CREJ - Healthcare Properties - January 2018
Go on any recruitment website and you will see dozens of job openings for executive directors for senior living or skilled nursing communities throughout the United States, including Colorado. The salary, benefits and other “perks” for these types of positions typically are highly competitive. There are tremendous growth opportunities. Many organizations doing ongoing recruitment are new and beautiful in design and offer an incredible place to work as a manager. Yet in spite of all that health care and senior living real estate has to offer, we often struggle to find and retain excellent leaders. Local and national companies have recognized the importance of a focused leadership development strategy for recruitment, ongoing growth and support, and ultimate retention within the organization. A great executive director is paramount to creating a successful real estate asset in today’s market. So, what does today’s senior living executive director need to be successful as the leader and ultimately remain as a long-term part of the property and/or organization? Make no mistake about it, whether the property is an assisted or independent living community, memory care residence or skilled nursing facility, the role of the leader grows more challenging and complex every year, resulting in high turnover in leadership positions.
The role of executive director is a busy one. The ED is typically on-call 24/7 for emergencies, critical customer needs, staffing issues and a host of other areas. Today’s customer is incredibly savvy and equally clear on his expectations for high-quality service delivery, requiring the executive director to have excellent interpersonal and customer relations skills. Health care real estate assets are multimillion dollar investments entrusted to the daily operation of the executive director, who also must have strong business and financial management skills. The executive director must be astute in executing a business plan, including maximizing occupancy, exercising cost controls and identifying ways to increase revenue. Senior residents are staying in their homes longer, so they move into senior communities with a higher level of cognitive needs and clinical care requirements. The executive director must be solid in understanding the regulations and staffing levels required to ensure quality of care for each resident. Most executive directors are usually not engineers; however, the ED also needs to have a working knowledge of the physical plant and life safety requirements for a safe and well-functioning environment. The executive director soon discovers how important the culinary experience is to nearly every resident of the community, so she must have a great vision and working knowledge of a superior dining product. It’s easy to see why it is so hard to not only find that amazing leader for the property, but also keep her. Owners, operators and asset managers are learning the critical importance of creating an environment and organizational model where leaders can grow and thrive in this important profession. Leaders are significant to the overall daily success of the property and, ultimately, serve as a key part of the asset. Organizations like ours in Colorado and national operators like Brookdale and Five Star have developed and implemented robust leadership development and peer mentoring programs to better support and retain executive directors in their properties.