3 Pro-Tips for Hiring New Senior Living Staff

It's no mystery—many senior living communities have experienced staffing issues recently. As the population ages, more seniors will face health problems or issues maintaining their homes safely. These facts, when taken together, have resulted in a rapid increase in new senior living communities opening and demand for staff to fulfill the needs in these new communities. Additional competition in the market means offering the best package—including truly competitive wages, comprehensive benefits, and schedule flexibility. But what qualities should you be seeking before making an offer?

Finding the Right Fit

Finding high-quality community managers and staff is more than just a laundry list of skills and a questionnaire about their experience with Excel. You can teach the software. You can train on the policies. What you can't teach is enthusiasm, and you can't train staff to have the right kind of personality for your residents. Here are just a few of the qualities you can look for to ensure that you are hiring the right people for your community and your residents:

• Flexible and Adaptable: The old wisdom said seniors are creatures of habit, wanting their community to offer the same foods, activities, and amenities daily. This is no longer the case. Increasingly, seniors want to age in place without sacrificing the variety of life such as technology amenities, exotic food, and fun activities. Your staff must be able to keep up with the residents by being adaptable to these changing demands and by bringing in partners and that can bring fresh ideas to the table.
• Comfortable with Technology: Your residents want more technology in their everyday lives, but they might not have the skill sets to take advantage of it. This is where your staff comes in. Recruit staff that are comfortable enough with technology to work with your tech partners and residents. Those who aren't intimidated by technology will pick up your processes faster and more efficiently in addition to being able to speak intelligently about all of the technological amenities you offer your residents. Their comfort will inspire comfort and confidence in your residents, which is key to making them feel at home and keeping them in your community. 
• Enthusiastic: The most vital ingredient in community staff is enthusiasm. Without enthusiasm for your community and its residents, their skills and experience don't matter. One of the easiest ways to gauge potential candidates' enthusiasm is through interview questions. By asking candidates what activities or amenities they would suggest in the community, you can get an idea of what kind of creativity and enthusiasm they have to offer. You might even get some fresh new ideas out of the interview.

The Right Partner for the Right People

Once you've found the right candidate and begun the onboarding process, it's important that your policies and procedures immediately set up your new hires for success. Partnering with a technology solutions provider that offers a comprehensive technology suite for staff and state-of-the-art amenities for residents is the easiest way to set everyone up for success. The right partner will work with community staff to maximize productivity and efficiency, providing more time to be with residents and giving your team more time to make your community the best place to live.

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