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This week, we were excited to celebrate Varsity’s 150th Sales & Marketing Roundtable with a fascinating presentation by acclaimed Disney expert and author Andrew Lock: 5 Disney-Inspired Ways to Improve Your Business.

We started these virtual conversations in March 2020 when our clients asked how other communities were dealing with the unprecedented events of the coronavirus. To help marketing leaders across the country come together and share their knowledge, we coordinated a roundtable discussion via Google Meet. We never thought we’d still be doing these weekly gatherings as masks came off and mandates were lifted, but we’ve now hosted 150 roundtables, and we’re still going strong.

Our focus changed over the course of the pandemic, as our participants’ needs changed.  Here are 10 of our most popular topics over the past three years:

1. Resident isolation
2. Shifting to virtual selling
3. Dealing with loss (residents, team members, family)
4. Vaccine rollout
5. Compliance with vaccine requirements
6. Workforce challenges/retention
7. Event ideas
8. Dealing with crises beyond the pandemic such as fires, hurricanes, ice storms and active shooters
9. New technologies such as AI
10. Best practices in creative messaging, online search and social media engagement

More important than any one topic is the camaraderie and community that’s grown among sales and marketing leaders across the country as they’ve shared their challenges, tips and ideas. Since the beginning, we’ve had 26 states represented, from Washington to Florida and California to Massachusetts.

Here are a few comments from our participants on what they’ve found most beneficial about the roundtables:

“Collaboration with peers is ALWAYS beneficial! You can never stop learning new ideas and thoughts.”

“Sharing best practices, learning from presenters, getting to know other communities around the country, the Varsity team’s commitment to making them happen every week through COVID-19.”

“The info shared by the speakers has been relevant and thought-provoking.”

And here are some of the topics participants would like to see next:

“How to market legacy apartments next to shiny, new ones.”

“Some medical insight into the deadly fungal illness turning up in healthcare facilities.”

We hope you’ll join us as we explore these topics and others every Thursday at 12 p.m. ET, 11 a.m. CT and 9 a.m. PT

Email DDunham@varsitybranding.com for login information.

 

Guest post by Van Cluck, President of L4 Lifestyles

Recently, Van Cluck, a leader in senior living for the past three decades, was a guest speaker at the Varsity Sales & Marketing Roundtable. Here are some words of advice he shared.

I have spent the last 30 years, really my entire professional career, in the senior living space. It’s been a true honor to work in this industry. Here is my perspective on what I’ve learned and observed in my 30 years.

1. It’s up to us to train the next generation.

When I started my very first role in senior living, I was a 24-year-old newly degreed accountant. I didn’t know much of anything, to be honest, when I went to work at the oldest and very first standalone independent living community in Nashville. Thankfully, a mentor came into my life very early on. He was executive director of that community, and he took me under his wing and taught me so much. I still think back on those lessons learned and their value.

That sense of family and mentorship is a real opportunity to impact the spaces we’re in. From that, I’ve tried to develop those mentor relationships, not just with my team, but with the industry as a whole. That has given me opportunities like being the chair of LeadingAge Tennessee. I just think it’s important to develop those who will come behind us. We don’t work in a space that is being trained well or frequently by academic institutions. So it’s really up to us to train the next generation.

2. Senior living is much more than housing.

One of the things I’ve learned in my career is that senior living is so much more than housing — or it better be, if we’re going to be successful. Layering the dimensions of who we are and what we do is such a huge part of the sales process. When it’s just about housing, we’ll only end up losing to the next community who is surpassing us, and we need to be more than that.

3. Have a healthcare and hospitality focus.

In my next role, I transitioned to a CCRC in Nashville where I spent 16 years as a CFO and then CEO, originally called Blakeford at Green Hills. There, we not only continued to develop and expand that community, but also grow some ancillary businesses. We launched Blakeford At Home, and our life care without walls product called LiveWell by Blakeford. Both are very successful today, and both also spoke to the dimensions of what we must do outside of just housing, by also being hospitality and healthcare. We want people to desire to be there, and we can create those dynamics where we are the community where people want to be when they need care services.

4. Help your residents age with purpose.

After my time at Blakeford at Green Hills, I had the opportunity to come home to Lebanon and work with a family group that owns senior living communities. The name of our company is L4 Lifestyles. I came up with the name and I’m very proud of it. As I reflected on the many residents and families I’ve served, I asked myself, “Who are those residents, from a purely anecdotal standpoint, who have aged the best?” And the commonality I’ve found is those who continued to live with purpose at every stage of their life. That was the question I developed to ask ourselves: “What are you living for, and what is your purpose?” So “What are you living for” — “living for” — became “L4.” That became the company brand, to really help us all to focus on the concept of purposefully aging. How are we touching all of our residents? Not just as a nice place to live, not just having great activities, but how are we impacting them purposefully? They are looking at us to be more than just a place to live, but a place to age well.

5. Encourage each other.

Let me emphasize how much value groups like this bring to us, because just today, hearing you talk, I wrote down three different things to bring back to our communities. We can’t minimize the importance of continuing to encourage each other, because in doing so, we will only serve our residents better.

6. Learn to overcome challenges — and make your residents part of the solution.

Recently at Cornerstone Place, our new master-planning project in Lebanon, someone on my team asked if I had considered the Spring Creek bladderpod in our planning. He said, “You better learn about it, because a lot of the 90 acres of land we’re developing is located there.” It’s a lovely little flower only found in very few areas of the country, and it’s protected by environmental guidelines. As we’re developing this property, we had to ask ourselves, “How will we protect this flower?” So our new logo features the Spring Creek bladderpod, and part of our residents’ role will be the protection of and care for the flower, which appears in various bodies of water on campus. I think the real lesson is that, whatever our challenges are, it is often our residents, who are right there in front of us, who are part of the solution.

In case you couldn’t make it to our December Sales & Marketing Roundtables, here are some of the trends we saw in senior living last month, and a look forward to 2023.

1. Holiday Conversations. New Year’s Conversions.

Many participants saw sales activity gaining momentum in December. At this time of year, children come home for the holidays and notice that Mom and Dad aren’t getting around as well as they used to, and might benefit from senior living options. Sales and marketing leaders saw leads pick up, which will hopefully become conversions in January now that the busy holiday season is over.

2. Connecting With Kinless Seniors

A frequent topic of conversation in December was “kinless” seniors, or seniors who do not have family support, whether it be because they never married, never had kids, are widowed, or for whatever reason don’t have a support network nearby. Kinless seniors can be uniquely limited in their caregiving support, and senior living communities can be well equipped to serve them.

“There are quite a few kinless folks who visit us. And I see them as very proactive, coming in and talking to us about their future plans, making sure they have their legal documents in order.” (Washington state)

3. Nearly Universal Rate Increases — and Tips for Communicating Them

Entry fees and monthly service fees are being raised for 2023 in most senior living communities.

“The industry standard is a 9% to 10% increase, on average this year. (Pennsylvania)

Sales and marketing leaders shared helpful tips on how to best communicate rate increases with residents. It was agreed that it’s best to be extremely transparent with why fees have to go up, and to go into detail about why.

“We were extremely clear about why we raised rates and broke down the pricing for our residents. We were clear on what we spent on renovation and really broke it down. We also showed figures of how the minimum wage is going up, how utilities have increased, how the food bills have gone up.” (Massachusetts)

When using this up-front approach, residents tend to have less pushback and are more accepting of the current situation.

4. Loneliness as a Public Health Problem

Americans are spending more and more hours alone than ever before. Our time spent alone has increased by over nine hours a week. This trend started well before the pandemic, although 2020 surely exacerbated it, and we know that time spent alone dramatically increases as we age. We discussed that it could be valuable for sales teams to convey that time spent alone can be dramatically reduced for people who live in senior communities.

5. Competition Changing to At-Home Options

Sales and marketing leaders agree that their competition isn’t necessarily the other community down the road — especially for independent living. More often, they’re competing against home health agencies and private duty care.

“I have always said that I feel like other communities aren’t our competitors. We’re all competing against the home and the prospect staying at home.” (Washington state)

“It’s when the home is no longer working for them that people start calling us.” (Massachusetts)

See what’s new in senior living for 2023 at our weekly Sales & Marketing Roundtables. Join us on Thursdays at noon ET, 11 a.m. CT and 9 a.m. PT.

For login information, email DDunham@varsitybranding.com.

 

In case you couldn’t make it to our November Sales & Marketing Roundtables, here are some key takeaways from the month.

Rates Jump for 2023
Rate increases are expected to take a high leap in the upcoming year due to inflation and rising living expenses. Entrance and/or monthly fees are being raised across the board.

“Our rates are going up 7.5 to 8%, which is the biggest increase we’ve ever had that I can remember. Usually, it’s only 2 to 3%. I also heard the average rate increase in the country is 9%.” (Washington state)

“Yes, we’re raising our entrance fee as well, by roughly 10 to 15%.” (Arkansas)

GUEST SPEAKERS OF THE MONTH 

The Party is Over in Real Estate

Elias Papasavvas, CEO of Second Act Financial Services 

CElias spoke about the changing housing market and how it will likely impact the senior living industry. Seniors now have rising mortgage rates, lots of newer construction, and other factors that are putting the pressure on home sales and adding time to the selling process. This means it won’t be as easy anymore for seniors to sell their houses, and not as quickly as they did earlier in 2022 during the housing boom. Second Act is a senior-focused division of a Federal Savings Bank that offers a senior-focused Home Equity Line of Credit and bridge loan solutions. They work with senior living sales professionals to help with the home sale process for seniors looking to move into an LPC/CCRC.

“Studies show that if you embed the conversation with how to pay for senior living in the beginning of the journey, and communicate that you have the solutions if somebody can’t sell their home in time or doesn’t want to at their move-in time, it can increase sales by 6%,” says Elias.

Rethinking Resident Engagement

Shawn Richard, Vice President Strategic Accounts, Cubigo
Shawn spoke about rethinking resident engagement and the importance of resident experience overall. Senior living sales and marketing programs are shifting more toward selling a lifestyle, and how to tailor the resident experience to meet the needs of the baby boomers as they filter into the senior living space. Communities need to have programs and activities that are personalized to residents, as well as having the methods to track resident engagement and satisfaction. Cubigo is an app that residents can download on their device, where they can track events in their calendar, RSVP to activities, manage their transportation and dining, and more.

“A focus on resident experience is becoming more prevalent, and people are talking more and more about it overall,” says Shawn. “Programs are shifting to meet the needs of the new wave of seniors coming in. So we need a holistic and a personalized view on what they’re looking for, versus the broad brush we used to apply to it.”

“When looking at resident experience as a whole, it’s not just experience itself, but how you can tailor it to the individual,” Shawn says, “When you think about experience and selling lifestyle, there’s a company who does a phenomenal job of it, and that’s Margaritaville. They take their experience in resort living to apply to senior living, and these are properties pre-selling that are full before they even open.”

Selling Through the Holidays
After the slowdown of the summer and the mad rush of September/October, November is calming down but is still steady. Life Plan Community sales and marketing leaders are staying busy with planning for the upcoming new fiscal year, and preparing for the busy holiday season of events. Many are hosting open houses to invite people into their community during the holidays.

“We’re having a holiday dinner for residents, and that is always the event of the year. Anyone who is a depositor — whether they’re a resident, or not moving in for months — can come as a networking opportunity.” (Wisconsin)

“We’ve had snow the past few days, but we got in a turkey trot event before the snow came. We had residents from all levels of care doing laps on the grounds, dressed up as turkeys and other things.” (Illinois)

Many communities hosted successful Veterans Day events and invited military guest speakers, or even their own residents, to share about their military experience.

“We’re having a guest speaker from the local Air Force base coming out. We’ll recognize our veterans, of course, and we’ll do different military hymns. And the local ROTC will come out and do a presentation. We do offer a veterans’ benefit with a discount on their entrance fee.” (Arkansas)

Takeaways From SMASH
Several roundtable participants picked up new tools at the Senior Care Marketing & Sales Summit  (SMASH)

“Everything is all about local SEO, especially for standalone communities. Being local is so important, so [we’re] trying to have more of a focus that way.” (Wisconsin)

“Content is king. So much about the customer journey is having the right content, on the right platform, at the right time. Keywords aren’t the thing anymore, but key intent is, the intent of the person viewing your content.” (Washington state)

Join the conversation at our weekly Sales & Marketing Roundtables on Thursdays at noon ET, 11 a.m. CT and 9 a.m. PT.

For login information, email DDunham@varsitybranding.com.

 

Guest Post by Tasha Saca, Associate Executive Director, Florida Presbyterian Homes

Recently, Hurricane Ian, the fifth deadliest storm to ever hit the country, made landfall in southwest Florida. Our community, Florida Presbyterian Homes, is located in central Florida, which means we were very fortunate overall in comparison to other areas that were directly hit. Because our campus is equipped with generators, most of the community kept power. The only residences that lost electricity were 115 residential living homes, which had no power for three days due to outages in the area.

In addition to power issues, the other consequence we suffered was debris from falling trees littering our campus. Our landscaping team did a cleanup and an arborist came out to complete the job of cutting down trees.

Having been through this emergency recently, I’d like to offer a few tips for other communities that may experience a disaster like this in the future.

Eight Tips to Keep Your Community Safe

1. You can never be too prepared

• Organize, plan, and stay calm and logical.
• Always have food and water on hand in amounts up to or exceeding American Health Care Association  standards.
• Hold meetings with your residents so they know what items to have on hand in case of emergency.
• Send out a survey to residents, asking if they have special needs like electricity for an oxygen machine or refrigeration for medicines.
• Keep your emergency plan up-to-date.
• Know who is on your emergency team, and designate one person to be the communications point for other communities, counties and hospitals seeking disaster relief.
• Mobilize a phone tree so residents can check in with one another

2. Communicate

Communication with residents, staff and families is key to a successful response.

Before the crisis, we invited residents of our independent living neighborhood to come and stay in assisted living, where our generators assured power. While the power was on, we made calls every two hours to check in on people. While the power was off, we made door-to-door visits in pairs of two, one of the people being a nurse who could check on residents’ medical status.

We used Constant Contact to blast out messages to family members, residents and staff via phone, email and text. We posted Polk County Emergency Service updates on our Facebook page. We also called our waitlist members to offer meals and temporary shelter, and do a general wellness check — they really appreciated those efforts.

3. Get the physical plant ready

Before the storm, maintenance prepared our campus by picking up and moving potted plants and outdoor furniture, trimming tree branches, and clearing mulch out of drains.

4. Prioritize needs

First, we made sure we could take in all our independent living residents as well as our emergency team. Then we offered the openings we had left to those from other areas, hospitals and senior communities.

5. Mobilize your emergency team

Make sure you know who is on your team, what area of the community they will serve, and what their duties will be. We had three teams: two teams in staggered shifts and a fresh relief team that came in afterwards. One of the biggest factors for a successful response is making sure everyone knows what their responsibilities are

6. Make sure your emergency team has what they need

Maintenance obtained mattresses and cots for team members and their families and pets. We had food and supplies for them, as well as plastic kiddie pools filled with slices of sod and grass for the pets — so we didn’t have to take them outside in the storm.

7. Keep the special needs of older people in mind

I recommend cots that are up off the ground to shelter older people. Other needs: safe temperatures in rooms, hospital beds in some instances, mobility assistance, electricity for oxygen and CPAP machines, and refrigeration for medicines

8. Learn from your experience and make changes to your plan

Some of the things our community learned during Hurricane Ian:

• During our visits to residents, we passed out grab-and-go bags with sandwiches and cookies, but we would have liked to have bags of ice to give out as well.
• Next time, we will make toiletry kits for residents staying in the main building — so they don’t have to worry about bringing shampoo and other necessities.
• We will implement Hurricane Kickoff Week to educate and prepare residents and mobilize neighborhood champions.
• One resident suggested we set up a community kitchen area, so residents can bring food from their refrigerator and have staff cook it for them.
• We would have liked to have a person just to sit and answer the phone — our emergency team will now have a designated person in that role.

I hope you’ve found this advice helpful. And I want to stress the positive aspects of sheltering from the hurricane together. Residents were overjoyed and grateful that all the staff pitched in to help. Staff from different departments worked side by side. It was an incredible bonding experience for everyone.

October 22 is National Make a Difference Day! To honor this day of service, we asked our staffers,
“What is one thing you are doing to make a difference?”

Here are some of their answers:

“I’m building a sanctuary for nature and its creatures.”
“l live on a farm, where I compost just about everything possible, plant bee and butterfly favorites like milkweed, bee balm and butterfly bushes, and tend a flock of chickens that give me great nutrients for my gardens. I also maintain a small pond that attracts frogs, insects and butterflies, and build and install birdhouses around my property.”
— Jace Dawson, Project Manager 

“I join 100 women in making a bigger difference together than we could alone.”
I belong to 100 Women Who Care, and each of us donates $100 per quarter and awards the aggregate $10,000 to a nonprofit in need. We nominate the nonprofits to be considered, they each present to us, and then we vote for who should receive the funding.”
— Jackie Stone, Sales Consultant

“I serve as an election judge in my own precinct.”
After the murder of George Floyd, I wanted to do something that would make my community fairer and more equitable. I looked around for ways to do that and determined one of the best ways was to get involved in the election process. I wanted to be a poll watcher to ensure everybody was able to safely and confidently vote. However, I was told the greatest need was to be an election judge in my own precinct. I’ve served in that capacity since 2020.
— Derek Dunham, VP Client Services

“I support organizations that support the community.”
“I donate to local organizations and am mindful of the environment, because we all live downstream.”
— John Bassounas, Partner

“I’m going a year without purchasing new clothing.”
“At the end of 2021 I did my routine closet clean-out, and by the end of the day I was donating more bags of clothing than I care to share the final number of. Seeing that much clothing was humbling and disturbing. I probably was only wearing about 20% of my clothes. I took on the challenge to see if I could go an entire year without purchasing any clothing, and I’m well on my way there.  Remake has been a great resource, and is packed with information about huge flaws in the fashion industry, from labor issues to the huge amount of clothing that ends up in landfills.”
— Renee Kelly, Art Director

“I volunteer my time to a nonprofit theatre company and a community college’s graphic design program.”
“For over 35 years, I’ve supported the local arts community by volunteering my time to a nonprofit theatre company — producing posters for The Harrisburg Shakespeare Company’s main stage events. I’ve also dedicated time to the local community college’s graphic design program, as a member of their advisory board, a guest lecturer and mentor to students, assisting them in preparing their portfolios and honing interview skills prior to graduation.”
— Robinson Smith, Creative Director

“I focus on reducing plastic use and recycling, buying locally and composting everything I can.”
“I compost everything (including buying compostable diapers), have planted bee- and butterfly-friendly flowers, use biodegradable cleaners, recycle all that I can, and use Terracycle for items that aren’t traditionally recyclable. I also buy local eggs, meat and produce at the farmers’ market one mile from my house that I walk to.”
— Natalie Groeger, Senior Account Strategist

That’s what we’re doing to make a difference! Here’s to helping each other, our communities and the planet!

As we say goodbye to summer vacations and reset for fall, our roundtable participants give valuable answers that can help make fourth quarter your busiest yet.

1. Why shouldn’t you let the “summer sales slump” get you down?

“‘Summer’ kind of sums it up, right? We all know what it means. You have that ‘valley’ going on, and coming into Q4, there will be an uptick.” (Ohio/Massachusetts)

“Historically, the summer is slower and the fall tends to pick up, and then we have lots of signings in November and December, closing those sales.” (Ohio/Massachusetts)

 2. How do you change a warm lead into a hot lead?

“We’re really starting to participate in community events around our neighborhood, and invite leads to them. Like this week, we’re having a resident art show and inviting warm or ‘on the fence’ leads. That’s really important to get them into the community.” (Washington state)

“We use marketing automation. That will give leads a lead score in Enquire. We ask the team to sort the list by highest lead score, since they are obviously the ones ripe for the picking. You can start to move them up the pipeline.” (New Jersey)

“I would suggest for an event, if you have something special you do for residents, to invite your leads to it.” (Missouri)

3. How do you differentiate yourself in your market?

“We have one community that is going to meet with the Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired. They have set up apartments and residences, specifically for the visually impaired.” (New Jersey)

“We have a dog park, and that pulls in a lot of people!” (Missouri)

“We emphasize our faith-based, nonprofit background and what that means.” (New Jersey)

“”We have been in the same location and under the same ownership for 36 years. Many people who come see us say that’s why they want to move here. Also, many of our staff have that longevity. We have a housekeeper who has been here since we opened 36 years ago. That gives us the edge in our market.” (Arkansas)

“We have had a wonderful history of 77 years now, and it’s wonderful to draw on that history. But we’re also trying to break away, too, and renew ourselves. We’ve come up with a new mission and values statement, with a new campaign coming up in September.” (Washington state)

“We’re very multi-generational. We have three campuses across Kentucky, and we do the whole gamut from preschool, to independent living, to memory and personal care.” (Kentucky)

“I think you have to look at where your uniqueness is, and what is your niche in your community. We have 20 acres of beautiful grounds, right next to the second largest park in the nation, second only to Central Park, at 750 acres.” (Washington state)

“We are the only CCRC in Sussex County, New Jersey. And our full continuum, with hospice and memory care, is all under one roof, and that’s a competitive edge for us.” (New Jersey)

“Our edge is that we’re in a master plan community. We sit on a plateau, and we’re surrounded by 30 miles of biking and walking trails.” (Washington state)

“We changed our name about 20 years ago to include ‘the lake,’ so that people know we’re a waterfront community.” (Wisconsin)

4. How do you target the younger adult?

“We start our marketing at age 60 for our waiting list, but I’d love for it to be even younger. We include active imagery and mention lots of amenities in our marketing, to invite our waitlist to join in and feel at home here sooner.” (Wisconsin)

“We use our walking score in our marketing, because ours is very high for a senior living community. We use walkscore.” (Wisconsin)

5. How is your marketing/advertising spending and strategy evolving?

“There’s been a shift in the senior living space. People used to choose communities for their faith affiliation, but we have started to change to be more hobby-based. It’s less about faith nowadays and more about personal interests. For example, my parents have bred and shown dogs for 30 years. That’s their ‘thing.’ It would be a good question to pose: Who is the most pet-friendly senior living community in the world?” (Seth Anthony, LW Consulting)

“We’ve been looking at our lists, and we typically pull names of prospects between 60 and 75, with a home price of $400,000 and up. And we would typically come up with 10,000 to 12,000 names. But with how much home prices have gone up, we had to increase that range of home prices to $700,000, with the same age group, to get a comparable range of names.” (Washington State)

“Since the pandemic, the majority of our budget is in digital advertising.” (Washington State)

“We definitely have evolved in our conversations. We ramped up our in-person events.. People in our area want to get out and go back to normalcy. Our events trend well, with close to 100 attendees at each event.” (Pennsylvania)

Please join our weekly Sales & Marketing Roundtables on Thursdays at noon ET, 11 a.m. CT and 9 a.m. PT.

For login information, email DDunham@varsitybranding.com.

 

The Varsity team attended the 2022 LeadingAge PA Annual Conference June 22–24 in Hershey, PA. In case you weren’t able to be there, here are some of the top issues we heard about at sessions and in conversations around the conference.

1.Workforce issues

As with all other industries, the aging services field is having challenges finding good people and also retaining current staffing. Several communities noted that they have experienced situations where people have been scheduled for interviews and simply didn’t show up. Communities are looking to do outreach with students and interns, as well as expand marketing and advertising initiatives aimed at employment.

2. Transforming spaces/amenities to keep up with community expansions

Overall space planning is important. While focusing on a new expansion and new spaces, it’s an opportunity to reimagine existing spaces for new uses and to present a fresh look across the campus. For example, one community mentioned that they are opening a new building, including a new auditorium and wellness center, and they are now building out the existing fitness center and auditorium as a new dining venue and pub, as well as other common use spaces.

3. Opportunities for growth through acquisitions, affiliations and mergers

All organizations are trying to stay profitable as they navigate the current landscape. Acquisitions, affiliations and mergers may present opportunities for communities to grow and be well positioned for the future, in the face of new for-profit rental communities.

4. Compliance and IT

The technology at a senior living community, just like at any organization, is vulnerable to malware attacks. We heard about the importance of protecting the system through cybersecurity. Everything from a smart light bulb to an adult child connecting to Wi-Fi can be a gap in the armor, and can create complications for IT from a security perspective. 

5. Midyear rate increases

Annual rate increases are standard for communities, but given the current environment of inflation and need for PPE (along with other, unexpected expenses), communities are considering — and some are implementing — midyear rate increases.

6. Innovations in technology

Demonstrated technology included robot-like Roombas that serve food, in-room Wi-Fi service providers that residents can log on to, and listings of the community’s activities that families can access through their TV screens. These innovations for the future can revitalize senior living, but there are challenges in implementing them for less tech-savvy residents and communities.

7. Digital marketing techniques for generating new leads

Lifestyle assessments, surveys and quizzes can effectively reach leads who are not yet ready to communicate directly with a sales counselor. Questions can be tailored to the navigation bar of the community’s site, the blog content they accompany, etc. — and, of course, can capture user information for future engagement. Examples of survey topics include: “Is it the right time for senior living?” “Is this dementia?” “Is it still safe for you to drive?”

 

This guest post was contributed by Seth Anthony, Chief Revenue Consultant at LW Consulting, Inc., a recognized leader in providing compliance and risk management solutions across the full continuum of healthcare delivery.

Healthcare labor costs are up. You know that. We know that. Finding front-line workers, especially credentialed caregivers, has never been more challenging. To fill those gaps, many healthcare providers, including senior living organizations, have had to turn to staffing agencies to fill their gaps.

The issue has gotten so bad that nearly 200 members of the United States House of Representatives sent a letter to the Biden administration urging them to investigate price gouging by staffing agencies. The American Hospital Association (AHA) and the American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL) quickly followed suit. In an effort to not alienate nurses, they chose their language carefully, going so far as to say, “Please be sure that our concerns focus directly on the agencies and not the personnel they represent.”

Those personnel, often referred to as “travel nurses,” are sometimes looked down upon by their peers for being mercenary actors in a world that desires more personalized care. The frustration felt by these nurses is palpable, as can be seen in Reddit. The post, titled “Why would Congress want to cap travel nurse salaries, and not cap hospital CEO salaries?”, is an enlightening read.

User @forgotmynameagain22 asks, “What do the CEOs even do? Ours makes $4+ million/year not including bonuses. If he disappears tomorrow would anyone notice?” Another user points to an Economic Policy Institute article from 2019, which reports that CEO compensation has grown by 940% since 1978, while typical worker compensation has only risen 12% during that same period.

Obviously, demonizing nurses for demanding high pay during a staffing shortage is not a route that will solve the challenges facing the aging services space, but there’s another storm brewing that senior living leaders need to be aware of. As retrospective studies of the pandemic begin, executive compensation in healthcare is already coming under scrutiny by regulators and Congress, for a variety of reasons.

As reported by McKnight’s Senior Living, LW Consulting, Inc. (LWCI) released its first report on the compensation paid to senior living leaders, with a focus on CEOs, CFOs and COOs. Utilizing publicly available data from the IRS Form 990, Schedule J, LWCI found that the average not-for-profit senior living CEO at the country’s 200 largest providers earns a compensation package worth more than $500,000 per year. That number outpaces similarly situated CFOs by 40% and COOs by 38%.

According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average registered nurse earned $75,303 per year in 2020, or about 15% of the salary earned by the average aging services CEO. We should point out this is not a criticism of the salaries earned by CEOs. Senior living executives have some of the toughest jobs out there, especially when coupled with not-for-profit missions that drive their services. Rather, this is the kind of data that providers need to understand, and be able to respond with, to shore up their positions when the questions do start coming.

In the past, many boards of directors chose to do their own compensation studies and analyses when handling executive compensation. While this isn’t against the law, it does get into an ethically gray space, especially if board members have any ties to the organization as a vendor or compensated individual. This is an easy area in which to mitigate risk, though it does have an associated cost.

Boards should always look to hire an outside, completely independent firm to review their executive compensation plans. This should be done each time a key executive position turns over, along with a complete strategic executive compensation review every five years. The documentation created during this endeavor is a key piece of information that will protect a provider when questions regarding executive compensation come to light.

In an era when it seems all the forces of the world are mounting against healthcare providers, we know that the best defense is a good offense. Understanding the strategic value of your C-suite is critical to a long-term revenue plan that uplifts all team members, from the front line through the CEO. Employees, residents and donors appreciate knowing that the board is working hard to compensate the entire organization fairly. Transparency and independence are the most important factors in such a process and will bring trust to all parties involved. Remember, rising tides lift all boats!

Sources:

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/nurse-staffing-agencies-inflating-prices-lawmakers-allege-seek-white-house-probe.html

https://www.epi.org/publication/ceo-compensation-2018/

https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/registered-nurses.htm

 

Today we’re talking to Sadiya Abjani, Director of Learning & Equity at SAGE, the world’s largest and oldest organization focused on advocacy and services for LGBT elders. SAGECare, SAGE’s cultural competency training and credentialing program, provides training and consulting services to elder care providers.

According to Sadiya, a recent AARP study shows that over 60% of the LGBT community fears discrimination when accessing residential long-term care. This population would feel more comfortable if the company had been trained. However, many people have misconceptions about the training, as well as about the LGBT population at their communities. In this post, we’ll highlight nine truths to combat some of those misconceptions.

1. The training isn’t preachy or pedantic.
“People will come up to me after the training and say, ‘I thought you were here to push the gay agenda,’” says Sadiya. “There’s a misconception that the training will be preachy or pedantic, but it’s about the care.”

A quick overview of the training: There are separate, highly interactive trainings for management and line staff. (These trainings have been converted to virtual sessions during COVID-19, and received high marks by participants.) Each training focuses in on language, assumptions and historical context. It puts you in the shoes of an LGBT person. It’s all about creating inclusive communities — working with LGBT adults of color, veterans and elders, specifically, according to Sadiya.

2. You won’t be judged for your beliefs.
“Some folks in leadership may be hesitant to do the training,” says Sadiya. “The message we want to convey is that this isn’t about whether you accept LGBT people or not. The point of the training is that it is your mission to provide the best possible care to everyone who walks in your door. In order to help you do this, the training provides information, tools and skills that you need. We don’t want to judge individuals for their beliefs,” she continues. “We accept everybody as they are. We reach across that divide to focus on providing that best possible care.”

3. Your employees will be more accepting of the training than you may think.
Another misconception is that the staff won’t be on board. “This message that it (the training) is about the human being — that really resonates with everyone,” says Sadiya. “We’ve had success with organizations with an incredibly diverse staff.”

4. There’s no one type of organization that is most open to the training.
“There are organizations that we have worked with that have been more hesitant than others; the training stretches them. There’s an assumption that this hesitancy is found along religious lines, but that’s not true,” Sadiya says. “Some organizations see the merit of the training and champion it, regardless of religious affiliation or background.”

5. You have LGBT people at your community, even if you don’t know it.
“A huge misconception among organizations is: ‘We don’t have any LGBT people here,’” says Sadiya. Statistics prove that perception wrong. “The issue is that folks are not comfortable coming out as LGBT. Organizations can learn to ask questions without assumptions.”

6. Treating all care recipients the same is not a good thing.
“Often, people will assume that they are doing the right thing by making statements like, ‘We treat everyone the same.’ Although that sentiment is coming from a good place,” says Sadiya, “it isn’t our job to make sure that we’re treating everyone the same. It’s all about treating everyone with person-centered care. The goal is making sure that everyone gets to the same destination, which is the best possible care. In order to do that, we must understand an individual’s unique experiences and background.”

7. Language matters.
Language is covered extensively in the SAGECare trainings. Why is it so important? “For a community that’s already been discriminated against, and feels unsafe, using the wrong terms will cause them to shut down and the conversation ends there,” says Sadiya. A couple of examples of language that shouldn’t be used include:

• “LGBT lifestyle” (Using the term “lifestyle” implies it is something you have a choice about.) ”LGBT            identity” or “identity” are better words to replace “lifestyle.”
• “Sexual preference.” (This is another loaded term, implying that you prefer to be LGBT, but that you           could be something else if you want.) “Sexual orientation” is a better term.

“By using language that makes people feel safe, you’re setting yourself up to provide a better standard of care,” says Sadiya.

8. Organizations undergo many positive changes after training.
“After the training, there is a shift in the way that LGBT elders already at the community respond to care,” says Sadiya, calling it “a journey.” She’s noticed many positive changes, including people participating in PRIDE events, and organizations that celebrate diversity across the board. “When companies open the door with LGBT training, that inclusion then starts gravitating out. Their organization becomes a more inclusive place, both for staff and constituents,” Sadiya explains. “I’ve seen organizations that I’m deeply connected to grow and change over the years. It’s been magical watching this happen.”

9. Training benefits everyone at your organization.
Training can benefit all residents and team members at your organization, not just LGBT individuals, according to Sadiya. “These changes toward inclusivity affect the entire diverse population of your organization,” she says.

For more information about SAGECare, or if you’d like to schedule a training for your organization, email sabjani@sageusa.org.