Staffing is Tackle Senior Care Staff Shortage with Technology & a very big problem in the senior living industry. In September 2021, the American Health Care Association (AHCA) released the results of a survey that showed that only 4% of assisted living communities have enough staff.
These shortages aren’t just making it hard for people to go about their daily lives; they’re also making it hard for businesses to stay open. The AHCA survey also found that over 60% of nursing homes and assisted living communities are worried that they will have to close because of a lack of staff.
I’ve spent my whole career taking care of and making sure older people are happy and healthy & Tackle Senior Care Staff Shortage with Technology. I’ve worked in communities as the director of resident services and now as the vice president of sales for a senior living technology partner, so I know how important it is to give your staff a safe and healthy place to work.
In order to keep communities stable, leaders need to use technology to help their current employees and find new ones. Here’s how you can use technology in senior living to keep staff and make them happier.
Here are 5 ways to Tackle Senior Care Staff Shortage with Technology;
1. Put tech and communication solutions together
To run a successful community, staff must be able to talk to each other well, and strong relationships between people are the basis of a healthy work environment.
One way to improve communication is to use a tech platform that works well on mobile devices. This makes sure that everyone on your care staff, from activity directors to dieticians to CNAs, is on the same page about how to care for residents, how to plan their days, and how things work in the community for Tackle Senior Care Staff Shortage with Technology.
As someone who has worked in senior living communities, I know how hard it can be to keep track of and plan care plans for residents. No longer do people sit around a table and write out menus and activity plans for residents by hand. With tech platforms that work together, care staff can:
2. Improve Your Marketability to Prospective Staff
As more people quit their jobs because of the pandemic, the gig economy is growing. What makes the gig economy stand out? Flexibility. To get people to want to work for you, especially if they already have other part-time jobs, you should offer flexible scheduling, modern technology, and chances for long-term growth. This will make you more attractive to potential employees and make your current employees more likely to stay to Tackle Senior Care Staff Shortage with Technology.
You may have to work around the preferences of your employees, but giving them the freedom to choose how and when they work gives them the flexibility they want.
For example, you could give your staff the choice between working three 12-hour shifts or four 10-hour shifts. As a leader in the community, you should also think about hiring people who can only work at night or on the weekends to Tackle Senior Care Staff Shortage with Technology.
Another way to make yourself more marketable is to use tech platforms to make it easier for your care staff to do their jobs. Imagine being able to do things like update activity calendars, talk to families of residents, and schedule health checks all from one easy-to-use platform.
In our digital world, employees of the future expect to be able to use technology. Don’t miss out on good people just because your community still uses paper and desktop computers. Instead, go above and beyond what they expect by giving them a single place to go for all their needs. Even better, find a tech partner whose system is easy for your employees to learn and use and makes their jobs easier to Tackle Senior Care Staff Shortage with Technology.
Lastly, offering good benefits is another way to find and keep good care workers. In the gig economy, where people may have more than one job, you can stand out from other employers by giving them reasons to stay, like:
3. Better benefits for health care.
Signing bonuses.
Certifications for a career.
We shortened the time between performance reviews so that we could offer more bonuses to Tackle Senior Care Staff Shortage with Technology.
Help with feelings and health.
By adding more ways to help your staff, your community will find it easier to attract and keep talented people.
4. Use new technology to bring in new people
The bad news is that many places for seniors to live will still have trouble finding enough staff. The good news is that more money is being put into technology for senior living.
Just last month, Amazon released Alexa Together, a platform for smart aging that helps older people live on their own. As senior living technology improves, both communities and residents will find it easier to use and access Tackle Senior Care Staff Shortage with Technology.
Integrating technology into your community sounds like a good idea, but putting a new process in place takes time, and getting people on board can be scary. Even though there’s no way around the fact that onboarding takes time, it doesn’t have to be a painful process.
With senior living tech solutions, your care staff can do their jobs faster and talk to their coworkers more easily, all while giving your residents the best care possible to Tackle Senior Care Staff Shortage with Technology.
5. Make health records available online
Your care staff has many things to do, but one of them is to do daily wellness checks. This can take a lot of time because the staff has to walk down the hall to an office, log on to a desktop computer, and type up written notes.
With the help of a digital health platform and tablet technology, care staff can update the health records of residents as they talk to them to Tackle Senior Care Staff Shortage with Technology.
In addition to being an easy-to-access mobile resource for your staff, online health records ensure the quality of care by giving your staff one place where they can update care plans, track symptoms, update assessment schedules, and log incident reports.
A paper incident report might not be uploaded to the system right away, but mobile digital documentation lets staff record even the smallest incidents or changes in health in a way that all staff can see, even when they’re not at their desks to Tackle Senior Care Staff Shortage with Technology.
Also, caregivers and healthcare providers can see a resident’s full profile using a digital platform that works on mobile devices. This makes it easier to notice changes in behavior or health and let other staff know about them right away.
