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As the senior living industry continues searching for solutions to ongoing workforce shortages and rampant burnout, software solutions like Yardi Voyager can simplify tasks and increase employee satisfaction.
Finding and keeping the right employees remains an ongoing challenge for senior living providers. In fact, according to research firm Holleran, after a fairly short “honeymoon period” of one year, worker engagement begins to decline, leading employees to seek out new opportunities and resulting in a 42% average turnover rate for life plan communities. These losses translate into real money: The average cost of turnover per employee can be up to 50% of that employee’s salary, with true turnover costs for registered nursing hovering above $65,000 per employee.
“Turnover in our industry’s been pretty high,” admits Angela Kennedy, Senior Accountant for Commonwealth Assisted Living. “Just being able to recruit and retain top talent is challenging.”
“Our People Set Us Apart”
With a set of core values focused on helping seniors “age with dignity,” Commonwealth Assisted Living operates 23 communities throughout Virginia. Founded in 2002 by Richard J. Brewer, the company values leadership from within and strives to create an atmosphere of teamwork and transparency. As one of the largest providers of independent living, assisted living and memory care in the state, Commonwealth cares for over 1,500 residents.
“Our people set us apart from other providers,” says Brewer, “We work hard, and are not afraid to do things differently.”
The centralized recordkeeping, customized menus and easy to relevant records available through Yardi Voyager® Senior Housing allows Commonwealth staffers to do their jobs much for effectively, but that’s not the only benefit. According to Angela, the simplified data entry system and streamlined record keeping also help employees feel more engaged by freeing them from mundane, repetitive tasks so they can focus on contributing in a more meaningful way to Commonwealth’s core goals.
“Now that we have Voyager, our home office staff can manage all the information in one system and access data in real time at all of our locations,” Angela adds. “Not only has this has helped us out tremendously from an operations standpoint, it’s made our staff a lot happier.”
Manual Override
Before integrating Voyager, Commonwealth managed the majority of its accounting by hand. When tracking a resident from initial inquiry to final move in, Commonwealth’s employees manually entered all the pertinent information onto basic spreadsheets. The work was labor intensive and susceptible to input error.
“We basically went from being a small senior housing company to a much larger organization,” explains Angela, “so we knew we needed software that would help us grow.”
Making the switch to Yardi Voyager has also allowed the company to centralize their database so that employees can access information quickly and easily.
“Training staff how to use a powerful software like Voyager can be challenging at first,” admits Angela, “but as we continue to implement new products and delve into the functionality available, we can see just how much is achievable and what we can really get out of our system.”
Increasing Comfort Levels
For Angela, a key advantage to simplifying workflows stems from the ability to customize employee roles so each staff member can access just the information necessary to complete their own tasks.
“Sometimes a new employee can feel scared of a robust software system because it can do so much and there are so many options,” she says. “The nice thing about Yardi is that we can customize the roles and the menus so that staff only see what they need to see.”
“We’re always working on how we can simplify our system for the staff on the front line to make it easier for them, so they don’t feel overwhelmed.”
Beyond the Basics
Look ahead, Angela believes employee retention will continue to be a challenge for the senior living industry. Part of the solution, she says, lies in educating the public about the true nature of assisted living and memory care.
“I think people sometimes have a misconstrued idea of what senior assisted or independent living is like,” she says. “So I think educating the general public will go a long way towards luring top talent to our industry.”
“We always strive to provide more than just basic assistance to our residents,” Angela concludes. “We plan to continue to exceed expectations and develop better and better service for our residents while making sure our employees always have access to the best tools available to help them succeed.”
