NOI = Employee Engagement

Overwhelming pressure from owners/investors to meet NOI expectations, increased competition, labor retention, and increased costs created a “put today's fire out”  atmosphere in Senior Housing.
Quickly adapting to market changes or other operational issues is necessary, however the foundation for sustained long term success requires a committed organizational culture.

Why is employee satisfaction/engagement so important?
Happy, satisfied, valued and respected employees create happy, satisfied loyal customers, resulting in lower turnover, improved quality, lower operating costs and better financial performance. Unhappy, unsatisfied employees create unhappy or fewer customers, lower quality, higher operating costs and negative financial results.

Forbes referred to employee engagement as “the wonder drug for customer service”.

Foresee, a customer-service  analytics firm who represents two dozen global businesses including Ann Taylor and Apple released its findings; a company with a high level of employee satisfaction proved to have a direct and positive influence on customer satisfaction. If employees felt engaged, trusted and empowered to deliver strong customer service, that is exactly what they did.

My Innerview, an applied research company conducted a national Long-Term care customer service survey of Residents, Family members and employees. The results are significant considering, 87,473 residents, 150,829 family members and 283,404 employees responded. It is not a surprise the results reinforce what we've known; there was nearly a direct correlation between employee satisfaction, resident satisfaction and quality of service.

The Gallup survey even took the research a step further, demonstrating how employee satisfaction resulted in higher profits.

The top three drivers of employee satisfaction represent items related to  1) effective supervision and management 2) care/concern of management and management who listens 3)  managements help dealing with stress and burnout. Unfortunately I continue to see these as the lowest rated areas from employees. How would you feel if your supervisor didn’t care about you, or refused to listen to either your ideas of problems. Would it affect your work performance, attitude or loyalty?

First step of employee engagement: Create a service oriented Culture

Before I discuss AUA, the most valuable part of building the employee engagement foundation is creating a company culture where all employees understand and are passionate about it.  Chick-fil-A is a great example. In a recently released Harris Poll ranking the reputations of the country's most well-known companies, Chick-fil-A came in at No. 4 overall. It was the only restaurant chain in the top 50. Their hourly workers are predominately 16, 17 and 18 years old and aren't looking for a long term job. However they believe their high retention rate in all age groups is a reflection of their motto "to be a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us"

This is extremely important. Their motto isn't only for line staff. Former Chick-fil-A President and COO Jimmy Collins, used to clean up trash on the side of the exit ramp two miles away from their corporate offices, even though it was the city's responsibility. He wanted to enhance the experience of every visitor to the HQ building. Every employee at every level is on a mission to "create remarkable experiences". 

Unless your organization starts with this foundational piece, there is no reason to expect a change in quality of service, satisfaction levels or sustained NOI growth.  

Steps of a successful customer service survey. (assuming you believe employees are customers)

A:  Ask customers for feedback through employee/resident and family surveys.  Response rate is critical for valid results, therefore promotion of upcoming or ongoing surveys is important. Most 3rd party survey companies offer a variety of options to meet each demographics segment. Remember Millennials are the most tech savvy generation and expect a more real time, online format. Only 11% of Millennials choose to respond to mail-in surveys.

U: Seek to Understand feedback from the survey results. This may be your biggest opportunity for improvement. All too often, community leaders skip this step assuming they understand the detail behind generic result categories or spend wasted time trying to determine who gave the answer. Take time meeting with employees to review results, positive and negative seeking to understand the details behind results.  You can promote the positive and develop a detailed action plan to improve the weaknesses. Suggest the same process for residents and families.

A: Develop a detailed Action plan including persons responsible and completion dates to address specifics from the stakeholder meetings. Suggest giving every employee a copy of the action plan as well as posting in the break room. Celebrate and promote implementing/improving every item. Additionally every resident and family should receive a copy of your action plan to resolve their issues.

Imagine the increased goodwill and trust you will experience as a result of meeting with each stakeholder, reviewing their results and seeking to better understand, resulting in an action plan to address their concerns. Priceless !!

Rick D Watkins


Accomplished, forward-thinking leader with 30+ years of success directing all key operational aspects of Senior Housing.