Hopebridge, one of the nation’s largest pediatric autism therapy providers, said it has solved a key issue many of its peers continue to battle: hiring and retaining staff.

Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs) and Registered Behavior Technicians (RBTs) are notoriously hard to retain for autism provider organizations. Low pay and challenging work environments are not always what individuals in these entry-level roles expect.

With more than 120 locations across 12 states, Hopebridge is consistently facing an uphill climb to attract and compete in the hiring market. But after two years into its partnership with Talentcare, a recruitment and talent acquisition platform, a data-infused strategy has helped Hopebridge meet and exceed its hiring goals.

Turnover rates among autism therapy providers in 2024 averaged 77.4% for small-scale providers and 103.3% for large enterprise organizations. This is happening in parallel with a shift among applied behavioral analysis (ABA) providers toward more in-clinic services. At the same time, there continues to be a collective shortage of professionals in the space.

To do this work, remain in the field and climb the ladder, someone has to love what they do – particularly when competing for entry-level jobs against companies like Walmart or in the food industry.

Hopebridge executives knew their job applications needed to be seamless and easy for candidates to navigate, while also being simple for providers to review and assess a candidate’s strengths. 

Reworking that process was only part of the work Hopebridge embarked on with Talentcare.

“Our goal was to take the friction out of the process – fewer touches, less repetitiveness, and faster access to strong candidates,” Erika Duncan, chief human resources officer, Hopebridge, told Behavioral Health Business. “Technology helps us fill the funnel, so our people can focus on what matters most: the candidate experience. That shift means we’re not chasing numbers, but building meaningful connections that lead to better hires.”

BCBAs and RBTs are uniquely positioned to join an organization and climb the ladder if the work calls to them. But how an organization positions itself as a place worth doing that work goes a long way, Lorraine Riche, chief client officer and chief operating officer at Talentcare, explained.

“If companies are talking about the acquisition of human capital in a way that becomes one of the most important operational imperatives: let’s find the right people, and let’s keep the right people – they’re doing it right,” Riche told BHB. “If they see this as ‘Today, we hired 10 people,’ [that is] sort of nameless. It won’t last.”

Hopebridge, for its part, has been working to set itself apart with unique roles like travel BCBA positions, new hiring practices and tweaking its strategy for recruitment ever since.

As part of setting out goals for the partnership, a large focus, Riche said, was helping Hopebridge tell a compelling brand story to frame the company’s passions and set it apart from other employers. Simultaneously, the two worked to define clear career progression pathways to not only attract new candidates, but appeal to those already employed. 

By using predictive analytics tools built into its platform, Talentcare refined Hopebridge’s approach to screening and interviewing candidates who are likely to be “stickier” and a better fit for the organization long-term, thereby reducing turnover.

“Because now we’ve been in partnership with Hopebridge for two years, we now have a large amount of predictive information that can help us find people faster based on the behavior and characteristics of the 150,000 people we’ve already screened,” Riche said.

Next, the two will continue to profile the workforce and plan to explore “building predictive profiles, [and] understanding what makes people successful and likely to stay beyond 90 days – so we can hire smarter and retain longer,” Duncan said.

The foundation of the partnership between Hopebridge and Talentcare goes beyond predictive modeling and data analysis, however. From the outset, Riche’s understanding of the importance of care continuity and access in the autism space allowed Hopebridge to lean into a shared mission. 

“There is a huge difficulty right now providing those who need services, families and children who need services, to the availability of those services,” Riche said. “Our secondary goal was to decrease the disruption of care, because once somebody’s in care, it’s very disruptive when they have a limited or reduced plan of care, when they have a change in their caregiver, or they have a disruption or stoppage of care. That was our North Star for doing our work together.”

That alignment, Duncan echoed, was “a huge benefit” and went beyond finding a vendor for this work.

“It was about finding a partner who shared our mission and values,” Duncan said. 

Across the autism space, both Duncan and Riche said that some of the most common mistakes in revamping hiring practices include blindly choosing technology and vendors and then trying to customize those facets without a complete understanding of capabilities.

“Buying tech and then trying to customize it on your own rarely works,” Duncan said. “Too often, businesses just keep bolting on tools to their tech stack instead of solving the real problem with the right partnership.”

Continuing to scale is Hopebridge’s main goal. Since its partnership with Talentcare, Hopebridge has not only grown its workforce, but continues to expand its footprint geographically. In September alone, the company added three new clinics in Indiana.

For other autism therapy practices looking to scale and sustain a solid workforce, Riche and Duncan both agreed that the strategy has to revolve around “the right people.”

“The best decisions come from putting people first, designing for scale, and making the experience frictionless,” Duncan said. “Those were the cornerstones of this project – and when you start there, success follows.”