Why SNF Operators are Looking at Leadership Style, Interpersonal Skills to Boost Staffing 

Nursing home operators need to really lean into soft skills as the sector continues to face a historic staffing crisis, experts say, focusing more on individualized attention between staff and employer while examining how leadership style and first impressions make a difference in recruiting and retaining staff.

Cassie Mistretta, CEO of Senior Living Properties (SLP) and a gerontologist, shared hard lessons, during a recent webinar hosted by Skilled Nursing News, that she learned about her personal leadership style – especially concerning real-time feedback when a staff member left her facility.

Texas-based SLP operates 50 SNFs and senior living properties across the state and Oklahoma.

“I started shifting my behavior,” Mistretta said. “When somebody would leave … I would pull them aside and get real time feedback from them about why they’re leaving. If it wasn’t because they were moving or retiring, then I would really try to figure out what I could do to make our workplace someplace they wanted to stay and wouldn’t even want to consider leaving.”

Led by Dr. Jacquelyn Kung, CEO of Activated Insights, the webinar brought together nursing home leaders to discuss their own strategies for recruiting and retaining workforce.

In terms of leadership tips, panelists said it really all came down to changing one’s mindset and perspective.

Mistretta concentrated on her staff’s “love language” too, or figuring out what people wanted to hear from her as a leader.

In other words, everyone has different ways they’d like to be shown appreciation or recognition, and learning what that is for each person makes a difference in workplace satisfaction and in turn retention, she said.

“I will say it doesn’t matter where you live. People are people and they want to be treated individually for their individual strengths and what they contribute individually to your team,” Mistretta added.

Continuing in the same vein of personalized attention to staff, Buckner Retirement Services Senior Executive Director Dr. Abe Mathew said his team goes the extra mile with the onboarding experience to stave off turnover.

Even calling prospective workers pre-interview, asking them what Buckner can do better during the interview and asking about their goals down the road, sets the stage for a strong relationship between staff and employer, he added.

“Make sure you identify that person who’s going to make this person’s life a lot easier, which makes our life easier in the end,” Mathew said of the staff member showing a new hire around on the first day. “Personality knowledge, wellness tools, resources from day one to end of onboarding, up to two weeks – ensure their supervisors are checking on them every day.”

Much like operating giant the Ensign Group, Mathew said he subscribes to the “residents second” philosophy when it comes to staffing.

“They’re the ones who create that experience for our residents. We as an industry have to think differently,” added Mathew.

Not only is it a good idea for the operator shift to an employee-first mindset, it’s crucial to bring back more in-person, high-touch trainings to the space, a reversal of what was happening during the height of the pandemic

Priscila Mattingly, chief human resources and inclusion officer at Trilogy Health Services, said turnover at their facilities is only 56% compared to the industry average of 85% to 100% thanks in part to a shift back to in-person training rather than online only or a hybrid model.

“We learned that high touch training matters,” explained Mattingly. “During Covid, because of the shortage of staffing and all the different things that we were experiencing, we made some decisions to cut some of our training that had previously been in-person.”

In-person leadership training in particular, she said, has been “instrumental” in growing its Midwest campuses in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky.

“We like the results that we are seeing now; we see how much we missed that high-touch training,” added Mattingly.

Trilogy’s robust mentor preceptor program is also in-person and high-touch, but was shortened from three days to one day because of the staffing shortage.

Such one-on-one interaction via training can make a huge impact on retention and company culture, she said, as it shows an investment of time into that person’s career and growth.

With so many factors outside of the operator’s control, from the Great Resignation to inflation, along with the pandemic, in-person training is a way the sector can gain some control over turnover and wider staffing issues.