This article is sponsored by Pinnacle Quality Insight. This Q&A is based on a Skilled Nursing News Virtual Staffing Summit discussion with Chris Magleby, CEO of Pinnacle. The Q&A took place on June 15, 2022. The article below has been edited for length and clarity.

Strategies to Improve Employee Retention

Today’s skilled nursing operators are extraordinarily challenged by the staffing shortages that plague the industry across all job functions. However, not many know the first 100 days of employment are the most critical period for staff retention.

Pinnacle Quality Insight, an employee insight company for post-acute care and assisted living providers, is highly focused on this critical period. In a recent Skilled Nursing News Staffing Summit presentation, Chris Magleby, CEO of Pinnacle Quality Insight presented an analysis of Pinnacle’s survey data and action items administrators can take to their facilities. Every month, the company conducts thousands of customer satisfaction surveys for senior care and senior living organizations.

In the second quarter of 2020, skilled nursing, assisted living, and independent living saw a lift in customer sentiment due to gratitude for staff during the pandemic. As the year wore on, satisfaction rates for long-term care and assisted living began to drop. Independent living, however, stayed strong.

“Independent living started to have higher satisfaction because independent living didn’t feel the workforce shortage crunch as much as skilled nursing and assisted living did,” said Magleby. “Your residents have a lot more interaction with the staff members.”

Skilled nursing has an additional challenge in that four in 10 senior care workers leave their jobs in the first 100 days. Focusing on those first 100 days can help from a retention standpoint, Magelby says.

“The good news is the data shows that if they can adjust to it in the first three months, they usually will stick around,” he says.

By implementing tools that focus specifically on retention and those early months, post-acute care providers can improve their insight into employee wants and needs. They can then use those insights to adapt and grow their retention metrics.

Pinnacle Quality Insight provides both customer and employee insight platforms, including Retain software that is specifically geared toward helping operators retain their workforce. The product connects directly to payroll and HR systems, providing an integrated platform for tech-enabled providers.

Based on the company’s experience in surveying employees, Pinnacle Quality Insight recommends five key strategies to keep staff through the first 100 days of employment:

1. Create a 100-Day Strategy — The 100-day strategy starts with setting expectations and should focus directly on the first 100 days.

“The number one thing that you can do to impact your staff tenure is to keep them through those first 100 days. Once they’re past that first 100 days, their tenure numbers will go up. Those are the first, most critical times of employment, and that’s when turnover is the highest,” said Chris Magleby.

2. Focus on Onboarding and Training — Conducting employee satisfaction surveys will support this focus by providing ongoing employee insights.

“Employees are 23% more likely to stay if their manager clearly explains their roles and responsibilities,” according to employee engagement platform TINYpulse.

3. Evaluate Training and Create a Systematic Feedback Process — This includes checking in at certain milestones and consistently seeking feedback. Asking structured questions like, “Do you need anything right now to be better at your job?” allows employees to get feedback.

4. Employee Recognition — Employee recognition can come in many forms. It can be as simple as celebrating annual anniversaries or recognizing employees once they have completed the training and onboarding process.

5. Cultural Change, Culture of Love — Driving cultural change can be challenging, but it is a critical part of employee retention. Intentional efforts such as expressing care for employees and safeguarding the feelings of others can help shape a culture of retention.

Focusing on how culture affects outcomes for residents and employees extends to a culture of care and “companionate” love, as well.

“Companionate love is something different than romantic love,” Magelby says. “Companionate love is defined as warmth, affection, and connection.”

In order to keep staff through the first 100 days, it’s important to create an actionable strategy to reduce turnover. Evaluation surveys allow for beneficial feedback for both employees and managers; employees can ask specific questions and managers focus on training and transparent communication, resulting in a positive impact on residents as well as help the skilled nursing workforce overall.

Click below to view the full virtual event presentation on which this article is based.

Pinnacle Quality Insight helps senior care providers improve the patient experience by helping businesses retain their employees primarily through different types of customer and employee survey platforms. To learn more, visit: https://pinnacleqi.com/.