It’s been an lively yr for Solstice Senior Dwelling as the corporate has labored to construct on its momentum from final yr. All of it has hinged on staffing.
Not too long ago, the corporate appointed a brand new chief progress officer, Cristy Ballard; made a wide range of upper-level promotions and put a renewed deal with renovations since mid-2023. Solstice completed September at a 94% occupancy charge, which has offered regular income and helped give the corporate extra means to rent staffers and additional develop its workforce, in keeping with COO Steve Flynt.
“We’re extremely occupied, rising margin and the capital companions are joyful,” Flynt advised Senior Housing Information.
And there may be extra to come back on that entrance. Within the tail finish of 2024, Solstice is gearing up for minor structural modifications, and is within the means of including in a brand new regional place to supervise communities within the northwest in an effort to bolster its management.
“Our graph seems to be very robust as a result of we’re rising occupancy and we’re rising RevPOR,” Flynt mentioned.
Early final yr, Carlsbad, California-based Solstice underwent a giant change when Integral Senior Dwelling (ISL) joined an umbrella of “sister corporations” led by Discovery Senior Dwelling as a part of a recapitalization from funding companies Lee Fairness and Coastwood.
In the present day, Integral CEO Collette Grey nonetheless leads the corporate as CEO, and Solstice exists as a three way partnership of ISL. The businesses share high-level staffers of their monetary and human assets departments.
Solstice has 32 communities unfold throughout the nation.
Regional staffing technique a part of ‘recipe for fulfillment’
Amongst Solstice’s focuses in 2024 has been to bolster regional groups in an effort to unfold the burden of administration throughout a number of leaders.
Solstice organizes communities by area, typically with 10 to 11 communities in every space. The corporate treats states like Washington and California as their very own areas as a result of extra difficult operations and laws there.
The corporate’s portfolio contains communities unfold throughout the continental U.S. and on each coasts. That makes its regional strategy all of the extra necessary.
To assist unfold out the workload, Solstice employs one gross sales director per group, with extra gross sales optimization specialists managing lead circulation. Within the occasion that an govt director place is open – which Flynt famous is a rarity – different specialists will fill in to assist bridge the hole till the corporate hires one other chief.
In September, the corporate named three workers to regional management positions: Nathan Mills, who was promoted to senior vice chairman of operations; Israel Regus, who turned regional director of operations for the corporate’s western area; and Tasha Arlen, who ascended to the position of space director of operations.
“We did a bit of little bit of a realignment to simply ensure that our spans of management are such that the communities are getting a variety of focus,” Flynt mentioned. “I believe that’s a recipe for fulfillment. We’re not spreading everybody too skinny.”
‘Conserving the staff collectively’
Waiting for 2025, Flynt mentioned amongst his largest targets is preserving the operator’s management and group employee groups intact and able to pounce on new alternatives.
“We’ve made some errors alongside the way in which, however we’re at a degree now the place we’ve curated a playbook that works very nicely,” Flynt mentioned. So, it’s extra about preserving the staff collectively and persevering with to do what we’re doing.”
Solstice created extra workshops and coaching workouts for the corporate’s salespeople, and never simply for individuals who are struggling. That’s an strategy that Flynt mentioned helps push excessive performers “to the next degree.”
The operator additionally has helped its gross sales and operations groups work nearer collectively and collaborate regularly, one thing Flynt mentioned has helped bolster occupancy progress.
Conserving workers content material is a giant a part of the corporate’s manner ahead, he added. To enhance worker satisfaction and turnover, the corporate holds frequent city corridor conferences. The corporate additionally has a tradition membership, which hosts month-to-month conferences to maintain workers “concerned and engaged,” he added.
“It seems like foolish stuff, however present me a group that participates in a big manner in tradition … the correlation to good monetary outcomes is off the charts, and the retention of your associates can even be larger,” Flynt mentioned. “Going hand in hand has been a really profitable recipe for us.”
These efforts have paid off in a wide range of methods, and could be measured in the truth that almost all Solstice workers, 96.9%, participated in a current workforce survey, a quantity beforehand unseen on the firm.
To maintain its bench robust, Solstice creates profession pathways to management roles for workers.
In accordance with Flynt, the “secret sauce” at Solstice is its robust leaders and workers, and that can stay the case for the foreseeable future.
“I believe this goes for any enterprise … [if] you set a gaggle of individuals collectively, give them the instruments that they should be profitable and assist them somewhat than micromanage them, they’re going to do nice issues,” he mentioned. “I believe that can be why we now have nice management retention. They get the chance to make choices … and I believe folks like working in that atmosphere.”
