OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE
Pegasus Uses ‘Moneyball’ Approach to Find Overlooked Gems
By Tom Gresham
taining the right people as being one of the most demanding parts of operating their businesses. Senior living is no exception. Among the more difficult and crucial
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positions for senior living providers to staff is the role of executive director. Not sur- prisingly, the competition is stiff to land and hold onto experienced and skilled executive directors throughout the industry, according to Chris Hollister, co-founder, CEO, and chair of Pegasus Senior Living. In response, Hollister and Pegasus are
looking to undergo a major shift in the way that they seek out new executive directors. Hollister believes the senior living field collectively narrows its focus too tightly around candidates with certain credentials, limiting their pool of candidates and creat- ing intense competition over every executive director who matches the specific profile that has been drawn up. In response, Pegasus is working with an
academic consultant to bring a more da- ta-based approach to the executive director search process. Borrowing from “Mon- eyball,” Michael Lewis’s account of how Oakland A’s executive Billy Beane used ad- vanced analytics to identify baseball players who were being overlooked by scouts and front offices that were fixated on traditional tools and appearances, Pegasus wants to widen their perspective and scour places senior living has never considered to look for prospective executive directors. “I think this idea will be very powerful if
it works,” Hollister said. Hollister said the new approach to hiring
executive directors is part of a larger strat- egy that Pegasus is pursuing alongside its
40 SENIOR LIVING EXECUTIVE JULY/AUGUST 2023
taffing is a challenge wherever you look today. No matter the industry, employers point to hiring and re-
partner, Welltower. Hollister said Welltower is an industry leader in adopting data ana- lytics and sophisticated technology tools to strengthen senior living operations. Hollister spoke to SLE about the hiring
climate, the importance of executive direc- tors and Pegasus’s new approach.
SLE: Why the focus on executive directors? Hollister: I’ve been in this business since 1986. I started as a financial analyst. Pega- sus is really my third company. This has nev- er been an easy business. The challenges in particular with scaling in it are 90% related to the difficulty of providing consistent care. It is the care that trips everybody up. And I don’t care if you have world class regional nurses and great core staff, if you do not have a good leader who can really lead a team, then you do not have a whole team and you’re not going to provide great care.
It’s very hard to have a cohesive culture in this business, especially as you grow, and good executive directors are a critical part of that. People don’t quit jobs as much as they quit bosses. If you have a dysfunctional or incompetent or unmotivated executive director, then you are going to fail.
SLE: How important is the executive director to the resident experience? Hollister: It’s so important. There’s so much focus on hospitality and food in this business, and they’re important, but food is not what’s important when you look at satisfaction surveys from residents and their families. When you run the cross tabulations on surveys and look at the big two big ques- tions of “Are you satisfied” and “Will you refer us to someone else?” Nine times out of 10 it’s about the executive director and staff interaction. So, for instance, the important questions to a family member might be “Are
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