5 Ways To Build ESG Into Your Strategic Planning – Part 4: Engaging And Empowering Senior Living Employees

This article is part of our ongoing ESG in Senior Living series. Be sure to read our previous articles “5 Reasons ESG Initiatives Should Be In Your Strategic Plan” and Parts 1, 2, and 3 of this series found on our blog for additional background and information. This week, we’re focusing on ways to improve employee engagement, experience, and retention as a key 2023 ESG goal.

Improving employee satisfaction is a top ESG goal across industries and is especially impactful in senior living given today’s tight labor market. In addition to developing an employee wellness program, implementing rewards programs and improving the employee experience will help your community attract and retain talent. Here are three ways to boost employee engagement, experience, and retention:

• Improving employee satisfaction is a top ESG goal across industries and is especially impactful in senior living given today’s tight labor market. In addition to developing an employee wellness program, implementing rewards programs and improving the employee experience will help your community attract and retain talent. Here are three ways to boost employee engagement, experience, and retention:
• Utilize technology – As previously mentioned, technology can provide caregivers with additional “eyes and ears”, streamline communication, and remove administrative burdens so team members can focus on more meaningful work. In addition to helping employees work more efficiently and effectively, Fynn’s task management system includes a gamification component—as employees complete tasks, they are awarded points toward their daily personal performance score. Managers can use points and performance scoring with their community’s existing rewards system and have an objective measure of employee performance, providing a more equitable performance-based rewards system.
• Ensure fair labor standards, workload balancing, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) – As reported by Reuters, complying with the Fair Labor Standards Act isn’t enough to stand out as an advocate for employee rights in 2022. The article reported that socially-responsible companies are now including DE&I, pay transparency, worker activism, and mental health and wellbeing initiatives as part of their commitment to fair labor standards for employees. Recognizing that employee burnout is a major challenge for many operators and their teams, Fynn’s intelligent task-management system is built to establish load balancing through 1) earlier identification of changing resident acuity for appropriate staffing and billing, 2) machine learning identifying the average time it takes to complete various tasks, and 3) staff-to-resident performance matching, so quality employees are automatically assigned to provide care to residents with whom they have an established trusting relationship. All of these elements build a more positive experience and better outcomes for both residents and employees.
• Equip team members with the training, resources, opportunities, and incentives to efficiently and effectively care for residents – Fynn’s gamified task management system tracks and scores employee day-to-day performance so managers can easily and objectively reward staff engagement. How managers decide to use those scores to reward their teams based on their organization’s unique culture is a separate and very important topic. Some operators choose to work with companies such as The Image Group or Blueboard to reward employees with branded merchandise or experiences while others recognize a job well-done with paid time off or tuition reimbursement programs.

Regardless of your approach to engaging and celebrating team members, Fynn will help you understand and empower employees through:

• Improved staff retention via gamification, intelligent scheduling, and staff-to-resident performance matching
• Increased staff efficiency through system-directed task management and streamlined user interface
• Better workload balancing and accurate billing via earlier notification of changing resident acuity
• Equitable employee recognition by providing managers with an objective performance monitoring and scoring system