How To Make Your Senior Care Community A Top Place To Work

To no surprise, there’s been a lot of buzz about Fortune Magazine and Great Place To Work’s first-ever curated list of the Best Workplaces in Aging Services. This is great publicity for an industry that’s struggling to attract workers, and OnShift is thrilled to have several customers on this list.

Lists like these can be a powerful recruitment tool for the organizations featured, offering job seekers a glimpse into the company’s values, perks, attitudes and more.

So how do you get your company on this list next year? By giving your employees something great to say about you. That starts with creating a culture that’s worth talking about. Here are some quick-hit tips for bolstering a winning employee experience.

Support Work-Life Balance

Flexible schedules, job sharing, condensed work weeks, generous paid time off packages, and family leave packages were some of the offerings highlighted in many of the company profiles. Today’s caregiver is often juggling multiple jobs, coordinating childcare and more. Simply working with staff to build schedules based on their preferences, making it easy to request open shifts, and offering on-the-go schedule access boosts satisfaction and builds loyalty to your organization.

Perk Up Your Perks 

Providers need to think outside the traditional benefits box. Increased competition for talent makes it more important than ever for providers to meet the desires of today’s workforce. Employee financial wellness software, volunteer opportunities, tuition reimbursement and transportation stipends are just some of the ways organizations are reeling in, retaining and receiving rave reviews from employees today.

Reward & Recognize

What’s recognized gets repeated. Let your employees know that behaviors like showing up to work on time, filling an open shift and going above and beyond the call of duty are noticed and appreciated. A points-based rewards system is an easy way to identify your high performers and thank them for their hard work appropriately.

Make Your Mission Matter

If you don’t have a clearly defined mission statement, get one. It represents who you are as an organization and sets you apart from the competition. Then, tie it into everything you do – from hiring the right people to conducting performance reviews. The more you reiterate your mission statement, the more your employees will buy into it, creating a sense of purpose in the work they do and making them proud to work for your organization.

Collect Staff Feedback

Today’s employees have a voice and they want their employer to hear it. Employee engagement software can help organizations keep a regular pulse on staff satisfaction, while also capturing employee concerns and feedback in real-time. Surveying staff helps you trend satisfaction and correct issues, as well as make process improvements at your organization. Remember, the more satisfied your staff, the more likely they are to consider your organization as a top place to work.

Outline Clear Career Paths

Many of today’s workers, specifically members of younger generations, are looking for organizations that help them grow and advance in their careers. To combat the staffing shortages in long term care, working with staff to outline career paths can help boost retention and give you the opportunity to groom current employees for future leadership roles within your company. When workers know their employer wants to see them succeed and grow, they will be more loyal to your organization and more likely to sing its praises.  

Implementing these strategies will help give your employees something great to talk about.  At the end of the day, if your employees believe your organization is a great workplace, that’s really all that matters.

We put these six strategies into a fun infographic to make it easier for you to keep them top of mind! Download it, bookmark it, share it with a colleague.