It goes without saying that the Senior Care Industry is going to be unstoppable and absolutely essential in the decades to come, and with that ever growing need, there’s a just as essential need for good talent in the field. That’s where Govig Senior Care comes in. We know all the top talent, and who’s looking. With a long history in the industry, beginning in 1988, we have developed a reputation and expertise in the field that is unmatched in executive recruiting and consulting. We know who our clients need and we know what our candidates want, which is exactly why we aim to become the premier and most sought after Executive Search Firm in the Senior Housing Industry for many years to come.

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]]> http://govigseniorcare.wordpress.com/2013/05/20/aging-in-america-more-growth-for-senior-housing/feed/ 0 govigseniorcare photo http://govigseniorcare.wordpress.com/2013/05/16/consumer-reviews-are-vital-for-a-facilitys-reputation/ http://govigseniorcare.wordpress.com/2013/05/16/consumer-reviews-are-vital-for-a-facilitys-reputation/#comments Thu, 16 May 2013 17:17:04 +0000 Govig Senior Care http://govigseniorcare.wordpress.com/?p=1699 ]]> Last month on our blog we discussed many different companies that provide consumer reviews of senior care facilities and how these reviews seemed to be the wave of the future for people searching for more information on a particular facility.  A new article by Shelley Laurell confirms this suspicion; giving fact-based statistics about how important online consumer reviews are becoming in the marketplace and how these reviews are showing no signs of going away anytime soon.  Read below to find more information about these reviews and how important they truly are to defining a facility’s strengths, weaknesses, and overall reputation among those who have come into contact with the facility.

Why online reviews are here to stay

The Internet has given consumers a voice. Sharing with one another online, they visit and revisit online sources when making decisions. The places where their searches intersect with information they want are known as the Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT). Online reviews are one such place.

In seeking reviews, families are looking for confirmation that your brand is what you say it is. They want feedback from other families who have experienced your brand. Even after they’ve made a choice, they revisit online reviews to confirm they made the rightchoice.

For many senior care providers, online reviews cause apprehension. It’s important to remember though, that conversations about your brand are already happening. Without you. Probably in places you can’t reach. Online reviews are one place where you can join the conversation.

Blake Hodges, director of digital media for GlynnDevins Advertising, encourages his clients to be involved. “Providers are reluctant to get into social media because of disgruntled employees,” he says. “But disgruntled people will find a way to tell more people, and submitting a grievance online is easy. Providers need to be aware of what people are saying about them, and at the time it is being said.”

Just How Important Are Online Reviews?

A company known for monitoring online review activity is Forrester Research. In a 2010 survey, it found that:

• People trust consumer ratings and reviews (62%) more than the ratings/reviews of industry experts (57%).
• Other than recommendations from a friend or family member, consumer reviews are the most trusted source of information.

A Caring.com member survey reinforces Forrester’s findings:

• A combined 94 percent of respondents feel that online reviews are worthwhile: 45 percent consider them trustworthy information, and 49 percent consider them helpful to their search for a senior care provider.
• Companies with reviews received 550 percent more inquiries online than those without reviews.

Providers find reviews beneficial to both SEO and conversions.

Sunrise Senior Living monitors online reviews. “We see value in online reviews as they help to share real stories from family members and residents with prospective family members and residents,” explains Abby See, senior manager of online marketing.

Danielle Cantin, director of marketing at American House, says, “Reviews have added a level of authenticity to our brand. It is hard to quantify whether or not inquiries have increased due to our review activity, but it’s fair to say our SEO is strengthened by the relevant and timely postings — making us more likely to turn up in a search — therefore more likely to get an inquiry.”

Family Feedback Helps With Continuous Improvement

Consumers’ growing reliance on reviews offers senior care providers a means of continuous improvement. Online reviews may help you identify a problem you weren’t aware you had. If families who visit on Sunday afternoons are consistently posting concerns about the lack of resident activity or an unfriendly front desk person, both are problems you can fix.

You may also learn through reviews that a family chose another provider because of something youdon’t offer. If you don’t have a dedicated memory care courtyard and that’s what families want for their loved ones, their reviews may help you justify that capital improvement.

The Positive Side of Negative Reviews

“Negative reviews are a great tool,” explains Cantin. “There’s a certain anonymity that comes with writing a review online. Writers feel safe and are able to share their thoughts freely, without fear of rejection or confrontation. Reviews empower people who felt disempowered at a particular moment.”

MaryBeth Dagg, public relations and communications manager at Emeritus Senior Living, adds, “Reviews are one way we can determine where we have unhappy families and try and resolve any issues. We have several methods that residents and families can use to express concerns, but many aren’t comfortable talking directly to staff. By responding to online reviews, we’ve been able to reach out to families and let them know we’re listening.”

Negative reviews lend authenticity. People are suspicious when every review is perfect. In fact, 68 percent of consumers trust reviews more when they see a mix of good and bad. The key is to quickly address the negatives:

•      Thank the posters for their comments. Encourage them to contact you offline so you can resolve the issues.
•      If it’s an issue you’ve tried unsuccessfully to resolve, ask your families who feel differently to post positive reviews.

How to Join the Conversation

Here are ideas to help you get started:

1. Assemble a team to read and respond to reviews. Prompt response online is critical.
2. Establish a process for tracking complaint resolutions. Part of the success of online reviews comes from posting the fact that an issue has been resolved.
3. Fill out profiles for your communities on the most-reviewed sites, such as Caring.com, Angie’s List, and Google+.
4. Bookmark profiles so you can easily monitor what’s being said. Some review sites will alert you when you have a new review.
5. Set up Google Alerts for your brand name and your community names.
6. Encourage families to post reviews, and make it easy for them by sharing a list of the sites where your profiles are in place.
7. Reputation management services can help. GlynnDevins offers one that aggregates what’s said on the sites you want monitored, then sends you a daily alert e-mail.

The bottom line is that reviews are here to stay. Actively monitoring and responding to them are must-do strategies for protecting your brand. MaryBeth Dagg of Emeritus explains it well by saying, “We know that if we quickly address problems identified in reviews, our resident and family satisfaction will remain high and people will continue to see Emeritus as a quality senior living option.”

National Nurses Week begins each year on May 6th and ends on May 12th. Here at Govig Senior Care we want to give thanks to all the nurses we’ve had the pleasure of working with!   Read below to learn more about the history of National Nurses Day!

National Nurses Week History

Learn more here> http://nursingworld.org/FunctionalMenuCategories/AboutANA/NationalNursesWeek/default.aspx

Even though the number of senior care options has expanded in the past couple decades as different models have developed and evolved, consumer trends have stayed much the same with some small adjustments following the Great Recession.

The Google Trends chart below shows consumer interest in five search terms between January 2004 and April 2013, where purple represents searches for a “nursing home,” blue represents searches for “assisted living,” gold represents “home health care,” red represents “retirement community,” and green represents “memory care.”

Interest in the “nursing home” search term has continued to grow in the past nine years as the population gets older, despite assisted living’s role as a less expensive alternative for those needing help with a few activities of daily living rather than around-the-clock skilled nursing care.

“The reality is, people don’t plan ahead for senior care,” says Julie Northcutt, CEO of Caregiverlist.com, which recently analyzed the rates of 18,000 nursing facilities to compile lists of the most and least expensive nursing homes by city. “Nursing homes are an extension of a hospital stay, and Medicare pays for a nursing home up to 100 days. So if a senior has a stroke, or falls and has a hip replacement, two days later they’re being discharged from the hospital and need a nursing home.”

From when the Great Recession began in 2008 to today, searches for a “nursing home” have generally increased, while “assisted living” searches have stayed steady, “home health care” interest has risen slightly, and searches for “retirement communities” have decreased somewhat. “Memory care” as a search term has only been marginally used so far.

Other types of senior living or care are generally less utilized, Northcutt says, because most consumers wait to find a senior care option until after a major medical incident.

“They’re told by the hospital or doctor that Medicare will pay for the nursing home [for a certain amount of time] and, since senior care can be expensive, they want to take advantage of that,” she says. “People know the term, so the ‘nursing home’ search is often where they’re going to start.”

Assisted living, on the other hand, can be more complicated in terms of the kinds of services it offers, while home health care is not always the best choice for people depending on their care needs.

Interest in nursing homes isn’t expected to diminish in the near future, especially considering the nation’s 85+ population is the most rapidly-growing age group,according to the U.S. Census, expected to number 19 million—or 5% of the overall population—by 2050.

“Pretty much anyone who lives long enough goes to the hospital [as a Medicare beneficiary] and is going to pass through a nursing home,” Northcutt says. “Just like knowing in advance what hospitals are the best to go to, people want to know the best nursing home, too.”

However, as the senior care industry continues to evolve, new search terms may crop up and popularize.

“Hopefully there will be more and more new resources that combine the assisted living and nursing home concept,” says Northcutt.

Find the original article at: http://seniorhousingnews.com/2013/04/23/chart-of-the-day-consumer-trends-for-senior-care-services-searches/

-Atash Najafian, Govig Senior Care

Sourcing and placing the right individuals in jobs is becoming an increasingly important priority in any industry, especially as more and more businesses expand and talent acquisition departments are formed. The talent in your organization can really make or break your return on investments and profitability; therefore, executives really want to ensure that their top hires are the right people doing the right job. In order to correctly fill a position, however, that position must first be defined and hiring managers must outline what they want an employee to accomplish in that role.

What’s the Problem?

A common problem currently plaguing most recruiters and human resource professionals is a lack of understanding of the jobs they are required to fill. Many staffing professionals face the challenge of trying to place candidates in a position when they generally don’t even know what they’re looking for. This not only prohibits them from sourcing the right talent, but also from finding quality passive candidates as well. Let’s create an example to put this dilemma into perspective.

Sally is an HR director working for a long-term care company who is about to acquire several properties. She is in charge of placing a “Director of Education” who will eventually hire and train all of the staff in the new facilities. So Sally scans through countless resumes for candidates with this job title and puts up several job postings to attract applicants. What Sally hasn’t considered is that this role probably requires someone with skills that aren’t on a resume—such as an entrepreneurial attitude and experience with start-up operations. A big reason that Sally hasn’t accounted for these additional skills is that senior management hasn’t translated all of this information to her.  And this isn’t the only job Sally needs to place, so now she has wasted a lot of time and effort on this particular job searching for candidates that are not a good fit for the position. How could Sally and her company have avoided all the excessive costs in time and man power? By simply defining the position before the search began and making sure that Sally was educated on the position and qualifications.

Define the position.

Getting a clear definition of all different aspects of a position from hiring managers at the beginning of a search can have a huge impact on costs for recruiters in the long run. On the recruiters end, really understanding the position and what is crucial to look for in a candidate is just as important to the success of finding the best candidate for the job. This may seem like a time management issue, but having a clear definition to work with from the start will aid in avoiding obstacles later on down the road and will really save time in the end for all parties involved.

Why do we care?

At Govig Senior Care, we’ve really focused on addressing this issue and place a big emphasis on specifying job descriptions with our clients. We can offer expertise you won’t find elsewhere and like to work alongside Human Resource departments to place those hard-to-fill positions—especially in the senior care industry. We have a clear understanding of each role that exists in the market and also make sure we get to know candidates on an individual basis to so that we’re able to place the right people in the right positions. If you’re looking for the perfect person to take your senior housing organization to the next level, or have a difficult position to fill in the long-term care industry, please reach out to us so we can start a search for you today—with the end goal clearly defined from the start, of course.

Here’s a quick table of results of Govig Senior Care’s Animal Kingdom:

To take the Quiz yourself, click the link below and see what animal you are, and see some of the basic characteristics of each animal.

http://www.whatanimalami.com/

Wildebeest:

• You have resilience, or the ability to bounce back from adversity.
• You are adept at changing conditions and responding to setbacks and pressures from multiple directions. You see problems as challenging rather than discouraging and as opportunities to develop your knowledge and skills.
• You are an individual with a competitive edge and are always willing to invest the time and effort required to accomplish tasks.

Lion:

• The ability to create multiple options for solving problems.
• You chart the course that others follow by defining the tactics, steps, and resources that are required to achieve the goal while keeping the bigger picture in perspective. You remain proactive and ensure that the plan is adjusted to meet the objectives.

Crocodile:

• The ability to “think outside the box” when facing difficult problems and developing solutions.
• A dedication to advancing both yourself and your organization through a clear mission, while fostering a culture that supports and encourages imaginative and creative solutions.
• The determination to succeed, which also lends itself to another important trait for enterprising individuals: self-confidence.
• The tendency to spend a lot of time working alone—something that’s paramount to business success. This emphasizes entrepreneurs’ understanding of sacrifice, and how short-term hard work will pay off with long-term rewards.

Giraffe:

• They seek to make others feel like they’re the most important person with whom they can spend time, and always put the needs of others first.
• They live according to personal standards that are higher than any given code of conduct, and incorporate dignity, honor, and respect in extending grace to others—even when things have not gone their way.

Cheetah:

• You search for the most efficient way to achieve a goal without wasting energy by adapting to varying situations, responding to them and recognizing the factors that affect efficiency.
• You try to avoid excess consumption of resources by recognizing the personal limits that waste them.
• You schedule your day, prioritize every task, and keep those priorities by refining to-do lists frequently and adopting a policy of strict time management. You chunk or break your larger projects down into small, easier-to-manage steps.
• You are an effective time manager with the ability to evaluate and deal with those things that affect achieving the goal, such as self-generated interruptions.
• You maintain an orderly start up/shut down routine at the beginning and end of each day to help you remain focused and utilize peak times more efficiently.

Mongoose:

• The ability to overcome the fear associated with the risk by evaluating potential pitfalls.
• Viewing the change that immobilizes others as simply another hurdle to overcome. Risk- takers don’t see how things are, but how they could be. They are willing to do whatever is necessary to achieve the desired goal.
• A readiness to break free from social and emotional boundaries, opinions, beliefs, and restrictions imposed by business and society. Unaffected by the opinions of others, they freely and openly express their ideas.
• Adeptness at finding ways to hedge against risk to take advantage of the upside of a given situation.

Elephant:

• They’re skilled at both listening to and actually hearing other people, and take time to comprehend the details in their message.
• They are interested in advancing the discussion beyond just a series of shared monologues and into a true dialogue. They realize that taking a positive approach can make others feel more confident, and in turn, more likely to cooperate.

Our team structure is our strongest advantage in this regard, and in our Southern Region, Business Developer Spencer Coon, and Client Account Manager Kyle Kenney have seen the evolution of their business and team over the years, first-hand. Listen to them as they talk about the subject in our latest video…

A Place for Mom Launches Consumer Review Component

A Place for Mom, the largest senior living referral service in the nation, announced on Monday the launch of an online consumer review component.

SeniorAdvisor.com allows visitors to submit and review consumer feedback on more than 100,000 senior living communities and care services across the country. The site currently features more than 17,000 reviews, and about 82% communities currently have a three-star-or-better-rating. 

The launch comes after other senior care resource websites, including Caring.com, Silver Living, and SeniorHomes.com, have announced, launched, or grown similar initiatives. 

“Choosing a senior living community is an extremely important and emotional decision, and people want to feel confident they have made informed choices. In support of this, we are consistently asked if we have consumer reviews and ratings of senior living communities,” said Sean Kell, CEO of A Place for Mom, in a statement. “Based on this demand, we’ve created SeniorAdvisor.com, designed to become the nation’s largest and most comprehensive source for senior living and eldercare reviews, ratings and unbiased information.”

Before publishing reviews, SeniorAdvisor.com plans to verify them using a variety of sources, including the 200,000 families A Place for Mom helps each year to find senior care options, and the company’s network of senior care partners that includes more than 18,000 senior living care and services providers. When a senior living community or service listed on the website claims ownership of its profile, it will have the ability to invite consumers to review its business. 

The reviews will be on a five-star rating scale system covering five categories: care, cleanliness, activities, value, and friendliness. Consumers will be able to view a community or service’s individual scores on these categories along with an overall rating. 

Reviewers will also be able to post personal comments explaining their ratings, or give general insight or feedback about a community or service. 

The website’s search tools will allow users to search for listings with designated geographic locations and specific desired amenities. Consumers will also be able to use SeniorAdvisor.com to request tours of communities, organize scheduled tours, and send text message reminders of favorite communities. 

“Today’s savvy consumers are proactively seeking the opinions and experiences of others. Many shoppers read reviews of movies, restaurants, hotels and other products before they buy, so it’s not surprising that they expect this kind of information to be available for senior living services,” said Eric Seifert, President, SeniorAdvisor.com. “In line with other service industry reviews, we’re seeing about 82% of our ratings on SeniorAdvisor.com land at three stars or better. It will be exciting to watch how this progresses as the number of visitors to the site increases.”

Senior living provider trade group the Assisted Living Federation of America (ALFA) also recently announced the launch of a consumer web resource, powered by Caring.com, for consumers searching for senior care.

Caring.com says its 2 million monthly visits makes it the Web’s number one source of senior care reviews, while SeniorHomes.com and Silver Living both have more regional operations on the West and East coasts, respectively. 

While some senior living providers are apprehensive of consumers’ ability to post unscripted reviews of communities, a few are using it to their advantage and taking the opportunity to respond to reviews and demonstrate their willingness to address issues. 

As senior care recruiters here at Govig Senior Care, we know all about the importance of social media and use it daily in our recruiting efforts.  When working for companies, we scour all corners of social media for the most qualified candidates for positions—utilizing subscriptions to LinkedIn Recruiter Professional Services and an active Facebook presence to find the best fit for our clients.  We also vigorously help our candidates find positions by advising them with the best practices for improving the quality of their LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter profiles in order to look more attractive to prospective employers.  If you are looking for any help in the hiring process for a senior care position, contact Govig Senior Care on one of our many social media outlets in order to connect and get you where you want to be today!

Connect with Govig on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and the Govig Senior Care Website!  And don’t forget to subscribe to our Blog and pass it along!

15 Traits Of The Ideal Employee

When hiring for any size business, it’s not what the candidates know today. Information can always be taught. The most intelligent companies hire on future success and heavily weigh personality when determining the most apt employees.

Regardless of industry, pay, age or sex, all ideal employees share some common traits. These include, but are not limited to individuals who can be described as or possess the following:

1. Action-oriented – Hire employees who take action and take chances. While chances may lead to failure, they will more often lead to success and mold confidence while generating new ideas. Stagnant employees won’t make your company money; action-oriented employees will.

2. Intelligent – Intelligence is not the only thing, but it’s a strong foundation for success. While there are many variables you can be flexible on when hiring, intelligence is a must or you’re going to be spending an abundance of time proofing work, micromanaging and dealing with heightened stress levels.

3. Ambitious – Employees can only help your company if they want to help themselves have a better career. Ambition is what makes a company innovative, it’s what spawns creative ideas and what generates candor and openness amongst employees.

4. Autonomous – You are hiring an employee who can get the job done without extensive hand-holding. As the owner of the company, you have your own tasks to take care of and, when you delegate activities to the individual whom you’re hiring, you don’t want 20 questions, rather you want execution.

5. Display Leadership – Do you see this individual being a significant part of your company and leading future employees of the firm? Leadership begins with self-confidence, is molded by positive reinforcement and repetitive success.

6. Cultural Fit – Are you going to enjoy working with this individual on a daily basis? Are your employees going to enjoy working with this individual? When recruiting, personality can mean the difference between an employee who doesn’t stay long and fails to produce vs. an all-star who is going to significantly increase your competitive advantage.

7. Upbeat – Employees who come into work fresh and energetic everyday are going to outproduce workers who think negatively and easily burn-out when they encounter defeat. Upbeat and optimistic employees create a working environment that is unique, spawns new ideas and, just as important is enjoyable for the other people involved.

8. Confident – Confidence produces results and encourages employees to take on challenges that others shy away from. The best companies are highly confident in their abilities to provide a superior product or service and this belief spawns a culture of improvement and client confidence.

9. Successful – One of the most effective ways to predict future success in a candidate is their past success at other firms. Have they remained at companies for a prolonged period? Have they met company goals? What achievements have these individuals accomplished? If one looks closely, a lot can be deciphered from a resume.

10. Honest – An employee can have all the talent in the world, but without integrity and authenticity, nothing great will be accomplished. If nothing else, you want honest, forthright employees at your organization, otherwise your company will turn off clients and, ultimately won’t survive.

11. Detail Oriented – Attention to detail is crucial or mistakes will be made within your company. Detail-oriented employees take pride in their work. They dot the “i’s”, cross the “t’s” and get the job done.

12. Modest – The most sought after employees shout their value not through their words, but rather through their work. They are humble, don’t need to pump themselves up in front of others and quietly outproduce those who do.

13. Hard working – Nothing great is accomplished easily. Nothing great is accomplished via hiring 9 – 5 employees. Rather, the foundation of an effective organization lies in its ability to recruit results oriented, hard working employees who execute.

14. Marketable – By marketable, I mean presentable to clients. Business is not a fashion contest nor do looks dictate success, however most successful applicants are well put together and, when dealing with clients are going to represent your organization as professional and organized.

15. Passionate – Employees who are passionate about their job never work a day in their life. While money should be a motivator in all individuals whom you hire, make sure that they enjoy the journey when pursuing that end-goal.

In the End

You can train on an employee on your product or service, but you can’t train someone to have integrity, resiliency, self-confidence and work ethic. The smaller the business, the more crucial any hire is. Be flexible on background requirements, but continue to be stringent on personality traits.

Original Article can be found at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kensundheim/2013/04/02/15-traits-of-the-ideal-employee/