5 Ways Technology Can Improve Employee Satisfaction and Retention at Your Retirement Home

Technology is quickly finding its way into the day-to-day operations in various industries, including healthcare where technology is being used to improve the experiences of residents.  As a result, employees at retirement homes have found themselves learning new technology as part of this transition. It is not easy, but the proactive homes are preparing themselves now, as in the near future it will become almost mandatory to incorporate such technology to remain competitive in the marketplace.

It is challenging for frontline staff to learn new technology (and the processes that come with it) because they already have a lot on their plate.  However, history has shown us that short-term pain results in long-term gain. The upfront commitment now to train your staff with the right technology solutions will result in long-term efficiency and accountability for the home.

The other big win is that staff will now have more time to do “high-value” tasks because technology will help them with tackling the “low-value” tasks that are often repetitive and high-volume.

If sufficient time and a strong training process are put in place along with a gentle but supportive push from management, employees will slowly buy-in and see the benefits of incorporating technology.  Over time, this will improve employee satisfaction, increase morale and reduce turnover. Retaining good employees is much more cost-efficient than having to always find new ones.

5 areas where technology will make the lives of our staff much easier:

1. Communication in a large facility can sometimes be like playing a game of telephone. One person tells another person, that person leaves a note, which gets misplaced or misunderstood and the task or request does not get completed or worse, incorrectly incompleted.  Streamlined communication that can be audited as well, will make the lives of staff much easier.
2. Cloud storage access allows for employees to share information and have access to important documents/files from any approved device within the home. This makes it very convenient for checking dietary needs and restrictions, for scheduling purposes and for recording accurate information immediately when it is received.
3. Content accessibility is helpful in a scenario where friends/family of a resident need more information.  If there are approved flyers and information sheets on protocol or specific plans and procedures, having them accessible will make it easier for staff to verify information that they share with friends/family of residents.
4. Reporting in certain instances where it may be beneficial when dealing with a prolonged issue or incident. A digital submission system for reporting (including photo submission) will prevent the dilution of details.  A picture is sometimes worth a thousand words.
5. Nutritional requirements with respect to ensuring that residents are eating what they need to on a daily basis is crucial to the operation of a Retirement home.  Family members want to know that their loved ones are being taken care of and this starts with meal times. These times can be quite chaotic for staff as they need to ensure that residents are served meals in a timely fashion and orders need to be mistake-free.  Speed and accuracy don’t often go hand-in-hand, but solutions like ContinYou Care help staff with meeting this challenge.

If you are still using paper-based methods for data management, consider a digital system like ContinYou Care to help streamline your processes while ensuring accountability.