Faced with today’s complex financial, staffing and regulatory challenges, aged care operators will need to turn to a range of solutions, an expert panel said Thursday.
Providers should actively listen to employees’ needs and strive to meet the changing demands of the labour market, they stressed. McKnight A discussion with thought leaders from the Meeting of the Minds. Whether you’re pursuing a recruitment strategy, improving staff retention, integrating new technology, or investing in new benefits and professional development, this discussion is a must.
“The foundation of success is paying attention to your most important capital: human capital,” says Navin Gupta, CEO of software provider Viventium. “Pay attention to the entire caregiver experience, from recruitment to retention to evaluation to development.”
That journey starts with recruitment, and healthcare providers should already have a variety of tactics at their disposal, according to Sarah Friede, senior vice president of recruiting services at Health Dimensions Group.
Friede briefly described the comprehensive recruiting strategy her organization uses for hiring, which ranges from social media outreach to job ads, employee referral programs, applicant tracking systems and a variety of other technological aids designed to track the process and ease applicant pain points.
“There’s really no one-size-fits-all approach,” she says. “You need to use every tool you can to reach candidates, speak to them effectively, and get them to identify with your company culture and brand and want to join the company.”
Recruitment to secure human resources
But experts agreed that retention efforts are just as important, if not more important, than recruiting campaigns. In fact, they said, the latter should be pursued with the former in mind.
“It’s easier to love the people you have in front of you,” says Dana Ullom Vucelich, chief people officer at Ohio Living. “Control what you can control. You can’t develop new talent in the market because of the talent shortage, but the people who have already shown up will know they are cared for and respected.”
Friede says there’s no “silver bullet” for achieving such a workplace culture, but providers who proactively research and listen to employees’ needs will have an advantage.
That requires flexibility to meet a wide range of staff needs, from transportation assistance to child care, better medical benefits and mental health support, said Anthony Scarpino, vice president of talent acquisition at National Healthcare Associates.
Scarpino told attendees that while higher salaries and more flexible work schedules can be simple wins across the board, more creative and niche perk offerings can also be big culture wins.
“One of the things that can be discouraging for our team when we do any research or start a new program is that it’s not necessarily going to be accepted or supported by the majority of people,” he said, “and I encourage you to not let that stop you from doing anything, because if you can create multiple programs that are important to different demographics within your facility, then overall you’re meeting the needs of the majority of people.”
Investing in our staff
In addition to creative recruitment strategies and employee benefits, experts agreed that investment in caregiver careers and development is needed to succeed in the modern care workforce.
That will become even more evident as federal nursing home staffing mandates and other challenges for providers continue to make it harder to do business in the sector, said Mark Stover, CEO of health care workforce management company SmartLynx.
“We’re living in a market right now where there’s growing concern about whether we can provide enough of a workforce to support the macro trends that are looking to the future of aged care,” he said. “It’s only going to get worse.”
Stover then added that his biggest piece of advice for businesses is that “you have to create a destination workplace” to stand out among the crowds trying to recruit from a limited pool of workers.
Here, the expert panel again agreed that it’s important to listen to employees’ career goals and give them the tools and autonomy to succeed on their own terms and at their own pace.
That could mean using technology tools to streamline work processes, giving employees more time to focus on caregiving tasks and training, they noted. Technology can also be used for career advancement by recording any training sessions so staff can refer to them whenever convenient, Friede said.
Another way to fundamentally improve staff wellbeing could be to invest in self-care and mental health tools, Urom Vucelic said.
A “main driver” of National Healthcare Associates’ success, Scarpino said, is involving staff not only in identifying problems but also in implementing solutions.
“If someone brings up a problem that needs fixing, creating a small team that includes the employee who brought it up and helps design a solution is much more effective than building one in an ivory tower. [a solution] And I said, ‘I know what you want.'”
