To maintain staffing benefits, many nursing home operators invest in professional training, engaging wages and career growth to compete better with others across the healthcare continuum, with many focusing on modernizing the onboarding process.
Maintaining certified nursing assistants (CNAs) is problematic in many facilities, but the highly skilled role of MDS coordinators, for example, has a more severe staffing shortage in others.
But take it from some operators who have been successful in terms of staffing: To address these challenges and reduce sales, there is a mix of both old and new strategies.
Panelists from the Staffing Summit, hosted by Skilled Nursing News, discussed the usefulness of focus orientation, personal engagement, awareness, and the use of AI and technology to plunge into the sector's stubborn staffing challenges.
New ways
Dan Strittmater, vice president of innovation and bench strength at Monarch Healthcare Management, pointed out the importance of using technology and data analytics to improve staff efficiency. Monarch went to the extent that he created a dedicated role to analyze the data to improve retention.
“We've provided funding for retentionists because we've provided a lot of funding for innovation from the state government,” he said.
Monarch Retentionists analyse data from HR, analyze feedback from new recruits and job seekers across diverse communities, assess retention, and uncover gaps like onboarding processes.
“I'm not saying we're a master of retention (because we're like a whole state,” Strit Matter said. “But retention theorists helped me pull back the curtains on what was working and what wasn't working if my onboarding was struggling. She did a good job pulling it out.”
Monarch has 45 nursing homes throughout Minnesota, 17 assisted living facilities and locations in urban and rural communities.
In addition to a sophisticated retention strategy to meet the needs of employees in a particular community, Monarch refined its recruitment practices.
“If we could hire, let's say 400 people a month (our concern is): “Are they having a good experience? So we focused a lot on that. And we were able to get the agency workforce from many buildings at the CNA level.”
The Minnesota chain actually modernized its hiring process using an applicant tracking system integrated with the recruitment committee, with the number of applicants quadrupled.
Additionally, to reduce agency reliance on the workforce, Monarch implemented two state-approved nursing assistant training programs. Streamlining the employment process for nursing assistants in particular has something to do with collaboration between HR and the education sector, Strittmater said.
“Training nursing assistants are one of the most complicated recruiting because they are in this entry-level position. All these different things are happening (and) bringing some different departments together,” he said.
Turning new hires into long-term employees means taking part in issues like slow onboarding and poor communication, he said.
“What do end users (new employees or applicants) say about whether they're having a good experience? Sometimes we'd have to say, 'Oh, you've never called me.' Or “My onboarding took too long” or “I couldn't take part in a criminal history check.” So these are some of the things we started out,” Strittmater said of the first area of focus.
Some things never get old
According to Joseph Kiannan, Chief Strategy Officer and Senior Vice President of Ocean Healthcare Network Development, in the competitive market for healthcare employees, it is important to recognize fair wages and employee perceptions.
Ocean Healthcare owns 12 skilled nursing facilities, all located in New Jersey, with over 2,100 beds and other long-term care assets.
“It really pays someone a fair wage and treats them with the dignity and respect they are looking for. It really helps you retain your future, and clearly improve your customer service and care,” Keenan said. “That perception is where they feel like they are part of a family, as opposed to numbers within the organization.”
Ocean Healthcare says, “There is a monthly employee recognition event aimed at ensuring that everyone is valuable, supported and heard.
Personalization is going even further for Gurwin Healthcare, a small organization with 100 employees.
President and CEO Stuart Almer emphasized not only the importance of employee perception and training programmes, but also the importance of employee perception and training programmes.
Gurwin staff shares the ease of electronic application to the organization, in order for the organization to show a sense of compassion for future employees, Almer said.
“We centralized the orientation process. We thought that each service and building orientation program would be smaller and that by bringing them together and putting them together, everyone would make everyone feel like they are in those orientations as part of the whole,” Almer said.
Gerwin has reduced turnover from about 40% to 30%, he said.
Sending birthday cards to each employee of their employees, Almer recommends one-on-one engagement with employees using simple means such as personalized notes and sharing meals.
“I'm having lunch with staff. It's just an opportunity to get to know each other and talk about myself, my personal, my hobbies, my interests, whatever it is. And I think it's very effective,” Almer said.
And such actions lead to some useful insights, not only employees who feel valued.
“Last week I learned how I refined the HR process.
