Senior Living Net Operating Impact

Avoiding the 'Bad Hires'.

Karen Dunn — Wed, 15 May 2013 12:13:09 +0000

Interestingly, with all that is at stake in terms of the associated costs of a 'bad hire' due to deleterious effects on workplace culture, productivity, resident care, and turnover - very few assisted living communities actually have a process in place to attract, develop and retain top performers.

What's your hiring philosophy? Do you have one?

The oft-quoted phrase, "hire for attitude, train for skills" is originally attributed to Herb Kelleher, one of the co-founders of Southwest Airlines. Kelleher's point was that you can teach people skills but attitude is inherent and all of the training in the world won't cure a bad attitude.

Clearly, there are some professions where attitude isn't all that important - in comparison to technical expertise and high-level skills - think, brain surgeon - who cares what her attitude is if she can get the job done?

Service industries are another story. It's all about attitude. And, for the assisted living community, a compassionate, caring attitude in your front-line staff is paramount and may be even more important than previous experience and/or technical expertise in the care of your residents.

Attitude is also a huge predictor of how well an applicant will fit in with your organizational culture and how they will function as part of your team. An individual may be compassionate and caring with residents and yet be incredibly difficult, uncooperative or unproductive as a team member which can cause major issues that directly and indirectly affect morale, efficiency and even the safety of your residents.

How to hire for attitude?

According to a 2010 Hudson Global Resources Report, "Only 30% of employers focus on richer methods of interviewing such as behavioural interviewing and personality testing..." Hard skills and qualifications are easy to identify on paper and during the interview process, while soft skills, such as personality are far more difficult to assess. After all, who ever states that they are difficult to work with during an interview?

3 Ways to identify and hire who you are looking for.

From hiring methodology expert, Bill Byham, President/CEO of Development Dimensions International - identify top performers in your organization and make a list of the behaviors and attitudes that make these individuals successful to develop interview questions based on these qualities.
Another method used by companies with successful hiring practices is to encourage top performers to recruit and refer employees. The reasoning behind this is that people with similar attitudes and values typically hang out with people like themselves.
Make use of front-line hiring assessments that determine how a potential hire acts, behaves, and performs in the situations they will face in your assisted living community.

The biggest asset you have is your people. It is also your biggest cost. Make sure you have the RIGHT people driving your NOI and avoid costly poor performers and turnover costs. Based on the DISC method, we have honed our assessments to provide statistically reliable results to determine a candidate's potential to succeed. We believe that an employee's attitude is equally as important as their aptitude. Our assessments determine how a potential hire acts, behaves, and performs in the situations they will face in a community.

If you are looking to reduce your turnover and only hire candidates that FIT your organization, please contact us today at www.SeniorLivingNOI.com.

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Increase Your Assisted Living Community's NOI. How?

Karen Dunn — Sun, 12 May 2013 18:43:19 +0000

The photo is of our Founder, Jill Turley-Haselman & our President, Jeffery Ritz speaking to ALFA EXPO guests about increasing NOI through our offerings at Senior Living Net Operating Impact.

During the conference/EXPO, we had the privileged opportunity to speak with many operators, owners & executive directors who truly 'get it' and understand that the key to organizational success and profitability lies with people - specifically, the front-line.

Unfortunately, many owners/management view the front-line as a source of headache and cost rather than an asset - from worker's comp issues, to poor performance, turnover & recruitment - the costs of your front-line can be significant; particularly if you are unaware and/or unprepared for realities that cause many communities to flounder and lose substantial revenue(s), month after month.

What's the answer?

After over a decade in the industry as Senior Vice President of a large provider in the Northeast, Jill has discovered that operational excellence in the senior living world is a dynamic interplay of people, processes and culture.

Armed with years of first-hand experience and knowledge gathered from thousands of conversations with executives in the U.S. and Canada, our team has spent over 3 years developing a product suite of solutions to transform the senior living industry from the bottom-up.

Depending upon your specific needs and budget, we will help you select the option(s) right for you and your community from the following:

Affordable Net Operating Playbook™ for ED's and community leaders to teach the front-line to think like owners to increase the bottom line - delivered once/month to your inbox.
Supervisory seminars offered Fall 2013 in major metropolitan areas - teaches operational leaders practices, proven techniques and insights that have been proven to create a winning culture and increase profitability.
Front-line hiring assessments - to help you hire and retain the right people for your specific community to reduce costs and other associated risks inherent with 'bad hires'.

**A Towers Perrin study has found that companies with highly engaged employees have operating income increases up to 19% whereas companies with the lowest amount of engaged employees saw operating income fall by 33%. “Organizations with high engagement are 78 percent more productive and 40 percent more profitable than those organizations with low levels of engagement.” (Hewitt Quarterly) To read more research on employee engagement and profitability, click here.

What's Stopping You from Increasing NOI?

Get started now and transform your community culture and increase NOI - What are you waiting for? We are so sure that our products and services will dramatically change your bottom line that we are willing to send you our cornerstone course module, a $200. value, FREE! without obligation. To download your free module, Minding ~~Your~~ Our Own Business, go to www.SeniorLivingNOI.com, click on the red button and START INCREASING NOI today!

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Where's your Disconnect?

Karen Dunn — Wed, 08 May 2013 13:01:04 +0000

Here we are at ALFA 2013, the industry's leading conference & EXPO. Jill Turley-Haselman, our founder/CEO, is on the left. Our president, Jeffery Ritz was on the floor dazzling folks with our new product launch, Senior Living Net Operating Impact.

SLNOI is especially exciting for us because this launch has literally been years in the making. Jill has been in the Assisted Living industry for over a decade. As SVP of Organizational Effectiveness for a large provider in the Northeast, she successfully earned her company the designation of the Boston Globe's, Top Places to Work. During her tenure, Jill developed the infamous Leadership Institute and was the inaugural recipient of the ALFA, President's Award for Leadership.

Since leaving her position in 2009, Jill has remained active in the industry consulting with senior living organizations and investors to manifest, in Jill's words, "The bottom line with a heart-beat" - helping others to transform their communities through the frontline workers.

So, why is this important?

Have you considered that 90% of your resident interactions and operating processes are in the hands of your frontline?

It stands to reason then, that your employees are the critical component to your communities growth, profitability and operational excellence. In numerous conversations with SL executives in the US and Canada, we've discovered that this is a key area of untapped opportunity.

Where's the Disconnect?

In a nutshell, in speaking with the industry, we believe that the frontline is only viewed as a resource to "provide care", rather than a "business resource". This perspective is short-sighted and undervalues your opportunity to engage your frontline to create a community of excellence & profitability in their daily interactions with current and prospective residents.

Engaged Employees drive NOI - the numbers don't lie - here's what the research says:

Companies with high levels of employee engagement improved 19.2% in operating income while companies with low levels of employee engagement declined 32.7 percent over the study period. (Source: The ISR Employee Engagement Report. Towers Perrin-ISR)
“Organizations with high engagement are 78 percent more productive and 40 percent more profitable than those organizations with low levels of engagement.” (Hewitt Quarterly)
A study of 64 organizations revealed that organizations with highly engaged employees achieve twice the annual net income of organizations whose employees lag behind on engagement. (Source: The Impact of Employee Engagement. Kenexa)

At SeniorlivingNOI.com, our Vision is to significantly improve net operating income (NOI) by transforming front-line associates to think and act like business owners and by instilling a culture of operational excellence at all levels of senior living organizations. Our service offerings include affordable, easy to administer training modules, supervisory seminars, and leadership assessments.

Stop by and see us at booth 104 in Charlotte, May 6-9 at #ALFA2013, the industry's leading conference & EXPO and let us help you increase your NOI in ways you've never thought about to make 2013 your most profitable year yet!

**Special offer - EXPIRES noon on Thursday, May 9. Use this link, www.seniorlivingNOI.com/alfa2013 & promo code ALFA2013 to get a 20% discount on the, game-changing Net Operating Impact Playbook.

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Engaged Employees & your Bottom Line.

Karen Dunn — Sun, 05 May 2013 16:58:21 +0000

The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership. —Harvey Firestone

By this point, we've all seen the research on employee engagement and the impact on your bottom line conducted by Gallup and others. If you haven't yet heard the news, here's a link to a great article that pulls it all together.

Employee Engagement is a good thing.

According to Temkin, an independent research group that analyzed employee engagement in over 2400 U.S. employees - Companies that outperform their peers in financial performance and customer experience have considerably more engaged workforces. The researchers found that highly engaged employees try harder, recommend the company, help others, and take less sick time.

Tempkin also reported that service industries have the most engaged employees and that highly engaged workers tend to be front line workers.

All good news.

Because in the Assisted Living world, our business is all about people and service. Right?

So, theoretically, the Assisted Living Industry should have the most engaged employees, right?

Here's the bad news.

Depending on where you look, turnover rates for Assisted Living range from 21% to 135% across states with a national average of 42% (AAHSA; NCAL).

The Solution?

Stop focusing your time and energy on the whiners and complainers and give your attention to your top performers. Start asking questions. Listen.
Promote a culture of personal responsibility and operational excellence by communicating clear expectations regarding roles and service.
Allow your teams to to identify and establish guidelines for service in alignment with organizational vision and mission and to determine consequences for individuals who don't tow the line.
Recognize superior service and publicly acknowledge employees for outstanding contributions in ways that empower and engage top performers, (non-monetary).
Reward innovation - promote creative approaches to resident care and operational excellence.
Get out of the way! Encourage your top performers with the freedom to express their great ideas and to implement them.

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Talent - Cultivating Your Greatest Asset.

Karen Dunn — Wed, 01 May 2013 14:36:25 +0000

In the Assisted Living industry, as in all service industries, you are distinguished by and measured by, your people.

The quality of your service and care is directly related to the effectiveness of the people you bring on-board. The greatest impact you can make on your overall operation - including occupancy rates, NOI, and resident satisfaction - lies with your employees.

You need to let this sink in for a moment - because in our experience in working with hundreds of ALF's, this is the primary area of opportunity that is being overlooked.

Your frontline employees are your greatest asset.

Are you leaving the development of talent in your organization to chance or do you have a well-defined process in place to nurture and grow your organization's greatest 'assets'?

Without knowing you or your organization, I can predict your organizational success, both qualitatively (culture) and quantitatively (NOI, occupancy rates, turnover) by your response to that one, super critical question.

Points for Reflection:

Who is working for you? - Do you have a process in place to identify, attract and recruit top talent who will support your overall organizational vision, core values, and make a significant contribution to your team?

if so....

What are you doing to nurture their professional growth and development? This is not a one-shot deal. Nor should this be approached haphazardly - your greatest asset deserves conscientious, thoughtful cultivation - give them many great reasons to stay.

Do you have a process to assess employee satisfaction? Just because you believe you value your employees doesn't necessarily mean that your employees 'feel' valued and appreciated. Create opportunities for them to communicate concerns - Then, listen and respond graciously and proactively - without giving way to emotionalism or taking their concerns personally. You are in this together. Focus on talking 'with', rather than talking 'to'.

if not...

Develop an action plan now. It's never too late. Remember why you are in this business - Come back to your Vision.
Inspire your team by connecting their personal and professional goals to the overall organizational vision and core values. Those who are on-board will be 'engaged' and will feel empowered with a renewed sense of purpose. In contrast, those who are not on-board with your vision will soon self-select 'out' providing you with an opportunity to bring on new talent who better reflect your organizational and team values.
Utilize resources available to you to develop a talent strategy (identify, attract/recruit, develop/retain) that aligns with your organizational strategy. This may include leadership assessments, focus groups, informal lunch-time workshops to stimulate collaboration and/or creative brain-storming sessions with your top performers.
Work doesn't have to be boring, dull or stagnant. Create opportunities for fun with your residents and staff and enjoy your success!

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Vision. People. Vision. People. Vision. People....

Karen Dunn — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 18:39:49 +0000

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.

- John Quincy Adams

Top performers don't need to be 'managed', top performers need great leadership - and they'll 'manage' themselves.

If you're spending all of your time 'managing' people, perhaps you need to clean the proverbial house, because great organizations don't just happen.

Great organizations are built on the foundation of great leadership.

Quite simply, great leaders inspire and do not seek to control.

Seriously, I just can't imagine that Richard Branson spends his work days running around, putting out 'fires' and arbitrating employee spats.

And yes, I understand that we're all not destined to become Sir Richard - however, I believe we can all learn a few things in observing and reflecting upon the qualities that make a great leader, great.

Two words immediately come to mind.

Vision and People.

Great leaders have Vision, a strategy to achieve their Vision, and they surround themselves with the 'right' people to drive the Vision from concept to reality.

..."One of the best ways to do this is by hiring excellent people who believe in your company and share your goals, and then by helping them to learn and improve their skills. This isn't optional: If your best people aren't growing in their careers as your business gains traction and expands, they will quickly lose enthusiasm for their work. And before you know it, you'll be dealing with unsatisfied customers as well as unsatisfied employees." Richard Branson - Entrepreneur.com.

So, what's YOUR Vision?

If you and your team can't answer that very critical question, without pause, you've got a problem(s) - In the Assisted Living industry these 'problems' look like turnover, call-outs/no-shows, lack of engagement, employee wars, shift transition issues...

Start there.

Let me give you a tip - Your vision should be all about your PASSION.

If it's not about PASSION, it's not worth doing -

No matter what the industry, business or endeavor...

Great leadership and great organizations start with Vision and the 'right' People.

Are you on track?

Stay tuned for Part 2 of this series on Wednesday, May 1, and learn how to, Align your talent strategy with organizational strategy to achieve your Vision.

Subscribe to receive future blogs online at www.seniorlivingNOI.com.

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How healthy is your workplace? Why it Matters.

Karen Dunn — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 13:43:47 +0000

Is your workplace psychologically healthy?

According to the APA Center for Organizational Excellence, a psychologically healthy workplace empowers workers and enhances productivity - it's a win-win proposition.

While the specifics vary among organizations due to unique challenges faced by your industry or organization, there are universal benefits for all in creating a healthy workplace.

Benefits of a Psychologically Healthy Workplace?

For Employees:

Increased job satisfaction
Higher morale
Better physical and mental health
Enhanced motivation
Better ability to manage stress

For Organizations:

Improved quality, performance and productivity
Reduced absenteeism, presenteeism and turnover
Fewer accidents and injuries
Better able to attract and retain top-quality employees
Improved customer service and satisfaction
Lower health-care costs

Clearly, We all Want to Work in a Healthy Environment - So What's the Problem?

Organizations are full of people - and people are messy. We're all messy - to varying degrees, right? So how do messy people create healthy workplaces?

With all of our messy-ness, we humans are actually pretty simple in our basic psychological needs - At the workplace, we want to feel safe, that our work is meaningful, and we want to be appreciated and recognized for the contributions we make to the organization.

So, how do we get 'there' from here?

(whatever here looks like for you..)

Assuming that you've got the 'right' people in place, strategic efforts to increase employee involvement are a critical key to your success in getting your employees and organization healthy. The benefits of increased involvement include enhanced productivity & NOI, fewer accidents, greater levels of service, less absenteeism and turnover as well as higher levels of employee motivation and commitment.

Ways to Get Employees INVOLVED!

Engage employees in decision making - including recruitment efforts.
Create self-managed work teams. Allow teams to select new team members.
Develop employee suggestion forums, monthly meetings or suggestion boxes for anonymity.
Initiate the development of employee task forces and committees.
Include employees in creating a strategic vision for the organization.

How will you become an Organization of Excellence in 2013?

At SeniorlivingNOI.com, our Vision is to significantly improve net operating income by transforming front-line associates to think and act like business owners and by instilling a culture of operational excellence at all levels of senior living organizations.

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Aging America - A Looming Crisis or Extraordinary Opportunity?

Karen Dunn — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 18:52:57 +0000

The 78 million-person strong baby-boomer generation is about to create a new landscape for the American culture. For the relatively new Assisted Living Industry professionals - investors, owners, corporate execs and staff - this is going to be a time of reckoning.

In essence, your ALF is going to sink or swim - depending on how well you've prepared for the coming Avalanche of 'Boomers'.

In the next 5 years, by 2018, an independent research firm estimates that the annual revenue for the Retirement Community Industry is going to reach nearly $70 billion.

That's a lot of green.

All of this movement is going to create a viable source of new wealth and opportunity for industry professionals who have 'done their homework'; while scores of others will likely disappear overnight from lack of strategic planning and foresight.

So where are the Boomers going to choose to live when they aren't able to stay at home any longer? - due to increasing physical limitations and some form of dementia?

(By 2025, the number of people age 65 and older with Alzheimer's disease is estimated to reach 7.1 million—a 40 percent increase from the 5 million age 65 and older currently affected. In 2013, Alzheimer's will cost the nation $203 billion. This number is expected to rise to $1.2 trillion by 2050. )

Who is going to care for them?

You may have heard that we're about to have a critical shortage of Direct Care Workers, i.e., front line staff - very soon.

Let's follow this through...without qualified workers, there's no Assisted Living Business.

According to a a 2011 report released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Although direct care workers constitute one of the largest and fastest-growing sectors of the workforce, there is a documented critical and growing shortage of these workers in every community throughout the United States.

How to Stay Afloat?

Top industry leaders are already working on these very critical issues soon to face our nation in overwhelming numbers. Sustainable communities of care require qualified staff, cohesive teams, and an organizational strategy to adequately meet the imminent needs of an aging population with limited resources due to rising costs of care, and a still-recovering economy.

Tips for Creating a Sustainable Community of Care:

Start NOW - To nurture a positive workplace culture that places people first.
Provide onsite training, wellness programs, and career growth opportunities for staff.
Engage residents and staff in creative exercise/activity/'volunteering together' options to build a "community of wellness" that will empower employees and attract prospective residents.
Develop a strategic talent management strategy to attract, recruit, develop, and retain top performers in alignment with your business strategy.
Research demographics of the new 'Aging' and plan accordingly - Boomer retirees are sophisticated, youthful, sexually active and have far more diverse interests than previous generations. Rocking chairs and 'bingo nights' just aren't going to cut it.

What are your ideas for creating sustainable, assisted living communities?

"In the end, all business operations can be reduced to three words: people, product and profits. Unless you've got a good team, you can't do much with the other two."

Lee Iacocca

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5 tips to Reduce Caregiver Stress & Prevent Burnout.

Karen Dunn — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 13:49:02 +0000

Guess what month it is?

Yes, I know it's APRIL - because I just submitted my tax return...

Since 1992, April has also been designated as Stress Awareness Month.

I didn't know it either.

But it's official, there's a website and everything - Stress Awareness Month

Nurses, CNA's, and other healthcare professionals are particularly vulnerable to experiencing 'burnout' due to caregiver stress. This has important implications for the health of our staff, residents, and NOI.

How so?

A recent study, published in the American Journal of Infection Control and NIH, reported evidence to support an association between nursing staff 'burnout' and health care-associated infections in patients. Facilities in which 'burnout' was reduced by 30% had a total of 6,239 fewer infections - representing an annual cost savings of up to $68 million. The authors reported that reducing burnout in nursing staff is a promising strategy to help control infections in health care settings.

Signs of Caregiver stress?

According to WebMD, there are associated emotional, physical, and behavioral signs associated with Caregiver Stress, including:

Anger

Inability to concentrate

Unproductive worry

Sadness and periodic crying

Frequent mood swings

Stooped posture

Sweaty palms

Tension headaches

Neck pain

Chronic back pain

Chronic fatigue

Weight gain or loss

Problems with sleep

Overreacting

Acting on impulse

Using alcohol or drugs

Withdrawing from relationships

Changing jobs often

5 Tips to Reduce Caregiver Stress and prevent Burnout in Your Staff

Create a caregiver support group.
Encourage staff to take their appointed breaks and PTO days.
Provide yoga/meditation classes for your employees on site as part of their compensation.
Offer stress-management workshops - provide education and simple breathing exercises/guided imagery to let them know you care about their well-being.
Be an example of 'self-care' for your employees to model - Actions speak louder than words.

How have you dealt with caregiver stress in your ALF?

*As a side-note, my dissertation research involved a 6-week yoga intervention to reduce stress in health care workers. The results indicated that the intervention significantly reduced symptoms of stress and increased well-being in participants. The results of the study were published in Advance for Nursing and can be viewed here.

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Are you the missing link to your teams' success?

Karen Dunn — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 20:16:29 +0000

...This may be the most important question that a great leader must ask of self.

The short answer is that great leaders recognize when they need to 'get out of the way' or to 'shut up and listen' or to 'practice' rather than 'preach'.

Easier said than done, right?

But here's the thing...from the annals of research and anecdotal reports into what makes a great leader, you'll find the words authentic, humble, service-oriented, trustworthy and self-aware at the top of the list. In fact, Bill George, a professor at Harvard and author of several bestselling books on leadership writes, "If you want to be effective as a leader, then you must be an authentic leader. If you are not authentic, the best people won't want to work with you, and the won't give you their best work - From, Finding Your True North).

So, what exactly is an authentic leader?

According to a recent blog post at Forbes, there are 8 steps to becoming an Authentic Leader, beginning with Trust - because effective leadership relies on persuasion. To persuade, a leader must earn trust. How? Being trustworthy means that you: are willing to make promises, under commit and over deliver, engage in proactive communication, don't cut corners, never hide mistakes, make sure your motives are pure, and finally, #8? Never make people ask.

Other research supports evidence to suggest that "transformational leadership" is characterized by the ability to: ignite followers' aspirations, instill pride, elicit enthusiasm, and convey optimism regarding a desirable future (Ashkanasy & Tse, 2000; Avolio & Yammarino, 2002; Bass, 1998).

How do you measure up?

If we are being honest, most of us probably know exactly where we have room to grow.

The good news is that if we are open and willing, many of these traits can be learned. We can begin immediately to implement strategic actions that will take our team to new heights - by our example. Like most good things, great teams don't simply happen, they take effort, time and nurturing over time to develop.

Tips for becoming a great leader:

Accept a leadership role and with it the responsibility for creating a cohesive team culture.
Ask for help when you need it.
Admit when you don't have the answer - and then find it.
Monitor your teams' efforts and productivity continually.
Set clear expectations and communicate your expectations to each member of the team.
Engage team members in decisions.
Develop a process for resolving conflicts.
Create a safe space for effective and honest communication.
Follow through.
Express gratitude and appreciation to your team often.

Adapted from the World Health Organization's white paper on "Being an Effective Team Player", retrieved online, April, 2013.

And...from numerous years of personal experience, trial and error and making more than a few mistakes.

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