“Director of Talent” positions led the list of new corporate roles among the nation’s 200 largest nonprofit senior care organizations, according to the LZ 200 report issued Thursday.
Ten organizations — 5% of the total — added the position last year, reflecting a greater need in corporate-level labor hiring, including planning for the coming staffing mandate for nursing homes.
Both nonprofit and for-profit organizations are getting creative about expanding roles that, in some cases, largely have been limited to the building or regional level.
Today, job listings for hiring roles often encompass more strategy responsibilities than a typical HR director’s compliance-driven duties, said Esther Shain, a New Jersey-based long-term care recruiter for Alvin Kahn & Associates.
The LZ report lumped recruiting and human resources titles into the talent director role, but other titles go further.
“We have recently been getting lots of jobs for directors of labor management, and we haven’t been getting those jobs before,” Shain told McKnight’s. “It’s not so new. It’s been around for a few years, but a lot of people are now catching on to that. It used to be larger corporations and very organized companies that had them, but now I think people are realizing that there’s a lot of things they can control if they have someone really sharp in that role.”
Shain said those filling such positions often want someone with experience in nursing home administration to take on the role because of the insights they might bring from that side of the house.
This year’s report represents more than 300,000 units and nearly 1,600 communities across the US. It also examines business and technology adoption trends. The 2024 LZ 200 rundown shows that not-for-profit senior living providers continue to grow primarily through community expansions from existing campuses, as well as affiliation and acquisition activity.
In addition to facility growth, more providers are exploring expansion of services. The report found increasing interest by operators in home health, home care, adult-day care, continuing care at home (CCaH) and PACE programs. Some 45% of the LZ 200 offer some type of home and community-based services to non-residents.
Other corporate-level positions added last year include chief operations officer, chief of clinical services, director of healthcare marketing and sales, and compliance officers.
