Flourishing communities applying operations best practices

In our Flourishing Communities webinar series, we have the privilege of interviewing leaders at top-performing senior living communities around the country, gaining insight into their first-hand experiences and strategies that have driven success in their communities. Now, in this Flourishing Community Best Practices blog series, we’re bringing their top insights directly to you. Read on for actionable advice on how to help your community flourish.

Managing a thriving senior living community takes more than just providing older adults with a place to live. It's about creating an environment that nurtures a comprehensive sense of wellness, fostering physical health, mental well-being, and social connections.

Providing a holistically supportive and enriching resident experience is built on a foundation of efficient operational processes. From coordinating life enrichment activities to ensuring residents stay connected with their families, efficient systems can help a community maximize their resources so they can dedicate energy towards enhancing their residents’ quality of life.

What does it take to operate a well-oiled senior living community? The best way to find out is to hear directly from the people making it work day-to-day. In our Flourishing Communities webinar series, we interview award-winning senior living operators about the strategies and tactics that enable them to run thriving communities. In this blog post, we distill the key takeaways from these discussions, offering actionable strategies to help you optimize your community's operations and provide the best possible experience for your residents, families, and staff.

Streamline calendar management and activity planning

A cornerstone of fostering an engaging resident experience is facilitating life enrichment activities. But creating a calendar full of personalized, evidence-based activities can be incredibly time consuming. According to our annual Tech Report, 35% of operator respondents say creating activities is the most labor-intensive task for their staff.

How do you make sure residents are engaged, while ensuring activities staff aren’t overworked?

A big portion of activity planning involves searching the internet and past archives for programming content. By providing activity staff with a library of evidence-based content, communities can save significant time and energy by eliminating the need for extensive research and preparation.

Melissa Jeaggi, Adult Day Services Manager at Opportunities, Inc., highlighted the benefits of having access to a library of content resources, stating, "The program is just there for us... it plays games and provides some great learning activities." By using ready-made, research-backed materials, staff can efficiently run engaging and effective programs, fostering a stimulating environment for residents without the added stress of developing content from scratch.

Another way to streamline the activity planning process is to organize activities around a daily or monthly theme. Themes can provide a cohesive structure that simplifies decision-making and allows staff to facilitate programs that reflect resident preferences.

For example, Valerie Dodson of Sitter and Barfoot Veterans Care Center describes how planning with thematic content for the month allows for consistent engagement without the need for extensive research. She recounts the community’s most recent Veterans Day, how they seamlessly transitioned from a live streamed ceremony to military song activity, to a mealtime prayer followed by a themed slideshow. The unified theme not only helped to simplify planning, but also fostered resident engagement by creating a seamless sequence of activities.

Driving efficiency in program planning and calendar creation can help save staff time, letting them redirect energy towards facilitating the activities and interacting with residents.

Enhance communication with family members

Family involvement is another critical aspect of fostering trust and satisfaction in senior living communities. But making calls and messaging family members can put a toll on staff if the right systems aren’t in place. In the same Tech Report, communicating with families garnered the second-highest ranking for most time-consuming task (after activity planning).

One way to enhance the ease and efficiency of interactions between families and staff is to implement a centralized portal for family communication. Kayla Pierce from The Kensington at Walnut Creek highlights the benefits of staying ahead in communication: "Families get the information ahead of time and don't have to call and fish for that information."

A connection portal with photo sharing capabilities can also help facilitate two-way communication with families, saving staff time while also fostering connection. Tracey Zuk of Mount Alverna Village captures the essence of photo sharing technology: "I love it because I do believe it brings families together, and I see it every time. Families can send photographs onto [the platform], and we can talk with them and increase their experience that way."

By providing a single platform where families can access photos, calendars, and important notices, senior living operators can reduce the volume of inquiries for staff while fostering family connection. 

Efficiently manage work and transportation requests

Senior living residents need to feel at home in their communities. Part of that involves the ability to independently request maintenance on their units and procure transportation to attend appointments and run errands.

Many senior living communities rely on manual processes for maintenance and work requests. This may involve the resident physically visiting the front desk to make their requests, adding to administrative staff work loads and interrupting their workflows.

Centralizing these requests into a streamlined system can drastically improve efficiency. Tracy Lichti from New Cassel Retirement Center shared that having a central place for work orders improved team productivity: "It makes it so much more efficient for that team."

A best practice for managing work and maintenance requests is to choose a technology solution that allows residents and families to easily submit requests, and allows operators to access request data on the backend to track and analyze work and transportation operations.

Get more community best practices on demand

Efficient operations aren't just about saving staff time or making a positive impression on families. As we’ve heard from several guest testimonies, how your community runs reflects your dedication to providing exceptional care and meaningful support to older adults and the people who care for them. By ensuring operations run smoothly, and are supported by the right technology solutions, operators can continue to elevate the senior living industry.

Ultimately, the goal is to build a flourishing community where residents feel valued and engaged, families feel connected to their loved ones, and staff feel satisfied in their roles. To get more insights on how leading operators achieve this, we invite you to join our Flourishing Communities webinar series or catch the recordings on demand. By joining these discussions, you'll find actionable strategies to elevate your community’s operations and deliver exceptional experiences to your residents.