Over the last couple of weeks I have received about half a dozen emails from readers that start with these words: “Have you seen this?”
Over the last couple of weeks I have received about half a dozen emails from readers that start with these words:
“Have you seen this?”
Followed by a link to an article titled Worst Companies to Work For at the website 24/7 Wall Street which lists Brookdale Senior Living as one of the 11 worst.
To Write or Not
I really struggled with whether or not to write this story because, ultimately, I am an industry shill, meaning I love the industry and believe overall we are doing a very nice job of caring for seniors in this country. While I know these kinds of stories increase traffic to the website, they are far from my favorite kinds of stories to write.
I also struggled because over the past few months I have gotten to know a number of the Brookdale leadership team both at a corporate and regional level and I like them personally and, more importantly, I see them doing the things that need to be done to create a successful culture even with 1,100 communities. Ultimately I decided to write this story, in large part because, this is the kind of thing Senior Housing Forum is willing to tackle, and because there are some important lessons for the industry.
The List
For the past three years the website 24/7 Wall Street has scoured the website Glassdoor to come up this their list of 10 or 11 worst companies to work for. The website Glassdoor is best known for being the one place disgruntled current and former employees can go to vent their unhappiness. They also sell advertising to employers who are hiring; a mix that seems more than a little bit schizophrenic.
Some Perspective
- There are more than 40,000 individuals who work for Brookdale, and given that number, there are going to be unhappy employees and ex-employees. Currently they have 349 reviews (positive and negative) going back to 2008 and in comparison to the size of the Brookdale workforce, that number of reviews is very low.
Additionally, one of the criteria for being on the list is that a company needs to have at least 300 reviews (more on this below). At the time of the article Brookdale had a grand total of 322 reviews. If there had been just 23 fewer reviews, Brookdale would not have been included.
Ultimately, the more employees a company has, the more likely they are to have at least some bad reviews no matter how good they are. A fairer way to asses the quality of the work experience is to calculate how many reviews a company has per 1,000 employees. It is fair to assume that the fewer the number of reviews, the happier team members are, since the site is primarily exists for unhappy people. I did the math on the list of worst companies:
o The highest ranked company had 56 reviews per 1,000 employees;
o The lowest ranked company had just 6.5 reviews per 1,000 employees that place is held by Brookdale.
- The bigger a company is the bigger a target they will be.
- Team members who are happy are much less likely to bother with a site like Glassdoor.
- Andy Smith, the CEO, has a relatively high rating, which suggests those providing reviews like the current direction of the company.
- I took a look at the Glassdoor ranking for 9 other large senior living companies and their rankings are not substantially higher than Brookdale’s.
- It is hard to know if having a low rating really means anything. There are really two questions: Does having a low ranking make it harder to hire quality people? Does it have any impact attracting new residents?
Some Lessons
There are, in my mind, three “there but for the grace of God” lessons for the industry (rather than being specifically directed at Brookdale):
- Creating a strong supportive culture is a really really tough thing to do. The larger the organization is, the more difficult it is to accomplish that goal, and the more important it is to be deliberate about the process. It requires hiring like-minded leaders up and down the management chain that are effective at conveying positive corporate culture to the next level down.
- Even if the culture at your senior living community is healthy, it reinforces how important it is to keep messaging that healthy culture throughout the company from top to bottom. It needs to be done every day at every level.
- Ultimately Glassdoor is a consumer review site for employees similar to the Senior Housing Forum partner, Caring.com is for senior living consumers. If you have a healthy company, you might want to go to your team members and ask them to go to Glassdoor and talk about their own experience.
What do you do to create a positive culture in your organization? What do you do to message your positive culture throughout your organization?
Steve Moran
Steve:
Although I greatly respect your perspectives, I have watched Brookdale from the outside for several years and the change in management philosophy has poisoned what once was an organization with uncompomised integrity. Today, junior executives are not doing their jobs and senior executives are out of touch with what is going on. The recruitment division along with the regional operations divisions are creating a time bomb that is increasingly showing signs of significant troubling times ahead for Brookdale.
Hi John:
I appreciate your comments and I don’t have the long history you have, but I have been pretty impressed as even with the regional leadership as they have reacted in very positive ways to local minor challenges. I do think having a integrated (which is more than just a message) is really tough work. It starts with the heart of the CEO then moves to having Senior VP’s and Regional VP’s on down the chain that have the same heart.
Then honestly in an organization the size of Brookdale there are going to be some misses and their challenge is dealing with those misses as they raise their head.
Steve
It’s all about the culture of communication. Working as a vendor of workplace communications for medium to large corporations, it is educational to observe the “us vs them” mentality among ranks of workers toward the Corporate Brand. You see the pattern over and over…. companies reach a certain size, hire internal communications team to spew out vision and value messaging while average hourly workers become increasingly skeptical ….and all they (employees) really want is transparency and open, honest communication.
Ok, granted these same employees want better pay and work conditions. However, studies repeatedly show what employees ultimately want is feelings of personal value and inclusion. Kudos to you Steve for your words, “It requires hiring like-minded leaders up and down the management chain that are effective at conveying positive corporate culture to the next level down.” This is something these leaders must make demonstrably visible to workers at the local level where the work actually happens, with dynamic personal recognition, progress reports of how we’re doing as a team, and creative ways to engage employees with the community they serve.
Mark
Great points.
The hardest part of all is that in some cases (not at all referring to Brookdale) I have seen companies as you say “spew out” all the right messages then behave very differently. As you know this actually compounds the problem. Makes staff and residents more hostile. It would be better to not message at all, that message something that is not practiceds.
Dear Art,
typically, I much enjoy reading your commentaries, even though, I am not always in agreement. This time however, I felt like I was reading a Brookdale PR piece. Personally, I have no experience with Brookdale and find myself in the field of neutrals regarding Brookdale and have no opinion on Brookdale.
Every good wish,
Alexander
Hi Alexander. I appreciate your joining the conversation and I get that you might think I went to easy on Brookdale (reads like a Brookdale PR piece). I struggled with whether to write the article at all and how to approach it. I would note that all of the other senior living sites choose to pass on writing about it.
That being said, I think the 24/7 article told a story but not the whole story and honestly not even an accurate story. (I am not accusing them of doing a hatchet job like Pro Publica did on the industry), at the same time I was also unwilling to give Brookdale and the rest of the industry a pass, because I would like think as an industry we should have at least some companies who are in the top 10 or 20 percent.
I am pretty confident that if Brookdale had control over my publishing decisions this is one they would have preferred that I had not published this story at all.
My bottom line is that I always struggle with how to tackle these kinds of stories and I am sure I do not always get it right.
I really appreciate your reading and commenting.
Steve
Thoughtful conversation. And, quite frankly not sure why we have to ‘Hmm & Haw’ about whether to discuss. In our ever-changing world of expectations for Senior Living…I think ALL robust conversation should be welcome. Brookdale may be an industry power-house, but that doesn’t mean they should get a ‘pass’ at evaluating and re-evaluating their operational systems.
As a Brookdale ‘graduate’ – I will say, towards the end of my time with them (2009) I noticed a shift in company culture. At that time, I worked at the Community level – and they were eliminating Regional support (for memory care). They were sending down ‘edicts’ from the Corp. level that were completely out-of-touch with the reality of life at the local level.
Now, this is a dynamic that is all-too prevelant in our industry…and it’s a shame.
Regardless of the agenda of GlassDoor – I don’t think it’s a bad thing that we continue to examine our industry practices….and quite honestly, LISTENING to the locals in the frontlines, is probably the best way to take the ‘pulse’ of Any company culture. Don’t be quick to minimize it – as they are the face of the company to our consumers!
If we don’t continue to evaluate and re-evaluate…we are doomed to become out-of-touch.
Steve, I have read your articles consistently over the last year and this one struck a chord. I have been in the senior living industry for over 21 years and my guess from reading this is you have a disconnect with what the frontline team members experience in comparison to what the CEO’s and Regionals tell you. I have been a regional; I have been a front line employee and I can tell you firsthand (I have never worked for Brookdale) that what you hear from the Corporate and Regional levels are very different messages heard by the frontline team members. The “higher ups” are seasoned at spin selling because they have to for the investors (which really is all that matters) and that translates into an uncaring environment for the caregivers and those with their “feet to the floor”. I am glad you published this report; maybe it can be the start of a wake up call…maybe this can be the start of the frontline being authentically respected for the hard work they do. Maybe this is an opportunity for the lip service to come to an end and companies get back to the basics…caregiving for residents and the employees. Time will tell…at least until the next survey.
Mary & Ellen: You both make great points. Some thoughts:
1. The biggest single challenge a large senior living company has is to effect a culture that runs all the way from top to bottom. The very fact that in looking at the glassdoor ratings for the top 10 senior living companies you don’t find any shining stars, suggests there is still a lot of work for them to do.
I don’t believe (though I can’t tell you for sure) that Brookdale would tell you they have it all dialed in and that there isn’t room for improvement.
2. The bigger the organization the team members, the more opportunities there are for there to be unhappy employees and ex-employees. And some percentage of those employees will head to glassdoor. In Brookdales case given the number of team members the total number of reviews actually turns out to be remarkably low and that low number suggests a team of mostly happy employees or at least mostly not unhappy employees.
3. As you may know I have been writing about random visits to senior living communities, though I have fallen off the wagon, but one will be forthcoming this next week. I would tell you that my best experiences have actually been, for the most part, at communities that are owned by large national and regional operators. I would not have predicted this, but honestly it makes some sense.
Anyway . . . some thoughts. . . . and remember I am an industry shill . . . which means, not so much that I won’t tackle the tough stuff, but rather that I try approach those dicey topics asking, what can we as an industry learn here?
Steve
Why increase the size of the corperation. Why not take the profits and improve what they have. That’s all they are interested in, being the biggest in the nation. Not being the best. And it’s starting to show.
Thanks for your reply. I can appreciate your thinking; there are always, at least two sides, to every coin. BTW, my apology for addressing you with Art.
Every good wish,
Alexander
Not a problem on the name thing. Done it myself and takes a lot more than that to get me upset.
Steve
Thank you Mr. Moran. As a 5 year associate of Brookdale working at the community level, I can honestly say I was quite disheartened by the report. I shared the same concerns over the accuracy of obtaining information (from primarily disgruntled former associates) on such a small scale. How can associate satisfaction be determined by obtaining an opinion from LESS THAN .01% of the associates within our company?
Brookdale is an Integrity based company with high expectations of their associates. Obviously those 326 associates (out of 43,000) were not able to meet those expectations. That does not mean that the company should lower its’ standards. That is not how greatness is acheived. I am proud to be a part of Brookdale and certainly do not feel that .01% speaks for me.
Steve, interesting article. I appreciate your comments about the challenge of creating a strong and resilient culture, and agree that most executives (for-profit and non-profit alike) are in senior housing for the right reasons.
That being said, I think the reviews at Glassdoor, while perhaps not statistically representative, reflect a sense that some (many?) staff don’t feel valued or listened to and that whatever rhetoric and beliefs exist in the C-suite, there is a disconnect with the community-level.
I think it’s important that providers take such feedback at face value and look at ways to better engage staff in collaborative discussion around the perceived issues. While providers have a huge advantage in terms of mission and values (compared to other industries), they tend to struggle, across the board, with engendering meaningful engagement.
Hi all: I left the senior living industry I believe at the right time I believe most of the corporations are now running assisted living communities like a number game.. profit and more profit… MOM and Dad or your Partner or other loved one is paying a high price for living in a senior living community.. most of the staff are not what you think .. they get paid just the above or the minimum wage with benefeits .. and lack compassion,,, You are sometimes better off renting a condominium or buying and having a private duty live in aide … than paying for some of the communities…that don’t care about the staff,, not all are the same… next time take a tour and see the Happy faces… or un happy faces .. that will tell the whole story…
Just remember…through good sales training on some level all tours are staged. It’s all about the sale…not the true needs of the residents! If families only knew about the weekly calls from the corporate office asking the sales team why sales are not being closed. It’s crazy!
Hi Terry:
I am not convinced about the lack of compassion. Even today people rightfully so feel the cost of assisted living is high, so in order to boost those wages above what are often fairly low, would require further increases in services fees. If you go look at the financials of the publicly traded companies, while I think you will find them to be robust, I am not so sure you will find them to be so massively fat that they could afford big boosts in salaries
I am not quite sure what the answer is honestly.
Steve
Hi Mary I won’t deny that on occasion corporate leaders push their sales people too hard. Yet, without sales and new move ins there is not sufficient cash provide high quality services and pay salaries. If you took me to the best senior living community you have ever heard of or experienced, you would find they had sales people and corporate leaders who are pushing on them.
Steve
I must say that I respectfully disagree with you. I am a current Brookdale employee going on over 10 years if service. I would not recommend anyone I know to work for Brookdale unless you need a job. Yes, I have been there for a long time and I have no plans of leaving but that is not because it is a wonderful company. It is because I enjoy working with the elderly and I care about my residents.
It is a disservice to base your opinion on that of having met the higher ups when it is the lowly foot workers that receive the worst treatment. It is very telling of a company when it takes 10 years for someone to gain a whole dollar over their starting pay. That is years of .10, .15 or if you are lucky .25 raises. It is very telling when your director tells you to “Just be happy you have a job”, when you ask about a cost of living wage.
While I understand that you are working to improve the image of the industry articles like this does not help. It only services to feed higher up image that the only people complaining are bitter people. But the fact of is that there are thousands of people complaining but they need their jobs. So even if you walk into a Brookdale community you will rarely hear someone talk about the low pay, sad healthcare choices, or the small amount of matching to the 401k.
People need their jobs even if they could be making more at Wal-Mart.
Steve,
I have read your article and all the replies. Most of the respondents have valid points, but as a current 6 year employee of Brookdale, I have to agree most with April. I have no intention of leaving my current employment; it’s too hard to start over these days. While Brookdale is not a terrible employer, I can’t say that they are wonderful.
I have worked in healthcare for 30 years and in senior care for almost 20. I am a front line employee without a college degree, so it matters to no one that I have done this type of work for as long as I have. Because I am not a “higher up”, my suggestions for things that I believe will bring about efficiency, satisfaction, value and quality to the workplace and for the residents that we are here to serve, are always ignored.
Middle management (mostly regional) are where they are because they are ladder climbers (I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with improving one’s position). In order to climb even higher on the ladder, one must impress one’s supervisor, manager, etc. so that’s what it is all about – keeping corporate happy.
I have been in two very different positions in two different departments in two different locations yet I have seen the same attitude in both. Complying with corporate requirements is much more important than making sure that your employees are being assigned tasks that are reasonable and reachable within the time allotted. Those climbing that corporate ladder are not going to “cross” anything being handed down from the corporate level, no matter how unreasonable it might be.
That’s where the disconnect happens. Corporate ladder climbers are making the decisions and creating the processes that the local staff must follow, but these same people are not those who have recently worked in the local, community setting, and do not comprehend what they are asking others to do.
Those of us at the local level may very well have some good ideas, but its unlikely that those ideas will ever get to those who use ideas to implement processes.
I must say that I cringed when I heard about the Emeritus merger. Brookdale is already too big to effectively “care” for all those in their employ or who reside in their communities. I can only imagine that this corporate to local disconnect will become even worse.
“Enriching the lives of those we serve with compassion, respect, excellence and integrity” – As a local employee I’m EXPECTED to know this mission statement, and am asked regularly how I have seen others living out this mission, day to day. Do they do that in the corporate offices? Some how I doubt it.
Coming a touch late to this conversation, however I feel compelled to make a few comments. Those responses from people who are currently employed by Brookdale are the ones that should be focused on. The people doing the work with the residents are the best source of reality based information.
It’s important to look at the methodology of how Brookdale was placed on the list, however the comments that put them there can not be dismissed summarily out of hand.
I too, consider myself an advocate for this profession, for ALFs in general, however I view that advocacy as a primary way to work for much needed change and improvements, not defense of broken systems that line investor pockets on the backs of the caregivers toiling in the facilities at low wages, and often without adequate staff, or the tools needed to properly do the job.
Working 27 years for the same company as a caregiver, doing direct care all that time, yet still only making LESS than $15 per hour is a disgrace to the ALF profession. We should all be looking at that, and caring about that, and working to change that!
Brookdale’s merger is not going to improve anything at all. It actually poses the very real threat of making the situation at Brookdale worse.
I really appreciate even your “late” entry into the conversation. I wish the industry could pay $15 an hour as a starting wage. For many companies though this would break the bank. I am not sure what the answer is. I know many think we should have a minimum wage of $15 an hour, but I am not so sure but what it would just push costs up and leave everyone in more or less the same place except perhaps some percentage of seniors who do not have substantive ability to increase their cash flow to pay for the resulting higher service fees.
Speaking as a person who began on the frontlines of care, I did have the opportunity to rise up within the industry into leadership roles. And, I’ve made a very conscious effort to always stay true to my ‘roots’ throughout my rise. So, even as a Divisional Director, when my role was to help the ALF Memory Care neighborhoods to remain compliant and train all caregiving staff – I continued to roll up my sleeves and assist with resident care. Choosing to stay connected to the frontlines and lead by example and model the standards of care that I expected. In doing this – I became acutely aware of how appreciative the frontline workers were – with this style of leadership.
I’ve Long..been a proponent of raising the BAR of the expectations of the staff we currently consider ‘entry level’ positions. Here’s my question…..why doesn’t the industry Recognize that the frontline positions should have more significant opportunities for growth? Some of the best leaders in OTHER industries, ie: Retail, Business, Banking, Etc. – came from entry level positions and were able to rise up and grow within their chosen professions. And, typically- those who have DONE the work at the ‘bottom’ have a better understanding – of the roles and thus can manage more effectively.
It doensn’t mean we must pay a starting wage of $15 – I do believe the industry could stretch the starting wage to $10-$12…with opportunities for cost of living increases, bonuses and continuing education opportunities, mentoring roles and other incentives…that would allow the employees to grow and have a voice in the industry. It’s not uncommon for the Exec.Leaders and Sales staff to get annual bonuses. How about sharing those monies with the frontline staff who typically carry the heavy load of the day-to-day care? There are ways to ‘curb’ the expenses – we just need to be more open to exploring alternative options that wouldn’t impact the care or significantly increase the costs to the consumer. Not only have I worked for Brookdale, but I’ve held leadership positions with a couple other Industry powerhouses…and, I certainly have witnessed wasteful spending…that could’ve been better appropriated.
Believe it or not – sometimes the ‘un-rest’ of those in entry level positions, aren’t always about the wages. More often, I’ve learned that they are frustrated with feeling their voices aren’t heard and they are foreever ‘stuck’ in entry level positions with no real career-track vision or opportunity. In additoin, way too often – I’ve witnessed that the frontline folks are expected to do hero-work…without the ‘tools’ necessary to do the job. Broken vaccuum cleaners, in-suffiecient supplies, no on-going education, etc. Even if we began by making a committment to change THESE small issues – we’d have a happier and healthier workforce. Which, of course – would positively impact those in our care! When we lose sight of who we serve and why we serve them…..then, it makes this discussion a significant challenge.
The larger the organization – the larger the chasm becomes from Corp. office to frontline. And, this is incredibly unfortunate…for everyone.