By Steve Moran
I wanted to make this “7 ways Senior Living Is Better Than 3 Years Ago,” but that would be cheating, because we were still fighting COVID in a super serious and scary way, so I went with six years.
Here is my list of things that are better now.
- Workplace cultures. Prior to COVID, most companies kind of sort of worked on culture, but they more or less accepted that high turnover was a fact of life and that not much could be done about it. Once all life enrichment had to happen in-house, I remember hearing leaders talking about the “amazing talents” their frontline workers had. This has resulted in frontline team members having more voice and feeling more appreciated and respected. This is not to say that it is perfect, but it is a lot better.
- Use of technology. The industry has gotten more sophisticated in the use of technology: data to measure all kinds of things and identify areas of opportunity, more sophisticated digital marketing driven by data, more effective sales efforts using technology to nurture and follow up, better life enrichment programs that include technology. And we are still early in the technology journey.
- Use of video. Seven years ago, video was rare, and when it was used, operators would spend 10, 20, or 30 thousand dollars to create very ordinary videos. Today we are using cellphones and other simpler video equipment, creating more interesting and better content. We are trusting team members to create content.
- The resident experience. We are doing a much better job understanding that our goal is to create and curate great resident experiences. We are integrating care, life enrichment, community, safety, and more to create a better, holistic experience.
- Integrating family members. We are doing a better job of plugging resident families into creating a better experience for residents and families. Creating a great experience for family members is ultimately almost as important as creating great resident experiences.
- Being a part of the health care system. We are still early in this, but we are recognizing that senior living may be the single most important element in the entire health care system that will give older people better lives and save billions of dollars.
- Less “seat of the pants.” It is the nature of developers and entrepreneurs to make decisions based on gut and intuition. They do this because it has worked for them in the past and has grown the senior living sector. But ultimately, creating and living by systems makes everything, or almost everything, better. As long as the goals are right (meaning not just reducing costs and increasing profits), systems do make things much better.
Do you agree or disagree with this list? What would you add?