Joanne Kaldy

Nursing homes have experienced a workforce rollercoaster in 2020. Although healthcare employed grew in months when other industries saw dips, a new report shows that 2020 ended with job numbers 3% below a February peak. Numbers are even bleaker in the long-term care sector, which was down 262,000 jobs at the end of the year (a 7.8% decline since February). Just nursing homes alone lost 153,000 jobs in 2020. Read the full article.   … [Read more...] about (1/22) Nursing Homes Lost 153,000 Jobs in 2020, Almost 10 Percent of Workforce: Report

There has been a lot of talk recently about the importance of resilience in the workplace. However, according to a new survey, only 15% of workers globally are highly resilient and 80% are “just coming to work” and are higher vulnerable. The survey authors characterized resilience has having a strong sense of organization, as well as the ability to compartmentalize at work and do work that makes one feel strong. There are some steps you can take to build resiliency in your workers:

• Encourage a focus on outcomes more than hours. Avoid micromanaging and give people the tools and resources to succeed in their tasks.
• Embed the language of strength into communications and programming. Create an environment that culturally supports employees.
• Conduct weekly check-ins with team members to ritualize a “grown up” mindset to build trust, accelerate productivity, and maintain connection.

It happens too often. You’re excited about starting a project, but you need a sign-off. You can’t publish a report until you get information from someone. You need to meet with a supervisor to plan for the next quarter. Yet your calls, emails, and other efforts to connect go unanswered. As frustrating as it is, consider a few hacks to make the connections you need:

• Have a compelling subject line. Keep it should and attention-grabbing. Instead of “Report Is almost ready to go to press,” try “Urgent: Report on deadline.”
• Be aware of your tone. As you get more frustrated, it may be tempting to sound more urgent and stern. However, continue to be polite and respectful. Research shows that emails with a more positive tone have a 10-15% higher response. Don’t assume someone is ignoring you or being rude. Instead, acknowledge you know how busy people are and stress the importance of their expertise and feedback.
• Keep it short, use simply language, and … [Read more...] about (1/20) How To Follow Up with Someone’s Who’s Not Getting Back to You

  These days just about everyone has political opinions. Some of your workers likely have very passionately held beliefs that lead to activism. But when you can you discipline or dismiss an employee who’s engaged in disruptive political expression? You have to tread lightly, and you should seek legal counsel before making any decisions. However, here are a few useful tips:

• As a private employer, you have the right to fire an employee because of his/her off-duty political expression or participation in protests with only a few limits.
• Make sure employees understand that the First Amendment doesn’t mean they can say or do anything without consequences. This law protects against government action, not action by a private employer. For example, there are many instance of employees being fired for hate speech.
• Know and heed state laws, some of which have surprising provisions. For instance, some states protect workers from discrimination based on … [Read more...] about (1/19) Firing Workers When Political Expression Goes Too Far

During the riots at the U.S. Capitol last week, one police office had the courage and presence of mind to lead the angry mob away from an area of the building where legislators and their staff were taking cover. It was a clear demonstration of the importance of the ability to keep a cool, clear head in a crisis. A five-step framework can help you and your teams moving from primal fear and paralysis to level-headed action:

• Understand the biology behind your immediate reaction and what make a concerted effort to shift to a more productive mindset.
• Tune into the physical and emotional cues the situation is triggering for you. This can help you understand and manage your anxiety.
• Recall previous experiences where you’ve felt similar anxiety. What did you learn from those events that can help you now?
• Focus on your highest purpose and what you want/need to accomplish in the moment. This will release oxytocin and help you … [Read more...] about (1/18) How To Keep Your Cool in High-Stress Situations

A new report offers eight recommendation to improve direct care workforce jobs and nurture/retain home care workers, certified nursing assistants, and others:

• Reform long-term care financing to strengthen direct care jobs, including strengthening public financing for long-term care, increasing reimbursement rates under Medicaid and other public payers, and protecting and strengthening Medicaid to cover more individuals and improve direct care jobs.
• Increase compensation for direct care workers, including offering a living wage and improving access to full-time schedules.
• Strengthen training standards and delivery systems for direct care workers, including establishing a national standard for competencies.
• Fund, implement, and evaluate direct care workforce interventions, including strengthening the workforce pipeline in direct care and providing additional skill-building at the entry level.
• Improve direct care workforce data … [Read more...] about (1/15) PHI Releases In-Depth Report on the Direct Care Workforce

While unemployment has risen in the recent months, finding and hiring the best candidates for job openings will continue to be challenging in 2021. According to new survey data, employers face several recruitment dilemmas in the coming year:

• Assessing candidates during virtual interviews.
• Identifying quality candidates quickly.
• Effectively screening candidates pre-interview.
• Determining the candidate’s potential to work from home productively.
• Finding candidates with the right skills, particularly soft skills such as teamwork, crisis management, and conflict resolution that have been so essential during the pandemic.
• Lack of candidates with the tech skills or capability to work remotely.

The beginning of a new year is always an opportunity to reflect and learn from the recent past. There are many lessons to be learned from 2020, but here are the leading ones for senior living:

• Communication with policymakers and the media are critical. You can’t afford not to have a place at the table or a voice in the media. The pandemic made it clear how misunderstood the senior living industry is; we have an opportunity to correct the myths and misunderstandings and shine a light on the good we do.
• A healthy company culture helps alleviate staffing issues. When you have a culture of trust, transparency, and respect, it’s easier to recruit and keep staff during a crisis. If you take care of staff during a situation such as a pandemic, the word spreads. If you don’t, the word spreads even faster.
• The industry is stronger working together. Sharing news, insights, information, resources, and best practices was key to survival, particularly during the … [Read more...] about (1/13) 4 Lessons for Senior Living from 2020

Senior living leaders recently weighed in on what the year ahead might look like and what changes need to prioritized. Among the top issues:

• The pandemic shined a spotlight on the staffing crisis in post-acute and long-term care. This needs to be solved quickly. This needs to start by building trust and keeping frontline workers safe, including educating them about the vaccine.
• Wage/reimbursement pressure and a regulatory system that focus on punishing operators instead of helping them were huge weights on the industry in 2020. In 2021, we need to advocate for change and have a place at the table with policymakers.

Worker burnout has always been an issue but never more so than this past year. Looking ahead, employers still have this issue on their radar:

• 69% of remote employees report having burnout symptoms. A fairly new but common problem, especially among offsite workers, is Zoom, or videoconferencing, fatigue.
• Searches for terms such as “signs of burnout” have increased by 24% throughout 2020.
• About 76% of employees experience burnout on the job at least sometimes.