To Drive Down Labor Costs, Focus on Senior Living Staff Retention

Senior living operators continue to face intense staffing challenges. Between an ongoing labor shortage and the latest CMS staffing mandate, it’s harder than ever to hire new staff – much less retain them.

High turnover has an obvious impact on resident care and staff morale. But there are also hidden costs: the higher your employee turnover rate, the more you’ll spend on recruitment, training, and onboarding.

That’s why it’s important to have a retention-first staffing strategy. When you focus on keeping your best employees around, you’ll be able to create a consistent resident experience and save on hiring and training costs. In this post, we’ll explore three key strategies that can help you retain more workers.

1. Prepare Employees for Their First 90 Days

The first three months are a critical period for new hires. In many cases, the onboarding experience can make or break employees’ decision to stay with your community long term. And when employees feel supported and prepared from the start, they’re more likely to stick around.

How can you engage employees from Day 1? These three tips can help you set new team members up for success:

1. Provide a structured onboarding program. Set clear milestones for progress and provide easy-access resources (say, via your staff engagement portal) to learn about company policies and best practices.
2. Establish a peer mentorship program. Pair new employees with experienced staff who can offer guidance and answer questions during and after onboarding.
3. Embrace microlearning. Use tools that break down onboarding content into bite-sized chunks. This approach makes learning more manageable for new hires and allows them to absorb information at their own pace.

With a comprehensive onboarding experience, you can cultivate a positive work environment that encourages long-term commitment.

2. Invest in Tech that Boosts Productivity (Without Creating Friction)

Today’s senior living staff expect digital tools that make it easy to plan life enrichment calendars, design flyers, and communicate with residents and families. But not just any technology will do. 

Clunky software can create multiple friction points throughout the staff experience. And friction is a one-way ticket to turnover. Just imagine having to navigate three separate platforms throughout the day, each with their own login info and hard-to-navigate interfaces. That day in, day out experience can quickly become frustrating.

The staff retention play? Invest in frictionless tech that enhances productivity without creating more work. Three tips to consider:

1. Choose intuitive software. Opt for user-friendly platforms with straightforward navigation and clear labeling, ensuring staff can find the information they need with minimal clicks.
2. Ensure your software has a mobile component. With a mobile app at their fingertips, employees can schedule an activity or message a resident without being tethered to their desk.
3. Integrate your tech stack. You can make your staff’s lives a lot easier by integrating every tool they use, from your calendar management platform to your family engagement portal. The ideal scenario: a single portal where staff can perform all their core job duties without constantly switching contexts.

By equipping staff with productivity-boosting technology, you can create a hassle-free employee experience that stands out in the senior living industry.

3. Gamify Your Staff Engagement

You know how much your employees care about your community. And you know how much work they do to maintain a quality resident experience. But knowing isn’t enough. It’s important to recognize and reward your staff for their dedication and commitment.

Rewards and recognition let your staff know how valued they are in your community. They can also boost morale and provide a sense of achievement – all key to creating the satisfaction necessary for long-term retention.

Staff engagement software can make it easy to consistently acknowledge employees. In fact, the best software will use gamification to encourage stellar performance –and provide a token of appreciation after hitting certain benchmarks. We recommend looking for a platform that lets you…

• Award performance points. Let staff earn points for hitting weekly, monthly, or quarterly goals. Then, allow them to redeem points for gift cards, experiences or other rewards.
• Reward training achievements. Recognize employees who finish training modules quickly or score high on continuous learning assessments.
• Create leaderboards. Highlight top-performing teams throughout your community to encourage friendly competition.

The bottom line? Staff engagement tech can help you motivate employees and boost morale, paving the way for greater staff retention.

Staff Retention Is Your Smartest Play

There’s no doubt that hiring is a must to meet new standards for resident care. But it’s only one piece of the puzzle. If new senior living staff join your team, only to leave a year later, you’ll find yourself stuck in a costly cycle of recruitment, training, and turnover.

But a retention-first approach can make all the difference. In fact, we’d argue it’s your smartest play to bolster your staff in today’s senior living environment. And the right technology can help. With Icon’s senior living tech, you can give your team purpose-built digital tools that actually make their lives easier.Ready to see the impact for yourself? Book a demo or reach out for more info.