This text is sponsored by Twenty20 Administration. As senior residing suppliers look to raise the resident expertise and produce new considering into the trade, Twenty/20 Administration is setting a excessive bar for innovation, requirements, and management. On this Voices interview, Senior Housing Information sits down with Louis Coetzer, COO of Twenty/20 Administration, to find out how his background in South Africa and out of doors industries informs his strategy, what makes Twenty/20’s mannequin stand out, and the way the corporate helps form the following period of senior housing.
Senior Housing Information: How did rising up and residing in South Africa form your perspective and strategy to management?
Louis Coetzer: South Africa is a comparatively small nation. I feel it may in all probability match inside Alaska, with about 60 million folks. However inside that, you’ve obtained big financial disparities. There are folks surviving on a greenback a day, and others who’ve made tens of millions by means of industries like gold mining. It’s a ravishing place with heat, welcoming folks, however you additionally see intense distinction. There’s magnificence, and there’s battle, each political and financial.
Till 1994, a lot of the inhabitants couldn’t vote. That sort of historical past leaves a mark. On prime of that, unemployment is near 30 p.c, so folks need to be entrepreneurial simply to get by. Stroll round any metropolis and also you’ll see all types of small companies, whether or not meals stalls, craft distributors, or anything folks can do to make it work. It taught me quite a bit about perseverance and problem-solving.
My background is in industrial engineering, and I additionally earned my MBA. I beforehand labored for big multinational corporations. Main groups in that surroundings meant managing a closely unionized workforce. For a lot of of these staff, union illustration was their solely actual voice. You needed to perceive the place they had been coming from and be keen to hear. The Western strategy to management simply didn’t apply in the identical manner. You’re surrounded by completely different cultures with 11 completely different languages, and that sort of variety teaches you to hear first and communicate second.
Over time, I spotted management isn’t about having all of the solutions. It’s about creating area for others to carry their perspective. I needed to shift from being a typical Kind A character who desires to drive outcomes to somebody who pauses, listens, and builds understanding earlier than taking motion. That was an enormous lesson.
One other actuality in South Africa is fixed change. You’ve obtained political volatility, financial uncertainty, and loads of instability. For instance, there’s just one state-run energy utility, and rolling blackouts are widespread. You’ll be able to lose electrical energy for a number of hours a day, which forces enterprise homeowners to seek out their very own options. You begin fascinated with photo voltaic panels, backup mills, something to remain operating. It builds resilience. And that’s simply how it’s. Individuals adapt, they get inventive, they push by means of.
Humor is an enormous a part of it too. South Africans are likely to have a really darkish humorousness, which helps us cope with all of the chaos. After we moved to the US greater than 20 years in the past, we rapidly realized not everybody will get that humor.
However it’s how we cope. You make do, you discover workarounds, and you retain going. For me, all of that formed a management model that’s calm, regular, and targeted on what’s inside your management. It additionally made me actually worth folks and neighborhood.
Probably the most necessary cultural concepts I’ve carried with me is one thing referred to as Ubuntu. It’s a deep a part of South African Black tradition. It means “I’m as a result of we’re.” That mindset utterly shifted how I take into consideration management. It’s not about being on the prime. It’s about understanding the place your staff is coming from, constructing belief, and dealing towards a shared objective. It’s about empathy, connection, and serving to others develop.
Success isn’t nearly hitting enterprise targets. It’s in regards to the folks—how they develop, how they thrive. Once they’re thriving, they’re motivated. And after they’re motivated, the enterprise will get higher outcomes. That sense of neighborhood and humanity is the place management actually begins.
You labored exterior the senior residing trade earlier than becoming a member of Twenty/20. How have you ever introduced contemporary concepts and techniques from different industries into this one?
I’ve been on this trade for about 4 years now, and one of many first issues I seen is that senior residing grows out of a deep love for caring for folks. There’s a robust emotional core. A number of the neighborhood and company leaders I’ve met began their careers on the entrance strains, offering care immediately. They moved up by means of the care monitor into management roles.
That mission-driven mindset is necessary, and I absolutely assist it. However what I’ve additionally seen is that generally, due to that care-first tradition, monetary efficiency can unintentionally change into a secondary precedence. And that may create stress with homeowners, stakeholders, or shareholders. Coming in from the surface gave me the attitude to see that dynamic and ask: how will we drive efficiency whereas nonetheless honoring the care mission?
One factor I’ve introduced in is a data-driven strategy to decision-making. On this area, we frequently depend on intuition or anecdotal suggestions, however we’d like greater than that. We’d like techniques, expertise, and visibility to assist us make knowledgeable choices. Emotion performs a task, completely, however information must be a part of the equation.
One other focus for me has been breaking down silos. In lots of organizations, care can generally function as its personal world. However we even have finance, upkeep, coaching, human sources—all pushing towards the identical outcomes. We have to create extra cross-functional collaboration, so your entire staff is aligned and dealing in sync.
That led to a bigger initiative we’re now rolling out: creating facilities of excellence throughout the group. And I take a look at that in two methods. First, the place do we now have the inner capability to construct excellence in-house? And second, the place do we have to companion with exterior consultants?
Over the previous two years, we’ve made strategic strikes on each fronts. For instance, we outsourced human sources to Procare HR. They’re not only a payroll vendor, they’re a real companion, absolutely built-in into our assist construction. We’ve carried out the identical in procurement, working intently with HPSI by means of our GPO. However we additionally developed an inside procurement staff to drive compliance and maximize the worth of that partnership.
Studying and growth is one other key space. We noticed an enormous alternative there and partnered with a content material and LMS supplier to ship high-quality content material and coaching. They’ve helped us transfer past checkbox coaching into one thing extra strategic — the place we perceive what our folks know, how they’re executing, and the way to construct from there.
Monetary management was one other shift. We initially outsourced our accounting, however we introduced it again in-house and constructed inside management aligned with our techniques and workflows. We wished that management and visibility again. We additionally structured our operations with a transparent deal with outcomes. It’s not about exercise, it’s about outcomes.
Now we’re tackling expertise acquisition. Turnover is a large difficulty on this trade, particularly on the care degree, however even at mid-management and company. We’re investing in constructing that functionality internally. We wish to perceive what’s driving turnover and take motion to deal with it.
Throughout all these initiatives, the objective is to mix operational rigor with customer-centric considering. In senior residing, we now have to ask ourselves: is the resident our buyer? Is it the household? Perhaps it’s each. Getting clear on that modifications how we serve.
I’ve tried to herald a tradition of innovation, however nonetheless maintain that robust sense of objective that defines senior residing. It’s a steadiness the place we’re making use of classes from different industries whereas staying true to what makes this work significant.
We’re not there but, however we now have a transparent roadmap. And bringing in that exterior perspective has helped us make progress and set the inspiration for extra to come back.
What makes Twenty/20’s requirements completely different from conventional senior residing fashions?
For context, our Twenty/20 brand is a three-link chain, and that represents our DNA. This group began as a household enterprise. Mike Williams, our founder, at all times noticed it as one thing rooted in folks. Individuals caring for folks. That’s nonetheless central to how we function at this time.
The three hyperlinks symbolize our residents, our workers, and our stakeholders. These are the relationships that maintain the whole lot collectively, they usually’re what information our requirements and decision-making. We don’t simply say “folks first,” we construction our whole working mannequin round these three teams.
From there, we’ve outlined what we name our working intent. Wonderful care is our license to function. It’s the baseline. Then there’s administration competence, which drives profitability. That’s what permits us to maintain the group. And at last, management excellence, which builds a robust, constructive tradition throughout the corporate.
We’re deeply dedicated to all three. However what would possibly set us aside is that we’re additionally very self-critical. We all know the place we got here from. We’re sincere about the place we are actually. And we’re clear-eyed about the place we nonetheless have to develop. Regardless that we’ve made loads of progress reengineering the group, we all know we’re nonetheless on the journey. That mindset of steady enchancment is constructed into our tradition.
We’re a small staff, however we’ve created the area for folks to pivot and evolve. A number of our staff members have taken on new roles by means of that transformation. There’s a willingness right here to study, to innovate, to stretch into new challenges. That starvation to enhance, each on the particular person and organizational degree, is one thing we actually embrace.
So if I needed to boil it down, I’d say it’s that self-awareness. We’re happy with what we’ve constructed, however we’re not resting on it. We’re continuously asking, “How can we be higher?” That perspective is woven into the whole lot we do.
Are you able to share an instance of how these requirements have positively impacted residents or staff members, or any stakeholders, for that matter?
Coaching is a good place to begin. When you’re aiming for excellence (and we’re), you’ll be able to’t simply count on folks to get there on their very own. All of us want growth. One of many issues Mike, our founder, at all times emphasizes is excellence in the whole lot we do. However that must be intentional. It must be constructed.
After we stepped again and took a crucial take a look at how we had been approaching coaching, what we discovered was eye-opening. The content material was outdated. In lots of circumstances, it simply wasn’t partaking. Onboarding would possibly imply going right into a room, watching a video, and checking a field. That wasn’t distinctive to us both; it’s one thing you see throughout the trade.
We additionally discovered the supply of coaching was fragmented. Most of it was taking place regionally, and that made it actually onerous to make sure consistency throughout our communities. On prime of that, loads of it was nonetheless analog. Paper-based processes, outdated movies, nothing centralized. That made it almost not possible to trace progress, measure compliance, and even know if the coaching was efficient.
So we made a change. We created a Heart of Excellence for Studying and Growth inside our company group. We name it Sencare Studying. The complete mannequin is outcomes-based. It focuses on growing staff members in a manner that’s particular, measurable, and aligned with the outcomes we wish to see.
The educational administration system (LMS) we carried out permits us to customise and ship digital content material rapidly and successfully. Administering coaching has change into a lot simpler. We’ve inbuilt reporting capabilities, so now we will really monitor what’s taking place and the way every staff member is progressing.
However we didn’t cease there. We’ve additionally added in-person scientific coaching capability. We now have trainers who can ship instruction within the subject. It’s not simply digital, it’s a hybrid mannequin. And proper now, we’re constructing out a Prepare-the-Coach program to strengthen that much more. We wish to make sure the coaching being delivered is constant, high-quality, and strengthened on the bottom.
That native reinforcement is vital. We will develop content material on the company degree, push it out by means of the LMS, connect it to an worker’s HR profile, check for comprehension, and monitor compliance. However generally you continue to want that human connection—somebody bodily current to watch, coach, and ensure the coaching is translating into motion.
This engine we’ve constructed is making a distinction. It helps our residents by growing extra expert, extra assured staff members. It helps our staff really feel ready and supported. And it provides us the power to reply rapidly when one thing modifications. If there’s a brand new coverage or a lesson we have to share from a latest incident, we will create coaching content material and roll it out throughout the group in a single day.
That sort of responsiveness impacts the whole lot. It improves care. It strengthens our tradition. And it reinforces our requirements in a manner that’s scalable and sustainable. Everybody advantages throughout our groups, our residents, and our broader group.
The place do you see the largest alternatives for innovation in senior residing proper now?
There are a number of areas, however I’d wish to deal with the technology-related challenges. Proper now in senior housing, there’s a proliferation of techniques. An increasing number of instruments are being developed and delivered to market continuously. One of many largest alternatives for innovation is in techniques integration. We’re not seeing a real one-stop store for the techniques we depend on throughout our communities.
What we actually want is real-time information portability and harmonization. That applies to the whole lot from our CRM and EHR platforms to our HR and applicant monitoring techniques, finance and billing instruments, upkeep monitoring, and even our Microsoft 365 and Azure ecosystems. All of those techniques run in parallel, however they don’t essentially communicate to 1 one other. That lack of integration is holding us again.
It’s not nearly bringing in new expertise. Any new techniques we implement need to combine seamlessly with our present infrastructure. That’s crucial for the management staff, however it’s additionally simply as necessary for our frontline workers and care workers. They want instruments which can be simple to make use of, with quick entry to the data they should do their jobs. Logging into a number of disconnected techniques shouldn’t be a part of the workflow. Ideally, there ought to be a consolidated and streamlined interface that ties all of it collectively.
Even when an ideal one-stop store doesn’t exist, we’d like stronger integration. That’s an enormous space of focus.
Alongside related strains, I feel we’ll additionally see rising expectations from residents and households round cell entry and in-community expertise. As child boomers and future generations begin shifting into our communities, they’re coming in far more tech-savvy. They’re utilizing smartphones, streaming, and related gadgets of their on a regular basis lives. Assembly these expectations goes to be key not just for enhancing the resident expertise, but in addition for bettering operational effectivity.
What excites you essentially the most about the way forward for Twenty/20 and the position it’s taking part in in shaping the following period of senior residing?
I feel what excites me most is that we’re already seeing the outcomes of the enterprise course of reengineering we began two years in the past. It’s making an actual distinction for our residents, our workers, and our stakeholders. And we all know that influence is simply going to develop as we proceed advancing alongside the maturity roadmap I discussed earlier.
Our possession and senior management are absolutely dedicated to sustaining an entrepreneurial, outward-looking mindset. However what’s equally necessary is that it’s backed by a well-designed, structured, and agile operations engine. That mixture of imaginative and prescient and execution is what positions us to maneuver the trade ahead.
I’m assured we now have each the inspiration and the inner functionality to ship on our progress agenda. We could not discuss it publicly, however internally, we now have a really clear view of the place we wish to go, and everybody on our staff is aligned and assured in our capability to get there.
Editor’s observe: This interview has been edited for size and readability.
Our Twenty/20 Mission is to serve our Residents with the care and hospitality they deserve, present a office of mission, progress, and professionalism for our Caregivers, and be the best-in-class operator in senior housing for all of our stakeholders. Please contact us about operational/asset/growth administration in senior housing:
540-443- 8615 or Twenty20mgt.com
The Voices Sequence is a sponsored content material program that includes main executives discussing tendencies, subjects and extra shaping their trade in a question-and-answer format. For extra data on Voices, please contact [email protected].
