Abstract:
Set in December 2025, this case asks students to advise Masoomeh Khandan, founder and CEO of X3P Home Care, on reducing employee turnover. Khandan established X3P to provide high-quality jobs for immigrants, unpaid caregivers, and other marginalized groups; improve home care delivery; and expand the trained workforce to meet rising demand. Her approach combined higher-than-market wages with training and support. Within six months of onboarding X3P’s first employees, 27 percent had quit -- an attrition rate far lower than industry competitors, but still higher than Khandan wanted. Khandan sought funding from her board to develop a certified home health aide training program, which she believed would improve retention by offering workers greater professional opportunities and higher earning potential. Most of her board members supported the proposal, but some suggested immediate raises would be a more effective retention strategy. Khandan is faced with a choice: more training, higher wages, or a combination approach. The case explores US home care workforce demographics, working conditions, and trends driving demand. The physical and emotional demands of the work raise a central question: what is the best way to meaningfully improve retention for the home care work force?
Learning Objectives:
- To analyze sectoral, governmental, technological, and organizational strategies for promoting good jobs in service sectors.
- To identify the objective and subjective factors that make up “good jobs” and “bad jobs” and highlight how bad jobs harm productivity.
- To evaluate potential solutions for the systemic challenges within the US care work industry and weigh their relative tradeoffs in a resource-constrained environment.
