September 12-18 is National Assisted Living Week — a week dedicated to recognizing the role of assisted living facilities in caring for seniors and individuals with disabilities. Since 1995, the annual observance has encouraged assisted living communities around the country to celebrate members of their communities.
Of course celebrating your residents is an important component of this week, but don’t overlook your staff. Your employees have endured a difficult year as they worked tirelessly on the front lines during a global pandemic. Anything you can do to show your appreciation can make a difference in retaining your best talent long term — particularly at a time when turnover in the industry is higher than ever.
National Assisted Living Week is an opportunity to do just that. So what can you do to celebrate your staff this week? Here are some ideas.
Thank them
A simple thank you can go a long way. Do it both privately with personalized thank you messages to each member of your team and publicly by celebrating your staff on social media. In your messages, acknowledge that the work you do as an assisted living facility could not be done without the hard work and dedication of each member of your team.
Host special events
Chances are you’re doing something internally to celebrate the week with your residents — whether that’s games, special dinners, or social events. Do the same for your staff too. You could provide breakfast or lunch throughout the week. Or maybe host a ceremony acknowledging the strengths of every member of your staff.
Give back
Thank you notes and special events are appreciated, but a big reason why folks in the healthcare space are choosing to leave the industry is for better pay and benefits. And given how difficult it is for companies to hire across all industries, your team members have plenty of options for a career change. So can you offer extra PTO? Mental health days? What about a bonus to show your appreciation?
Ask for their feedback
Sometimes the best way to show that you care is to open up and ask people what’s on their minds. Take this time to reach out to each member of your team individually or send an anonymous survey to find out what keeps them around and what would motivate them to leave your organization. Form a list of the most common responses — whether that’s more opportunities for career growth or flexible hours — and pledge to address them.
Focus on hiring
And lastly, burn out is one of the biggest factors driving turnover in the healthcare space right now. You’re short staffed and folks are putting their health on the line to work long hours during a global pandemic. Devote time this week to forming a plan for ramping up your hiring efforts so you can provide some relief for your team. Attracting talent is tough across all industries right now, so you need to be intentional about improving your efforts in order to get top talent into the pipeline. Here are a few areas of focus to get you started:
- Review your hiring sources: Are you relying on job boards alone to attract talent? If so, it’s time to diversify your sources in order to connect with a broader range of talent. Consider SEO, social media, and enhancing your employee referral program.
- Audit your processes: Given that so many companies are looking to hire, top talent today moves fast. If your processes are outdated and it’s taking you weeks or months to review applications and get folks in the door, you’re missing out on the best job seekers. Figure out what’s slowing you down in your processes and find ways to create more predictably and repeatability so your team can move faster.
- Consider modern tools: Relying on disparate tools is leading to mistakes and slowing you down. Look for modern recruiting, hiring, and talent management tools that allow you to complete every step of the process — from posting your open roles to paying new employees — from one centralized location.
Hiring and retaining healthcare talent is harder than ever. Businesses across all industries are looking to hire, making it easy for healthcare professionals to seek employment elsewhere if the industry is no longer meeting their needs. Take this week as an opportunity to show some extra love to your team and hopefully motivate them to stick around long-term.
Hireology can help. Our all-in-one recruiting, hiring, and talent management software can help you increase applicant flow, hire talent fast, and seamlessly manage employees post-hire with a suite of onboarding, payroll, and shift scheduling tools. Schedule a demo today to learn more.
