In the rapidly evolving and high-demand landscape of home health care, service providers face pressure to scale their operations while maintaining care quality and consistency. However, the nature of homecare services heavily relies on personal relationships, care coordination and delivery, all of which are hyper-local. So, how can leaders ensure financial performance, quality and consistency on a national or global scale?
For BAYADA, the answer lies in a systematic, values-based approach, with culture as the foundation.
While culture often receives less attention in business discussions, it is authentically at the heart of what works for us. Scaling with values fosters sustainable growth while preserving our core identity, care quality and high standards for how we do business.
Building a Culture That Speaks Louder Than Words
A carefully constructed culture platform begins by clarifying and codifying who you are and what you stand for. It’s surprising how few companies take the time to do this. Some do a decent job of identifying values and displaying them on a conference room wall, while others go a step further, using storytelling to bring those values to life. But what’s truly necessary is to get clear on the expected behaviors that align with those values on a day-to-day basis.
Then, the harder question becomes: how do you consistently infuse those values and expectations so that they permeate all areas of the organization? I’ll share what works for us, but we didn’t invent it. There are straightforward models and methodologies available from authors such as Ken Blanchard and Michael O’Connor, authors of “Managing By Values,” and David Friedman, author of “Culture By Design.”
BAYADA’s approach is centered around three core values: compassion, excellence and reliability. Each value leads to one key result. For example, “Our clients and their families feel cared for and supported.” From there, we outline five key actions that define specific behaviors to achieve that result. One example of a key action is: “Listen closely, show empathy and respond to the needs of others.”
This provides clear guidance on “what good looks like” in practice for employees at all levels, across teams and in different locations. It’s important to note that the same behaviors are expected at work, in the community and when interacting with clients, their families, payers and partners.
I’ve been around BAYADA since my father founded the company 50 years ago, and I’ve worked here since 2002. Our culture began simply as the way he chose to do business, spreading through mottos, folklore and personal example. The BAYADA Way was only codified 20 years ago, and since then, a much more systematic approach and purposeful investment have played a crucial role in maintaining consistency during our national and international expansion.
When I became CEO in 2017, I felt strongly that our culture platform should remain a strategic priority to help drive organizational change at scale. The challenge lies in balancing the performance and growth we seek with the warmth and personal touch that gives us a competitive advantage.
Hiring With Heart & Building a Culture That Lasts
Hiring can be a critical challenge when scaling a culture. If you bring people into the organization who either don’t connect with the values or don’t agree with the desired behaviors, you’ve introduced a virus into the ecosystem. This makes it essential to be explicit about cultural expectations during the hiring process.
For us, cultural engagement has been built and nurtured as an ecosystem of training, rituals, traditions and recognition. Each of these domains needs to be thoughtfully curated.
- Training: In a service business like ours, much of the training is experiential, often following an apprenticeship model. In a classroom setting, it’s difficult to teach things like how we engage clients, how we deal with adversity or how we set goals and measure performance. The best, most internalized learning happens when you observe, receive feedback and are coached on the job.
- Ritual: The “Key Action of the Week” is a central BAYADA ritual—15 minutes dedicated to small-team discussions about how one specific behavior is applied in daily work. There are many more, such as companywide monthly “Conversations on DEIB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging)” webinars. Even our regular business processes become ritualistic, such as daily stand-ups and weekly reviews. All these rituals are designed to reinforce who we are, what we stand for and what good looks like.
- Tradition: Traditions are based on company values—events like Awards Weekend, observances like Nurses Week, holiday gifts and even the consistent way “The BAYADA Way” is quoted around the perimeter of our office spaces. Your people come to expect and take comfort in these traditions, creating a rhythm of emotional reflection on who we are and what we believe.
- Recognition: BAYADA has become publicly known for our Hero (field) and Excellence (support) Award programs. Heroes are nominated and awarded on a monthly, quarterly and yearly basis, with their stories putting a face on what good looks like. An internal program, “Top Dove,” is essential to scaling with purpose and performance. On a quarterly and annual basis, it awards service office teams for their five-pillar performance, with metrics directly tied to values-based goals.
It's important to note a subtle but consequential distinction. While these rituals, traditions and recognitions often mention specific outcomes, their primary purpose is not to highlight the results themselves. Instead, they are designed to recognize and celebrate the values-aligned behaviors behind those outcomes.
Lessons From Shared Traditions That Drive Success
I find it inspirational to consider familiar examples of resilient organizations and customs that use values-based rituals and traditions, and what makes them work so effectively over long periods of time.
Scouting programs are decentralized worldwide, with each troop having its own leader and activities. Yet every member can recite their credo and share a set of core rituals and values that guide their actions.
Walk into the locker room of a Big Ten college football program, and you’ll see values ingrained in every corner. Listen to the coach speak at halftime or after a game, and you’ll hear a clear emphasis on the behaviors that drive success.
And then there’s Thanksgiving, a holiday rooted in the value of gratitude. While the essence of the holiday is universally celebrated, each gathering is unique, with different meals and traditions that reflect the values of the individuals involved. This mirrors the way an organization scales. While we can set the framework and provide guidance, we must trust our teams to adapt and shape their approach to meet the specific needs of their communities.
Scaling With Purpose & Heart
In the end, scaling with values is about staying true to who we are, no matter how far we grow. At BAYADA, our culture of compassion, excellence and reliability shapes every decision, every action and every relationship. As we expand, we remain rooted in these core values, knowing they are the foundation of our success. By nurturing our culture, we not only scale our business, but we also elevate the care we provide and the communities we serve.