Grab a pack of Thank You notes on your way in. Write a personal message to teach leadership team members family, spouse, significant other, child, etc.

Thank them for sacrificing time with their loved ones over the past two years.

Thank them for sharing their loved ones with your community to make it a better place for others to work and live.

Thank them for allowing their loved ones to run toward the disaster while the rest of the world was pointing fingers.

Keep each personalized thank you card on your desk. After Stand-Up each morning over the next few weeks, grab a card, hand it to the leader, and explain that it's for their family.

Then, send them home for the rest of the day.

Repeat until you've thanked each member of your team.

The first 100 days, part 2

If you missed part 1 of our interview with Chris Magleby, CEO of Pinnacle Quality Insights, you can check it out here.

Question: What does your data show is the secret sauce for employee retention?

The funny thing is, the secret sauce is the same for both employees and residents. Residents are in your communities for care. Employees are there for work.

Our data shows that a resident's satisfaction with the community is more tied to how they're treated than it is to the outcome of their care.

The data shows the same thing for the employees. Employees want the same culture of caring that is created for the residents. They want to know their leaders and coworkers are genuinely interested in them and care for them.

Key takeaway: As an NHA or community Executive Director you cannot control everything. You might have a management company that sets your pay rates and policies. You can control whether or not your employees feel like you and your leaders care about them as people. Are you having consistent 1:1s and taking the time to learn about who they are? Make it a priority to find out what makes your team "tick." What's important to them outside of their work?

Question: For the senior living leaders reading this as they kick off their day, what is one thing they can start doing immediately to make a positive difference in their community?

The first thing I would do as a leader is to track your new hire retention. How many of your employees hired within the past 100 days are still there? Who does your team think is at risk from that group, and why? Track that data and have someone responsible for collecting it and sharing it with your team consistently. Do everything you can to increase that retention number.

Every time you lose an employee, you spend at least $4,000 to backfill that position. If you can start preventing one person from leaving each month, you will save $50,000/year right off the bat.

Key takeaway: Many positive dominoes will fall the right way if you improve this statistic. Start by discussing it every week during your stand-up meeting. Add it to the agenda, so it becomes part of the culture.

Question: You talk with and meet hundreds of senior living leaders and operators. What are the traits that you see in outstanding leaders? The ones that have a great culture that people are attracted to?

I'll answer that question with a story. I talked to an administrator who had a relatively new employee who was missing shifts and calling out frequently. The employee's name came up in a meeting, so the administrator called her into the office to have a conversation. Instead of taking punitive action, she asked the employee, "Hey, I've noticed you have missed a few shifts, and we're concerned about you. Is everything ok?" The employee began to tear up and explained that she had trouble finding someone to pick up her kids from school because of her recent separation. The administrator listened and offered a few solutions that may work for both the employee and the community. The employee was extremely touched by her leader's genuine curiosity and desire to help, and the employee became a very loyal and long-term team member. Her problem still existed, but her mindset changed, and they figured out how to work through it.

Key Takeaway: This answer makes me want to ask my staffing coordinator who my top three call-out offenders are and have a 1:1 conversation with each one of them to find out what's going on and begin building loyalty through a genuine relationship.

Tech we love

Together with Pinnacle Quality Insight

We pride ourselves on bringing you solutions that work. We're thrilled with the results that Pinnacle and their Retain solution are delivering to the industry.

Retain gives your employees a voice and your leadership team real-time feedback (through quick, text message-driven engagement surveys) to better engage employees, especially during the first 100 days of employment when the chance for turnover is at its highest.

To learn more about their Retain software and how it cuts turnover by up to 65%, reach out to contact@pinnacleqi.com.

Grab your coffee and make it a great day. We appreciate you and your dedication to your team and residents. -Thank you!