly and say nothing on the way out.

The Relatedness Gap isn't a caregiver problem. It's a leadership problem.

And the good news? It's one you can close.

As always, reach out for questions and if you’re located in the states of AZ, UT, CO, ID, WY, NM, SD, or ND and are thinking about a future exit, we would love to chat. Visit https://rivhc.com/conversation-with-aaron/ to learn more. 

• Aaron