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Recruiting and Retention Playbook
Expand and collapse sections by clicking on the disclosure triangles (►).
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Recruiting
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New Hire Experience
Organized and professional are words that should help describe this highly polished experience. Top calibre talent wants to work for top calibre employers and they have many options other than us. From the job post and first conversation, to that new employees first day alone on the job - we have to present that not only are we ready for this - we are excited to have them on the team.
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Job posts
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R&R team communicates and collaborates with hiring managers on open positions with each building every two weeks, except those covered by R&R Specialist.
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Buildings have most frontline positions posted at all times, R&R team receives Formdesk ticket for any one-off manager and licensed positions.
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Are there any special perks (free meals, uniforms) or team environment positives that a building wants to use in their job post to help promote? Let the R&R team know!
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R&R assistants check in with each non-R&R covered location every 2 weeks. Job posting/monitoring responsibilities:
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Region 1, 2, 3 and 7: Blake Fischer 701-757-5475
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Region 4, 5 and 6: Samantha Coughenour 701-757-5478
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EMG, CaringEdge, HCC, Legacy Medical, 322 Hospitality and Aspire: Traci Edwards 701-757-5474
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For non-evergreen roles (nurses, managers, maintenance, etc., buildings submit a ticket and enters our Basecamp to post and manage
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Link to ticket: https://fd7.formdesk.com/edgewood/Recruitment_Marketing_Job_Posting_Request
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(CaringEdge uses a different process - Traci receives CE ticket and creates job requisition. Lauri H. posts to Indeed)
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First contact
Warm, friendly and smiling voice as we reach out to applicants.
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Leaving a voicemail:
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Find something on their resume to compliment them on. Make it about them and give them a reason to call you back.
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"I see you worked at company 'x' for 3 years - I hear they have high customer service standards. I'm very excited to talk with you!"
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"With your 'x' years of 'y' experience, I think you'd not only catch on quickly here, but help our other employees along the way!"
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Offer texting and voice as return callback options: "You can give me a call back, or text me at 'xxx-xxx-xxxx'. This makes a huge difference.
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Clearly articulate your name and phone number, don't be afraid to also say your number at the very end of the message.
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Keep the pile/list of those who applied but did not engage with us. Try calling them all again a week or few later.
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First conversation:
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Show excitement for the interaction, ask questions and show interest in applicant.
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Practice nice elevator pitch to describe the job: keep it as short as possible while covering all relevant factors most applicants would want to know.
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Internal Job Interest Application: https://bit.ly/3K52xX3
Employees who want to apply to an internal position should use this form and not apply through normal channels.
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Setting up interview (more detail to come on this section)
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Reducing anxiety with information
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Clear next steps
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Where and when, have them read back, circle time
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How long you think it will take, the tone you set for interviews
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Their experience while waiting
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Clear on what happens next
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Remind them to prepare their refernces
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Link to interview questions and other interview resources:
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Edgewood policy requires that we receive at least one positive work reference before hiring. Reference forms are here:
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Liaison walking them in first day/week (more detail to come on this section)
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Someone checking in each day (much more detail to come on this section)
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Edgewood Connect pilot
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Walk-in interviews
This actually works some of the time!
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Set up easy to remember days and times that we are available to handle any walk-in interviews.
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Put this verbiage on current Indeed job posts, or create a separate post for this.
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Be ready to help anyone immediately after they come in for interviews
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Group interviews
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Save time and frustration by scheduling multiple frontline applicants (Dining Assistants, Care staff, housekeeping) to the same interview
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Questions and overall discussion of Edgewood, our seniors and customer service we provide encapsulates much of the discussion and it’s general to all frontline roles
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There is very little time having one-off conversations about the differences in roles, most people know what they’re interviewing for and one-off details can happen after you excuse the larger group
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Easy to set up:
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“Sounds great Jenni - I have an opening at 2pm tomorrow or does 4pm on Thursday work?” Jenni selects 4pm Thursday.
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Now everyone I call who I want to be in the group, I try to get them scheduled for Thursday at 4pm if possible. If not, I’ll try to set up a different group of applicants based on when they can come in. Repeat.
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I’m sure to tell everyone, “Jenni, I just want to let you know that we sometimes have group interviews. We keep them low-stress and have a good time and you’re not competing with anyone in the room.” (This is always true - we will generally hire everyone in a group that doesn’t raise obvious red flags. I’ve never had to say this and not mean it - there are always multiple frontline positions open in mid to large sized buildings.
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Group participants enjoy the different structure and generally have fun with each other and start to create working relationships from this point. Who cares if candidate number 4 kind of steals candidate number 2’s answer when we get to them? We’re just getting a read on individuals and the group and we can ask any follow-up questions we think are important.
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If you have a group of 6 scheduled and they all arrive, you’ve just saved yourself about 5 hours of interview time. If you schedule 6 and only two show up - you’re not upset that you’ve wasted time waiting for no-shows - you’re still talking to 2 people!
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Be surprised to receive compliments from applicants afterward. They appreciate the fresh format and less pressure on just them in an interview.
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If anyone is interested in this - send them Justin’s way. I can provide materials to simplify this process (table tents for their names, introductory sheet preparing them all for the first question and asking them to write their availability, reminder to get their references prepared for us to call them, etc.).
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Employee Referral Program policy and resources: https://bit.ly/42FhBSg
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Referral_Amounts_1
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Outreach
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Facebook page
Majority of applicants will creep our individual Facebook pages before applying. They want to know who we are, what we’re about and what it looks like in these buildings before they decide to apply.
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Employee spotlights
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Employee promotions or fond farewells
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Photos or short videos of teamwork in action
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Why we work here posts
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“What happens after you apply” posts - people are more likely to apply when they know what happens next and who reaches out the them. This information reduces the anxiety of the unknown and can create confidence to apply.
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Job fairs (more detail to come on this section)
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Bring second person
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Food, breaks, if you get busy, credibility
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Never show up late, leave early
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No food or cellphones visible
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Out in front of booth
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Materials, set up, food, spin wheel, swag
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Set up interviews!
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Job Fair checklist: https://bit.ly/3LN0doG
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Host open house (more detail to come on this section)
A low pressure job fair environment, an open house can let us highlight how we help our seniors and how we take care of employees. Keeping it low pressure and informational allows candidates to relax their guard and we get an accurate read on them, and them on us. Of course we’re hiring and that’s why we’re doing this, but we need do our best to keep the pressure or desperate tone out of the interactions.
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“The promotion has to be bigger than the event” - advertise early, keep the dates and times memorable if possible (Tuesday at 2, Thursday at 3, the First Friday at four, etc)
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Run multiple events somewhat close to each other. Word often gets out after the first, but then there are no follow-up events for stragglers who might be interested to see an open house, but hesitant to apply for a job right now.
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If possible, keep follow-up events at the same day and time as prior events
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Show off our kitchen skills and let the cooks create special treats, maybe a full dining event where DA’s provide outstanding table side service
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Bring in nurses to provide short education on what they do, or what senior living is all about
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If possible, have ambassador(s) present - people who are working the roles that you are hiring for to answer questions and give real-life scenarios, and why they work here
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Colleges/High Schools
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Beyond the job fair:
Relationships with colleges and schools can create a productive relationship rather than a transactional one. If they remember us as always being professional and respectful and always asking how we can help - they are probably promoting us as an employer of choice to their students when we are not around. They can help build that funnel of applicants for us over time.
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Reach out to see how we can help them as an employer in the community:
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Do they want help setting up job fairs
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Do they have career days where we can do mock interviews or other scenarios with students
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Pro Tip: have someone take photos of you helping out, then post those photos and a short recruitment message on Facebook and LinkedIn
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Do they have semester-long projects where students work with businesses in the community in various subject?
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Do they offer Employer in the Foyer: we set up table in a busy hallway area and have our own mini-job fair
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Chamber events
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Relationships in the community
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Print Store: https://bit.ly/40zotie
Materials to hand out to prospects, attract new people to booths and partner with community businesses.
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Marketing Project Request: https://bit.ly/3ZeFLQH
To request new collateral or special projects/designs not currently available as a template or print-on-demand on the Edgewood Print Store
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Sharepoint outreach resources: https://bit.ly/3nnMhY0
Items to print in-house. PowerPoint for school presentations, flyer template to customize with open positions, etc.
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Retention
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On boarding (more detail to come on this section)
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HR Staffing resources: https://bit.ly/3FNZ1xE
Interviews, New Hire paperwork and checklists, Pre-Employment process, Employee File Checklist, etc.
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Sign-On Bonus Addendum Form: https://bit.ly/3TE7U2x
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R&R Department Video Walkthrough of Cadient New Hire Process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7hooQ4qVvc&list=PLknFurNyE_iBdYVhL0fPYI5kuqVNqG0md&index=1
We assign new hiring managers a Relias course with this video. Once they complete the course, one of our assistants reaches out to the manager to set up a customized training and best practices using hiring resources, including Cadient.
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Cadient Resources for Hiring Managers: https://bit.ly/42E3UTD
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Orientation (more detail to come on this section)
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Hatti continue to improve this process for our buildings. Here are some good best practices for any employee orientation:
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Preparation us and them
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Agenda
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Order of
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Full body movement
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Room set up
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Toys on the table?
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Learn from the group - honor past work and life experience
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Experiential
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Long term vs. short term memory
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Relias to real world
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Communication
Relationship with supervisor is the number one driver of retention. There are ample opportunities for every people manager to have a meaningful dialogue with their employees.
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First 30 days
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Regular check-in protocol with building leadership
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Appoint a mentor/work buddy until one is found organically
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30 Day New Employee Survey
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This is a great opportunity for supervisor and new hire to start building rapport.
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Employee fills out survey form:
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Employe fills out manager form after the conversation:
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Both are placed in employee file.
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The forms and data captured are ok, but it’s the genuine and intentional conversation that’s most important.
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30 Day New Employee Survey and Supervisor Follow-Up form: https://bit.ly/3FQawVr
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Employee Rounding (Edgewood Voice) resources: https://bit.ly/3nhv5Ua
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Online form: https://fd7.formdesk.com/edgewood/Employee_Rounding
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90 Day Introductory Review (optional) (more detail to come on this section)
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Link
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(After awhile, a building will have a nice repository of what new hires are saying at 30 days and then what they are saying at 90 days/rounding. In aggregate, this could help formulate recruiting and retention solutions in the future.)
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Annual Reviews (more detail to come on this section)
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Performance Review policy and forms: https://bit.ly/40b8eYY
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Regular 1:1 (more detail to come on this section)
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Quiz directors on their employee knowledge
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Employee Voice (much more detail to come on this section)
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Always ask input, make them a part of strategy and big picture
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Give them the why
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Meetings
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Task Force
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Shift change
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RUM
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ERC
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R&R Meeting/Leadership
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Update on staffing efforts
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Employee Performance Management (more detail to come on this section)
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Expectations
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How is good work recognized?
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The 'meaty middle'
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Out and about in the moment
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Tie into core values
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Strengths-based approach
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Intrinsic motivation, extra discretionary effort
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Ongoing skills training
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Care tracks
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Dining - serving, customer service, knife skills, equipment tips and tricks, bring to fine dining to see the experience
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Scheduling and covering shifts
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Timely
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Early is always better when publishing the next schedule - it lets employees plan their lives around work. The schedule is never done when published - the real works begins by starting to fill holes that are already present when published, and/or filling holes on a regular basis as people call in. Some buildings run ‘dailies’ - sheets that are posted each day showing who is working where, in prominent areas where staff needs to see them. Sometimes when a building has severe staffing issues, the dailies are the only real schedule being published which results in major problems.
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Mandates
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Some buildings implement a mandate system - you have to work a double if your relief calls in on their shift. Some buildings use a ‘star date’ system for mandates - you have some days on the schedule with a star on those days and if you have to be mandated, it will be on those star dates. Gives an employee an opportunity to make plans if it happens. I don’t like mandates but have heard from some ED’s that you have to do this to staff large buildings.
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Texting or calling to pick up shifts, annoying staff?
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Most schedulers learn early that they have to ‘wheel and deal’ - you take this shift for me today and I’ll change the one you don’t want next week to a day that you do and other similar arrangements. Some schedulers hit up Bath and Body Works on a sale and pick up tons of small lotions, hand sanitizer, etc. to entice employees to pick up shifts.
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Problems arise when the scheduler runs out of options to cover shifts and they begin texting all care staff to see who can pick up. This works to an extent, but often the scheduler run this well dry too early and people are turned off by all the texts and stop answering any of them. Good schedulers strike a balance between perseverance and stalking.
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Call-in rules clear? (list them)
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Step 1: Don’t make it too easy to call in: no texting, only phone calls. They should have to call their immediate supervisor or a supervisor that is working - not just the scheduler or a co-worker. Even good employees can be tempted to call in when they want a day off if there is no friction in this process.
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Step 2: Ask questions. We are not trying to interrogate or make our employees feel bad about calling in, but we do need to gather some important information since we all work with vulnerable adults:
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“What’s wrong with you?”
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“What are your symptoms?”
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“What are you doing to take care of yourself?”
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“Who is covering your shift?”
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“When do you expect to back at work?”
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Step 3:
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This is the most important, and often missed step: follow up with the employee when they arrive on their next shift:
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“You were out, how are you feeling now?”
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“Happy to see you back.”
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Conversation about employee calendar and that you’re recording this absence, and overall discussion on this employee’s attendance and our policy.
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Flexibility
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Another scheduling balancing act is finding out how to accommodate business needs with individual wants and needs. Most buildings will have all care staff set up with a 2 week block including every-other weekend. This block is either a standard 2-week schedule with one weekend, or someone’s customized schedule with that weekend built in.
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Most shifts fall close to these parameter for care staff:
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AM: 6-2:30am
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PM: 2:30-10:30pm
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NOC: 10:30pm-6:30am
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Some call this NOC and some call it ‘nights’, ‘night shift’ or ‘overnights.’ Some call the PM shift ‘nights’ so it’s sometimes good to clarify.
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Most buildings will pay a shift differential (‘shift diff’) to PM and NOC - a good rule of thumb is PM makes $.50 to .75 more per hour and NOC is $.75 to $1 or more additional per hour.
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Many buildings have a half hour overlap between each shifts so they can have a shift change report and make sure the next shift knows the status of residents and other items. This is a great opportunity for a manager or nurse to be in the room to answer questions, communicate new information and in general be a supervisory presence in the changing of the guard.
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Some locations have tried (not sure if anyone presently does this) a Sun-Thu and Tue-Sat block for care staff. This means that everyone works one weekend day, but never the whole weekend.
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Some locations do a Weekend Warrior where they advertise and pay a high hourly wage for care staff who agree to work every weekend. My limited experience showed me that this program can work well if we only require 3 out of 4 or 4 out of 5 weekends in any given month.
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Some locations have tried 12 hour shifts with care staff and nursing. Some locations have hired PT care staff to help in the peak hours of need (6-10 or later in the afternoon. This kind of flexibility can work great but also can bring challenges of setting precedents to accommodate one schedule and others ask for that same customization.
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Schedule Anywhere is a software solution to help with scheduling. Not all buildings use this and not all schedulers are comfortable with it.
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Discipline
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Coaching process
Edgewood uses the term ‘coaching’ for our corrective action HR conversations. Our HR team provides training and support on employee coaching and performance management.
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General coaching best practices:
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To delay is deadly! Once a leader finds out about an issue, they may already be the last to know. Coaching is not transparent so there might already be doubt that a leader is addressing it - waiting only exacerbates the situation.
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Know what you plan to say and do before you sit down with the employee.
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Fill out the coaching form prior to the meeting, if unsure of how to do so - call Christy Berger.
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If the manager is unclear or unsure of what they intend to say and do, call Christy Berger - she is a wonderful coaches’ coach for this process.
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Have the discussion with the employee being coached, always have a witness in the room.
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Don’t soft-peddle: you have to be clear and direct, even if it’s talking about an embarrassing topic like body odor.
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You don’t know what you don’t know: don’t assume anything and be prepared to hear about home or health issues that are a root cause for what you are coaching on.
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A powerful phrase to learn more can be “What can you tell me about that/this?”
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Be very clear about what will happen next and ensure coached employee is as well.
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Document everything.
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Be prepared to defend your decisions and documentation if you are ever asked for it.
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It’s ok to have clammy hands, stammer some words and feel uncomfortably warm - this process never gets easy, but you do get better at it.
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If you truly want to help the person be more successful at work or help them realize this might not be for them, the process is a little easier. You are trying to help them.
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Anecdotally speaking, many people fired from a job report back that it was one of the best things that ever happened to them. People know and do not like when they are not feeling successful at work.
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Coaching and Corrective Action materials: https://bit.ly/40cMQCR
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General HR Policies: https://bit.ly/3JFpbUl
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HR Investigations: https://bit.ly/40f3ilN
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Employee Terminations resources: https://bit.ly/40f5lX1
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Lead program (more detail to come on this section)
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Standard stuff (more detail to come on this section)
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Shout out board
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Many buildings have bulletin boards where multiple employees can be recognized
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Employee of the month/quarter
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Amy S. and Justin working with MN to pilot a Hall of Fame, employee of the quarter program
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Annual winners recognized by home office
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Core Values exercise. In daily stand-up or other director meeting:
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Go around the room and ask everyone if they have seen an employee in the past week (or ‘x’ timeframe) live out one of our core values, either manager or frontline staff.
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What was the core value and what did they do? How did the action or behavior help us as a company and team?
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Be sure people recognized in the meeting are then recognized on the floor.
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A director team will never run out of examples to share. Great things are always happening in our hallways and it’s a shame when it’s not recognized.
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This positive feedback loop can prevent negativity from taking root.
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Core Values:
Honesty & Dependability
Accountability
Respect for our coworkers, residents and their families
Commitment to serve our residents
Commitment to Continuous Quality Improvement
Commitment to Teamwork
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Thank you cards (rounding and other).
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Link:
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General and customized gift baskets.
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Food events: coffees, catered food/walking tacos, potluck, chili-cook off contests.
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Always include overnight shift! Leave them a nice spread they can self-plate, or bring them food. They generally feel left out even if you include them. :)
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Important dates and general thank-you cards, sent to employee’s home.
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Years of service pins:
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Probitas Promotions Store: https://bit.ly/40f0c1d
Scroll down to Promo Store, code: edgewood2023
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Edgewood Established Years of Service T-Shirts: https://bit.ly/40buT7J
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Employee Recognition resources on SharePoint: https://bit.ly/3nf8uHU
Appreciation Best Practices, Employee Appreciation Ideas, Making a Difference Form, Years of Service Pin Policy
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You Make a Difference Card and more: https://bit.ly/42x1VRf
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ED development - how they are upping their game? (Much more detail to come on this section)
Leaders should be continually developing their skills and looking for opportunities to further develop their direct reports.
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Develop their people
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Check in with their people that they are checking in
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Delegation
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Defining Balance
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Setting clear expectations
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Conflict management
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Stress management