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Senior dwelling operators have ready for the child boomers’ arrival for many years – however now just isn’t the time to relaxation on their laurels, based on Atria Senior Dwelling CEO Holly Belter-Chesser.
At a current convention, she spoke with different trade professionals concerning the alternative forward in 2025 and the way far the trade has come. The dialog turned to restoration, and the way nicely senior dwelling operators have bounced again from the Covid-19 pandemic. To Belter-Chesser, that’s solely half the battle.
“They commented on how the present second feels fairly good, however that they have been simply ready for the opposite shoe to drop,” Belter-Chesser stated. “I finished them and stated we’ve been selecting our sneakers up off the ground the previous couple of years — it’s our time.”
That sentiment – that operators have a chance in entrance of them that they have to seize – is driving Belter-Chesser ahead in 2025 as she plans the corporate’s subsequent chapter. That follows some sweeping adjustments in 2024 to its working portfolio and adjustments to its service mannequin together with the transition of 89 Vacation by Atria communities to different operators by Welltower (NYSE:WELL) and shutting its dwelling care group to concentrate on its core senior dwelling enterprise.
When she ascended to the CEO position in early 2024, she equated the promotion to “placing on a brand new pair of glasses,” by way of which she might clearly see the corporate’s construction and path forward. Belter-Chesser stated in 2025 her proverbial glasses have the senior dwelling demand growth led by the child boomers in sight.
“We’ve acquired this demographic wave coming at us however we will’t get complacent as a result of seniors have extra alternative now than ever earlier than,” Belter-Chesser stated.
Belter-Chesser stated she’s discovered extra about Atria within the final 12 months than in her previous 15 years with the corporate. Belter-Chesser stated she’s reminded of a plaque in her workplace that has a easy equation on it that reads, “Atria is love plus math.”
“We’re on a mission for simplification, specializing in human-to-human connections,” Belter-Chesser stated, with the objective set for the corporate’s company assist staff this yr to present “hours again to the communities” so frontline workers can spend time with residents.
‘We don’t want change for change’s sake’
Underpinning Belter-Chesser’s philosophy is a perception that the senior dwelling trade should change for the higher if it hopes to satisfy the demand of the boomers. However that doesn’t imply altering simply to do issues in a different way.
Now’s the time for senior dwelling operators to look inward and ship the companies, facilities and communities that the incoming technology will really need.
Final yr, she visited 101 Atria communities, setting a brand new private report. She did so to area new concepts for what’s probably forward in operations and progress.
Atria and its leaders are shaping their plans in 2025 round an acronym, CARE, which stands for: Buyer expertise enhancements, Accountability in high quality of operations, Ends in backside line enchancment and Worker expertise to enhance retention.
This yr, Atria communities organized their objectives across the Internet Promoter Rating to higher adapt gross sales and advertising ways at a time through which the senior dwelling client profile continues to change.
The corporate employs 12 high quality enhancement administrators with the corporate’s chief high quality officer reporting on to the Atria board of administrators, which is deliberately saved “very separate” to offer correct insights following biannual critiques.
Belter-Chesser stated Atria will focus sources in emphasizing hospitality and model requirements throughout its a number of neighborhood traces. For assisted dwelling, that’s translating right into a concentrate on care supply infused with parts of hospitality inside a resident’s each day expertise.
Inside its Vacation by Atria model, Belter-Chesser stated the section was “exhibiting some large progress” in bettering unbiased dwelling and assisted dwelling operations, given the context of the current Welltower transition.
“It’s much less about transferring ahead from the transition and extra so about transferring our enterprise ahead as we search to ship to all our stakeholders prospects, households, staff, and homeowners,” Belter-Chesser stated. “We’ve aligned our CARE working framework in a means that retains us targeted on what we do nicely and what’s necessary. That’s driving progress and occupancy by delivering our prospects a high quality product and our staff a fascinating work setting.
She added that these enhancements in buyer expertise, worker retention and talent to drive NOI and fee have additionally occurred throughout the corporate’s a number of manufacturers of communities.
“We don’t must reinvent something, we simply must execute and that’s by way of our prospects and our staff and ensuring we ship outcomes,” Belter-Chesser stated.
Following the transition from Welltower, the Vacation by Atria portfolio nonetheless stands at 100 communities. Belter-Chesser stated new progress was “necessary and useful” throughout the corporate’s multi-brand method. What that future progress appears to be like like stays to be seen, however Belter-Chesser stated the present second was “attention-grabbing” as Atria was fielding curiosity from teams each inside and outdoors the senior dwelling trade.
“It’s the standard names but in addition people who haven’t been taking part in in seniors housing together with outdoors funding,” Belter-Chesser stated. “There’s actual alternatives in our value factors and markets the place we’re extremely clustered that make sense for us so we’re these alternatives.”
Possibilities to develop regional density throughout its 28 states, she added, could be “candy spots” for potential future progress of Atria as the corporate stays “scaled and scalable.”
To achieve potential outdoors funding for teams seeking to capitalize on the trade’s “golden age,” senior dwelling operators and possession entities have a accountability, Belter-Chesser stated, to coach these new to the house to create robust relationships with capital suppliers.
“However should you suppose you’re getting the demographic wave with out understanding what the trade is, you’re doing each your capital suppliers and working companions a disservice,” Belter-Chesser stated.
In bettering the underside line, she famous that the trade could get “overly targeted” on occupancy, quite than specializing in internet working revenue (NOI), and methods to extend income.
“We don’t want change for change’s sake, we want change that drives NOI that drives outcomes,” Belter-Chesser added, referencing the necessity to simplify income administration in senior dwelling and glean different concepts from hospitality, airways, retail and meals service industries.
Belter-Chesser is at all times in search of new concepts to enhance Atria’s customer support and hospitality, often ordering room service from totally different resorts to gauge buyer relationship administration from the hospitality sector.
“I take into consideration what the decision is like, how the decision makes me really feel and so I take into consideration how we will apply that to what we do,” she stated. “They’ve a perspective, they’ve a perspective, they’ve an expertise that we might be taught from that may make us higher as an trade.”
Combatting operational challenges
To enhance retention, Atria launched a survey software for brand spanking new workers with a query asking how lengthy workers plan to stick with the corporate, with human sources leaders figuring out the first-year of employment and getting an worker to that mark as essentially the most vital time interval, Belter-Chesser stated.
To get there, Belter-Chesser stated Atria is concentrated on creating profession pathways for its new staff to indicate them a roadmap of what’s forward on the senior dwelling profession ladder, often called “Atria Journeys.”
That’s damaged up into 4 distinct areas: onboarding and operations coaching, management growth, mentoring and rewards for hitting tenure benchmarks. In 2024, Atria spent $5 million on bonuses for retention in attending to one-year of employment, based on Belter-Chesser.
This concentrate on staffing comes as Belter-Chesser sees the senior dwelling trade in a greater place as we speak to enhance the underside line since sure challenges in operations have moderated and the trade just isn’t “preventing on as many fronts.”
“There’s much less strain in sure locations,” Belter-Chesser stated of the present working setting, however noting realistically there have been nonetheless challenges in staffing and care supply that modify by market.
Bettering staffing, Belter-Chesser stated, would be the gateway to bettering additional backside line efficiency and considerably capitalizing on future demand led by the boomers. As of 2025 that’s already being felt throughout Atria’s varied model traces from market-rate to luxurious manufacturers.
Accessing new customers, outlook
The senior dwelling buyer continues to vary, Belter-Chesser stated, as operators pivot to the boomers and even Gen X, to organize operations to capitalize on demographic-driven demand.
That was coupled with Atria trying inward at its present portfolios to find out bodily plant upgrades, a widespread chorus within the trade as growth on the entire largely stays muted. These upgrades for Atria included altering unit mixes and bettering widespread areas together with resident rooms to satisfy present calls for by prospects and residents.
With efforts underway on a number of fronts to enhance operations, Belter-Chesser is cautiously optimistic about what’s forward for the corporate in 2025 and the broader trade as an entire.
“I’m inspired by all of the innovation and alter that’s occurring inside the trade and I feel outdoors views coming into senior dwelling can convey so much to the desk,” Belter-Chesser stated.
