Our company – ServiceTrac, a leading provider of paper, online, point-of-service, text message and phone surveys in the healthcare industry, recently partnered with Senior Housing Forum to organize an online survey about the senior living industry. We teamed up with Senior Housing Forum to survey the senior living industry to gather comprehensive insights about administrators, employees and other stakeholder perceptions of the senior living industry.
The State of Senior Living Leader Survey was open for four weeks and conducted through our online survey portal similar to a Gallup style survey with fill-in-the-blank and open-ended questions.
The respondents of the online survey consisted of:
- Those working for a provider organization.
- Those working for a vendor providing products or services to the senior living industry.
- Those not working in the senior living industry, but have a vested interest.
As part of our partnership with the Senior Housing Forum, the first part of the survey’s results were published in the Senior Housing Forum’s “State of Senior Living Leadership Survey Results – Perception of Pay” online article.
As a company with extensive capabilities in research surveys, we were able to put our research and analysis expertise to process all the information we collected from the 500 respondents of our joint survey with the Senior Housing Forum.
The first segment of the survey results emphasize the following important points:
- Pay Satisfaction – One of the survey questions asked, “Is your pay comparable to what others earn for similar work?” The results showed about 40% of a community level employees – administrators, department heads and direct care and service staffers – believe those in similar lines of work from other communities get paid more.
- Miscommunications on Pay and Work – We believe that the pay satisfaction issue could be a reflection of the employer communicating with prospective employees too much in an abstract manner. When an employer interviews a prospective employee, the employer gives an ideal impression of the workplace – work here and feel like part of a family, or join our team and make a difference in seniors’ lives. But the employer does not present the actual facts about pay and working conditions.
- Value for Work – The survey results indicate that staff place importance on not just being paid fairly, but also being valued for the services they render. Frequent acts of appreciation to toward employees in paramount for employee morale and engagement.
- Retaining Employees – We recommend that employers should practice a working environment of appreciation for the services rendered by employees, and an openness and transparency about salaries to retain employees and lower turnover rates.
- Communications Strategy – We recommend that employers should effectively communicate with employees on how their pay and benefits are justified according to their position and skills.
You can read more information about the first part of the survey’s results at http://ow.ly/5GQg30gqicH. As part of ServiceTrac’s partnership with the Senior Housing Forum, the subsequent results of the State of the Senior Living Leader Survey will be published in the Senior Housing Forum’s website.
About ServiceTrac
Headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, ServiceTrac has been a leading provider of paper, online, point-of-service, text message and phone surveys in the healthcare industry for over 20 years. ServiceTrac joined the PracticeMax family of companies in 2013. Since that time, ServiceTrac has made a significant investment in its survey tools and technology. With the introduction of Survey Admin, ServiceTrac now offers the most robust reporting platform available in the industry.
About Senior Housing Forum
The Senior Housing Forum is a website that is focused on publishing articles that are of interest to developers and operators of senior living communities.