REDUCING THE LEARNING CURVE FOR NEW EMPLOYEES
“For the person who serves as the mentor, it shows them that the organization values them and values their experience. It’s an opportunity to grow in their current position and to see that their eff orts are appreciated,” Welshhons said.
hires out to other communities in order to give them a fuller picture of how the orga- nization as a whole operates. In addition to the local culture there’s typically a bigger corporate culture that only becomes vis- ible when multiple communities are viewed side-by-side. As part of its onboarding, The LaSalle
Group assigns each new executive director a week of training in communities other than their own. “It is a way of getting some consistency:
Here’s what our offices look like, here’s how it works on a day-to-day basis. If you are in someone else’s community where they have already run a payroll or gone through a care plan for a resident, you get some valuable fi rsthand insights,” Lee said. Newly hired executive directors typically have the technical skills; what they need is an introduction to the LaSalle method- ology. “We want to focus on how we do business and what we believe are important aspects of our culture.” 12 Oaks Senior Living has a designated
team of “rock stars” assigned to take on this responsibility: Six department heads and an executive director at various com- munities who are on standby to bring new community leaders and department heads into their communities for up to a week of training. “We want them to learn the en- vironment, to learn the structure. What is done on a daily basis? What are the social aspects? What are the technical aspects?” Catoe said. “It’s vital that people are rowing in the same direction.” Tommy Comer takes it one step further,
offering monetary incentives to senior leaders who invite new hires into their communities for orientation. “Especially in the fi rst 90 days of employment people can get overwhelmed, and we want to reward the people who are willing to step up and help us bridge that gap,” he said. Factoring in reduced turnover, “it more than pays for itself.”
12 SENIOR LIVING EXECUTIVE MARCH/APRIL 2018
Settling in Senior living is big and deep and subtle. Few get it all on the fi rst go-round. That’s why Tommy Comer follows a 30-, 60-, 90- day orientation process. After a month he’ll confi rm that a new hire knows the organiza- tional basics. At 60 days they’ll review job- specifi c, task-oriented details. At 90 days Comer goes after culture. “Do you feel like you are part of the overall team, not just the dining team? Do you feel like you are part of the community? How was your experi- ence with your mentor?” he said. These check-ins take place through the
learning management system. It’s up to the employee to complete each module, but the executive directors are supposed to confi rm that it gets done. With their full plates, they don’t always nail this down, so Comer has begun using notifi cations to re- mind them. “I created a push report to the executive director so that every month they can see the latest data. They have a million things on their mind and I know this isn’t always the fi rst thing,” he said. With a recent process overhaul, Lee is
working in this same direction. She’s intro- ducing a 10- to 12-question survey to be ad- ministered at the 30-day mark. “We want to make sure that we are hearing from them,” she said. “If there is something that is not go- ing well in onboarding, I want to fi x that. As a company we believe training is a best prac- tice and we want to identify any communities where that is not being done consistently, so that we can help them get consistent.” The surveys could help the company to hone its own processes. More important, though, is the way in which follow-up can drive employee satisfaction and, ultimately, improve retention rates. Why teach culture and then follow up to make sure they are getting it? Because employees who under- stand and embrace corporate culture are more likely to stick around for the long haul. “We don’t just want to onboard them,” Lee said. “We want to keep them.”
QUICK TIPS
1. Consider the audience. Your new-employee orientation needs to incorporate a ton of practical information (we get paid on Fridays) to the big picture (here’s what it means to care for seniors). To cover that much ground, you need to fi ne-tune your presentation. “Tailor your orientation to your audience,” Woodka said. “No millennial wants to sit in a classroom for four days and read a manual. You want quick hits, short training sessions, and then get them involved in the community as quickly as possible.”
2. Vocabulary counts. Senior living has a language all its own, and you need to pass that along in order to communicate the culture. “If it is a CCRC, what does that mean? What are the levels of care?” Welshhons said. “We have a client who does a two-day program going through all the language, using ‘community’ versus ‘facility,’ using ‘resident’ versus ‘patient.’ There are words that people should not be using, as well as magic words they want team members to embrace.”
3. Lay the groundwork. Before Suits sits down to orient a new executive director, she’ll call that person and have an informal conversation, —a sort of preview of the more formal training to come. “This way then they come in, we are not teaching, we are talking. We can get into stronger more meaningful conversations if they are well-prepared,” she said. “We want them to come to us with real questions, so we can help them work through that.”
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