Hey Everyone! What a busy and fun filled couple of days it was seeing everyone in Minneapolis. Our team ended the conference by getting together and sharing all of the amazing conversations and learnings we had throughout ARGENTUM. If you’re like us, you probably had some FOMO because it was hard to be everywhere with so much going on! We wanted to help with that, so here’s a few of our top takeaways in case you missed anything!
#1 The Outlook For Senior Living Is Strong - Thomas Bierlein
We all know this is a great industry filled with amazing people. And from a business perspective there continues to be strong interest in new construction, renovation projects, and acquisition opportunities to fuel more growth in our market. With most indicators (aging population, economic standing, etc) supporting the trend towards growth, the key for us all is to figure out how to embrace this trend and meet market demand. As demand increases we will be confronted with new consumers who bring different ideas of what senior living means to them. They will want to engage with you differently, and they will inspire new generations of senior living communities with designs that differ from what we’re all used to.
As leaders in the Senior Living space, we must continually be challenging ourselves to embrace and meet this growing demand in ways that give us all the best opportunities at capturing it. Whether that’s thinking of new ways to engage prospects (ex. digital conversations) or new concepts in community design - we all must push forward with new innovations.
Interested in talking more with Thomas about this topic? Send him a note!
#2 The People Are Back & Looking For Networking + Learning Opportunities - Krystal Chan
The good news for conference organizers after several tough years: The people are back. Conference seasons is in full swing as providers and vendors alike are eager to join together to talk about what’s new, what’s changed, and where to turn after several challenging years. Everyone is looking for an edge after we saw a host of new solutions emerge as a result of the pandemic. The FOMO is real and it was palpable in Minneapolis as attendees gathered to discuss how each was handling this challenge and that one. They polled each other on which solutions they’ve tried and which ones they liked. To us, it felt like everyone finally had the feeling that we’re moving forward and can finally focus on bettering our businesses, and it was great to be able to do it all, together, in person.
Interested in connecting with Krystal about about how we can partner? Send her a note!
As we attended sessions and had conversations with various providers, something we picked up on was the shift in discussing thefocus on rate vs occupancy. Many providers noted a strong first quarter, with March being one of their better months on record. Sometimes this was brou
ght on by pressure from REITs, particularly in combination with the challenging and expensive labor market right now. Other times it was simply that occupancy has returned to pre-pandmic levels and that focus has shifted away from gaining occupancy, sometimes secured through promotions and discounts, and instead shifted back towards achieving higher market rates. Of interest were providers who discussed their strategies towards maintaining rates, and instead, finding their returns through costs applied to the care levels. This helped them normalize consumer expectations and empowered the buyer to choose what fit their needs.
Want to learn more about our new Pricing Assistant? Reach out to Alex Smith below.
#4 - Staffing Continues To Be A Challenge - Shelane Barrett
The labor market continues to be a challenging topic for many providers who we heard discuss how it is difficult to attract and retain talent. In our conversations though we heard a few promising ideas that we wanted to share. First, we heard one provider encourage others to look outside the senior living industry. There are many talented people in the marketplace. And though they may not have the exact experience as someone you may be searching for, with some training you may find just the person you’ve been searching for all along.
Secondly, we like one providers comment around treating your recruitment pipeline just like your sales pipeline. Giving it effort and focus, thinking about the experience of it and where you’re presenting friction, how you’re closing, and so forth, will all help increase your chances of landing the candidate you’re in need of. And finally, with so much focus on hiring it’s easy to forget your current
team members. But, these are your most important assets. Loyal and talented employees are hard to come by and even harder to replace. Ensure you take care of them!
Did you know FURTHER can help you with your staffing challenge? We've built a recruitment flow inside of our Virtual Sales Assistant that guides prospective employees to more information while it helps you qualify and manage candidates. Interested? Reach out to Shelane to learn more!
We'd love to hear your thoughts too! Drop us a line with any interesting takeaways you had from ARGENTUM. We hope to see you this fall at SMASH! But if not, we'll see you again next year in Nola!
