How can senior living operators stay competitive in the market? Accessing data on housing rates, pricing and leasing activity is critical. Fortunately, Yardi’s partnership with non-profit National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care (NIC) allows operators to share data seamlessly — increasing the amount of information available in the senior living sector. NIC Actual Rates Initiative Launched as the first of its kind in collaboration with Yardi, the NIC Actual Rates Initiative compiles actual rates and leasing activity submitted by senior living operators. Driven by the need to increase transparency in the seniors housing sector, Actual Rates data includes in-place, move-in and asking rates, as well as leasing activity. Yardi clients can easily participate by using Voyager Senior Housing to map and extract rent roll data, which can then be exported to NIC and Excel. Many senior living companies have already committed to providing monthly data feeds for the Actual Rates Initiative — covering more than 250,000 senior housing units nationwide. For more information or to participate, explore the NIC Actual Rates Initiative and complete the online form. NIC MAP Data Service In addition to the Actual Rates Initiative, Yardi collaborates with NIC to provide another avenue for accessing data, benchmarks and insights in senior living. The NIC MAP Data Service offers unbiased market-level data on the entire sector’s property types and care segments — supplying data from more than 15,000 properties within 140 U.S. metro markets. Here’s how it works. To further combat the lack of transparency in senior living pricing, participation in NIC MAP allows data to flow into Senior IQ, our business intelligence solution. Yardi clients who have an active NIC MAP account can benchmark against competitors on occupancy, rent and rent growth. For those that do not yet subscribe to NIC MAP, internal benchmarks are...

Brightview Senior Living, operator of communities in eight Eastern U.S. states, has won accolades over the years from workplace culture authority Great Place to Work® and Fortune magazine for being among the country’s best workplaces for women and for aging services. In April, the Baltimore-based Yardi client claimed yet another honor: a place on the coveted Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For list. In an interview with McKnight’s Senior Living, Brightview CEO Marilynn Duker said that the company earned its No. 92 ranking with a supportive work culture and strong core values, which Brightview summarizes as STARS (service, teamwork, action, reputation and success). That foundation, in turn, enables the company to create great places to live. The core values are embedded in all onboarding, training and performance review activities. “We worked really hard to make sure at all 42 of our open communities and our home office that our associates came first,” Duker said. One example of Brightview’s “people first” focus happened last year at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, company president Doug Dollenberg told McKnight’s. The company provided premium pay, food pantries and free meals for workers, among other benefits. Many employees reported that they felt safest at a Brightview community, he said. Fortune 100 Best Companies rankings are based on employees’ responses to a survey that measures trust, daily experiences with company values, the ability to contribute new ideas, leadership effectiveness and other attributes. In compiling this year’s list, Fortune found that 89% of Brightview employees consider the company a great place to work. Ninety-two percent feel a sense of pride and a similar percentage agree that “my work has special meaning: this is not just a job.” “There are a lot of amazing companies doing great work in the...

While the past year has been challenging for senior living providers, they haven’t lost sight of what’s important — keeping residents, families and staff safe and healthy. And for Aegis Living, their dedication and genuine efforts haven’t gone unnoticed. Not only is the company prioritizing resident care in the face of COVID-19, they’re also working to protect the well-being of their employees. That’s why they’re certified as a great workplace by independent research firm Great Place to Work US. “With nearly 2,000 team members surveyed across 32 locations, Aegis Living received a 75% trust index score after being evaluated on more than 60 criteria of team members’ experience on the job, including community impact and feeling that their work has special meaning,” shared Aegis Living on LinkedIn. “We’re so proud of our teams and our purpose-driven organization.” Building a stronger culture Meeting the criteria for a Great Place to Work certification is no easy feat. Leaders must constantly strive to build a better environment for their employees — laying the groundwork for an inclusive culture, high levels of trust and a true passion for the work being done. Dwayne Clark, founder and CEO of Aegis Living and Senior Housing News/Yardi Changemaker, has built just that. With extensive experience in senior living, Clark has focused on listening to employees, incorporating their ideas and helping them pave a successful career path. And since starting Aegis 20 years ago, company culture has remained a top priority — including during the pandemic. Clark attributes a large part of the company’s success to his team. In this light, Aegis Living’s admirable culture is a combination of excellent leadership and dedicated employees. Becoming an award-winning provider Aegis Living’s recognition doesn’t stop there. In addition to the Great Place to Work...

Assisted living facilities, which fill a need for seniors who don’t need nursing homes but can’t live independently, are a mainstay of senior care. The American Health Care Assn./National Center for Assisted Living counts nearly 1 million licensed beds in about 28,900 communities in the U.S. But even as assisted living holds stature as the fastest growing residential housing for older Americans, it may surprise some to learn that this model didn’t assume its present-day form until the 1980s. The roots of assisted living in America can be traced at least as far back as 1713 with the founding of an organization designed to care for seniors in Philadelphia. Foster homes and group homes became the norm later in the century when family members couldn’t care for a senior loved one. By the mid-1800s, religious and fraternal groups opened nonprofit homes for seniors, the genesis of the modern care system. Hundreds of nonprofit old-age homes were built in the late 1800s and early 1900s, with many adding hospitals, staff homes and other structures as their populations grew. Urbanization and tuberculosis epidemics helped spur state and local governments to develop institutions that provided chronic care. Nursing care in homes also became popular, with the number of visiting nurse agencies more than doubling from 1909 to 1924. By the middle of the 20th century, advances in medicines such as penicillin, the expansion of various assistance payments, and the exodus of men and women from the home during World War II were among the factors that prompted the further development of care facilities, including boarding homes for seniors. The private nursing home industry debuted in 1950, serving 270,000 people by 1954. That year, Congress provided funds to nonprofit organizations for the construction of skilled nursing facilities that met certain...

Yardi has a long history of providing interface solutions that enable its clients to exchange information with third-party vendors of solutions for applicant screening, online billing payments, renters insurance, service requests and many other business requests. That interoperability extends to senior housing community operators who wish to connect with ancillary operations solution providers. Interfaces allow third-party partners and Yardi EHR users to exchange information seamlessly and securely. Operators can utilize standard interfaces to connect senior living integration partners. Also, operators can optimize care transitions and enable the secure flow of information to and from EHR. Among Yardi’s interface partners for senior living is eMenuCHOICE, a St. Paul, Minn.-based dining management and point of sale application for senior living communities. Other providers that Yardi has welcomed as senior living interface collaborators include abxtracker, which specializes in antibiotic and infection tracking control solutions; Healthconnex, a leading provider of software used for infection prevention and control; and Kno2, which creates centralized accounts that enable efficient and HIPAA-compliant exchanges of resident documents. The list of Yardi senior living interfaces continues to grow. Created in some cases as a result of client requests, the added partnerships will enhance interoperability in such operations as vital signs and weight monitoring, nurse calls and...

Online searches have become the favored route for seniors seeking a residential community. That’s why senior living community operators increasingly turn to search engine optimization (SEO) to help prospective residents find their properties. A powerful tool supporting that effort is RentCafe Reach Senior Living, an advanced online marketing services solution that enables execution of SEO plus pay-per-click advertising, social media posting and reputation management from a single platform. Yardi is spreading the word about this platform and the online marketing experts who support it with a new ebook, titled “4 Ways to Get Found Online.” The publication illustrates how RentCafe Reach Senior Living: Creates an exceptional online presence that fills vacancies. Increases traffic with optimized content that positions communities for maximum search visibility. Drives leads with impactful ad campaigns, managed by AdWords specialists. Keeps pace with Google’s algorithm changes. Formulates and executes a full marketing plan tailored to a community’s goals. Engages prospects with curated social media local content and boosted posts. Strengthens reputation control by monitoring and responding to online reviews. As the ebook says, “The right digital marketing strategy makes all the difference, but building out a plan – and sticking to it – takes dedicated resources, consistent research and lots of elbow grease.” Read it to discover how RentCafe Reach Senior Living makes the process much easier and...

The senior housing industry is taking steps to transitioning from the COVID-19 era with policies that emphasize safety and resident service. Nicole Moberg, COO of Atlanta-based Thrive Senior Living, offers insight into successfully marketing senior communities during and after the pandemic. Below are excerpts from her recent interview with Multi-Housing News. How has the outbreak impacted Thrive Senior Living communities? Moberg: From early on, we were one of the first senior living communities to prioritize testing—backing our belief that every resident and team member should be tested as often as possible for the safety of the residents as well as our community. We also developed the “Take Off to Thrive” marketing concept, with a 30-day new resident communication checklist. This served to minimize resident isolation and loneliness and even included an adapted red carpet “landing day/move-in” experience. We view our communities as the safest place to be [with our] proper training and education, personal protective equipment, disinfection procedures and aggressive COVID-19 testing programs. How have your marketing strategies changed? Moberg: We pivoted by creating COVID-19 sales strategies including altering our messaging to focus more on care and safety and how we can help people during challenging times. Digitally, we worked to bring on a chief storyteller who showed a behind-the-scenes look at Thrive culture, created a YouTube channel to share online content to increase awareness when families could not visit and increased online presence as we allocated more toward digital spend to drive more traffic to our website. We saw increased sales throughout the pandemic with safely executed event activity. What role does technology play in your marketing? Moberg: We sourced a new video app that allows us to send videos to prospects as a follow-up; a platform to enhance virtual tours; a “thank you”...

Many senior living community operators are finding creative new ways to broaden their residents’ entertainment and activity options. In fact, Forbes reported in November 2020, entertainment has emerged as a marketing differentiator. “Many [seniors] are sharpening their focus on independent-living communities that not only provide creature comforts and an aesthetically pleasing brick-and-mortar living environment, but hospitality-inspired entertainment, trips and outings enabling highly-sought connections. Saying, in effect, ‘Let us entertain you,’ is good business for senior living communities.” That’s why “savvy senior communities are emphasizing the delivery of socially focused programming to bring mature adults together in fun, entertaining and educational ways once they’re safely able to drop the masks and rub shoulders again.” Even before the lockdown, “many retirement communities [were] stepping up to the challenge and redefining what fun looks like,” according to Denver-based Spectrum Retirement Communities. “If you were used to hosting get-togethers with friends and family, there’s no reason for that to change after moving to a senior living community,” said Brad Kraus, the company’s president and chief executive officer. “Those of us in charge of planning entertainment need to focus on designing activities that are elevated, purposeful and the entire family can experience.” Spectrum once sponsored a nationwide gingerbread house design competition with residents, team members and family members. One community in Texas came up with 3-foot-tall creation made of 600 sugar cookies, six buckets of frosting and 30 pounds of candy. Another in Colorado created  Pike’s Peak facsimile. Spectrum residents have also participated in volunteer activities involving pet shelters, waste reduction programs and homeless support, among others, “Why not make it possible for residents to continue giving back to the community with their family by their side?” Kraus says. “It’s our job to create that possibility. We want to...

Yardi Aspire gives senior living community operators the tools to train their staffs in everything from software skills and compliance to company policies and career development. The system’s convenient on-demand course content and documents help teams work more productively and efficiently. What training topics can be covered through Aspire? Everything from clinical skills, safety, new employee orientation and health records compliance to leadership, time management, software applications and more. As an added benefit, users seeking to customize training can build their own content and add pre-built videos. Equally important, users can create, maintain and administer courses without adding IT resources. The system also accommodates courses from other learning management systems while offering convenient esignature and employee survey capabilities as well as collection functionality for other types of surveys. “Aspire projects energy, forward focus and confidence. When employees feel those emotions at work, they are positioned to gain career skills and make a difference in their organizations. That’s exactly what Aspire brings to our clients through its broad scope of features,” says Terri Dowen, senior vice president of sales for Yardi. Learn more about how Aspire can pave the way for better community management for residents, operators and family...

Knowing what not to do is as important as understanding what should be done. That’s a key takeaway from a new Yardi ebook designed to help senior living communities market their offerings effectively. “8 Do’s & Don’ts for Senior Living Community Websites” offers tips for sprucing up digital curb appeal, maximizing the impact of a website’s most visited pages and more. The list of “dos” includes showing multiple views of a floor plan, helping prospects identify the unit that meets their needs and boosting traffic by sharing images on social media. The “don’ts” address rising above a bad user experience, avoiding inferior photography, not expecting photos to speak for themselves and resisting the impulse to mimic competitors. Looking for new ways to use your marketing website to make your senior living community both more visible and more appealing to prospective residents? Read the ebook for all the do’s and don’ts of getting those prospects to your page and into your...

Lindsey Hacker is the CFO of Tampa, Fla.-based Validus Senior Living, which manages facilities for independent living, assisted living and memory care in Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas. Hacker joined Validus in 2017. Here she offers insight into the twin challenges of providing exceptional care while innovating. The following is excerpted from an interview published in Multi-Housing News. How have you been ensuring the safety of residents and staff since the onset of the health crisis? What changes do you expect to be temporary and what is here to stay? Hacker: Like most of the world, our entire operating model needed to shift very quickly to ensure the safety of our residents and teams. Mask usage, hand hygiene, social distancing and personal protective equipment are now second nature. We screen all associates and any vendors or visitors and take their temperatures prior to allowing entrance to the building. Our cleaning process and solutions changed to using nontoxic chemicals against COVID-19 and performing more frequent cleaning. We added ultraviolet light technology, which is not common in assisted living. These UV light cabinets give our teams the ability to sanitize and disinfect items in less than 5 minutes—perfect for high-touch items like keys, phones, eyewear and our iCare technology devices. I think the pandemic has made us have a stronger focus on all aspects of infection prevention, so although we are hopeful we will not have to remain 6 feet apart, many of the other precautions will remain. Now that vaccines have become available, how is Validus approaching the vaccination process? Hacker: We are approaching it with education, positive reinforcement and role modeling. For our residents, we are seeing very high participation rates, which is very encouraging and not completely surprising since this generation saw polio...

Have you ever heard the saying that attitude is everything? How we choose to respond to a situation impacts our outlook, our possibilities and the responses of those around us. During tough times, one young woman in Raleigh constantly recommits to her positive attitude. Her decision to do so has positively impacted the entire community. Meet Victoria Meet Victoria Polston, activity and wellness director at Spring Arbor of Raleigh, an HH Hunt Senior Living community. Victoria is like many employees in assisted living communities: compassionate, patient and heavily caffeinated. She also exemplifies personality traits that have become indispensable during the pandemic: creativity, grit and optimism. As cities issued quarantine mandates in the spring, Polston faced a community of seniors who were more isolated from their loved ones than ever before. Excursions and visitors were no longer an option. Some seniors couldn’t understand the severity of the pandemic or their vulnerability. They were hurt, depressed and confused that their loved ones were no longer coming to visit. Polston got creative with engaging activities for her residents. “My goal is to make the lives of residents fun, active and worth living,” says Polston. “When I do something, I like to go all out.” Fun for every season In the warmer months, Polston offered seniors hula dancing and a luau, fake tattoos, a Mardi Gras party and a butterfly exhibit. She even coordinated a farmer’s market on the premises to replace an excursion that residents missed. As the weather cooled down, the activities continued indoors. Seniors made gourmet truffles, and danced during a neon glow stick party. They customized their shirts with glow-in-the-dark paint and donned glowing necklaces and bracelets. “I filled our activity room with black lights and all my residents were so excited when they...

Socialization is a significant part of senior wellness. By getting the members of the neighborhood involved in activities at your community, you’re offering healthful, value-add services for your seniors that truly make a difference! Below are a few suggestions on how you can improve social opportunities with community support. Animal shelter collaborations are a fun way to expose seniors to the joys of pets without the daily responsibilities of pet ownership. Seniors are able to play with and cuddle their new furry friends, reaping the health benefits of pet interactions. Girl and Boy Scouts projects offer seniors the opportunity to teach and learn from local youth. Contact your local chapters regarding projects such as building raised garden beds, installing rainwater recycling systems, or beautification projects. When seniors have experience in these areas, they are able to feel helpful and knowledgeable. When the experiences are new, senior learners stimulate their brains and feel the invigoration of developing new skills. Student-led tech classes equip seniors with the basic skills needed to stay in touch with the world beyond their senior community. Navigating Zoom and Facetime, for example, allow seniors to stay in touch with loved ones. Computer skills classes make it easier for seniors to take charge of their care curriculum. For today’s students, these skills are second hand and a fun way to get the community service hours they may need for school. Trips to a local ranch for equine therapy come with several advantages: a scenic trip to rural area, the benefits of equine therapy, and the pleasure of artwork and animal interaction. Don’t worry—equine therapy does not mean your seniors must mount the horses! Ask camp leaders if it’s appropriate for seniors to interact with current class members. Serving as a dance recital...