By Steve Moran
It’s so damn simple to fix.
If you don’t believe me, there are senior living organizations right now, today, in tough markets that are fully staffed, that have people waiting in the wings who want to to come to work for those organizations.
From The Wall Street Journal: “First It Was Quiet Quitting, Now Workers Are Facing Off With Their Bosses.” This article is based on newly released data from Gallup.
Two Things
There are two things you need to do that are simple, though not always easy, that will transform your organization.
In the spring and summer of 2020, as Covid-19 spread and there was social unrest in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, executives at many companies had town halls and listening sessions with employees, communicating organizational mission and keeping workplace relationships strong.
1. During COVID, leaders were in regular contact with team members, letting them know what they were doing, what was going on with COVID and with the organization. Everyone had a clear common enemy they were fighting. This is no longer true.
Doing town halls or other types of gatherings on a regular basis pays huge dividends.
An employee’s relationship with a direct boss is more important to engagement than where people work, said Harter. One way to build these connections is for managers to have meaningful conversations with their employees, preferably at least once a week.
2. This is critical to success in senior living — leaders having regular weekly conversations with their direct reports. These meetings clearly need to be supportive and not punitive. But checking in with people makes a huge huge difference.
The big challenge here is that it is all about the relationship between a team member and their direct supervisor. The CEO can be the greatest culture focused leader in the entire world. It is critical that CEOs’ culture leaders figure out how to trickle that focus to every single supervisor. If the supervisor won’t do that then they should be FIRED!
Enough Workers
I am not naive. I understand there are not enough people to fill all of the open senior living positions. But so what? As a leader you should only care about your community, your department, your organization. In-N-Out Burger stayed fully staffed during the pandemic. Same is true with Chick-fil-A and WD-40. It is still true for those organizations today.
It is also true for a few senior living organizations. It is possible for you. The first step is for you to believe it is true for your organization, your communities, and you as a leader.
P.S. We’re hosting a free webinar about retaining staff. Check it out here. Featuring operations leaders who are having success. Sponsored by August Health.
This is so trued, Steve!
We’ve learned through surveys and interviews that most residents think that the community is short-staffed because the staff tell them so!
After every interaction, staff should say, “Is there anything else I can help you with? I have the time.”