The pandemic has riled operations at seniors housing communities and skilled nursing facilities across the country, and the long-term effects are still somewhat unknown. But one issue that was top of mind for many operators before COVID and will still be for years to come is labor. There are several facets to the issue too, from finding and attracting skilled labor to retaining staff to paying wages that are increasing every year. The pandemic has sent the unemployment rate straight up, but how many of those newly unemployed are really qualified to work in a senior care facility? Or want to. Probably very few. And retaining staff not adequately trained or prepared for the work is a hard task too.
Some companies have figured out answers to some of these questions, and we had them on a webinar entitled “Labor and Senior Care: Solving a Vexing Problem.” Robert Crowe, Founder and CEO of Matchwell, Judy Belt, Manager of Lancaster Village and Timothy Reilly, VP of Human Resources at Benchmark Living joined the moderator, Steve Monroe of The SeniorCare Investor, for an hour-long discussion that covered the importance of culture, and need to “fund the crisis” and being flexible.
It was interesting, and not by design, that both Benchmark and the company that recently purchased Judy’s community, The Springs Living, have the word “human” in their mission statement and company description. Just like we all know the importance of the human touch with residents, the human relationship with employees often drives success. For Benchmark, since they changed their mission and mission statement, hundreds of former employees have returned, probably hearing about the positive change from current staff. They may be on to something.
The words family, team, human connection, funding the employee crisis all came up, including flexibility. Matchwell’s founder wants to put staffing agencies out of business, and his “technology” company is set up to give you access, on your own, to pools of potential employees who want to be flexible in their work schedules, without paying them the much higher hourly wage rate that the agencies charge. Give him a call and try them out.
There is no question that something has to be done to bring down employee turnover, perhaps to Judy’s level of 20% for the past 20 years. But it all starts at the top, and if you don’t have the right manager in place, and the right department heads who are on board with a culture change, you will probably fail. Today, failure is not an option, because there will be too many other options in the future.
