What if we changed the way we thought about H.R.? For Paul Jarvis, EVP of Sales & Marketing, Procare HR, it’s his job to answer this question. Tune in as he shares Procare HR’s approach to human resources that breaks the mold and helps communities thrive.

‍

Hear episodes from Procare HR about labor management, data, and more!

‍

Produced by Solinity Marketing.

‍

Become a sponsor of Bridge the Gap.

‍

Intro

Welcome to season eight of Bridge The Gap, a podcast dedicated to informing, educating, and influencing the future of housing and services for seniors. Powered by sponsors Aline, NIC MAP, Procare HR, Sage, Hamilton CapTel, Service Master, The Bridge Group Construction and Solinity. Produced by Solinity Marketing. Bridge the gap in three, two.

‍

00:39 - 00:54

Lucas McCurdy

Welcome to Bridge the Gap podcast. The senior living podcast with Josh and Lucas. We're here in beautiful San Diego. And for those of you that can watch the video, you can see we're in a great spot. Got a beautiful backdrop here with the great friend Paul Jarvis of Procare. Welcome back to the show.

‍

00:54 - 00:55

Paul Jarvis

Thank you. Great to be back.

‍

00:55 - 01:47

Lucas McCurdy

It is great to see you and a fellow Texan. So this is we're kind of you know I'm up in Dallas. You're down in Houston. And so it's nice to have a couple of Texans on a podcast, talking about HR right? You know, there's a lot of people in various sectors and many industries where say, you know, we do things totally different.

‍

We are rethinking how all of this is done. A lot of people say those things, but not a lot of people can do them. But you and your team at Procare really are able to execute in a variety of different ways because of y'all's skill set and all of the data that you're able to accumulate in the knowledge, from your customer base, y'all are hyper focused. And understanding senior housing. So when you say you want to rethink H.R. for senior housing operators, what does that mean?

‍

01:47 - 01:55

Paul Jarvis

I got to set the record straight, you know, adopted Texan, true to my wife, would not be happy if I was out here claiming that for myself. But I did just buy some cowboy boots, so I feel like I could fit in.

‍

01:56 - 01:57

Lucas McCurdy

You're getting there.

‍

01:57 - 04:05

Paul Jarvis

So, you know, when I think about H.R. and what it means and what we're trying to do at Procare, you know, H.R. over the last ten, 20 years has just become so much more complicated than it used to be. You would think about H.R. previously as being kind of independent functions around payroll, benefits, worker's comp, things like that kind of things that you need to keep the lights on, to keep employees paid, to make sure people show up for work and everybody's compliant.

‍

In the last few years, you look at different states introducing tougher regulations. The Affordable Care Act, the complexities of insurance, the changing workforce. It's just become so much more than that. So what we're doing here is we kind of stepped back and said, okay, instead of thinking about H.R. is kind of an individual function at every single community built around the needs of that community. What would it mean if you reinvented and built around the needs of the business as a whole?

‍

What would you focus on? So you'd think about what kind of, you know, what is the mission of a senior housing organization to provide great care? And you do that by having employees who are trained, who stay with the organization for a long time. Obviously, you need to be financially performant and then you need to support your mission. You need to be able to grow and expand in response to the needs of your community and the needs of your mission. And so what we think about and what we're trying to do is say, let's hire people who have industry experience and not just in HR, but in operations on the business side as well, who understand it, not just what's the work that needs to be done, but what are we driving towards?

‍

And let's pull all of those pieces together, whether it's the technology, kind of a payroll, the scheduler, the pieces that you know, where you click the buttons and the data goes in the program. So what are the benefits? What's the insurance? How do we motivate employees to join our company and stay with our company because it works for them? And then let's pull all of that together and kind of surround it with coaching and expertise. And when we do that, what we find is instead of HR being kind of a function that exists individually and really at the community level, in some cases it becomes a really powerful enabler of those business outcomes of great resident care, employee satisfaction, financial performance and growth.

‍

04:05 - 04:24

Lucas McCurdy

The term labor, you know, the team, the staff, the people that are doing this really important work has been a topic in our industry for many years. How does this reimagining or rethinking, what's the approach to recruiting or retention type? You know, topics?

‍

04:24 - 05:05

Paul Jarvis

Well, it really starts with the data right around. Who are the people who are coming to our organization? How long are they staying? And really, why are they staying? We've seen some really interesting things. For example, you know, some of our nonprofit customers offer incredibly generous benefits packages, but in some cases, less than half the workforce actually benefits from those or chooses to utilize those.

‍

Whereas previous generations of employees said, we love the benefits, we'll take it. All right. A new generation of employees saying, I don't actually want this. This isn't what motivates me. I prefer cash compensation or I prefer childcare or something else like that that works with my life. So it starts with understanding who is your employee, and not just who are the employees that you have before, the employees that are going to power your organization in future?

‍

05:05 - 05:31

Lucas McCurdy

That's such an important aspect to recruiting and retention. How do operators get that information? I mean, it's one thing to want to treat your employees kind of like that. What is that? It's like the ultimate golden rule is like, treat people. How they want to be treated, right? The platinum rule maybe is how it's stated. How did they figure this out?

‍

05:31- 06:35

Paul Jarvis

Again, it's looking at all the information. And I think that something that we can do kind of uniquely approach here is because we serve, you know, 25,000 employees specifically in senior care. We have a breadth of information across different markets, for profit, nonprofit, different size employers to understand what works and what doesn't. And then within the individual operator, the way to think about it would be kind of there's two golden systems right there is your payroll and your scheduler essentially.

‍

So it's, how many hours are worked and what's the price of those hours? And if you look in different places, it's not always apparent what are the numbers that drive your organization. Because there may be different incentive bonuses. There may be an agency. We've seen every different way you could construct a variable pay system. And so a lot of it, as well as for an operator to figure out essentially what is the true cost of labor, right. How much does each hour cost at different times? And obviously, you know, weekends, nights, holidays are different. But being able to get a handle on that within your organization is the first step to understanding what my workforce looks like from a numbers perspective?

‍

06:35 - 07:21

Lucas McCurdy

you said it to your point, in the beginning of the conversation, H.R is very complex right now. Senior living is very complex. I would say, arguably, you know, outside of, like, hospitals and traditional health care, it's the most complex vertical, to, to work in, from an operator standpoint, from an entrepreneur standpoint, a business owner standpoint. And so I know data is a big talking point for a lot of people right now, because now there's tools with technologies advancing, we're able to see a lot of this new data. How is the data from Procare's perspective playing into this reimagining of what HR is?

‍

07:21 - 08:29

Paul Jarvis

So it all starts from working backwards from what the goals are. Right. And I think something that we've seen previously is when you're not aligning the different functions of your organization, whether it's HR or another one around the end goal, you can wind up with a bunch of different systems that not only don't talk to each other, they're not moving in the same direction.

‍

You're not moving your organization towards those goals. So the first step that we often see again is in the air world, the scheduler and the payroll system are where the rubber meets the road. So either those two need some form of integration. The other kind of missing piece to that from a data perspective would be ATS. So applicant tracking system, who are the new employees who are joining your organization.

‍

Where did they come from? And so if you can kind of tie up the trinity of those of like, how much am I paying people, how are they being utilized? And where are these new labor coming from? And not just where is new labor coming from? But am I hiring the right people in response to the needs of my organization, not just from kind of a personality and demographic perspective, but from, you know, if I'm spending a ton of agency and it's all on week and night shifts, geez, maybe I should hire a full time employee there and really focus on those.

‍

08:29 - 08:43

Lucas McCurdy

And in your day to day, for the clients that you're interacting with, what are some of the common challenges that you're seeing? Like, man, this is a consistent challenge that operators are facing right now.

‍

08:43 - 10:07

Paul Jarvis

As you mentioned, senior living is so complicated. And whether it's by size, for profit nonprofit like a project that we actually did recently was we broke out. Like, what are the common business challenges of operators by segment? We get a lot of customers, particularly in smaller rural areas, where they say, I had an HR person for 20 or 30 years.

‍

They were fantastic. They're retiring. I'll never be able to replace them. Can you help us? So that's, you know, a pretty clear set. At the higher end, it's really about scalability and employee experience and financial performance. And that's true on both the for profit and nonprofit. We've talked with nonprofit groups that are looking to grow through affiliation, or just broaden their mission, broaden their impact on the for profit side.

‍

Obviously, they're interested in financial performance and understanding the drivers of that. Generally, all of it comes down to, you know, the senior living remains a people business. And until we reach, I'm actually giving a talk and tell in a couple of weeks. It's kind of a, a fantasy future of, you know, what would happen in 2050 if you if senior living was only robots would be like that.

‍

What would that mean for all of us? Just kind of a thought exercise. But until we get to that world, you know, it's still about the people. And I think that that part rings very true for operators of all sizes. The challenges are how do I find the right employees, how do I keep them, and how do I maintain the financial performance of my organization?

‍

10:07 - 10:38

Lucas McCurdy

That's so well said. And I think that, you know, Procare is this perfect balance of high tech and understanding that this really is a people business. And this industry really knows that, and hopefully I don't think that'll ever go away. Yeah. And that's always a discussion point. So. Okay. Final thoughts here. For operators out there that they're listening and they're like, yeah, we definitely need to rethink our HR.

‍

10:38 - 10:46

Lucas McCurdy

But where do we start? You know, that seems you know, it's one thing to say it. It's another thing to do it. What's your encouragement to them?

‍

10:46 - 11:49

Paul Jarvis

So I would start with what are the goals of your organization and work backwards from there. So if you're thinking about growth and expansion, okay, is that going to be within the same state if you're planning to go to different states? How would you sort it? Right. How would you be ready for that? Right. Because there's going to be new regulations, new hiring, new labor laws and a new labor market.

‍

So you need to think about am I prepared for that? For other groups that are focused maybe more on maintaining their current footprint, but doing it better. Then you start to dig into the data of what we are doing today? Can we actually answer the questions that we want to answer around? Why do employees choose us? Are we an employer of choice?

‍

Again, that question around what is the true cost of labor? And are there pockets where maybe things haven't gotten back to normalization with regard to agency or over time that we can start to focus on? So it all depends on it's really not a one size fits all approach. And in our industry, I think that's just so important.

‍

Everybody has different goals. Everybody's starting from a different position. But if you understand your goals and you line up the different functions, including HR and others against those, I think you'll be really successful.

‍

11:49 - 12:40

Lucas McCurdy

Well said. Paul, thank you so much for spending time with us. You know, our listeners, you know, bridge the Gap. We've been around now almost eight years, and we love bringing this kind of thought, leadership and educational content to you. And we are not able to do that without our supporters and Procare. And Paul and their team there, Brett, have been a big supporter of Bridge the Gap for a number of years, and this is how we're able to do this.

‍

Come to these events, get this good information, have these great conversations. So they're a great supporter of us. We ask you to support them as well. And the way to do that is you can scroll down there in the show notes. There are links to connect with them. And then also, you know, let's continue the discussion on LinkedIn. And I know that, Paul, you're very active on LinkedIn and a great way to connect with him and talk there. So thank you for your time today.

‍

12:40 - 12:42

Paul Jarvis

Thank you. It's always great to be here. I appreciate it.

‍

12:42 - 12:49

Lucas McCurdy

Go to btgvoice.com. Download this content and so much more. And thanks for listening to another great episode of Bridge the Gap.

‍

Outro

Thanks for listening to Bridge the Gap podcast with Josh and Lucas. Connect with the BTG network team and use your voice to influence the industry by connecting with us at btgvoice.com.

‍