For at least one long-term care provider — and likely many others in a similar situation — sitting in the lap of luxury comes with extra burdens others might not realize.
Take, for example, Vi Continuing Care Communities. It has 10 campuses, and they’re located in “destination” locations such as Hilton Head, SC; various Florida hot spots; Glenview, IL; Scottsdale, AZ; Highlands Ranch, CO; and Palo Alto and La Jolla in California.
These are glorious places “to be.” But they’re also burdened with low unemployment rates — as low as 2.8% in one location, according to the most recent statistics.
As Judy Whitcomb knows, this is a serious situation for an operator. A Vi senior vice president, she is in charge of getting enough of the right employees in the door, and keeping them. It’s harder than it sounds.
Although the locations are considered “leisure” markets, Whitcomb and her team can’t afford to act casually about talent acquisition. They compete heavily with not only other healthcare providers for a limited number of housekeepers, cooks, valets and other support positions, but also with hotels and other housing and hospitality entities.
And due to the high cost of living, these aren’t easy places for front-line workers to live near. So when Whitcomb observes that there’s a talent shortage and it’s “only going to get worse,” you can shudder along with her.
Vi, however, is not sitting back and waiting for the market to mangle it. Leaders decided to emphasize looking within. “Rather than look outside of Vi, we thought if we can give these opportunities internally, than we’d have greater success at retention,” Whitcomb recalls.
This led to the introduction of a pair of new programs in May. The first brings more extensive career ladders for CNAs. Candidates learn more key competencies and receive certified training in additional areas.
In the first two months alone, 16% of the aide workforce graduated from CNA I to CNA II, Whitcomb reports. The aides become eligible after a year on the job and then enhance their treatment capabilities with learning sessions on subjects such as activities, grief and loss, Alzheimer’s and even aromatherapy. The company pays for it all.
Vi also does something similar on the culinary side, incidentally, maintaining three levels of cooks. Skills and proficiencies are enhanced in areas such as knife skills, station-cooking and more to advance.
Another retention enhancement that began in May is enhanced student loan reimbursements — up to $10,000 per person.
And get this: It’s available to part-time employees too, in order “to be helpful to servers who are high school or college students,” Whitcomb notes. The more time an employee spends with Vi, the more the company is willing to spend for that individual’s continuing education.
Mindful of the needs of management ranks, Vi also has a Breakthrough Leadership program. It’s a one-year set of courses taught by executives at Vi.
Taken all together, it’s a decent value proposition for potential and existing employees.
Workers must think so. It might be a key reason Vi was certified earlier this year as a “Great Place to Work” A national organization creates rankings based almost entirely on employee sentiment. (Stay tuned for more on this: Nationwide results will be announced Thursday morning.)
Even though the new Vi programs haven’t been in place all that long, the needle on the gauge is headed in the right direction.
Whitcomb said that the turnover rate for all types of nursing titles (aide through RN) was around 18%, while the overall staff turnover rate was about 22%. Just four years ago, the numbers were closer to 29%, she noted.
If that’s not someone’s full interpretation of paradise yet, it’s certainly moving in the right direction.
Follow Editor James M. Berklan @JimBerklan.
