While most company orientations focus on simply instructing new employees on how to handle tasks and perform daily duties, one senior living company takes orientation to whole new level, ensuring that new hires truly feel like part of the family.
ALFA 2013 Best of the Best Award Winner
“How many of you in your professional career have ever had informal time with the CEO of the company?” That’s the question that Maria Nadelstumph, VP of organizational development and program excellence at Brandywine Senior Living, often asks new team members during company orientation.
According to Nadelstumph, virtually no one ever raises their hand. “They’ve never had that opportunity,” she says. “It seems almost foreign to them.”
By contrast, meeting the CEO is not a problem at Brandywine Senior Living, where CEO Brenda Bacon and other senior team members believe so strongly in starting new team members off on the right foot that they have cleared their calendar one day every month to meet with them.
It’s one thing to tell caregivers that they are highly valued during training at the senior living community where they’ve just been hired, far from corporate headquarters. It’s another to transport them from any of five states where Brandywine operates, to their Brandywine University training center in Moorestown, New Jersey, where they get to meet other new hires, immerse themselves in the company’s culture, learn about the company’s vision, embrace customer service values, engage in fun teamwork building exercises such as a “game show” on teamwork judged by resident volunteers, and wind up hooting and hollering with members of the senior management team. “It’s like you’re sitting around a family dinner table. There are no corporate titles, we’re just people, welcoming our family,” says Nadelstumph.
Brandywine also uses the opportunity to learn from the new hires, since they often have been on the job for a few weeks already and may bring fresh ideas for a new program or practice. “We’re creating a culture of open communication, engagement, friendship, and a healthy marriage between employee and employer,” explains Nadelstumph. “They leave orientation feeling heard and proud.”
After orientation, new team members often go back to the community where they work with more confidence and interest in getting involved in the work that affects them, says Nadelstumph. The strong beginning for new caregivers also seems to be paying off in other ways; orientations are moving to every other month because of lower turnover.
The above best practice was recognized as an ALFA 2013 Best of the Best Award winner. Do you have a best practice, product, service or solution at your community or company that is advancing excellence in senior living? The Call for Nominations for the ALFA 2014 Best of the Best Awards will begin in October. Visit ALFA.org/bestofthebest to read more best practices.
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