In this episode of Raising Tech, our host Patrick Leonard sits down with Michelle Maalouf and Sarah Cannon at Activated Insights to talk about the power of data and recognition in building your community's brand.
Learn more about the "Great Place To Work" and "U.S. News Best Senior Living" recognition programs, and how to effectively listen and engage your employees and residents alike to build your brand and take action in differentiating your senior living community.
Activated Insights helps senior care providers collect feedback from their employees and residents to improve and build their brand - from the inside out.
Raising Tech is powered by Parasol Alliance, The Strategic Planning & Full-Service IT Partner exclusively serving Senior Living Communities.
In this episode of Raising Tech, our host Patrick Leonard sits down with Michelle Maalouf and Sarah Cannon at Activated Insights to talk about the power of data and recognition in building your community's brand.
Learn more about the "Great Place To Work" and "U.S. News Best Senior Living" recognition programs, and how to effectively listen and engage your employees and residents alike to build your brand and take action in differentiating your senior living community.
Activated Insights helps senior care providers collect feedback from their employees and residents to improve and build their brand - from the inside out.
Raising Tech is powered by Parasol Alliance, The Strategic Planning & Full-Service IT Partner exclusively serving Senior Living Communities.
Welcome to Raising Tech, a podcast about all things technology and senior living. I'm your host, Patrick Leonard. Today we have Michelle Maalouf and Sarah Cannon from Activated Insights. Welcome to the show.
Sarah:Thanks so much for having us.
Michelle:Thanks.
Patrick:Absolutely. Michelle and Sarah, before we get started, can you introduce yourselves a little bit, your roles and one of you tell us a little bit about who Activated Insights are and at a high level, what solutions you provide to the senior living industry to kind of set the stage for audience today.
Sarah:Sure, I can get started. I'm Sarah Cannon, I'm part of the solutions team for Activated Insights. Activated Insights is an employee resident data platform designed exclusively for senior living in post-acute organizations. A little background on me, I've worked in the industry for the last 10 years as a benefits advisor and on the technology solution side. But really I was raised in the industry similar to you actually Patrick, my mom has worked in skilled nursing facilities my entire life, so I'm very passionate about the work that we do here.
Michelle:Hey Patrick, I'm Michelle Maalouf. So excited to be part of this podcast as I've always believed in using technology as a way to improve people's lives. My background is actually that I was a founding member of Aging 2.0, which was, which is an innovation network and I've also worked with over 20 companies in the aging space and I'm currently on the solutions team at Activated Insights with Sarah and I also lead our marketing efforts. And I also just wanted to add in that in addition to the employee and resident data platforms that Sarah mentioned, we are most known for being the Aging Services division for a great place to work and also have a brand new partnership with the US News and World Report. We actually administer the surveys for these recognition opportunities and provide the data to our partners. Our program managers are amazing. Plus I also wanted to share that we recently won the Inc 5,000 fastest growing private companies in America. And with that we just celebrated our five year anniversary too as a company. So that's all been super exciting lately and we love all the recognition.
Sarah:Yeah, lots to celebrate.
Patrick:That's awesome. Thanks for sharing that both of you. And it's great to see you all be recognized as well. So kudos to you.
Sarah:Yeah, we finally get to feel what our customers feel.
Patrick:<laugh>. I love it. Well deserved. So you set the stage a little bit about the two topics for today. One being the employee and resident engagement side and and the software solution that you all offer. But I really wanted to dive a little bit deeper first into the Great Place to work in US News, best Senior Living recognitions that you all some might say best known for, or at least you know, historically. Can you tell me a little bit more about those recognition programs and how organizations get certified and how do they get recognized and what the process looks like?
Michelle:Yes, of course. Thanks Patrick for asking. Yeah, like you said, you know, we're really proud of our national recognition options and our whole goal is to really uplift the industry. The Great Place to Work certification is when, organizations can certify when at least 65% of their employees say that they're a great place to work. It's a really simple process. They do this by having employees answer a five minute survey. That survey is sent via text message or email. This applies to almost all senior living and senior care organizations. It's also exciting that we're no longer lumped together with healthcare, but we're seen as our own industry. And if you certify for as a great Place to Work, you are also able to contend for Fortune's Best Workplaces in Aging Services, which is a list that's announced annually. So those recognition options are awesome. And then, you know, getting that feedback back from your employees is really helpful too for different teams in our industry. And then for US news, we're now in the second year, we use family and resident survey data to formulate the best senior living methodology criteria with US News communities must have at least a 55% participation rate in order to be evaluated by US News. The Resident Family Survey season is a little bit more involved just in the sense that our program managers work with communities to host a survey event or something to inspire more participation from residents and families. But it's an easy and straightforward process whether you're interested in Great Place to Work or US News Best in your Living, just in a nutshell, to wrap it up, the process looks like you just sign up on our website, pay the administration fee, and then you can kick off with your activated Insights program manager. They'll build a custom timeline for the process. And then the survey is live for two weeks. And the best part is that since it's a fully digital process, our clients can see their status at any point in time in the pla on the platform and immediately after their survey closes. So that's a little bit about the process. It's, it's very, um, easy, affordable way to get recognition and get data insights from your customers and your employees.
Patrick:Wow, that's great. Thanks for sharing that. It sounds very straightforward and simple, but also really in depth and helpful. As far as the process goes. Just out of curiosity, how many organizations are typically going through, whether you say apply or going through the certification process for these recognitions in a given year?
Michelle:That's a great question. So we've actually surveyed over 6,000 locations just in the senior cares senior living world.
Sarah:We, we survey over 1 million people annually, actually.
Patrick:Wow, that's amazing. And you know that, that's gonna tie in before I get ahead of myself, that's gonna tie into some other items that just popped into my head that I'm curious about, but I'll, I'll put that on pause for a second and come and come back to that later. Cause I wanna dive into kind of the analytics, the insights that you all are driving. But before I get ahead of myself, can you talk to me a little bit more about the employee and resident engagement side? That's always a hot topic in most industries, but particularly in severe living and particularly right now, um, with what's happened over the last couple years. Can you talk to me a little bit more specifically about how communities are leveraging your tools to increase retention both from a staff and a resident perspective?
Sarah:Sure. So you know, there it's kind of unique working with us because there's two sides to working with us. So there's the recognition opportunities that Michelle just discussed and then there's our full data platform. So as far as the recognition through Great Place to Work, that's not only leading to a 20% increase on average in applications, but it's a huge recruiting tool, especially for millennials. So these communities that are certified as a great place to work are able to say that they're a great place to work just like a company outside of our industry that they're probably competing with for employees. And then on the US News best senior living side. So as Michelle mentioned, that program is brand new, but communities are already seeing an increase in social media and website traffic increased tours and move-in conversions and you know, people know and trust us news. So that's, that goes a long way. But as far as retention on the residents side through these programs, we're hearing amazing feedback for those who've earned best senior living recognition about how current residents and their families feel they made the right choice and they're proud that they live in a best senior living community. So that's the recognition side. And then, um, as far as the data platform on the employee side, we're really working with hr, so CHROs, VPs of hr, uh, directors of HR and talent acquisition at the community level. And that data and feedback from the ongoing employee surveys is really helping give the employees a voice within their communities. And that's a huge driver for retention. The data insights in the platform give the organizations, uh, a holistic view, but what it does best is point out issues that are siloed usually to specific communities or even as granular as specific departments within a community. So once you're able to pinpoint where to focus, you can pick it, like begin to make changes. And you know, as far as creating culture that's, you know, not just a buzzword that everyone's saying lately, employees are really looking for a culture where they wanna show up, they can be themselves and they feel like their voice is heard. So that platform really allows that open communication loop between leadership and then the employees. And you know, as far as the resident side goes through the data platform we work with, it's more varied who we work with in the organizations. So from operations leaders, customer experience leaders, maybe resident engagement at the community level, sometimes even marketing, but same thing, you know, making sure to gain feedback at crucial points of their resident experience helps to give the residents a voice and it can even help communities to stem potential move outs. And so the way that you're able to retain residents is making them a part of their experience in their community.
Patrick:Great. Thanks for sharing that Sarah. And so it kind of ties back into my, you know, previous question I hit pause on earlier. So you're, you're getting so much feedback and so much data from, as you mentioned, over a million people throughout the year. I imagine that is between employees and residents combined. With all these insights that you're getting at the communities, what happens with this data? What are you learning? What are some of the current trends as it relates to the industry from both our resident and employee perspective? And I'm curious on top of that in particular, are we seeing any positive trends?<laugh>, we, we'd all love to hear if there are any positive trends or relief coming out of covid and some of the daunting trends I'm sure you saw during that time. Is there any light you can shed on that, any useful data, um, and trends that you can share with the listeners today as it relates to anything from a resident or employee perspective?
Sarah:Yeah, absolutely. We love to share our data. Um, I would say that we have one of the largest data sets in the industry and as far as your question on what we do with the data, we do build that into benchmarks. So any organization and community that works with us can, you know, see how they stack up or compare themselves against other similar levels of care within the industry. So we are updating those constantly. As far as insights you, you know, hit the nail on the head, we all need some positive news in this industry. After<laugh>, everything that we've gone through over the last couple of years, I can start by sharing some insights on the employee side as far as pulling that data. The trends that we're seeing are that, um, employees are asking for more. So they're asking for, you know, career pathing and cross-training employees are looking to understand what their future may look like and if there are advancement opportunities in longevity, um, in their position or in the company that they're working with. Our industry's really far behind when it comes to promoting from within. So senior care operators only promote about 17% from within and that's compared to competitors and hospitals who are promoting 46% internally retail 31% internally and hotel hotels 30%. So what we're able to do with this is see that it's a good thing that employees are asking for more because it means they're trying to find a path to stay then grow within the organization. We're also seeing, I would say the most popular trend right now is employees asking for more work life balance. So wanting to break away from that traditional eight or 12 hour shift and have more flexibility within their schedules. And you know, the good news, um, that you were asking for is, well burnout skyrocketed during the pandemic and the employee trust index scores, which is how um, great place to work analyzes or measures happiness through employees that drop significantly in 2020. And 2021. Scores have been trending upward for 2022. So employees are happier than they were two years ago. And Michelle, did you have some, um, resident data you wanted to share?
Michelle:Yeah. Awesome. Thanks Sarah and Patrick for the question. I'll touch on the resident family side. So you know, just like with any other industry, you'll always be sure to hear from unhappy customers, but from our latest survey data with half a million residents and family members, we see that actually 65% of independent living residents and 63% of assisted living residents agree or strong strongly agree that they're satisfied with their senior living community value. Really only 3% of i l and al strongly disagree about their satisfaction. So we're excited to see that for our industry. And to sum it up, two out of three residents are really satisfied with the value they're receiving for what they're paying. And nearly 90% of residents rate their community as good or better, which is really cool. Um, we survey responsible parties or family members, um, depending on the level of care of their resident and we're seeing that 83 to 89% of family members are rating their loved ones communities as good or excellent. A lot of times when we're beginning the process of starting survey here from organizations that they're unsure if the residents will be able to take an online survey that residents aren't comfortable with technology. You know, from our recent data we collected how residents actually took the survey in their first year working with us. For US news, 36% of residents were taking the survey either on a tablet or mobile device and then the rest were taking it on a computer. So we were excited to see that also, you know, to show that older adults are using technology are using personal devices to take those surveys. A couple other stats that touches on the Covid response, more than three quarters of residents are reporting that they hardly ever feel isolated and 85% say that they're not very lonely. That's really great news. Residents are overwhelmingly feeling grateful and safe and it's just a really special number, especially since Covid.
Patrick:That's amazing. Thanks Michelle. Thanks Sarah. Particularly some of those last stats you shared Michelle are really eye opening. I think for me, someone who's been in the industry for a long time who constantly gets the perspective from people who haven't been in the industry and may have particularly after covid some negative connotations about the industry and the, and the overall happiness and satisfaction from residents and their family members. So it's really cool and encouraging for me know, knowing that it's helping and impacting so many lives, this service and these this industry. But those staff that you just share just validate that and even getting through the hardest times that this world and industry arguably have ever seen, that those, those satisfaction numbers and engagement numbers are really cool. And I really hope our listeners pass that along to all those non-believers out there because that's amazing.
Michelle:Mm-hmm.<affirmative>. Yeah, we completely agree. Yeah, it's awesome to see and you know, we're just happy that there are no residents with the communities we're working with, um, are really satisfied with the services they're receiving and that, you know, these providers really care about making a difference and if there is any feedback that they receive, you know, they make those changes immediately.
Sarah:That's what I was gonna say. Um, it's been amazing to see how creative and, you know, out of the box the providers have been over the last two years and the data showing that, you know, it, it's, it's clear that what they did was was working. You know, it's just, it, I just always wanna commend their hard work, especially over the last two years and it's nice that the data can back that up, that what these, you know, things that they were putting in place are working.
Patrick:Yeah, absolutely. Now talk to me a little bit about the practical implementation of these programs. What does it look like when someone does partner with you? Are you seeing any cool success stories about how communities are actually taking that feedback and actually using it to make thoughtful improvements?
Sarah:Sure, I can take that one. So, uh, that's a great question because almost immediately in the first few minutes of talking to somebody that's looking at either, you know, working with us on the platform or through the recognition programs, it's, you know, what resources do I need to allocate? How long is this gonna take to get this platform up? And I'm happy to share that it's very quick<laugh> because we typically start working with somebody because they want to do the recognition pieces. So US News and or a great place to work, we're starting by working with somebody at corporate cause it's really important to have buy-in on initiatives like these from leadership. But as far as setting up the survey goes, um, they work with a dedicated program manager and, um, the program manager is working with them on the front end to get the survey set up and sent out and that great place to work or US News survey becomes the baseline for the data and for their action plans and next steps. So once that survey closes and the survey's open for two weeks, the program manager works with them, but the platform's already set up so there's no, you know, long implementation timeline or anything like that because it's set up on the front end before the surveys ever go out. And so again, once the survey's closed, the program manager works with the survey, whoever's, uh, you know, our main point of contact to roll out that data to the teams. So what they're able to do is each community within an organization has a customized dashboard and they're able to really turn the feedback from their, you know, their specific feedback for that community into actionable next steps. We even have action plans, um, within the system that based on the data from the communities, individual communities, you know, responses, whether we're surveying the residents and families or the employees, the system's going to suggest or recommend what action plans and where they should focus and then build in, um, suggestions of action plans. So the program manager's really working closely with them, they're an extension of their team to help roll out that data and help them with adopting the platform. You know, we always suggest adding leadership eds administrators and then department heads as well and we can set up specific views so you can just see your department's data, things like that. But again, I, we can't say enough about our program managers. They're such an asset and a differentiator with the platform because they're really working with you to help roll out that data. But all that being said, the entire process to get a survey set up and sent out as four to six weeks, um, and a lot of times that includes the two weeks that the survey's live. And then we will continue to work with the providers on additional surveys based on that feedback. You know, if there's, again, some of these siloed departments or communities that need more focus, we can build customized surveys around that so we can pinpoint, you know, there's analyzing what is wrong, but then you have to put steps in place to fix it. And our system and the program managers really help to do
Patrick:That. That's awesome. Yeah, I mean the, the data, just capturing the data alone is powerful from what you've shared, but knowing that there's actionable next steps and recommendations to pair along with that based on the data and the findings that are kind of customized to your community and your needs is amazing. So thanks for sharing that.
Sarah:Yeah, absolutely.
Patrick:So that makes me of another question. Speaking of questions that are in these surveys, who comes up with them?
Michelle:Yep, great question Patrick. So I'll touch on both surveys that we have. The Great Place to Work employee survey, that one's actually based on 30 years of research. It's based on the Trust index model. And that model includes pride, credibility, fairness, respect and camaraderie. And Great Place to Work is the global authority on workplace culture. And it's actually the most widely taken employee engagement survey in the world. So employees in our industry are getting the same exact questions as other industries for an apples to apples comparison, like what Sarah mentioned earlier about being able to be competitive in your markets. For the US News resident survey, we actually ask questions about all departments within senior living and calculate a customer customer engagement score. One really interesting and useful part of the survey includes the loneliness score, um, for residents that I mentioned the results for earlier. As we know, loneliness is extremely detrimental to our health, but in our survey we're using best practice research back approach for measuring loneliness. It's a three questions from the UCLA three Question Loneliness Scale, which is an international research back standard index for measuring loneliness. Another thing we've done for the US News resident surveys is we've put together a group of CEOs to weigh in on the development of the resident survey and the US News Fest in your living methodology process. So we're definitely including our industry in that. And then then as Sarah mentioned, we do some custom surveys and pulse surveys as needed with certain customers.
Sarah:Yeah, I wanted to, to add to that UCLA loneliness study that we have as part of our resident survey. It's really invaluable and understandably a lot of people, most people are so focused on doing well enough to earn, you know, the recognition. But we have heard incredible stories of how people have taken that, the data and the results from the u ucla, um, loneliness report that they get at the end of the survey and really enlisted their life enrichment or activities teams to reach out to those residents that are saying that, you know, they're lonely and they would like to reach out to somebody, you know, meeting them when they're at, where they're at, working with people who might be a little more introverted and helping to engage them into the communities better. And I mean, I could share hundreds of stories of how people have used that rapport and I just wanted to touch on that because again, it, I think it gets lost because the focus is so much on, um, that US news recognition lately.
Patrick:Great. Yeah, thanks for clarifying. That's, that's fantastic and really helpful. You all have done so much work, particularly over the last five years, you've come so far, but where are things going next?
Sarah:Activated insights? We work with about 45% of the market and we have customers in every single state. So our number one focus is always staying on top of state compliance. That's extremely important and it's a continuous effort. Um, our surveys are core queue compliant and it sounds like, um, that could be mandated sooner rather than later. So we've already, you know, baked that in the compliance into our surveys and in anticipation for that, our product team has always done an incredible job of listening to feedback about what tools are going to help providers the most. And we're always gonna continue to do that. We're also seen as a partner to the industry and the trade organizations and that allows us to keep a pulse on how our platforms data and analytics can help organizations with improving their efficiencies. That said, we have a major focus this next year in specifying the tools within the platform even more. The best example I have of this is we launched our, um, admission and discharge surveys this year and that was solely based on demand from, um, the customers that we already work with. So always listening, um, understanding, you know, being agile enough to move with the industry with all of the changes and, you know, have our product team work to, to build products that are gonna be a, the best fit for the industry providers.
Patrick:Great. Thanks for that, Sarah. We've heard a lot of good information today. I think our listeners are gonna find us so extremely helpful. I know I personally learned a lot before we kind of wrap up for today, Sarah, Michelle either you bet any, any final thoughts or words of wisdom, if you will, for our listeners before we part ways today.
Michelle:Thank you so much, Patrick, for having us on today. Um, we also really enjoy sharing what we do on a daily basis and appreciate that you taking the time to highlight this innovation in our space. I did wanna leave these deadlines with the audience today. The 2082 Fortune Best Workplaces and Aging Services actually just came out, so you should have a look at it. If, if anyone, um, is interested in contending for 2023, we're surveying now through the end of Q1 2023. So you can sign up right from our website, activatedinsights.com and survey spots are first come, first surveys, and then for us news best in your living resin surveys. Um, you can now get your dates locked in for year three, so you should definitely reach out to us to get started again at that website. And again, thank you so much for having us. This has been really enjoyable.
Sarah:Yeah, thanks so much, Patrick.
Patrick:Awesome. No, thank you. Thank you both. Can't thank you enough for being here today and for all your insights, no pun intended. I hope to see both of you out and about, whether it be on Zoom or hopefully in an event Zoom so we can catch up even more. Listeners, thank you for tuning into this episode of Raising Tech. We'll see you next time for some fresh technology insights. If you wanna be on the show or have any topics you wanna hear about, please visit our website at parasolalliance.com and reach out. Have a good one.