Last year, when Margaret Haynes was announced as Right at Home’s next CEO, it meant that her former role – chief operating officer – was left vacant.
That changed this month, when Right at Home named Rod Roberts as its new COO.
Roberts is an industry veteran that has been working with seniors and franchise owners for 20 years. Before joining Right at Home, he held various roles as Home Instead Senior Care. Most recently, he was the company’s vice president of franchise operations.
In his new role, Roberts is drawing from his Home Instead experience, but also years of being a franchise owner himself.
“Having the opportunity to cut my teeth and work directly with seniors, and run a business, gave me the foundation of what our franchise owners go through with their businesses each and every day,” he told Home Health Care News. “I wore a lot of different hats.”
Omaha, Nebraska-based Right at Home is a home care franchise company with more than 650 locations in the U.S. and six other countries.
During his time at Home Instead, Roberts also had a hand in helping the company develop its international markets. The company established footprints in 12 new countries over the course of four years.
“When you take all of those roles and you put them together, it kind of gives you a really good broad spectrum of a franchise and how we work to support our network of franchise owners worldwide,” Roberts said.
For Roberts, getting to work with Haynes was one of the selling points of joining Right at Home as COO.
“She held this role for nine years prior to taking her current role, so having an operator in the top seat, plus the team that she’s built here, meant the culture was a draw,” he said. “We have a good leadership team here supporting our network of franchise owners. The strategy that they have laid out for the next two years is very strong, and that just made it easy to come over and join this group of people.”
One of the biggest changes Roberts has seen over the years is a greater understanding of what home care is and its value-add to seniors.
“We used to have to go out and really explain what we do,” he said. “[We’d hear], ‘Are you home health? What do you do?’ Today, people understand when you say you’re with Right at Home. They get what caregivers do when they come into [the home]. That’s a positive.”
Looking ahead, Roberts has a number of goals for Right at Home that are top of mind.
“I want to help our network meet demands, grow market share in their communities, and provide quality care for seniors,” he said. “The business landscape has changed, and you have to be more efficient and more productive just to keep up.”
Andrew Donlan contributed to this report.
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