This article is sponsored by OnShift. This Q&A is based on a Skilled Nursing News virtual Staffing Summit discussion with Peter Corless, Executive Vice President of Enterprise Development at OnShift, and Kim Te Brugge, Vice President of Senior Living & Healthcare at the Goodman Group. The Q&A took place on June 15, 2022. The article below has been edited for length and clarity.
Skilled Nursing News: One of our audience members asked how hiring managers should strategize differently for Millennial versus Gen Z, so I’m really glad you got into that a little bit, Peter.
Peter Corless: I did a presentation and there was a CEO of a company who was present. We were talking about the different generations. The next time I saw her, she came back to me and said, “I really took to heart something you said. I went back and our person in charge of recruiting is a Baby Boomer and a good recruiter, but obviously has their own slant on things. I put together a recruiting committee where I had members from all four generations look at our messaging and look at where we’re placing our ads, what social media platforms we’re using. We changed our messaging. We changed where we’re putting ads. We utilized our employees to push out our ads to their social media. We increased the applicant flow phenomenally because we were reaching more people with messages that really resonated with them.” There was something to be said for thinking about that.
SNN: Absolutely. I think the actual question was how Baby Boomers, like hiring managers, can connect with some of the Gen Z and Millennial applicants that they’re getting. I think that’s a question that a lot of operators right now are really asking themselves, and rethinking their strategy around that. That info should be really helpful to a lot of folks, I think. Kim, I’m just wondering how does the Goodman Group combat against overtime?
Kim Te Brugge: Well, I think the key is going back to culture. Again, we want to create a culture that employees are drawn to and that they want to continue to stay in. So what are we doing to make that environment enticing? I think that’s probably the key. Retention is absolutely the key, otherwise, we’re just going to continue to struggle. People want to be a part of something, they need to have purpose. If they feel purposeful in that culture, you’ll retain your employees and you’ll see that overtime continues to trend down. I’m not saying that overtime is going to disappear overnight in our industry. We have a ways to go, but those are things that are important to people coming into the organization.
SNN: I think that makes a lot of sense. You also mentioned how important employee feedback is to the Goodman Group right now and how you’re always seeking feedback. We’ve heard during previous presentations, during the summit about how important these new hire surveys and exit surveys can be for operators right now. I’m just wondering, can you elaborate for us just how these surveys have helped you strategize moving forward and how you’ve maybe even changed the way that you do hiring or exit surveys right now?
Te Brugge: Yes. We’re always looking for feedback, so any new hire will receive new hire feedback. I think the other thing we do is we make a point of ensuring that one-on-one connection for a new hire at the 30-day mark, again at the 90-day mark. Not only are they just receiving an electronic survey or a digital survey, we’re also making sure we’re making that one-on-one connection because I think that’s important as well.
Those types of things help. Then it’s not only asking for their feedback, but it’s what you do with their feedback. When you receive it, what are you doing? Are you listening, and then are you taking action? Are you addressing their concern or issue? If you can’t address it, are you referring them to someone who does? Oftentimes, especially with new hires, you find that sometimes they just need some additional training or a little support in that area. Then are you taking the opportunity to address those needs?
SNN: Yes, absolutely. I think that makes a lot of sense. Certainly, if you guys have 3,000+ applications this quarter, then you must be doing something right. Peter, what are some competitive landscape trends that you’re seeing right now?
Corless: Certainly, I think one thing Kim talked about was from a scheduling perspective, it used to be that we had a 7-to-3 shift, a 3-to-11 and 11-to-7. We’re seeing employers that are revisiting that as Kim said, whether it’s 4-tens so people have a three-day weekend or whether it’s going back to Baylor-type shifts on the weekend where people work 2-twelves, get paid for 30. You get the consistent assignment, then, over the weekend.
About 30% of full-time employees don’t actually work their full hours. Whether it’s a 37-and-a-half or 40-hour work week, there’s a significant number of people that don’t work those full hours. Often, it can be things like maybe a child has gone from elementary school to middle school and the start and stop times have changed. Employers need to be monitoring that type of thing and they need to be working with employees to understand if their availability has changed. A lot of our employees work for more than one company, so starting and stopping at the same time obviously isn’t feasible.
Be willing to make an adjustment that they can start an hour later, half-hour later, whatever it is to accommodate them, and be aware of the reality that they’re going to be working for more than one employer. Making sure that the same person isn’t always picking up all the extra hours can become contentious because other employees want to pick up hours, but the scheduler knows if they go to Mary, Mary will say yes. All of a sudden, Mary’s working 70 hours a week. There is a worker’s compensation risk, maybe a burnout risk.
From a competitive landscape perspective, we’re seeing a lot of employers that are rethinking their approach to work. We’re a profession that has to provide 24/7, 365 care and we have to provide excellent quality outcomes, so we have to have people there consistently and knowledgeably. For example, we used to say, “Well, if you can’t find your own replacement, you can’t have it off.”
In today’s environment, that’s just not reasonable. The person will just be a no-call, no-show. As Kim was saying, with the capabilities, we now know who else isn’t working that shift, who’s not on PTO, who won’t go into overtime. Meeting that employee halfway and helping them find someone who could swap with them or work that shift are some of the things that we’re seeing that people are being a lot more considerate around with employees and how we deal with their work-life balance.
Te Brugge: With the messaging feature, it’s just so easy now to just push out that need as well. You push out the need for a particular shift and you’re sending that to your entire employee base. Then again, they can quickly respond through instant messaging. It makes a bigger difference than picking up the phone and trying to call.
SNN: Yes, we had one of our speakers yesterday say that flexible means different things to different people.
Te Brugge: Very true.
SNN: You have to be open to what’s acceptable in today’s working environments. This is something that a lot of operators are coming to reality with. Kim, how does Goodman Group encourage technology adoption across all levels and departments?
Te Brugge: We encourage, but there are some instances too where that technology is mandated, so we are requiring our communities to use the technology to leverage it. The reason we do that is we know it creates efficiency. We know that employees do want it, and therefore it’s encouraged. Then we certainly make a point of ensuring that a rollout or an introduction to the new technology is done in a very systematic and project-focused manner that we provide adequate training and support on the technology so that employees are comfortable and are going to embrace it.
SNN: I think you laid out a lot of different technologies and ways that you’re using, and that’s helping staffing and certainly, you’ve seen some of these technologies really grown over the course of that pandemic. That’s indicative of how important they are right now.
This excerpt has been edited for length and clarity. To watch the full discussion on video, please visit:
Thousands of senior care organizations rely on OnShift’s integrated suite of software and services to dramatically reduce turnover rates, decrease costs and improve the quality and continuity of care. To learn more, visit: https://www.onshift.com/.
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