The pandemic proved an exhausting time for everyone, but senior living staff was hit especially hard with long hours, stressful work environments, and overwhelming caregiver burnout. The senior living industry now more than ever has to recognize the value their caregivers provide for their organizations. Focusing on all aspects of employee well-being only benefits organizations in the long run.
According to a 2020 Harvard Business Review survey of 1,073 business leaders, 96% said that a happy and positive workplace makes it easier to retain employees, 94% said it makes attracting new staff easier, and 87% agree that it gives their organization a competitive advantage.
As restrictions lessen and things begin to go back to normal, senior living organizations shouldn’t lose the momentum on staff well-being. There should be institutional and individual well-being resources available to senior living staff at all times. Here are a few resources your community can start with:
Individual check-ins
If you want to know how you can help your employees, start at the source. Ask employees what they need to feel supported directly. When employees feel like they are being heard, they are 4.6 times more likely to feel empowered at work.
If you think your employees would feel uncomfortable giving direct feedback to you, hand out anonymous feedback surveys to get more honest input.
Give feedback often and constructively
Employees want to know if they are doing well on something or if they need to correct it so they aren’t wasting time. When they are doing something well, reward them and give them more autonomy. When employees feel like their employers don’t trust them enough to get their job done, workplace satisfaction and mental health decrease.
Rewarding staff doesn't always have to be monetary, too. Check out this list of non-monetary incentives to give to build employee morale.
Provide mental health support
Offering support for employee mental health can lead to overall improved productivity, increased retention, and lower health care and disability costs. Senior living leaders can be trained on how to recognize and support emotionally struggling staff members, add mental health coverage as a part of your organization’s healthcare plan, or promote well-being and destigmatize mental health talk in the workplace.
Understand your employees
On top of taking care of residents, most senior living employees are also caregivers of children or elderly family members. Senior living leaders can be more mindful of the social and familial needs of their staff members, which benefits everyone in the long run. Employees who feel like their leaders are supportive of work-family challenges were less likely to show risk factors of cardiovascular disease and sleep better.
Wellzesta Elevate
Wellzesta’s Elevate platform is designed to combat employee turnover by supporting senior living staff’s emotional and vocational needs, increasing job satisfaction among all of your teams.
Elevate allows staff to focus on their well-being through daily wellness content that covers all dimensions of wellness. Elevate also helps to streamline communication between employees, leaders, and residents, leading to a more effective and positive work environment.
Click here to learn more about how Wellzesta can help your community.
