Faced with today’s complex financial, staffing and regulatory challenges, seniors’ housing and other long-term care providers must rely on a similar range of solutions across the entire care continuum, a panel of experts said Thursday.
Providers should actively listen to employees’ needs and strive to meet the changing demands of the labour market, they stressed in a session on staffing. McKnight “Meeting of the Minds” virtual events will be held on a range of topics, including pursuing recruitment strategies, improving staff retention, integrating new technological advancements and investing in new staff benefits and professional development.
“The foundation of success is paying attention to your most important capital, your human capital,” says Navin Gupta, CEO of talent management platform provider Viventium. “Pay attention to the entire caregiver experience, from recruiting to retention to evaluation to development.”
That journey starts with recruiting, according to Sarah Freed, senior vice president of recruiting services at Health Dimensions Group, which should be an area where healthcare providers already have a variety of tactics at their disposal.
Friede briefly described the comprehensive strategies the organization uses for recruiting, including social media outreach, job ads, employee referral programs, applicant tracking systems and a range of other technological aids designed to track the process and ease applicant pain points.
“There’s really no one-size-fits-all approach,” Friede says. “You need to do everything you can to reach candidates, speak to them effectively, and get them to identify with your company culture and brand and want to join your company.”
Recruitment to secure human resources
But experts agreed that retention efforts are just as important, if not more important, than recruitment campaigns.
“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 those 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 that proactively do their research and listen to employees’ needs will have an advantage.
But getting there requires flexibility to meet a wide range of staff needs, from transportation assistance to child care to better medical benefits and mental health support, according to 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 people not to let that stop them 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
Success in the modern care workforce requires creative recruiting strategies and benefits, as well as investment in caregiver careers and development, experts agreed.
The need for investment will become increasingly clear as staffing mandates and other challenges to providers continue to make it harder to do business in the sector, according to Mark Stover, CEO of health workforce management company SmartLynx. Provider advocates say that while the staffing mandate only applies directly to nursing homes, it also affects other providers that draw from the same labor pool, such as senior living communities.
“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 senior care,” Stover said. “It’s only going to get worse.”
He later added that the main takeaway for participants was that to stand out among the sea of providers looking to recruit a limited number of workers, “you have to create a destination workplace.”
Here, expert panel members 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, for example by recording any training session so staff can refer to it at their convenience.
Urom Vucelić said another way to fundamentally support staff wellbeing is to invest in self-care and mental health tools.
A “key driver” of National Healthcare Associates’ success, Scarpino said, has been getting staff involved not just 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.'”
of McKnight The Meeting of the Minds event also featured a session on using artificial intelligence in long-term care. Both sessions can be viewed at https://mcknights.com/062724MOM (free registration required).
