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Key things to help you everyday Things to watch Village Operator

Getting consultation right is vital in building happy communities

Consultation is something most of the Retirement Village Acts around the country refer to as being a useful practice to achieve change.   

However, in my experience the consultation process can be an area of misunderstanding and even result in disputes between operators and residents.    

In a recent newsletter put out by Office of Ageing Well – SA they shared some great considerations around consultation, included below. 

“Consultation in its most basic meaning is the act or process of formally discussing something. Discussion means the act or process of talking about something in order to exchange ideas”.  

It is worth noting consultation, as an act, does not have the same meaning as an announcement (a public statement of fact, occurrence or intention) nor is it a negotiation (a discussion aimed at reaching an agreement).

Keeping residents fully informed about what is happening in the village and providing opportunities for them to provide feedback and ask questions is vital to creating trust, preventing misunderstandings or disputes, and creating a harmonious community.

Why is Good Consultation Important in Villages?

Good consultation practices include three main areas:

  • Making residents aware of the matter that is being discussed
     
  • They are given a proper opportunity to express their views
     
  • That these views are taken into consideration when a decision is made

It is recommended that the matter which residents are being consulted about, is provided in writing prior to a discussion, so as to allow residents to consider and discuss the proposal with each other and family members.  

It can also be useful to follow up written consultation with individual/s and/or group meetings to allow residents to discuss options, ask questions or to clarify any issues which may be causing confusion. 

Office of Ageing Well also provided some great tips below, they suggest you do for improving consultation practices.  These are all ones I can fully endorse.   You may want to consider including these activities in your annual consultation plan to do several times a year.

Improve the level of resident satisfaction, by increasing the number of opportunities provided for residents to have their say 

  • Make consultation a habit 
     
  • Keep in touch with your residents on a regular basis   
     
  • Aim for dedicated Q&A sessions on a regular, planned basis  
     
  • Embrace positive and negative feedback—you will learn from it. Don’t ignore feedback or dodge complaints.  
     
  • Find out what aspects of life in the village are most important to the residents and then measure how well these are achieved
     
  • Consult before making changes and before any decision is finalised, otherwise it is not consultation, merely information provision
     
  • Very early on in my career in this sector I learnt the importance of regular, transparent, honest and two-way communication.  

I always tried to recognise the community is the residents’ home and therefore they should have the opportunity to input into how their community is being shaped.   

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Things to watch Village Operator

Women Leadership Roles on the Rise in the RV Sector

For the second successive year land lease community, rental village and tourism park operator Ingenia Communities has ranked second in the 2021 Chief Executive Women (CEW) Senior Executive Census for companies listed on the Stock Exchange.

For the second successive year land lease community, rental village and tourism park operator Ingenia Communities has ranked second in the 2021 Chief Executive Women (CEW) Senior Executive Census for companies listed on the Stock Exchange.

The census, which tracks gender balance and female representation of Australia’s largest publicly listed companies.

“Women compromise more than one-third of our Company Board and two-thirds of our executive leadership team,” said Ingenia CEO Simon Owen. “Our experience is that it is in every company’s best interest to ensure diversity both in representation and in ideas and thinking – it can have a significant impact on your ability to innovate and grow, and ultimately your bottom line.”

https://www.theweeklysource.com.au/ingenia-communities-recognised-for-women-in-executive-leadership-roles-66-of-leadership-team/

The push to acquire and nurture female talent in Ingenia comes from a top-down approach led by retirement village veteran and Ingenia Chairman Jim Hazel, who for many years has mentored prospective female directors through the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD).

Ingenia Chief Investment Officer and General Counsel, Natalie Kwok (pictured above), is one executive who was developed through internal channels.

“The company has always taken a merit and capability-based approach. I am really grateful for the fact that I was not pigeonholed in one field – with Ingenia if you are good at your role, you get opportunities to grow and succeed,” she said.

This is also great news for Village Professionals to grow with an industry that recognises executive talent and supports a clearly defined career path.  The DCM Institute is the perfect vehicle in taking those first steps, on an evolving professional development journey.

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Key things to help you everyday Village Operator

Helping your Residents & Families understand the transition to aged care

The transition from independent living to aged care can be a difficult and uncertain time in your residents’ life.  You will be faced with many questions from their family and friends as well as the residents themselves:

  • Mum isn’t coping on her own – what can be done to help?
  • Judy hasn’t come to any activities for quite some time – is she ok?
  • Asking the village team to help with the shopping
  • Difficult behaviours
  • Other residents’ concerns
  • Your own observations
  • Guilt, fear and time stress are the prevailing emotions.

As the Village Manager, you will be faced to having those hard conversations and, in some cases, dealing with.

Our sister DCM web site agedcare101.com.au is designed to educate and support all people about the late ageing journey.

One of the things we like most is this video, which explains the feeling of guilt, the time it takes to set up residential care and the essential Nine Steps.  It’s called ‘Precious Time’.

https://youtu.be/wyUAzIi02ck

Check it out and let your people know it is there. Over 60,000 people visit agedcare101.com.au every moth.

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Jobs Things to watch Village Operator

Village operators worried as older managers are retiring and difficult to replace

Workforce supply is increasingly difficult across the country, but as our sister publicationSATURDAY explored in its last issue, the retirement Village Manager is proving to be of the hardest to secure.

It can take up to three years for a Village Professional to feel fully in control of their role and understanding of the village business that they manage.

So when a Village Manager leaves the sector, they are taking with them a head full of knowledge and experience.

51% of VMs leave within three years

This is a significant challenge when you consider that there are just 1,500 Village Managers across the country and research commissioned by DCM with KPMG (2019) found that 51% of Managers leave the sector within three years.

One operator last week said over 50% of their village managers have now been in the job for less than two years.

The SATURDAY editors found that to replace this skill drain, operators are recruiting younger Managers.

Paul Burkett (photographed), the Director and CEO of Baldwin Care Group, said he has had two village managers retire in the past 12 months to be replaced by younger managers in their 30s.

They need to be fast tracked in their knowledge and supported with tools and training.

Paul has two new Village Managers taking part in the DCMI program and says he is seeing the difference that it is making to their confidence. “They realise that they’re not Robinson Crusoe and there’s other people sharing the same problems,” he said.

Pay is a challenge recruiting the new, younger generation of Managers. The average Village Manager salary is still around $80,000 despite the responsibilities being equivalent to that of a hotel manager.

Paul pays above scale and offers yearly bonuses based on KPIs around accreditation, meeting regulations, guest surveys, sales and more.  He says training and networking opportunities are also critical.

Maintenance roles are also proving difficult to fill as the retiring builders and tradespeople in these roles are also departing, while home care workers are hard to source due to lockdowns and resignations.

COVID-19 has made the challenge of retaining and attracting staff even harder, while residents can be demanding that staff are fully vaccinated, which is also a challenge.

Paul says he has lost some staff recently because they did not want to be vaccinated.

How then to appeal to the new generation?

What is the take-out? Demand far exceeds supply of professional Village Managers and Management.

With villages emerging as one of the big answers to the Royal Commission goal of more people on Home Care, living independently, aged care operators are moving to develop new and bigger villages, especially vertical villages. This is increasing demand even further for Professional Management.

More regulations, audits and increasing board responsibility for standards being met (plus concerns about insurance) are driving operators to invest in Professional Development – and remuneration reviews.

The question then is: will the new Baby Boomer customer/resident be prepared to pay more for a higher standard of Village Management – and are village operators ready to invest in their human capital?

You can read the full version of the SATURDAY village Workforce article HERE.

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Key things to help you everyday Village Operator

Emergency planning – it’s not all about bushfire – but it is about a plan

Often when considering emergency planning in villages there is a tendency to focus on fire, and in particular bushfire.

How would your village, and importantly your residents, respond to any of the following events?

  • Gas Leak
  • Gunman on site
  • Live electrical wires
  • Flood
  • Explosion
  • Medical Emergency
  • A sewer flooded your village; or
  • Natural disaster that may leave your community without power, water or phone access

In my time in villages, I have had to deal with ALL of these emergency situations, and often remotely.  So, I have learnt the importance of having robust and regularly reviewed emergency plans in place that go far beyond having an evacuation diagram on the wall in the community centre.

Easy ‘must do’s’

It is not hard to prepare the basics of an Emergency Plan, and you will feel so much better when you have built the bones because you now will not be caught out at a time of stress.

Ideally your Emergency Plan should address:

  • Emergency contact details for key people who have specific roles or responsibilities under the Emergency Plan, for example fire wardens, & staff
     
  • Contact details for local emergency services
     
  • A process for alerting residents, for example a siren, whistles, telephone calls and door knocking
     
  • Evacuation procedures including arrangements for assisting any hearing, vision or mobility residents
     
  • A map of the village illustrating the location of fire protection equipment, emergency exits, assembly points
     
  • Triggers and processes for advising neighbours who may need to respond as well
     
  • A post-incident follow-up process, for example notifying the regulator, organising trauma counselling or medical treatment
     
  • What should be in and where should an emergency steel box be located with high vis vests, torches, battery operated radio, first aid kit, manuals, instructions, updated resident phone list, etc and where should it be located?

After the emergency

In my experience you should also consider adding information that addresses: 

  • What is the process to communicate with residents it is OK to come back to the Village?
     
  • What plans need to be actioned in the event the power, phone or water is to be cut off for days?
     
  • What is the relocation process in the event the home or homes are not habitable or accessible?

WH&S, legislation, ARVAS and insurance

Having an Emergency Plan, engaging with it and reviewing it is not only a Work Health & Safety requirement for your employees, it is also a new requirement of the NSW Retirement Villages Act and a requirement of the ARVAS scheme. 

It may also be a requirement or expectation of some insurance policies and of course would be seen as sound governance and risk management by your Board.

https://www.first5minutes.com.au/v/

If you have not started this process, I would recommend you engage with an industry professional such as ESGA or First 5 Minutes, who both presented at our September Professional Development workshops. 

They are not only familiar with the requirements of emergency plans but also the idiosyncrasies of Retirement Villages.

https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/system/files/documents/1702/emergency_plans_fact_sheet.pdf

However, if you would like to get a head start or review your current plan perhaps use this great emergency plan fact sheet tool checklist from Safework Australia as a guide.

Emergency Planning is a topic in our September PD days.  Keep an eye out for the recording of our recent webinar in the DCMI Knowledge Centre, available at the end of the month.

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Jobs Things to watch

Have you got casual employees? You need to know these new changes to the Fair Work Act

In March, changes were made to the Fair Work Act 2009 (FW Act) relating to casual employment.

If you are a village that uses casual staff, for roles such as cleaners, personal carers, overnight services and others, then it’s important you familiarise yourself with the changes. 

For information on the changes, visit Changes to casual employment – industrial relations reforms.

Pathway from casual to Permanent 

In last week’s South Australian Professional Development workshop day Josh Abbott, a Partner with retirement village specialists O’Loughlin’s Lawyers, outlined the basics of the new requirements for causal employees.

https://www.oloughlins.com.au/

The new requirements are to create a pathway for casual employees to become full-time or part-time (permanent). They call this ‘casual conversation’.

Casual employees can become permanent by their employer offering casual conversion or by making a request to their employer for casual conversion.

However, small business employers (15 employees or less) don’t need to offer casual conversion to their casual employees. Other regulations may apply, which you should check on the FairWork website.

This process is relevant for any staff who have been employed for a period of at least 12 months (or 6 months in some awards), and during those 12 months have worked systematic hours without any significant changes. 

27 September

“Josh reiterated all casual contracts must be updated with the new casual definition and Non-Small Business Employers must determine which casuals they need to offer part-time or full-time employment to under the casual conversion process, as outlined above by 27 September 2021…”

Essentially, this means that if you have casual staff that are working similar shifts on a regularly rostered basis, you should be seeking legal advice. You will need to be compliant by 27 September and be aware of the implications for your organisation, under the new requirements of the Act. 

It could be that these employees must now be offered the opportunity to convert to part-time or full-time employment. 

Your legal advisor will also be able to advise you on the paperwork required.

The other major changes he outlined require:
 

  • Employers are now required to give each casual employee a copy of the Casual Employment Information Statement (CEIS) before, or as soon as practicable after, their employment commences;
     
  • Non- Small Business Employers (employers with more than 15 employees) are to give their existing employees a copy of the Casual Employment Information Statement as soon as possible after 27 September 2021; and
     
  • Non-Small Business Employers are to comply with the casual conversion process in the National Employment Standards in the Act by 27 September 2021. 
     
  • The Act essentially defines a casual employee as a person who has:
     
    • Been made an offer of employment by an employer on the basis that the employer makes no firm advance commitment to continuing and indefinite work, according to an agreed pattern of work;
       
    • Accepted the offer on that basis; and
       
    • Become an employee on the basis of that acceptance

Good luck!

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Facility Manager Jobs

Keeping good people and your workplace

In a time when the new talent pool is shallow, attracting great staff and retaining them is vital.

We recently reported in our SATURDAY digital magazine that there were over 170 Village Manager roles available on seek in the week prior. 

With approximately 1500 Village Managers in Australia, this is over 10% of all roles are currently vacant. In my experience this is around the highest number of vacancies I have seen in my career.   

As you would know, gone are the days of the ‘set and forget’ employee.  In a recent seek.com.au survey of over 4,800 potential candidates the results showed that employees are looking for:  

  • Engagement – employees want to be engaged in their work to thrive
     
  • Relationships – 1 in 2 felt collegiate peer relationships have become more important 
     
  • Meaning and purpose – Organisations should show how their work benefits society, or how the organisation supports causes in the wider community
     
  • Support with goals – Importance of understanding employees’ personal goals and ability to create a clear career direction, so new recruits can understand that they can have the opportunity of a career for life with your organisation
     
  • Sense of achievement - Employees want to know that what they’re doing is making an impact
     
  • True flexibility - Having choice over start and finish times is important to a lot of candidates  
     
  • Trust - Explain that you want to create a culture of trust and show how you’ve built that in the past
     
  • Mental health support - 2 in 5 candidates say they would have liked more mental health support during COVID-19 
     
  • Ongoing learning - Humans are hardwired to learn and grow and stretch ourselves 

Do these resonate with you?

Retaining key team members is fast becoming a key business pillar across Retirement Villages, Aged Care, Home Care, Health and Human Services here in Australia.  

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Jobs

Sales Coordinator (Full Time) Award winning Over 55’s Village in Cooranbong, Lake Macquarie region

Seeking an exceptional Village Sales Professional to carry the sales function of our award-winning retirement village forward.

You are a skilled sales professional with Retirement Living experience, an energetic can-do approach, caring attitude and have all the skills to convert a qualified lead into an extremely satisfied new resident in this exceptional and rapidly expanding retirement community.

Further details:

Tracey Palser
General Manager, Catalina Lake Macquarie
tracey@catalinavillage.com.au
0418 453 741