Did the CEO of Uber steal this from NHAs?

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Is Your Salary Actually Competitive? Now You Can Know.

Most senior living and skilled nursing leaders negotiate compensation in the dark.

You hear rumors. You compare yourself to job postings that don’t tell the full story. You guess whether you’re underpaid, fairly paid, or leaving serious money on the table.

That’s exactly why we built Salary Lens.

Salary Lens is a real-world compensation dataset built by operators — not recruiters, not surveys with 50 responses, and not generic “national averages.”

Right now the database includes nearly 700 verified, self-reported entries from leaders across:

Skilled Nursing
Assisted Living
Regional and Corporate Roles
Executive Directors, NHAs, DONs, Regional Leaders, and more

Each entry includes real context — not just salary:

Job title and role scope
Base pay + bonus structure
Community size and census
Star rating at time of employment
Market and region
Years of experience

How It Works

You contribute your anonymous data.
Once submitted, you instantly unlock full access to the entire dataset.

That means you can:

Compare your pay to similar roles
Filter by building size and star rating
See what high-performing leaders are earning
Spot pay gaps and negotiation leverage
Benchmark before your next review or job move

No guessing. No recruiter spin. Just real operator data.

Why This Matters

Compensation transparency protects leaders.

It helps you:

Avoid being underpaid for the responsibility you carry
Negotiate with facts instead of feelings
Understand what top performers are actually earning
Make smarter career moves

If you’ve ever wondered, “Am I being paid fairly for what I’m responsible for?” — this answers that question.

Participate and Unlock Access

Submit your info once.
Unlock the full dataset instantly.

👉 Participate in Salary Lens and see where you truly stand

Good morning,

They call it frontline immersion.

In skilled nursing, assisted living, and senior living, we just call it good leadership.

And here’s the empowering truth: what world-class CEOs are now formalizing as strategy is what strong administrators and executive directors have always known — you cannot lead what you do not personally experience.

Let’s tighten this up and make it practical for our world.

What Is Frontline Immersion

A recent leadership study found most CEOs spend only 6% of their time with frontline employees and just 3% with customers.

That gap creates blind spots.
Blind spots create poor decisions.
Poor decisions create operational drag.

In our environment, that shows up as:

• Survey vulnerabilities
• Call light complaints
• Turnover spikes
• Admission friction
• Reputation erosion

Frontline immersion closes that gap.

What We Can Learn (or confirm) From Global Leaders

Brian Chesky of Airbnb lived in his own product for six months. He experienced hidden fees and inconsistent expectations firsthand — and changed the platform.

Laxman Narasimhan of Starbucks works barista shifts monthly to understand operational strain and labor tension in real time.

Dara Khosrowshahi of Uber signed up to drive so he could feel the app frustrations and driver anxiety himself.

None of them relied solely on dashboards.

They stepped into the experience.

And here’s the key: they didn’t do it weekly. They did it intentionally and consistently.

That’s our model.

What This Looks Like In Our Universe

Not weekly mock shifts. That’s not sustainable.

But monthly? Yes.

Here’s what meaningful frontline immersion can look like in our communities:

Work One Scheduled Shift Per Month
Not to perform. Not to supervise.
To observe and assist.

Shadow a med pass.
Help during meal service.
Sit in on a high-volume admission day.

You’re not evaluating people.
You’re evaluating process friction.

Call Your Building After Hours — From an Unknown Number
What happens when a family member calls at 8:47 p.m.?

• How long before someone answers?
• How is the tone?
• Is the greeting warm or transactional?
• Does the call get transferred cleanly?

Your first impression may not match your expectation.

Apply for a Job in Your Own Community
Yes — fill out the application.

Experience:

• Is it mobile friendly?
• How long does it take?
• Does it feel welcoming or bureaucratic?
• How quickly does someone follow up?

We talk about workforce crisis constantly.
But what does your hiring journey actually feel like?

If it’s complicated, slow, or impersonal — strong candidates drop out.

Walk the Resident Journey
Admit a mock resident.
Request medical records.
Review the billing explanation.
Eat in the dining room without announcing yourself.

Would you choose your own community?

If the answer isn’t a confident yes — that’s data.

Immersion Without Action Erodes Trust

Here’s the caution.

If you shadow a CNA and nothing changes, morale drops.
If you call after hours and ignore what you hear, credibility erodes.
If you apply for a job and don’t fix friction, turnover continues.

Immersion must lead to visible improvement. The Uber CEO took everything we learned and hosted an all-staff meeting with thousands of employees titled "This is why we suck." That makes a statement.

So, make sure you follow up out loud so everyone can hear what positive change is coming from the experience.

“After applying through our own system, we simplified the application from 22 minutes to 8.”

“After calling in anonymously, we retrained on evening phone etiquette.”

That builds trust.

Why This Matters Now

We operate in a heavily regulated, margin-sensitive environment. Workforce pressure isn’t easing. Family expectations aren’t lowering.

Executive distance is a liability.

The strongest communities are not led from behind desks.
They are led from hallways.

You don’t discover the real story in reports.

You discover it:

• During a chaotic shift change
• When supplies run short
• When a family calls after hours
• When a new hire waits three days for a callback

That’s where operational truth lives.

Final Thought

Frontline immersion is not a corporate buzzword.

It’s alignment.

It aligns:

• Strategy with reality
• Policy with practice
• Leadership with credibility

And here’s what should make you proud:

While corporate America is rediscovering this idea, skilled nursing leaders have been practicing versions of it for years.

Let’s just make it more intentional.

Monthly, not weekly.
Anonymous, not announced.
Experiential, not observational.

Because when leaders experience what residents, families, and staff experience — culture strengthens, processes improve, and trust compounds.

And that’s not theory.

That’s good and necessary leadership.

Lead from the front today.

Whenever you're ready, I can help you in a few ways.

Get 1 FREE CEU - Read our partner Viventium's "2026 Healthcare Workforce Management Report" and receive 1 NAB approved CE credit. Read here.
Use our free AI-powered Chatbot trained on all 900 pages of CMS Nursing Home Regulations, proprietary processes, and information from decades of skilled nursing leadership experience. Click here.
Sign up for Assisto and keep track of the regulatory environment in your state. Know what deficiencies surveyors cite in real-time and ensure you're not at risk for the same tag. Sign up here.
Take our Salary Lens survey and gain access to the largest database of senior living and SNF leadership salaries in the industry. Check it out here.

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Thanks for reading. Have a wonderful day.

Kevin Goedeke, Publisher and Founder