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Let Seniors Out of the Box!

Let Seniors Out of the Box!

Posted on by MDSadmin

 

A recent article in Senior Housing News shows how one community takes on the challenge of seniors and technology.  This community looked outside its own walls to form a partnership that brought great value to the community’s program offerings but more importantly, value to their residents.

Don’t Limit Seniors

So many times we make assumptions which limit both us (as individuals and companies) as well as those we make those assumptions about.  We make assumptions based on our own opinions as well as past knowledge.  We must not only keep an open mind but embrace that times and people change and evolve.  In our minds, we might limit seniors’ interest and ability when it comes to technology.  We think it will be too difficult, we think they are not interested and even THEY may have these same thoughts.

Technology is Increasingly User Friendly

Do your residents shy away from technology? Some may not be interested because they think it is too complicated or difficult even if they wanted to learn.  Equipment is becoming increasingly user friendly and apps make that equipment even easier…well, sometimes.  With so many options, it is not hard to find systems even the most timid can learn and use.

Reducing Isolation

We often criticize technology for isolating our younger generations by limiting their interaction to technological means vs. human interaction.  While that is most definitely a valid argument, some populations are isolated due to circumstances such as residents in senior housing with family in distant locations.  Technology can open doors to communication and interaction.  Emails, video-chatting, Facebook, and other applications can give those residents access to family and friends they may not have right now.  If these residents have family far away, what a gift to be able to see them and be able to stay up to date via video and pictures.

Comfort Zones

While technology may be out of the comfort zone of both the senior student to learn it and the staff who is designated to teach it, rewards can be significant. Don’t hesitate to look outside your community for help with instituting such programs. As this article illustrates, finding partners outside your community can benefit your community as well as your residents.  It does not have to be a partner as large as Google, local businesses and organization offer a wealth of knowledge and resources.

It is a common adage that life happens outside our comfort zone and our senior residents are no different.  When we are pushed to learn and grow, we find confidence, opportunities and great satisfaction in overcoming perceived obstacles.  Find ways to help develop this confidence and satisfaction in your residents.  Give your residents challenges every now and then.  Lifetime learning is exactly what is says, a lifetime of learning no matter your age.  We should adopt this concept not only for ourselves but for our residents as well.

An important reminder for us and them; we are never too old to learn something new.

Explanations Go a Long Way on Resumes

Explanations Go a Long Way on Resumes

Posted on by MDSadmin

 

 

Explanations Go a Long Way on ResumesLeaving off pertinent information is why so many resumes go in the trash.

It’s difficult to balance out the amount of information presented in a resume. With the shorter attention spans today, it’s important to get to the point. You don’t want to bog the reader down with reams of useless information — but you also need to make sure you include vital information that demonstrates why you are worthy of further consideration. You can’t just cut your resume down for the sake of word count.

Make Sure Your Resume Includes Pertinent Information

While there are many areas this tip could apply to, let’s focus on past employment. As a hiring manager, this is the first area of a candidate’s resume that I look at. I want to see if the candidate has any related work experience, and I want to see how stable their employment history is.

Most hiring managers are looking for long-term employees, and stability is important. Despite that, I receive more resumes today than ever before with tenures of five months here, four months there, and seven months here, with no explanation. Short job tenures are not bad in and of themselves, but without an explanation of some kind, the worst is assumed. I will usually not waste my time doing a simple phone screen — and definitely not an in-person interview — with a candidate that has a history of unexplained short-tenured positions.

Case in Point: A good friend of mine found herself unemployed at the end of 2013 due to staff cuts resulting from her company being bought out. Her unemployment dragged on for about six months, with very little activity.

After looking at her resume, I figured out why. She had a stable work history with three companies up until 2009, averaging eight years of tenure at each business. Then, after 2009, she had six jobs in a couple different industries. It was no wonder she was not getting any calls: It looked as if something had happened to make her very unstable in this period.

My friend had been employed in the building material industry for her entire career. Beginning in mid-2006, the housing slow down led to tough times in that industry. My friend had been laid off or downsized in company buyouts or mergers four times during this period. She was also a single mother and had to take a few part-time jobs to pay her mortgage and put food on the table.

Resume, pertinent information, Senior Living consulting, senior living consultantJust looking at her resume, you could not tell any of this. It looked as if something had gone haywire and hiring managers were reluctant to even call her. Don’t expect that a hiring manager is going to take the time to try and connect the dots on your resume. That’s not their job. It’s up to the candidate to try and fill in any holes in their own resume.

The Proof Is in the Details

My friend went back and filled in all the gaps on her resume by including the reasons why she separated from each company. Within in the first few days of using this updated resume, she began getting interviews and job offers worthy of her experience and talent. Within a month, she was hired by a leading specialty building material supplier.

My friend didn’t change anything about her fragmented work history. All she did was add a little explanation. This had the tremendous benefit of helping hiring managers — especially those that lived through the difficult economic times — understand why her resume looked the way it did.

Are You Explanations Satisfactory?

There are many satisfactory explanations for short job tenures — they just need to be noted for busy hiring managers to quickly and easily see them. The shaky economy of the last few years has increased the number of downsizings, closings, and mergers, all of which have resulted in many layoffs.

Similarly, some positions are, by nature, contract- and project-oriented. These roles will result in job changes every six months or so, but not because you are an unsteady or troubled employee.

Furthermore, there are also those younger adults who have been working internships to try and gain experience in various careers. In today’s new economy, there are also those part-time and stopgap positions that employees need to bridge the gap between permanent, full-time positions.

Resumes, Senior Living consulting, senior living consultantJust remember that having multiple short-tenured positions is not the kiss of death — if you take the time to provide a short explanation for your limited tenure, that is. It need be no more than a few words under the job title, such as “contract position,” “internship,” “temporary work,” “layoff,” or whatever the situation was.

Do You Take Advantage of PR or Public Relations Opportunities?

Do You Take Advantage of PR or Public Relations Opportunities?

Posted on by MDSadmin

PR or Public relations should be in everyone’s marketing communications tool kit.

As a Senior Living Consultant working with many Senior Living clients over the years, this is one form of community promotion that tends to be over looked the most. So what exactly is PR? PR or public relations, the noun, as defined by Meriam-Webster.com is as follows:

the activity or job of providing information about a particular person or organization to the public so that people will regard that person or organization in a favorable way

OR

the relationship between an organization and the public

What is PR?
PR iDo You Take Advantage of PR or Public Relations Opportunities?s different from advertising in the fact that in advertising you pay for the privilege of controlling the timing, placement, and message associated with it. While with PR, since it is generally free, the control lies in the hands of the writer and media outlet providing you the coverage. I once heard that “Advertising is what you pay for, PR is what you pray for.”

There are many forms of PR. Most of the time the words PR conjure up images of events at opposite ends of the spectrum. Either a publicity stunt where someone is doing something that is outrageous and crazy to call attention to themselves, their company or their mission, or a company spokesperson trying to put a positive spin on a potentially bad situation that has arisen for the company.

Examples
An example of an outrageous PR stunt would be similar to the flash mob dancing troupe a few years ago that held an impromptu performance at Grand Central Station, it ended up netting them 28 million YouTube hits and a lot of media exposure. An example of positive spin on a bad situation would be the aftermath of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. There have been subsequent news conferences and advertising campaigns trying to convince the public, that the gulf coast is now better than ever.

The kind of PR I am talking about is somewhere in the middle of these two extremes. The press release, media tours, special events, sponsorships, public service/public interest stories are all form of PR that your company/community can use to build brand awareness. These types of PR also show that your brand is part of the greater community and can generate loyalty in a larger audience.

Put PR To Work For You
One of the great things about PR is that it is happening all around us and while we get the intended message, we don’t realize the company or brand is promoting itself to us. Instead of thumping our chest telling everyone how great our company and/or products are through advertising, PR is a subtle way of getting a company name out by providing useful information and activities to others.

PR is also a way to have others validate you as an expert. The general thinking of readers or viewers is that they surely wouldn’t be quoting you or doing a piece on you or your company/community unless you were an authority, the best and most knowledgeable in your field.

November Public Relations Webinar
As part of MDS’ “Plug-In and Prosper” Webinar Series, the November 18, 2015 webinar will be “Generating Public Relations for Your Community”. The webinar will focus on the meaning and use of public relations and why it’s important. I will discuss PR as part of a well-rounded marketing communication plan, the benefits of PR, and how it can enhance your relationship between your company and the public.

So mark your calendar and join me on Wednesday, November 18 at 1:00 pm (CDT) for this important webinar.

I look forward to having you join me for this complimentary monthly webinar! You can also check out our past webinars on the Moore Diversified Services YouTube channel!

Registration Link

Roy Barker is Director of Special Projects at Moore Diversified Services, a Fort-Worth, Texas-based organization specializing in Senior Living operations analysis, marketing development, and investment advisory services. Roy is an authority in the field of employee turnover analysis and retention strategies.

Do You Market For Human Talent? Part 2 of 2

Do You Market For Human Talent? Part 2 of 2

Posted on by MDSadmin

How Often Are You Recruiting For New Top Human Talent?

It is easy to form a perception that talent should only be recruited when there is a position vacant in your company, but unfortunately, that kind of thinking is not very helpful to your company. You should always be recruiting and finding top talent so that they are ready when positions open up for any reason.

Don’t Rely on the Internet Alone

The advent of the internet and job boards was thought to be the end- all- be- all for recruiting. But, it has proven to be a double edge sword when it is the only method used. The great thing about internet job postins is that you can cast a wide net by broadcasting your current job openings to many individuals that may be looking for employment in your town, or even across the country. The downside is that you can be flooded by many applicants that are not anywhere close to being qualified for an opening in a specific position.

Now, relate this to your community’s marketing department for new residents. Can your community just post an advertisement saying “We have rooms available”, and the right person shows up and there you go, you have a new resident? Not quite, or there would be no need to have a sales and marketing team. It should be considered the same with community staffing. It takes a lot of work and effort to find the right fit for the community, both for residents and staff.

Always Be Recruiting

Do You Market for Human Talent? Part 1 of 2It’s important to augment the posting of job openings through portals such as Indeed, Career Builder, or others in this category. Talent Mangers must actively recruit to find the best employees available for the many different job functions within the community/company. This includes giving talks throughout the community at different functions and gatherings of people like civic clubs, high schools, junior colleges, colleges, and other professional organizations throughout your operating region. It is very important to educate as many people as possible about the existence of your community/company, that it is a great place to work with many opportunities besides those of just direct caregivers. Target programs and organizations can include, but are not limited to, those affiliated with business, nursing, culinary, and hospitality.

LinkedIn is also a great place to gather potential contacts for professional level jobs. LinkedIn should be used to identify individuals with skills that will be beneficial to your team now and in the future. Don’t limit yourself to just those that may currently hold positions in the Senior Living industry, but look in other industries for transferable skills as well. Establish casual relationships in the beginning and watch how they interact with others in their peer groups. Do they post timely and relevant material? Do they have original thoughts? How many connections do they have (a peek at how good they might be at networking and recruiting prospective residents)? Do they seek out and participate in continued education opportunities? LinkedIn will also let you glance into the individual’s employment past. With this feature, it is easy for an individual to write anything they want with little to no cross-checking by others, so proceed with caution. Trust, but verify. Once individuals are identified as potential employees who could be an asset to your team, then it is prudent to reach out and make a connection with them.

Start an HR newsletter to keep current employees and those interested in working for your company informed of current happenings within your company/community. Not necessarily resident-focused, but more about job openings, training, and highlighting employee accomplishments. The added communication will go a long way in both employee retention and recruiting efforts. While this form of communication usually will not lead to instant gratification in the recruiting of other professional individuals, it will build a pattern of contact that over time will lead to candidates keeping up with your company. If they like what you have to say, it will leave them with the sense of wanting more information about company activities and available openings.

So get out from behind the desk and computer screen, and endeavor into the community, market yourself, your industry, and your company for great talent. A great side effect is that while you are getting the word out of your community/company, simultaneously you just might accidentally uncover a prospective resident or family member looking for a loved one.

Make your company an employer of choice, not an employer of last resort!

 

Roy Barker is Director of Special Projects at Moore Diversified Services, a Fort-Worth, Texas-based organization specializing in Senior Living operations analysis, marketing development, and investment advisory services. Roy is an authority in the field of employee turnover analysis and retention strategies.

 

Is “Cost Creep” affecting your income statement?

Is “Cost Creep” affecting your income statement?

Posted on by MDSadmin

 

What is “Cost Creep”? How is it measured?  How does it affect your community, division, or company? What can you do to stay out in front of it?  These are some questions I hope to answer for you.

Cost creep, in its basic form, is providing more care to residents than you are being compensated for. This can come about for many reasons, such as:

Is “Cost Creep” affecting your income statement?

  • an incorrect loaded hourly rate on which to base monthly service fees (MSF) and care tiers upon;
  • not having residents assigned to correct care tiers;
  • not catching resident’s decline soon enough; and
  • caregivers not understanding the dynamic of what they provide the resident and the company through their service.

 

Use Correct Wage Rates

One of the first steps to stay ahead of cost creep is to make sure that your employee’s loaded wage rates are correct and appropriate. When loading an employee’s wage, you want to include their regular base wage, benefits, overhead, indirect time allotments, and an appropriate profit margin. Once you have accounted for all of these factors you will arrive at the appropriate loaded wage rate on which to base your monthly service fees and tier levels upon.

The base wage is just like it sounds:  the face amount at which you pay the employee. If the employee receives any benefits, what is that cost per hour they work? We generally see this in the 25% to 35% of the employee’s base wage. Overhead can be a little more complicated, but think of it in terms of how much do you need from each employee to fund the director of nursing, human resources tasks associated with the employee, funding of Executive Director, meal programs, and so on. MDS generally see this range in the 15% to 25% of the employee’s base wage.

Indirect time is the time a caregiver spends on the clock but not performing hands-on resident care. This could relate to paper work, charts, meetings, breaks, training, and other unrelated tasks.  Most time and motion studies have shown that the average caregiver will be productive, i.e. providing hands-on care to a resident, approximately 80% of the time, so this is what MDS generally uses unless an individual case can be made showing more or less. Profit margins will vary depending upon your company’s goals and the level of care provided at your community.

Once you have developed your loaded wage rate for caregivers, about half of the battle is over.  Next double check all MSFs and tier ranges at your community to make sure they are in line with the amount of care provided at each level.

Monitor the Care

Now that you have your loaded wage rates and pricing up-to-date, it’s time to monitor the care being provided. Each resident should have a care plan and fall into a category of care, from a base rate (generally the MSF) to a Level 3, 4, 5 depending upon the care levels your community provides. Make sure that ALL residents have an up-to-date care plan and are billed an appropriate amount for their specific care level. Double check time for tasks performed to make sure they are within a reasonable range.

Next we can look at the number of minutes resident care providers are on the floor. First take a quick snap shot of total weekly minutes your staff is providing—don’t initially worry about shifts, just the total number. This is a simple calculation of taking all full-time equivalent (FTE) resident care employees (remember this is FTEs not bodies), multiple that times .80 or 80% efficiency.  You can substitute your community’s exact level of efficiency if it is different.  Then multiply this number by the hours of a typical shift at your community. This could be 7, 7.5, 8, 12, or something else if your community has a unique schedule. Then multiply by the number of days the typical resident care employee works to reach a normal work week.

To compensate for employees who work different shifts, you either need to calculate separately and add up, or do a weighted average for your community. For example, the equation for a 7.5 hour employee who works 5 days a week at 80% efficiency would look like this: (hours x days) x efficiency factor = hours of direct care provided.  Here is our example: (7.5 x 5) x .80 = 30.  The (7.5 x 5) = 37.5 represents the hours per day and days per week the employee is on the clock and available to provide care.  Then we multiple the 37.5 x .80 or the number of total hours available times the efficiency factor, in this example 80%, to arrive at a net 30 hours of direct care provided by this one particular employee.  This should be repeated for each FTE, not warm body, on your schedule each week.

Reconcile the number of minutes of care your residents require verse the number of care minutes you put on the floor each week. It’s important to remember that these two numbers may not be equal due to shift scheduling, shift irregularities, and overlaps, but this is a great place to start making sure that they are in relevant proximity to each other.

Silent Killer

Cost Creep is the silent killer in Senior Living, especially Assisted Living, Memory Care, and Nursing Care. This is a great exercise to run frequently in order to make sure that things don’t quickly get out of hand. This is a problem that will not only affect your Net Operating Income (NOI) and Cash Flow, but also your Terminal Value. If you are shorting yourself $100,000 of NOI per year, that can equate to a $1 million reduction in terminal value for your community.

Here at MDS we have been dealing with the “Cost Creep” phenomenon for many years. Having worked with many Senior Living communities of all shapes and sizes over the years has allowed us to develop an unsurpassed knowledge base and many tools to look at the Cost Creep situation from all sides and develop solutions best suited for our clients.  Our experience with this and other industry issues are unsurpassed.

Call me directly at your earliest convenience and let’s discuss how MDS can help your community work through Cost Creep and other operational matters that might be holding up your income statement.

Next Webinar:  “How To Recruit Top Talent Into Your Community”

Roy Barker’s next Webinar, “How To Recruit Top Talent Into Your Community,” will be Thursday, August 20 at 1 p.m.  Roy will use his 16 years of experience in the Senior Living industry to share unique tips for finding the best talent to manage and care for your residents.  Recruiting the best talent means more than simply posting job listings online.  Find out how you can be proactive in searching for the top candidates, rather than passively waiting for whoever comes to you.  Register for the webinar by clicking this link.

Roy Barker is Director of Special Projects at Moore Diversified Services, a Fort-Worth, Texas-based organization specializing in Senior Living operations analysis, marketing development, and investment advisory services. Roy is an authority in the field of employee turnover analysis and retention strategies.

Has Your Senior Living Community Adapted to the New Information Paradigm?

Has Your Senior Living Community Adapted to the New Information Paradigm?

Posted on by MDSadmin

Welcome To The New Information Paradigm!

Has Your Senior Living Community Adapted to the New Information Paradigm?There has been a new day dawning concerning the flow of information in the Senior Living industry the last few years. Some in marketing/sales have gotten this and some haven’t quite embraced the movement yet. The larger movement has been from transaction-based selling to relationship building. Transaction-based selling is where the sales person shows the prospect the living unit and dining area and then does a 30-minute information dump about their community.

Relationship building involves a lot more listening than talking, asking the right questions, really being interested in the prospect’s current situation, their history, wants and needs, and opinions, and really CARING about them, not just lip service.  In this piece I’m not going into the entire relationship building concept, but more how the information is exchanged today. The New Information Paradigm!

How Things Have Changed

Back in the day, and even up to a few short years ago, the sales/marketing person at a community controlled all the information. The Senior Living Industry was a newer concept and not that many people outside the industry really understood the concept. This is still true today to some extent, but getting better. Prospects and their families usually related all Senior Living options to the Nursing Home days of the 1960s, which today couldn’t be farther from reality for 95% of the Senior Living spectrum from Independent Living to Skilled Nursing.

So when a prospect walked in, their mind was a blank canvas that the sales person could color in this new concept of Senior Living. Or worse, the prospect and family had a very negative image based on memories from their childhood.  However, our industry has grown and matured. With the proliferation of professional marketing and the adoption of the internet, we now have smarter, demanding, more resourceful consumers than ever before. This puts the real power in the hands of the consumer.

A typical sales person at the community level doesn’t get involved until much later in the process, or their families’ information gathering process, now. The days of touring and just providing an information dump are no longer effective. Approximately 80% of the prospects that call or walk through your door in 2015 have already thoroughly researched you and your community. This is also the first generation of prospects that likely had a family member in some form of senior living beyond the outdated nursing home concept of the 1960s. This is really great for the prospect/consumer, but now they know a lot more about Senior Living in general and probably know more about your competition than you know. Now the sales professional has to find out where the prospect is in this process and meet them there, not starting at the beginning. This will generally belittle a prospect and turn them off immediately.

Now more than ever it’s important for the sales person to take a deep breath and learn how to ask those probing questions. The open-ended ones! Opened-ended questions are designed to get the prospect talking, not as in closed-ended questions that require a Yes or No answer. A great example is to ask, “What brought you in today?” versus “Are you looking for a place to live?” Sales people should take the time to get to know the prospect and not be afraid to say, “We might not be a good fit for you”, instead of trying to shoehorn every prospect into their community.

Relationship Building

I increasingly dislike the term “Sales”.  I understand it’s the discipline of closing, but over time it has received a very negative connotation. It conjures up the image of talking someone into something that they don’t want, need, or worse yet, can’t afford. While I won’t get on my soapbox here, it would be better to refer to them as Relationship Counselors or something similar, because that’s exactly what needs to happen—build a strong relationship with the prospect and/or their family.

Designing the correct approach to relationship building leaves no need for selling. If the right questions are asked, the need is found and then you have to decide if your community is a good fit or maybe not? If you don’t believe it is a good fit, you can offer to help point them in the right direction and/or make a few phone calls to communities that might be a good fit. The goodwill you build will be unimaginable.

When relationships are built, the Sales or Relationship Counselor is working to collaborate with the prospect. This doesn’t mean that objections cannot be overcome, like, “I can’t afford this” or, “I don’t want to just sit in my room all day”. Building a relationship and collaborating involves providing new perspectives and pointing out misconceptions, i.e. overcome objections, but just not trying to have a one size fits all model. You will just be recruiting unhappy residents at that point.

Get Away from Sales Myopia

I saw the use of a great term not long ago, “Sales Myopia”, focusing on our product and not the consumer needs. Unfortunately this is how a lot of Sales People still operate in the Senior Living Space. I was auditing a sales call the other day and the community’s sales person missed 5 opportunities to schedule a tour with the person on the phone because she was determine to give her rehearsed “information dump.” I know executives say this couldn’t be happening today, in 2015, and it sure couldn’t be happening in my community, but it is!

A few takeaways from this would be that the consumer is a much more educated and determined bunch than years ago. Throw away your information script because 95% of prospects will know you provide room, meals, and activities already. Individualize by asking questions and get to know the prospect. We tend to buy from those we like or relate to. Be consciously aware that most prospects have already researched your community and your competition. Take the sales hat off and get to building relationships. Ask those probing, open-ended questions. Find where the prospects are in the process and meet them there. Ask, “What brought you in today?” And most of all listen, really listen and care. Don’t be scared you might have to say, “Sorry, our community is not a good fit.” As a collaborator, our job is to find the best fit for the prospect and their family.

Register for Our Next Webinar on July 21st:  10 Must-Do’s for Community Call Takers

Upcoming Webinar – Part 2 of 2: 10 Critical Steps to Increase Employee Retention – Steps 6-10

As part of MDS’ latest “Plug-In and Prosper” Webinar Series, Roy Barker, Director – Special Projects here at Moore Diversified Services, will use his years of experience in the Senior Living industry to share his wisdom of “10 Must-Do’s For Community Call Takers.”

Many times Community Call Takers make the first impression of your Senior Living community. How can they make the best first impression? How can Community Call Takers move the sales process forward and help create relationships? Community Call Takers are critical to your Senior Living community’s success. They can be the difference in a potential resident further exploring your community, or moving forward with your competitors. Join Roy on Tuesday, July 21st at 1:00 pm (CST) for this important webinar.

We look forward to having you join us!

 

Roy Barker is Director of Special Projects at Moore Diversified Services, a Fort-Worth, Texas-based organization specializing in Senior Living operations analysis, marketing development, and investment advisory services. Roy is an authority in the field of employee turnover analysis and retention strategies.

Is Your Business Prepared for the $15-An-Hour Entry Level Worker?

Is Your Business Prepared for the $15-An-Hour Entry Level Worker?

Posted on by MDSadmin

 

 

Is Your Business Prepared for the $15-An-Hour Entry Level Worker?Is your company or community ready for the financial impact of rising entry level worker pay? While $15 an hour is the new “rally cry” for the minimum wage, whether it will happen nationwide can be debated. But it still begs the question, “Can your current financial structure handle entry level wages increasing to $14, $12, even $10 per hour?” Reality is there are a lot of communities that struggle even with current entry level wages somewhere between $8 to $10 an hour. A recent Wall Street Journal article indicated U.S. wages were on pace to increase at rates not seen since 2008. So while we don’t know where entry level wages will land ultimately, it is certain that wages will continue to increase, and more than likely increase at a faster pace than over the last few years.

Minimum Wage verses Entry Level Wage

An important point to note is that while minimum wage and entry level wage are used interchangeably, they can be very different. Minimum wage is mandated by a governing body of some type, such as federal, state, county, or even cities in the case of Los Angeles as mentioned in an article referenced below. Entry level wages are what companies decide is a competitive wage for new employees in entry level jobs such as dining services, housekeeping, and direct care. Most Senior Living communities pay over and above prevailing mandated minimum wage levels by an average of $.75 to $1.50 per hour.

Wage Pressures

The increase in entry level wages is due to many factors. First our economy has improved and unemployment is significantly down over the last few years. Secondly, retail giant Wal-Mart and fast food giant McDonald’s have both made commitments to raise their minimum starting salary over the next few years. In fact, the Mayor of Los Angeles, CA just signed a bill setting the minimum wage in that city to $15 an hour by 2020, making it the largest city in the country to mandate a $15-an-hour wage.  Thirdly, adding to the already mounting wage pressure are predictions of a looming labor shortage in some geographic areas and industries.

On the other side of the coin we can argue that with the talk of a labor shortages, immigration reform could be on the horizon to add more labor to the pool. There is also the view that if McDonald’s entry level wages rose to $15, automation would step in and replace a large portion of their entry-level workers. Even if you take the actual dollar amount off the table for just a minute, and let’s say that you were still able to attract workers in the $8 to $10 an hour range, are you and your residents willing to settle for the leftovers? Those who couldn’t make it anywhere else? Because while wages generally don’t make it in the top 5 to 10 reasons why employees leave employers, when talking about a differential of $.10-$.50 an hour, if the difference was $2, $4, or $6 an hour, a 20% to 60% increase over current pay, this would be a game changer.  Regardless of your point of view on the actual dollar amount, the uncertainty should be enough to take action to off-set wage related financial pressures, even if they are not as extreme as mentioned.

Impact To An Average Community

Jim Moore, founder and president of Moore Diversified Services, published an article in January 2015, which highlighted what a modest increase of a $1.50 per hour might mean to an average 110 unit assisted-living community. This included the payroll increase of over 10%, total expense increase of 4.5%, approximately a 12% decrease in net operating profit margins, and $2 million of decreased community value at a conservative capitalization rate of 8%. You can only imagine the impact to your bottom line if the increase was in the $4 to $6 an hour range instead of the $1.50 per hour used in the example.

Do You Have a Strategy?

The next question is, do you have a financial strategy to combat rising wages without compromising your Income Statement, significantly reducing cash flow, or greatly reducing the future value of your community? If not, now is the time to begin formulating one. In the past wages have generally risen at modest rates and changes in revenue structures could be made to accommodate or off-set the increases without much impact on residents. Unfortunately, with all these dynamics converging to create tremendous pressure on entry level wage, you may not have the luxury of time this go around.

It’s important to start the process and begin to manage change immediately. Three initiatives to help accomplish this would be to 1) reduce overall operating expenses, 2) fine-tune existing revenues, and 3) realize organic growth through increased revenue and expanded services.

How MDS Can Help You   

Entry level wages will likely increase in the near future, although how much can be debated. We at MDS believe this can be a Win-Win for communities and their workers. This will make strides in the effort to pay everyone a living wage, and with proper planning it doesn’t have to devastate your income statement. This will have a significant increase on the labor intensive Senior Housing industry; especially assisted living and memory care with heavy entry level labor concentration. There are practical strategies that can be implemented to enhance revenues, reduce overall operating expenses, and create favorable organic growth in individual communities or portfolios for multiple communities.

Now is the time to take a hard look at each and every line item of expense. Good economic times can cover excessive expenses very easily. It’s always a good practice to stay on top of changes that can be made to reduce expenses, while not compromising resident care and service to help off-set any future wage increases. A full-scale operations review and benchmarking would be recommended.

Performing competitive pricing analyses, evaluating ancillary and tier charges will insure that you aren’t leaving any revenue on the table. Make sure that units are priced according to the true value they provide residents.

Finally, don’t let 93% stand in the way of 100% occupancy.  Seems that there is a mental block when communities reach 93% occupancy.  Then it’s time to reduce the marketing budget or just operate under the 93% cloud. On the contrary, it’s time to push harder. The financial rewards for those next few units is what sets great performing communities apart from the good ones.

Don’t wait till it’s too late and put your communities’ financial health in jeopardy. Let’s get started planning for the future of higher wages for entry level workers today!

 

Roy Barker is Director of Special Projects at Moore Diversified Services, a Fort-Worth, Texas-based organization specializing in operations analysis, marketing development, and investment advisory services. Roy is an authority in the field of employee turnover analysis and retention strategies.

We Decide Our Own Path

We Decide Our Own Path

Posted on by MDSadmin

We Decide Our Own Path

As we get further into 2015, most of us are still planning for both business and personal success this year. Some of us may be realizing our plans are not working out as we had originally intended. This realization doesn’t mean we that we have to throw up our hands and pack it in for 2015. Rather we, at any time, can effect and create the change we desire in our lives! I listened to an inspiring interview the other day and I wanted to share the concept with you.

Neil Patrick Harris has been making the rounds plugging his book entitled “Choose Your Own Autobiography”.  While I have not read this book yet, the title really struck me.  It’s very simplistic and yet very powerful at the same time.  Choose your own autobiography should be the model we live by every day!  It’s not always simple, and there are a lot of outside influences in our personal and professional lives that affect our decisions and life direction.  However, if we keep the idea that we are in control of our own fate in the forefront of our thoughts, it will have a huge impact on our thinking and decision making throughout the day.  Living with this in mind will then impact the course of our lives. We don’t have to be stuck in the spot we are in today forever. We have control of our destiny and can make our future whatever we choose. We can take a poor situation and make it work for us.

Where are you today?

So many times we can easily find ourselves in a rut both personally and professionally.  Maybe it’s a situation that seemingly has no answer, and as a result you feel helpless and hopeless.  Sometimes we lead ourselves into these places and sometimes we’re forced there.  The good news is that we can still have an impact on the direction and action we take based on where we want to end up.  It’s not always easy to effect change and it doesn’t come without some hard work, and of course it won’t happen overnight, but it can happen.

I am definitely a proponent of getting ourselves squared away in our work lives in order to have a more productive and fulfilling personal life and vice versa.  It’s all about finding that elusive balance in life.  While there is a lot of ground that can be covered on the personal side, I want to remain focused on the business side.

I have been blessed with the good fortune of analytically-based careers.  Analytical careers have allowed me to look at procedures and processes from a fact-based perspective and not be as emotionally charged in decision making. This analytical mind-set can prove to be very helpful when making tough decisions.  However, even with this skillset, the hardest part of any decision is usually getting started. It’s much easier to stay where we are today, whether it’s good or bad, than change something. It’s a scary thought to step out there and do something different.

Taking the First Step

Making the decision that we do not like where our business is currently or realizing that we could do better is the first step. But coming to this realization doesn’t fix it. We need to take the corrective step to effect change. Finding what needs correcting or if you know what needs correcting, what do you do differently? (This can be the challenge!)

Analyzing the issues are an important part of developing the fix. Sometimes a Band-Aid fix doesn’t correct the underlying problem. Sometimes a quick fix is the easiest and least painful. However, if we don’t fix the underlying problems in our lives, they will just continue to resurface. And more than likely without a permanent solution they will continue to worsen.

Without getting into the nuts and the bolts of the change process in this forum, I mainly wanted to convey the message that we can effect change.  Even though sometimes things look like they can’t be changed, you don’t know how to proceed in making changes, you’re hesitant for some reason to take that first step, or you feel like you just don’t have the energy to figure all of this out, it can be done.  Promise!

Write Your Own Success Story

You don’t have to live with mediocrity or disappointment in your current situation. Just make the decision that you know it’s time for a change and MDS can help you take it from there. MDS has worked with clients from all types of Senior Living and Healthcare companies with a multitude of issues, problems, or concerns.

Call me and put the experts at MDS to work for you. We specialize in finding the best building location, repositioning a current community, or improving income statement issues, such as increasing revenue and decreasing expenses. Moore Diversified Services also provides market feasibility through market studies, competitive analysis, and pro-formas.

We help to optimize income statements by increasing revenue and making sure your monthly service fees and tier charges are correct for the market.  Once pricing is optimal, we can then take a look at expense control.  We don’t want to cut back to a point the service is diluted, but make sure expenses are within acceptable limits.  Next on to marketing. We check to see if your marketing efforts are well-rounded, from traditional print and other collaterals, to ensuring that you are taking full advantage of the digital footprint available to you. It is also imperative to assess your employee retention efforts. Consider your employee turnover rate.  What about your company culture? And other important points to attract and retain top talent in the industry.

The good news is that you don’t have to continue to survive in a less than optimal situation.  You can thrive!  It’s up to you to write your own Autobiography, let’s get started today!

 

Roy Barker is Director of Special Projects at Moore Diversified Services, a Fort-Worth, Texas-based organization specializing in operations analysis, marketing development, and investment advisory services. Roy is an authority in the field of employee turnover analysis and retention strategies.

What is Your Digital Media Strategy for 2015?

What is Your Digital Media Strategy for 2015?

Posted on by MDSadmin

 

Are you about to move right past this post because you don’t believe you need one? THINK AGAIN!

Digital Media is now an integral part of any comprehensive marketing strategy/plan. While some products and services may use digital media more than others, every business needs to utilize digital media in some form to build and enhance client and customer relationships.

Product Marketing vs. Relationship Marketing

There was a time when you strictly marketed your product or service to your target audience. While that is still a part of an effective marketing plan, relationship marketing is extremely effective in our industry. As a provider in the senior living and housing industry you actually have two target audiences. The first target audience is the senior themselves. The second is the family members of the senior who may be the primary decision maker or at minimum highly influential in the decision making process. You must be building relationships with current and potential customers as well as their family members.

In the case of a senior living and housing community, if an individual is not a resident or has a family member as a resident, you still want to be the first community they think of if the need arises or if someone asks for a recommendation. This means getting your community name out there and engaging with the public, resident or not. This process does not have to be complicated. Start with a simple plan and build from there.

Website

First, no matter your marketing strategy, your size, your mission or your occupancy rate, you must have a presence on the web. One of the first places, a potential resident or family member will go is the web. Whether it is to just get contact information, an address to pay you a visit or to get an idea of what your community looks like, a large percentage of people immediately will look up your website opposed to the previous process of looking you up in the phone book.

“Up to 84 percent of all Americans now expect the Internet’s World Wide Web to provide them needed information on government, news, healthcare, and commerce, according to a new survey compiled by the Pew Internet and American Life Project.”

Having a website is 24/7 marketing. Websites market to those around the country. It can market to those you don’t even realize need your services; think out-of-town family members doing preliminary research on a community for their senior. It would be difficult to direct-market by mail to that particular audience.

Blog

If you have a website, the next easiest step would be to add a blog to your site. While blogs can be intimidating, they don’t have to be! Use it to simply give updates about your community, upcoming events and most importantly provide your audience some general tips, hints and information. This can include:

  • What is happening in your immediate area, not just your community
  • Helpful tips from your current residents about downsizing and moving
  • Advice on what to look for in a senior living community
  • Great recipes from your residents or their families
  • Profile some of your residents (with their permission of course)

A blog can be as simple or as sophisticated as you make it. Just be sure to keep it current so that anyone who makes it to your website will know the information is up to date.

Facebook

The next logical step would be to create a Facebook page for your community. You can basically use the same content as your blog on your Facebook page. Family members who are already on Facebook will enjoy seeing updates about where their parents, grandparents, aunts, or uncles are living. So many communities already have a presence on Facebook and have found great success with this strategy.

Resources

There are more resources available than we could list, so here are a few of our suggestions to get you started:

These can all be purchased from Westridge Publishing or most book retailers.

Stuck and don’t know the first step or maybe you need some reassurance about the path you’re taking? Let me help! I can perform an audit of your company and/or community’s digital footprint, provide guidance, and a sound plan of action for you.

 

Roy Barker is Director of Special Projects at Moore Diversified Services, a Fort-Worth, Texas-based organization specializing in operations analysis, marketing development, and investment advisory services. Roy is an authority in the field of employee turnover analysis and retention strategies

Kim Jimenez has been a regular contributor to the MDS website and MDS blog for the past 15 years.  Kim holds a supervisory position in a Fortune 100 company and has extensive experience with a multitude of employee, training and leadership issues.  She is currently obtaining her degree in Human Resource Management at Southern New Hampshire University.

Wishing You and Your Family a Safe and Happy Holiday Season!

Wishing You and Your Family a Safe and Happy Holiday Season!

Posted on by MDSadmin

 

Happy Holidays From The Staff of MDS

We at MDS would like to take this opportunity to wish all of you dedicated to the service and care of the many residents aging successfully in communities around the world a Safe and Happy Holidays!

We especially thank those that will tend to residents on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day; there is no day off in an industry such as ours.  To many of these residents, you are their family and you will make their holidays bright!

Thank you for your commitment to the betterment of the Senior Living and Senior Housing Industry.