OFFERING EMPLOYEE PROGRAMS THAT HELP SENIOR LIVING STAY COMPETITIVE
with that, and do whatever you need to do to keep everything going.’ There is somebody behind you who is supporting the mission.” And that’s important because “our busi-
ness, the absolutely critical position is the ex- ecutive director,” Putzier says. “I could have all these programs, but if I don’t have a good leader at the local sites, all those programs will fall by the wayside.” The C.A.R. program began in 2015 and
has dramatically improved tardiness among its 500 members of staff in its 12 communities in Maryland and Pennsylvania, Putzier said.
Ryan Hershey (center) was a recipient of one of IntegraCare’s C.A.R. employee program giveaways. Senior Living Executive checked in with
several leaders in the industry to see how they have worked to make their businesses attractive places to work. How have they gone about supporting their staff through the benefits they offer? How have they tried to help them grow? We talked to some in- dustry leaders to find out.
Employee Giveaways Aegis Living isn’t the only senior living com- pany that has set up such employee give- aways. IntegraCare, a privately-held com- pany based on the outskirts of Pittsburgh, for example, organizes an annual Contin- ued Attendance Rewards (C.A.R.) program. The mission is to incentivize hourly em-
ployees to be on time, and to show up to work consistently. Every year, employees are assigned digital raffle “tickets” for each pay period for which they had perfect attendance and without any disciplinary actions. Full- time employees were assigned more tickets— and thus more chances to win. In addition to the chance to win a $100 gift card every month, employees have a chance to win a grand prize of a car once a year, along with $1,000, and a one-week paid vacation. Other prizes awarded to eligible raffle winners included a 55-inch curved televi-
12 SENIOR LIVING EXECUTIVE / ISSUE 4 2017
sion and a one-year subscription to Netflix, or a laptop, printer, and a copy of Microsoft Office, or an iPad and an Amazon Prime membership. All of the awards included a one-week paid vacation. The employee rewards and activities
are forms of support not only for its front- line staff but also for executive directors of IntegraCare’s communities, explains the company’s co-founder, president, and chief operating officer Loriann Putzier. She also said that the awards were items that the staff had expressed an interest in having after be- ing polled by the company. “What the implementation of these pro-
grams is really saying to you is that this com- pany is really connected to what the execu- tive directors are doing,” she says. “We’re not putting them out there and saying ‘good luck
Transportation While not many of the top workplaces we spoke with offered transportation as a stan- dard part of their benefits packages, the lo- cation of communities often has an impact on this benefit. In California’s Bay Area, for example, local regulatory agencies require employers to offer employees tax deferred commuter benefits. Employees are eligible to set aside $255 a month for their commut- er-related transportation costs. At IntegraCare, Putzier notes that since
Uber’s corporate offering has matured in the past year, the company is looking into using the service to pick up employees. In the meantime, either shuttles or managers at local communities sometimes pick em- ployees up from bus stops. That started hap- pening because local governments had cut back on public transportation. “What happened to some folks is that the bus
line ended up not stopping as near to the com- munity as before, so we’d have people walking a mile in the winter,” Putzier said. “Some people would think they don’t make enough money to make this worthwhile, so they quit.” And at Chicago-based Vi, the benefits
package says that “where applicable,” em- ployees may use pre-tax money to pay for their commuting costs, including public transportation and parking expenses asso- ciated with their employment.
“I could have all these programs, but if I don’t have a good leader at the local sites, all those programs will fall by the wayside,” says Loriann Putzier, IntegraCare’s co-founder, president, and chief operating officer.
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