Arosa+LivHOME caregivers were given a day of care as they were pampered with manicures, pedicures, massages and more at Universal College of Beauty’s new Inglewood location last month.
Arosa acquired LivHOME eight months ago and with Arosa came the CEO Ari Medoff, who has worked in the caregiver industry for nearly seven years. Throughout out his career, he has seen how caregivers are overlooked and underappreciated. With Arosa, a company he started in North Carolina in 2012, his mission from the beginning was to attract, train, retain, and treasure his caregivers and he is bringing that same energy to Los Angeles with Arosa+LivHOME.
(Photo Credit: Courtesy of Arosa+LivHOME)
“The CEO came to me about three months ago and told me that he had been talking with some of the caregivers and found out that even though we have the word home in our name, a lot of the caregivers don’t feel like this is home,” said Gabriel Newman, the Community Relations Specialist at Arosa+LivHOME. “He told me, ‘Gabriel, I want you to do something special to bring them together.’”
For their first activity, Newman set up a wine and cheese roundtable event for caregivers to mingle and talk about their experiences. There, he was able to get a sense of the emotional strain that comes with being a caregiver. While brainstorming, Newman came up with the idea to have a pampering day. He called the Universal Beauty College in Leimert Park and was connected with Kenneth Williams, who has had the beauty college in his family for the past 90 years, starting with his grandmother in 1929 and carried on with his father in 1966. The beauty college has done many community events, but this one was special to Williams as his father recently passed away and his caregiver was very close to the family. He also saw this as a way to give his students at his new second location in Inglewood some experience.
(Photo Credit: Courtesy of Arosa+LivHOME)
“The best training is interaction because this is a people business. The more communication the better I like it. The students got to meet people they didn’t know. They gave good service to people and they shared an interaction,” said Williams. “And the looks and smiles on the caregivers’ faces were just amazing. For us to sponsor an event that made people feel better than when they came in made me very proud.”
The caregivers were treated to champagne, manicures, pedicures, massages, and makeovers. There were also sections for the caregivers to do yoga with instructor Jessica Barrington, and learn how to cook healthy from dietician chef, Chef Pablo. What stood out for many of the caregivers, however, was guest speaker Garrett M. Wood who spoke on Burnout to Breakthrough. In the caregiver industry, there is a high burnout rate. More than half of caregivers end up quitting and companies are constantly hiring and training new caregivers. Arosa+LivHOME’s goal is to put money into helping their caregivers to feel appreciated and loved rather than spending so much on training new caregivers every year.
(Photo Credit: Courtesy of Arosa+LivHOME)
A few ways that CEO Ari Medoff does this is by personally calling and emailing caregivers on different holidays, giving good benefits that allow caregivers to take the time that they need for mental health, and even sending surprise limos to bring caregivers to work. In the past few months, he has increased the budget for two appreciation events a month and a pampering day every three months. Since coming under the new management, the caregivers at Arosa+LivHOME have been enjoying bowling and karaoke nights together. This month, they are also set to have a beach barbecue and a larger cooking event with Chef Pablo who had a small station at the pampering day.
“I’ve been with LivHOME for about six years and it has been a big change since the takeover. I feel much more appreciated and I see that they do put their employees first with the new activities that they’re having,” said Sheila Patterson. “At these events, everyone shares different things that they do to help them get through hard days, so we get to have a support system with each other and it brings up the moral just knowing that we’re working for a company that is very thoughtful of us.”
(Photo Credit: Courtesy of Arosa+LivHOME)
Arosa+LivHOME has started their appreciation events here in Los Angeles, but plan to have them in all 16 of their offices throughout California, North Carolina, Illinois, and Texas. For more information on Arosa+LivHOME, visitwww.livhome.comand to plan an event with the Universal College of Beauty, visit www.universalcollegeofbeauty.com.
