What to Do When Staff Wants to Quit | Assisted Living Tips
Nov 18, 2024
Assisted living is a rewarding but demanding field, and staff retention is crucial to maintaining quality care and stability. However, high turnover among caregivers and administrators remains one of the most significant challenges for facility owners and operators. While staff transitions are sometimes inevitable, proactive communication and supportive management can go a long way in keeping your team happy and committed. In this guide, we’ll explore key strategies to help reduce turnover and foster a supportive environment for your administrators and caregivers.
Check out the video, too:
The Challenge of Retaining Administrators
Administrators play a vital role in running an assisted living facility, and yet they often bear a heavy emotional burden. Over time, some administrators may feel isolated or unsupported, which can lead to burnout or turnover. For example, one of my administrators at my Colorado facility struggled with a verbally aggressive resident, which caused her considerable stress. Despite her efforts to handle the situation professionally, the emotional toll brought her to the brink of resignation.
This scenario highlights how essential it is for administrators to feel supported, especially when facing challenging situations. Providing them with a strong support network and clear communication can make a significant difference, not only for their job satisfaction but also for the stability of your facility.
Supporting Staff on the Brink of Resignation
When you notice an administrator or team member showing signs of burnout or frustration, reach out to initiate an open and honest conversation. A simple check-in via text, phone, or in person can demonstrate your support and let them know they’re not alone in handling challenges.
In the example above, the Colorado administrator reached out, expressing her stress and uncertainty. While the underlying issue couldn’t be resolved immediately, consistent, empathetic communication reassured her that she was valued and supported. Knowing she wasn’t handling everything alone helped alleviate some of the stress and allowed her to navigate one of the toughest times of her career.
When It's Time to Let Go
Sometimes, despite best efforts, staff may decide to move on. When this happens, handling the conversation with empathy and understanding is key. For example, one of our administrators in Idaho resigned due to a long commute and high workload. Responding with compassion and respect helped maintain a positive relationship. Recognizing her contributions and understanding her reasons for leaving allowed the transition to end on a high note, showing her that her work was appreciated.
Positive exits like these can pay dividends in the long term. The assisted living industry is small and interconnected, so maintaining good relationships, even with former employees, can support your reputation and future hiring efforts.
Supporting Administrators in Out-of-State Facilities
Running out-of-state facilities adds extra challenges to supporting your staff, as it requires ongoing remote communication to ensure administrators feel engaged. Regular check-ins through calls or emails can make remote administrators feel more connected and valued.
In one instance, when the Idaho administrator mentioned earlier gave her two weeks' notice, ongoing follow-up conversations provided her with the opportunity to express her concerns and feel genuinely appreciated, even from afar. While she ultimately left, she departed knowing her efforts were valued, and the connection remained positive.
The Power of Communication
Strong communication is one of the most effective tools to retain staff and foster a positive environment. Administrators and caregivers who feel supported are less likely to consider leaving, and they contribute to a more cohesive, stable workplace.
As an owner or operator, take the time to regularly check in with your team about their concerns and look for ways to alleviate their stress. Simple actions like listening, showing appreciation, and offering constructive support can strengthen morale and improve retention.
Prioritizing Support and Success for Your Team
Operating an assisted living facility is filled with challenges, but supporting your staff through effective communication and understanding can make a substantial impact. Whether you manage your facility locally or remotely, fostering open lines of communication with your team helps build a resilient, motivated, and loyal workforce.
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Transcript
00:00:01
I've been working in assisted living now for close to three years and something that I have found is it is a very high turnover staff position for for staff for the caregivers but also we've had a lot of struggles with our administrators and them wanting to quit because they just feel so overwhelmed by everything that they have going on as they try to operate the facility and make it work the way that it needs to and make it operate I'm going to get into a discussion today on how to have conversations with your
00:00:34
staff that might want to quit and how you can relate to them and help them through the process and process those things while also being aware of mental health and why it's important and not trying to kill somebody in to stay so we're going to get into that in today's video hey everybody it's Brandon Gustafson and welcome back to Assisted Living investing I'm excited to have you on the channel today for a topic that I think is is really important for us to have I have owned my facilities now for about
00:01:08
three years and in that time I have had with my two facilities have had three different administrators so we had one to quit and I'll make sure I link that video up above and you can go ahead and watch that experience and then I'll link the other one above that is um when recently my administrator uh talked to me and asked me uh it gave me two weeks notice that she wanted to quit as well so I'll leave those two videos up there so that you can watch those if you want the kind of the story on what
00:01:38
happened in each of those experiences um what I probably haven't said though is my administrator I'm going to start in Colorado my administrator there we went through a really rough time with a resident at one point and that individual was um verbally abusive and was just making everybody's life hard not just our administrator but all the other staff the residents and because of Colorado eviction laws especially during the covert period it was really hard to get that individual to leave the facility
00:02:12
ultimately they decided to leave on their own and it was a very happy day at the facility when that happened but leading up to that I had several conversations with my administrator who would call me crying because this this resident had said or done something that was just extremely hard for our administrator to handle and and try to deal with and uh we would talk it through and I would make sure that she knew that I was there to support her and that we appreciated everything that she was doing and uh we were there to help her
00:02:52
support her give her what she needed uh if I ever needed to have conversations with that Resident that I was happy to do which I had several of those which were not the most Pleasant conversations um but we were able to to work through that process as she was struggling our administrator was struggling with staff threatening to quit if this resident didn't leave residence threatening to leave the facility if this person didn't leave we were hesitant to bring more residents into this atmosphere that was just so
00:03:25
heavy and so difficult to deal with and so we were struggling quite a bit financially during that period of time as we were trying to get this person there but it took a lot of conversations a lot of texts a lot of calls a lot of crying together and figuring it out how we could help our administrator through those struggles ultimately that individual left our facility and our administrator was much happier and um the administrator has gone through other difficult things like there's just a lot
00:03:56
of heavy stuff that happens when you are operating a facility uh it can be with residents it can be with staff it can be in a variety of different areas but doing that can be can be hard so having open conversations open communication making sure that they know that you're there as an operator to help them out is going to be key it's going to be super important for you to do I'm going to shift now over to Idaho so Idaho we've had to uh two administrators there our first one was incredible she
00:04:27
did a lot of really great things for us but she was getting extremely overwhelmed with uh Staffing uh just struggling trying to get Staffing in place she was working a lot of hours she lived an hour away from the facility at the time and like it was just really hard for her to do that to I feel like she had to sleep at the facility to just make sure everything was was operating and she she's broke down and and I tried to have conversations with her we are still in good terms despite her leaving
00:05:00
we chat every month or two she'll she still gets notifications from people about our facility we're not sure why that's getting to her but it is and she forwards it to me and I you know check in and say hey how's it going um and and just kind of keep things updated on on you know how like that because we loved having her she was great for us but um the the day that she told me she was gonna quit it was a conversation again and a lot of um just crying together and making sure see how important she was to us and that
00:05:35
we were aware of everything that she was struggling with and all of the the things that come with running a facility um ultimately she decided to leave and that was fine it was really hard for us at the time and you can let me watch those videos that I linked earlier in the in this video um to get an update on how that went but um you know we've landed in a really good position um with the situation that we're in now and then the second one in Idaho was our very recent our administrator reached
00:06:09
out to me and let me know that they were giving their two weeks notice and had a follow-up call with them um and then another follow-up call ultimately what had happened was just feeling overwhelmed and a lack of of perceived support and that's one of the hard things when you're operating app state is making sure that they know that you're there and even you know they're not seeing you they might not talk to you every day even but making sure that they know that you're there that you're
00:06:40
there to support them and help them throughout the entire process that's that's extremely important something that you want to do and so we had that conversation and the first one was was actually really good I just kind of we both were going through very uh interesting life changes and link the video of my experience with Novus health so you can get a background on what that was like for me as we went through that process but we were sharing our life experiences I gave her a few days to
00:07:14
breathe and think about it and then ultimately we we followed up and had another conversation and it was really good and she was able to communicate to me what her needs are and her struggles and how we can help her out which I think was really good for us to have that conversation so all of these things have something in common it is communicating it is making sure that you're having that conversation with the people that are important it's I think as an administrator it's probably more
00:07:42
difficult it's a very different position where they would be talking with caregivers and a lot of the time that position is going to be driven by by money and if they find somewhere that looks like it might be better because it pays an extra 50 cents an hour they're probably going to take the job like that's the reality of those jobs often but with administrators and people that are more in that leadership type of a role having that conversation and showing support and showing them that
00:08:11
you are there and communicating with them is a key to helping you be successful and helping you achieve your goals and get to the point where everybody's happy and where they need to be so I just want to encourage you that whether you're operating in the state that you're in um or you're operating out of state making sure that you are communicating having that back and forth and talking about the struggles that you're going through it's extremely important and I highly encourage you if you are an
00:08:45
administrator and you're watching this or you're an owner administrator I would encourage you to have those conversations with your staff and make sure that they know where you're coming from what your struggles are what you need help with and listen to them when they tell you the same thing that's much more important than you telling them and being clear it's helpful when you're clear to them on your expectations but more than that you need to be listening to them and understanding what their
00:09:14
trials are what their issues are what their struggles are and how you can help them and then follow through with that and make sure you're doing what you need to do to help them get through those struggles and and help them you know progress and get to the point where they feel comfortable in those jobs that's a lot of what you need to do as an owner administrator operator in whatever position you're in the people that are underneath you make sure you're just communicating with them and having
00:09:43
those conversations it goes a long way to show them that you care and you're aware of them and their needs so very strongly encourage you to do that if you're struggling with one of those things I'm happy to chat with you make sure you go to assisted livinginvesting.net we can commiserate together I've experienced it a few times and if you are interested in learning more about what we're doing at Assisted Living investing make sure you visit us on the website assisted livinginvesting.net we're going to have
00:10:09
resources out there for you we're going to have a book soon we have courses that we'll be launching as well where I can kind of coach you through the process and help you get to the point where you know and you're comfortable starting your own facility whether it's renovating a house and getting it started building something from the ground up or purchasing something that is local to you or out of state we're building that course I'm going to help you through that process coaching
00:10:38
through it we got a 12-week course and excited to share that with you visit us again at assisted livinginvesting.net if you have any questions if you're struggling with things just remember you can do this just keep making progress step by step by step I promise you if you do you are going to be successful thanks for watching and have a great day foreign
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