What 130 NHAs told us live on Thursday

Hey there,

Thanks for joining us Thursday for "Compensation Framework: Conversations to Drive Organizational Results".

We covered a lot of ground:

1. how to read your own comp picture clearly
2. how to frame the conversation with ownership in language they actually respond to
3. how to build a case grounded in data instead of gut feel

I want to share what ~120 of your peers told us in the live polls. The responses were too good not to revisit.

WHAT YOUR PEERS TOLD US

Poll 1: How confident are you asking for a raise or comp adjustment?
(n = 117)

53% of NHAs said they're uncomfortable or avoid the conversation entirely. Only 6% said very confident. If you've ever felt like you didn't quite know how to have that conversation, you were in very good company on Wednesday.

Poll 2: Does your compensation reflect your true impact?
(n = 125)

75% said no or only somewhat. Just 1 in 5 NHAs feel their pay actually matches what they contribute. The "depends on the year" responses stuck with me too. A lot of us are tied to metrics that feel outside our control, and that shows up in how we think about our own worth.

Poll 3: What metric does ownership care about most right now?
(n = 130)

Census and occupancy ran away with it at 61%. Labor and agency spend came in second at 17%. Survey results and retention/turnover split the rest.

If you're walking into a comp conversation, that's the frame ownership is operating in. Lead with census impact and you're speaking their language.

Poll 4: Have you ever approved or supported a raise primarily out of fear of losing someone?
(n = 101)

71% said yes. Nearly 1 in 4 said it's happened multiple times. Only 19% have never done it.

That one data point is the whole reason I built this session. Most comp decisions in SNF aren't frameworks. They're reactions. Fear of losing someone drives the number, not a rational structure. That's what we're trying to fix.

GET THE FULL DATA

Thursday's session was built on Salary Lens data. The webinar gave you the framework and the conversation skills. The NHA Compensation Intelligence Report 2026 gives you the full picture: salary benchmarks by region, facility size, ownership type, and more.

To get the report, complete the May SNF Pulse. It takes about 5 minutes and your responses directly shape the peer intelligence we publish back to the community. Everyone who completes it gets the full report.

This is the data you can walk into ownership with.

👉 pulse.nhastandup.com

Thanks again for being part of the conversation. The polls alone tell us something real about where NHAs stand right now, and I'm not going to stop building tools to help close that gap.

Kevin
NHA Stand-Up