The Great Resignation was one of the most devastating economic consequences of the pandemic, significantly impacting the assisted living industry. By late 2021, nearly 4.5 million people had quit their jobs in the United States, leading to a whopping 9.1% decrease in senior living staffing rates.
The good news is that despite early setbacks, the industry is recovering.
The bad news? Increased competition.
Between the aging U.S. population and signs of steady growth in the senior living sector, the time to expand is now, but as occupancy rates increase, so does the need for more qualified staff, leaving those running smaller operations to compete for talent acquisition with big employers.
Fortunately, small and mid-range communities can deploy new technologies that allow them to compete effectively: recruiting and hiring qualified candidates. This article will explore four key ways staffing technology can help you keep up with the demands of an expanding senior living sector.
Schedule a demo to discover how Eldermark's solutions can help you attract, hire, and retain staff.
Tip: A lot of these big trends on hiring and staffing are also covered in our eBook. For more insight into how hiring technology can address staffing challenges, download our eBook: The Secret to Stable Staffing and Occupancy During the 'Great Resignation.'
How Has Technology Changed the Hiring Process?
Technology has redefined the traditional hiring process in several ways. A once labor-intensive operation is now a streamlined process driven by technology and automation.
Here are some of the ways technology has changed the hiring process:
- Job boards and forums: With platforms such as Glassdoor, Indeed, and LinkedIn, job postings are much more accessible, allowing companies to reach a wider talent pool.
- Assessments: Online surveys and assessments evaluate a candidate's skills and gauge whether they would be a cultural fit, informing interviewing and hiring decisions.
- Video interviews: The pandemic saw video interviews go from interim solutions to standard practice. You can now conveniently connect with job candidates in any location.
- Onboarding: New hires can complete paperwork, receive training materials, and acclimate to company culture virtually thanks to digital onboarding programs.
How Hiring Technology Can Help You Compete
Let's look at four ways hiring technology can help a small senior community find the perfect team to help them compete with big employers.
1. It makes finding, attracting, and keeping employees easier
Successful staff recruitment and retention are the backbones of a robust human resources department. By deploying technology strategically, even small hiring teams can access, entice, and retain top talent.
- Reach the same people: Traditional recruitment practices made competing with the big guys difficult. However, with social media and various job recruitment platforms, smaller communities have the same level of access to ensure the best candidates know about their open positions.
- Showcase your brand: An online presence lets smaller senior communities showcase their unique culture and values, helping them stand out among larger competitors. Employer branding is a big part of the recruitment process, and a professional website goes a long way when attracting new talent.
- Improve the candidate experience: Whether workers are browsing open positions by category, interacting with chatbots, virtually sending a job application, scheduling interviews, or being onboarded, hiring technology takes every step of the candidate experience into account to improve hiring and retention rates.
- Remove bias from the process: Hiring technology can help eliminate unconscious bias in the recruitment process by using algorithms to match job requirements with candidate skills, creating a more diverse and inclusive workforce.
Looking to help your senior living community stand out from the competition? Eldermark’s Digital Marketing solutions help you differentiate and attract not only new residents, but qualified staff. Learn more
2. It improves the application and hiring processes
Staffing technology also improves senior living communities' application process, hiring, and onboarding. It does so by automating tasks and providing job seekers and new hires with the option to connect virtually.
- Automate repetitive tasks: Automation can streamline mundane administrative tasks such as scheduling interviews and filling templates, making the process more efficient for hiring managers and job candidates.
- Provide options for virtual interviews and onboarding: Many hiring technologies also include digital onboarding systems, which can help new hires get up to speed faster, enhancing productivity and job satisfaction. Video interviews can save time and resources, allowing hiring teams to meet with candidates from anywhere. They also provide an opportunity for candidates to experience your company culture firsthand.
Eldermark's hiring and staffing solutions provide you with the reassurance that you'll always meet the needs of an expanding community. Talk to one of our software experts to discover how Eldermark's solutions can help you attract, hire, and retain staff.
3. It's constantly improving with new features
Understanding the full scope of what new technology can do is critical when choosing the best software for senior living operations. Several new features can be particularly useful when you are advertising job openings to new employees:
- Geofencing: This location-based service will trigger a pre-programmed action when a mobile device enters or exits a virtual boundary. Geofencing makes it incredibly easy to keep postings in specific regions, such as a tech hub known for producing software developers or engineers. Plus you can get creative with your geofencing locations like targeting recent graduates of a university nursing program with your new job postings.
- Data analytics: Employee data sets are analyzed to filter and score applicants, helping you identify high-quality candidates who embody your company culture and are a good fit for the community. Senior living analytics can also produce valuable information such as time-per-hire and cost-per-hire data, plus show you where there are opportunities to optimize and simplify your team’s everyday work.
- Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS): Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) save hiring managers considerable time by quickly scanning and sorting resumes based on qualifications, experience, or specified keywords.
- Artificial intelligence and machine learning: Cutting-edge algorithms and neural networks can process large swaths of data to produce intuitive insights and actionable intelligence based on various metrics.
For a more in-depth look at how data analytics can impact staffing and occupancy rates, check out this webinar on ElderSmarts, a comprehensive data and analytics solution.
4. It helps you save money
The initial pricing of hiring technologies is offset by significant cost savings over time. Here are three ways smaller senior communities can save money and remain competitive:
- Operational efficiency: Faster and more efficient operations save on labor costs.
- Reduce staff turnover: A study by the Society for Human Resource Management found that employers it can cost the equivalent of six to nine months of an employee’s salary in order to find and train their replacement. For example, an employee who was paid an annual salary of $60,000 would cost a company anywhere from $30,000 to $45,000 to hire and train a replacement.
- Comply with regulatory statutes: Regulatory non-compliance is often unintentional, but the ensuing fines can dramatically impact smaller operations. Hiring technology can help to ensure your community is always staffed up to regulatory requirements.
Eldermark | Senior Living Solutions You Can Trust
The Great Resignation is over. People are returning to work, so it's time to start hiring again.
At Eldermark, we understand the nuances of senior living and have spent the last three decades creating solutions that address the challenges caregivers and operators face in the assisted living sector.
Whether your focus is hiring and recruitment, sales and marketing, increasing resident safety, or improving health outcomes, Eldermark's integrated software solutions have everything you need to enhance your senior living operations, from streamlining hiring and growing occupancy rates to increasing ROI.
Contact us for a free strategy session to see how Eldermark's solutions can help you take your senior living operations to the next level.