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More Wage Pressure Could Be On The Horizon!

More Wage Pressure Could Be On The Horizon!

Posted on by MDSadmin

In a proposed plan by the White House, more exempt employees will be eligible for overtime compensation.

More Wage Pressure Could Be On The Horizon!

Not long ago I wrote a piece on the impact of increasing wages through both higher minimum wages and entry level wages in Is Your Business Prepared for the $15-An-Hour Entry Level Worker? Now, you should not only consider the impact of rising wages for hourly workers, but also potential wage impacts related to exempt employees. The proposed plan by the White House would raise the threshold of wages in which exempt works are eligible for overtime compensation.

The Proposal

A recent White House Proposal will increase the number of exempt employees eligible for and entitled to compensation for overtime work beginning in 2016. The new regulation increases the minimum pay for overtime-eligible exempt employees from $455 a week to $970 a week, or $23,660 to $50,440 on a yearly basis.

Currently, hourly and salaried employees making under $455 a week or $23,660 a year are generally eligible for overtime compensation for hours worked in excess of 40 per week. If this proposal goes into effect, it will increase the eligibility for salaried employees making up to $50,440 a year to be eligible for overtime compensation. This will more than likely have an effect on most department managers and some administrative personnel currently employed at senior living communities who have previously been ineligible for overtime due to their exempt status.

Changes To Be Considered

If the proposal is approved, this will create a need to start doing a few things differently for the exempt employees making under $50,440 per year. The first thing would be to start tracking these newly eligible employees’ time closely, even if they work off-site or from home. If the employee consistently works overtime, the changes that can be considered will include: whether to institute a no more overtime policy, increase the employees pay to $50,500, or convert them to an hourly rate and adjust for overtime normally worked.

Policies for communicating with these employees during off hours by phone, text, or email will also need to be evaluated. It would also be prudent to consider the impact of employees who might cover for others due to no-calls, no-shows, or other absences. If the coverage situation happens at the end of the scheduled work week, then this employee would more than likely have already worked enough hours to be eligible to an overtime situation.

Definitive Action is Needed

It may be tempting for management and employees alike to take a laid-back view on this emerging situation. If you don’t get anything else from this article, the one piece of information you should remember is this: I can assure you that you will be better off planning ahead for the proposed rule change. Don’t be tempted to procrastinate, and don’t simply make a handshake agreement with an employee and think that nothing needs to be changed because everything will work out in the long run. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work out, and the cost can add up.  The cost of the overtime work, penalties, time other employees will spend on this, and possible litigation will cost you more than it would have to initially just do be prepared from the start. Not to mention the hassle of having the Labor Department in your business for goodness knows how long.

Be Proactive

Let MDS help you evaluate the possible impact of wage increases in your community. I can work with you and your team to calculate your financial expose based on potential changes in over-time regulations for exempt employees. A proactive approach will allow us to develop alternative pay plans and work schedules to minimize the financial and service impact on your organization.

While we don’t know where minimum and entry level wages will eventually land, I will also help your team run “what-if” scenarios based on several factors to estimate the impact of multiple levels of increase. Putting this all together will help guide management’s approach to evaluating and setting monthly service fees, and service packages designed with minimal impact to the organization, its residents, and staff members.

Don’t procrastinate on these important wage-related issues. There is still plenty of time to design a well-rounded solution that has minimal impact to your organization.

 

As an update to the entry level worker pay story, the New York Wage Commission has endorsed the planned hike in fast food workers to $15 per hour.

 

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.

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.

Webinar Recap: Back To Basics in Professional Selling

Webinar Recap: Back To Basics in Professional Selling

Posted on by MDSadmin

 

sellilng senior living, Back to basics, senior living consulting, senior living consultant, Moore Diversified Services

Senior Living expert Roy Barker, Director of Special Projects at Moore Diversified Services, recently shared in a webinar what he has learned in his years of experience in the Senior Living industry about Professional Selling and how important it is to go “Back to the Basics.”  Barker specifically used his mystery shopping experiences to highlight some of the main mistakes Senior Living sales staffs are still making, mostly without even realizing it.  If Senior Living sales staffs take Roy’s advice and implement his suggestions, it could have a big impact on the bottom line.

If you missed the webinar, you can view it in its entirety by clicking on the video below at the end of this article.  You can also view past webinars on the Moore Diversified Services Senior Living YouTube channel. This article gives a brief recap of some of the main points of the most recent webinar.  Roy broke up the Sales Process into three stages:  the Beginning, the Middle, and the End.  But first, Roy talks about a Shift in Focus needed in Senior Living sales.

Continue reading “Webinar Recap: Back To Basics in Professional Selling” →

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.

Strategic Planning Webinar

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Moore Diversified Services presents Plug-In and Prosper Webinars:

A STRATEGIC PLANNING SERIES
Part 1 – Where Do I Start?
Thursday, Nov. 6
1:00-1:30 p.m. (CST)

 

At Moore Diversified Services your success is our goal. We are committed to equipping our clients with tools and strategies to make their businesses successful. As we close out fiscal 2014 and approach 2015, MDS would like to offer a special, COMPLIMENTARY webinar series on Strategic Planning.     Plug in with copyright

Join Roy Barker, Director – Special Projects at MDS, for “Part 1 – Strategic Planning: Where Do I Start?” as he answers this question and provides insights into strategy planning.   Topics will include:

  • Selecting a team
  • Employee Buy-In
  • SWOT Analysis
  • Data Driven Indicators
    • Operations
    • Marketing
    • Employee Turn-Over

Space is limited. Don’t miss out on this special opportunity to learn from a company with over 40 years of experience.  Click here to view webinar flyer

REGISTER TODAY!

Gold Is So Yesterday ... Go Platinum!

Gold Is So Yesterday … Go Platinum!

Posted on by MDSadmin

A guest on an NPR show I was listening to the other day mentioned the “Platinum Rule” in the context of how we treat others. I had no idea what they were talking about. Now, after a little research, I can see that I’m very late to the party. This is a concept that has been around for some time. For those of you who may be living under a rock, like myself, the Platinum Rule now trumps the Golden Rule. 

The Golden Rule is, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” The Platinum Rule, however, is, “Do unto others as they would like done unto them!” What a novel concept. While the Golden Rule sounds good on the surface, it is really kind of self-centered. This would mean that we think we know what is best for everyone else because that’s what we like or we want. While this could be very true, it could also be the furthest thing from the truth.

With people we have just met or known for a short time, we may not know exactly what they want. This is the beauty of the Platinum Rule. It causes us to shift focus from us to them. It forces us to try and determine what the other person really want or likes. It forces us to be an active listener and maybe even ask some questions. This also meshes well with one of my favorite Covey teachings, “We must first seek to understand.”

Different Personality Types

Dr. Tony Alessandra has written a book entitled The Platinum Rule. I just discovered this book and have not had time to read it. But, some information that I gathered from the website is that the book goes into detail defining personality types. According to the author, there are four basic personality types followed by tendencies of how these particular types of people behave and react. This is the first part of satisfying someone else, understand what makes them tick and what they might respond to. Then we can set about how to better relate to others and the different personality types, in trying to give them what they want.

I will not get too in-depth here, but did want to make a few observations about the concept. This concept should apply to all aspects of our lives from personal to business. Imagine the changes in our current relationships when we let all of our assumptions go and give careful thought to what others want and need.

The Platinum Rule in Business

The Platinum Rule can easily address two major components of a successful senior living operation – company culture and resident-centered care/lifestyle. Company culture is so important that Peter Drucker once said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” Companies in other industries, such as the Container Store live by the principals of satisfied workers and satisfied customers. They usually rank in the top one of two best places to work and their customer service is off the charts.

I recently made my first visit to one of their stores and was very impressed. The employees were all very happy and they worked together to help me with my needs. The other important aspect is all the employees were sales people. While they didn’t work on commission, they did ask if I had this or needed that and were quick to recommend other services and products. This was not done in a hard-sell manner, but more in a helpful, we want you to have the best experience possible sort of manner … which I did!

Paradigm Shift

Can you imagine for just a minute how the residents of your community will feel when you make that culture shift? Really seeking to understand what they want or need and not just giving them what you think is good because it’s what you want based on your own values and beliefs.

Think of the possibilities if each and every one of your staff members had this attitude. You will have the happiest residents in town. Now think about what putting the same effort into understanding what your staff members want. Again, really taking the time to seek to understand what it is that they want. What do they need? Not only will you see an increase in customer satisfaction, but you will also see marked decreased turnover. While both of these will also improve your bottom line, think of the referral pipeline you will create. Not only for those wanting to live at your community, but the best workers wanting to work at your community.

If you ever have any doubt about what your staff or residents want or need, just ask! Yes, it’s that simple and both groups, in the right environment, will be more than willing to share their thoughts. Just ask and really listen to what the response is. Seek first to understand and then implement programs that the staff and residents want … not what you think they might want!

 

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.

Employee Training and Retention: The Debate between Expense and Investment – Part II

Employee Training and Retention: The Debate between Expense and Investment – Part II

Posted on by MDSadmin

Once an effective training and development program is established and utilized by the organization it can begin seeing increases and benefits in the following areas: productivity, motivation, quality, job satisfaction, commitment (employee retention), and reduced absenteeism.

In order to provide the training and development that reaps these many benefits, it costs money, time and other resources. Paid human resources are used to plan, organize and teach training sessions, mentors take time from their own duties to mentor newer employees, training materials must be printed and/or compiled in electronic format, and fees must be paid for seminars, classes or workshops. Organizations recognize there is a cost for training and development.

In today’s competitive business world, most organizations are looking at ways to reduce expenses in order to increase profits. Unfortunately, when training is only looked at as an expense, it can be the first category to go to the chopping block. It is suggested that businesses need to accurately analyze what these training programs are worth. While most organizations compile data and trends on advertising campaigns, sales department activities, and other activities that they can directly tie to increased revenue, it can be difficult to determine a Return on Investment (ROI) on employee training and development.

Training Makes Employees Feel Valued

Research has shown, however, that when employers invest time, money and resources in their employees with training and development the employees develop a commitment to the organization. The employee feels the organization/employer values them as a worker, values their skills and values their contribution. Research has also determined that with training and development the employee believes the employer cares about the employability of the employee. (Agrawal)

In contrast, some employees have been known to say they “saw it coming” before they were fired or let go. This can be the perception when an employee is struggling and/or not performing well and the employer distances themselves from the employee; does not offer help (training/development), keeps adding additional workload, tells the employee not to worry they will eventually “get it”, etc. In other words, with ongoing training and development the employee does not feel the employer is leaving them to “sink or swim” on their own or that the employer is not “creating” a reason to fire them.

Which Came First …?

Another comment that represents the crux of this argument: “Positions that have a high turnover rate (such as tech support) are often viewed by management as not worthy of proper training.” (Green) It is “the chicken and the egg” type question. Are these positions not worthy of training due to the high turnover or is a high turnover due to the lack of training? Another point of training is to evaluate if you have the right person for the right job. Sometimes you may have a talented and capable individual but they are just in the wrong position. Continued training and development, including evaluations, can determine strengths and weaknesses and what persons fit best with various positions.

Training and employee development is not just for the employee but is as beneficial to the employer as well. For those employers that view training as an expense, a trade-off for production or just plain wasted time, they may not have an effective training program in place. Also if an employer’s turnover is high, they may need to evaluate how they train new employees, evaluate existing employees and what programs are in place to develop employees to be productive members of their organization. Employers that are successful in reducing employee turnover embrace training and employee development as a necessary tool to further their organizational goals.

We featured this excerpt from a research paper that Kim Jimenez had written on employee training and how it relates to employee engagement/retention.  Employee turnover is a real cash expense that effects your business in many ways.  MDS can help in employee orientation and training in order to help create and retain the best staff possible.

 

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.

References

Agrawal, Archana. “Employee Development and Its Affect on Their Performance.” International Journal of Marketing, Financial Services & Management Research (2013): 99-108. Web.
Green, Allison. www.askamanger.org. 19 05 2012. Article. 05 09 2014.

Employee Training and Retention: The Debate between Expense and Investment – Part I

Employee Training and Retention: The Debate between Expense and Investment – Part I

Posted on by MDSadmin

Most employers have some form of training implemented for their new employees and some even have programs designed for ongoing employee development. If asked, many employers, if not all, will say that training and employee development is important. But when truly evaluated, many employers do not provide adequate training or employee development to realize the advantages of proper training.

The disconnect lies in the fact that training and employee development comes at a price -financial resources, human resources and time. Employers view training as a cost or expense rather than an investment. They are hesitant, and some even resistant, to spend too many resources on an employee that may take that training elsewhere.

But, in fact, research has shown that proper training and employee development will increase employee productivity, job satisfaction and instill a higher commitment to the job among other things. This commitment to the job by the employee actually reduces employee turnover.

Investment – Not Expense

Therefore, employers need to view training and employee development as an investment in their employees which benefits both employee and employer rather than just an expense to reduce. Employers could also view this investment in training and employee development as an avenue to reduce employee turnover, in addition to, higher employee performance which benefits the organization as a whole.

Training and employee development takes many forms. There is no one training program that will fit every employee or organization. Each organization will need to determine its needs, the needs of its employees and how to address those needs in the most efficient and effective way. Some of the various components of employee training and development can include: new hire orientation, job specific training, mentoring/coaching, in-service training, continuing education, and seminars/conferences.

Orientation Alone is Not Enough

No one component itself will constitute a complete training and development program, but a combination of these components will address the various needs of both the employee and organization. For example, most organizations will have some sort of new hire orientation. And while this is a key component to any training and development program, it has its limitations as a stand-alone program.

A study published in 2008 states that while employee orientation is a necessary first step and that orientations “successfully conveyed the organization’s message on quality management initiatives and employees learned a great deal about quality management practices within the organization. The issue, however, is that transfer of learning did not take place at the desired levels after the employees returned back to their work stations.” (Akdere and Schmidt) The key to an effective program will be ongoing, continuous development using a combination of training and development components.

 

We featured this excerpt from a research paper that Kim Jimenez had written on employee training and how it relates to employee engagement/retention. The second part of this report will be in our next post.  Employee turnover is a real cash expense that effects your business in many ways.  MDS can help in employee orientation and training in order to help create and retain the best staff possible.

 

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.

 

Reference:
Akdere, Mesut and Steven W. Schmidt. “Employee Perceptions of Quality Management: Effects of Employee Orientation Training.” 2008. The Education Resources Information Center (ERIC). Web. September 2014.