AZ ALFA Conference 2012-Presentation on Core Competency, specific ways to reduce expenses and improve service and revenue. Also a look at process improvement.

1. 1997-2012: 15 Years of Service Excellence
How to set your ALC apart,
reduce expenses and improve
revenue
By Amy Bair
Business Process Excellence, LLC
www.bpenow.com

2. 1997-2012: 15 Years of Service Excellence
Problematic Process Problem Solver
A little detail about the stranger in front of the room
Reduce Expenses ~ Improve Service

3. 1997-2012: 15 Years of Service Excellence
Outline
• Discuss the concept of Competitive Edge and
why it matters to you
• Specific ways to reduce expenses and increase
revenue at your ALC
• How to examine processes and discern
disconnects and bottlenecks and examine
potential solutions

4. 1997-2012: 15 Years of Service Excellence
Does your community still sport an
80’s (haircut) philosophy?
Do you have individuals in your ALC that struggle
with change?
How well do you accept the inevitable?
Death Taxes Change
• The government is forcing all of us to change.
• The economy is forcing all of us to change.
• The market…
• The Internet…

5. 1997-2012: 15 Years of Service Excellence
How to create your Competitive Edge
• Concept originated from C.K. Prahalad and his
HBR article titled “The Core Competence of
the Corporation”
• Two considerations when examining your
Competitive Edge
– Core Competency
– Competitive Advantage

6. 1997-2012: 15 Years of Service Excellence
• Core Competency - unique ability that a
company develops which cannot be easily
imitated.
– Core competencies give a company its competitive
advantage(s).
• Competitive Advantage is defined as the
strategic advantage one business entity has
over its rival entities within its industry.
– Achieving this strengthens and positions a
business better within their industry.

7. 1997-2012: 15 Years of Service Excellence
Additionally…
It is important to understand that your ALC’s
core competency is not the end service it
delivers but the unique way in which it is
delivered
– which, in theory, none of your competitor’s can
easily duplicate.

8. 1997-2012: 15 Years of Service Excellence
Successful example
Honda manufactures cars, lawn mowers and
generators.
because…
their Core Competency is engines and power-
trains
i.e. Honda has decided to set themselves apart
by making their engine the best, most reliable
one on the market

9. 1997-2012: 15 Years of Service Excellence
How to apply this to a
service-based business
Begin by compiling a list
of
all strengths and capabilities at your ALC

10. 1997-2012: 15 Years of Service Excellence
Consider the concept of SERVQUAL (Service Quality)
Five attributes of service quality which influence customer
satisfaction
– tangibles (appearance of facilities, equipment, personnel,
and materials)
– reliability (ability to perform the service dependably and
accurately)
– responsiveness (willingness to help customers and provide
prompt service)
– assurance (ability to convey knowledge, trust, and
confidence)
– empathy (caring, concern, and individualized attention)

11. 1997-2012: 15 Years of Service Excellence
How to apply this to a
service-based business
Additionally, the factors above should be integrated
with other strategies such as product differentiation,
price, distribution, and promotion.
Defining a combination of these attributes will help you
to determine your core competency

12. 1997-2012: 15 Years of Service Excellence
Last but not least
The goal is a complex harmonization of specific
processes or technologies that competitors
cannot easily duplicate.

13. 1997-2012: 15 Years of Service Excellence
Any Questions?

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Switching gears
6 specific ways to reduce expenses,
increase revenue
and
improve service at your ALC

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Engage your employees
People need to feel appreciated. Show your staff the
love and watch your turnover drop dramatically.
This will only work if the concept is embraced from
the Executive Director’s chair and on down though.
– Labor makes up 60% of your operating expenses
– Industry average to replace one CNA is $2500,
one nurse is $7000
– For an avg nursing home an increase in turnover
of just 10 percent results in $170,000—a 2.9
percent cost savings 1
1. http://www.ahrq.gov/research/mar10/0310RA18.htm

16. 1997-2012: 15 Years of Service Excellence
Engage your employees
A few ideas for showing staff you value them
– Hold employee appreciation events
– Be spontaneous with your praise and
acknowledgement. Show up with coffee and
bagels one morning and tell your staff they
deserve it.
– Remove the negativity. Staff assume mgmt
approves of brutish behavior if left
unchecked.

17. 1997-2012: 15 Years of Service Excellence
Engage your employees
More ideas
– Show you value every employee regardless of
their position
– Establish a mentoring system. Especially
important for new hires.
– Create a clear career path
– Use SendOut cards. Inexpensive way to show
your appreciation.
This is ALL about the bottom line! You will
experience a significant reduction in expenses by
increasing employee retention.

18. 1997-2012: 15 Years of Service Excellence
Recruit employees and existing residents
to be ambassadors for new residents
• Helps your new residents feel comfortable
right away.
• Your ambassador can introduce them to other
residents, show them where all the amenities
are and give them someone to sit with at
dinner.
This increases revenue as your residents will feel “at home” and
enjoy living there i.e. improved retention

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Encourage resident-led dinner parties
• This is where you can set yourself apart.
• Allow them to create their own menu, choose
a fun theme and decorate.
– Naturally, this can be done within reason. Set
budget and food type limits.
This also increases revenue as you are improving
engagement which enhances loyalty.

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Conduct regular resident surveys
• This is a good way to hold staff accountable.
• Residents will feel their opinion is valued
which in turn will increase retention.
– Do something with the feedback in a timely
manner.
– Communicate it to your personnel. Praise where
praise can be given and correct where correction
is needed.

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Confirm that department and employee goals
are in alignment with the center’s long term
objectives.
Ex. The goal of Accounting is to reduce expenses by 15%
this year. However, IT needs to update the infrastructure.
Conflict.
• Give everybody the same focus (i.e. increase occupancy
rate by 5% this year)
• Generates positive environment - departments can work
together crossing unit boundaries as a result of this
common vision.
• Tie bonuses and incentives to the achievement of goal

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Encourage innovation
• Make the environment safe for staff to test
their ideas and possibly fail. (Don’t forget that it took
Edison 3,000 attempts before he finally got the light bulb to work.)
• Since staff is closest to the resident, empower
and encourage them to conceive new ideas.

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Encourage innovation
• Create a structured but easy process for
submitting ideas.
• Put onus on innovator for how to test and
measure idea
• Measurement must be quantifiable

24. 1997-2012: 15 Years of Service Excellence
A few ideas to jog your inner creative
• Females make up 75% of the 1 mil residents in
ALC’s
From “Top 10 Trends in Senior Housing”
• The supply of ALZ/dementia care communities
is low while the demand is steady and
increasing, regardless of the funding issues.
What can you do with this information?

25. 1997-2012: 15 Years of Service Excellence
Any Questions?

26. 1997-2012: 15 Years of Service Excellence
Switching gears again-
Let’s talk Process Improvement

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Process Improvement
A business process is a sequence of activities
that result in a specific outcome to serve
a particular goal at an organization.
Well-designed and thought-out processes
increase efficiency, providing value to the
customer and enhancing the bottom line.

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Cutting my hair reduced expenses and saved time
~Morning Hair
Grooming
Process~

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Process improvement-Staff scheduling
Input for scheduling process:
•Staff availability
•Requests for time off
•New hires
•Census requirements
Bottleneck!

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Software-based staff scheduling

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Savings at Sandhill Cove
60 300
50 250
40 200 Before
Before
OnShift (min)
30 OnShift (hrs)
150
20 After OnShift
After OnShift 100
(min)
(hrs)
10 50
0 0
Schedule Creation Fill Open Shifts
Additional Benefits:
• Saved $70,800
• 75% less time devoted to scheduling

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33. 1997-2012: 15 Years of Service Excellence
Embrace new technology
Use mobile devices to monitor housekeeping
• Housekeeping PM Touch System ™ monitors
daily room inspections , deep cleans and
Preventative Maintenance tasks
• Affordable QA inspection tool
• No paperwork!
• Improves the quality of your service
http://issuu.com/mdpreferred/docs/advisorapril2012

34. 1997-2012: 15 Years of Service Excellence
Improved housekeeping and maintenance
• Saves time by tracking/managing daily and
deep-cleaning tasks and preventative
maintenance
• Automatic alerts set up to remind of due dates
• Real-time Dashboard for management tracking
• 100% property control -> resident rooms,
public spaces and grounds
• New bed bug inspection module

35. 1997-2012: 15 Years of Service Excellence
As simple as 1 2 3!
1. Pick your
inspection
2. Enter results
and comments
3. See what is
done and what
is due

36. 1997-2012: 15 Years of Service Excellence
Summary
• Breathe! We’re finished.
• We discussed the concepts of Core
Competency and Competitive Advantage and
why it matters to your ALC
• We talked about 6 specific ways to reduce
expenses, increase revenue and enhance the
harmony at your ALC
• We examined a few processes and discussed
disconnects, bottlenecks and solutions

37. 1997-2012: 15 Years of Service Excellence
Follow up
• Connect with me on my blog or
• LinkedIn
• Free Assessment at your community to
continue discussion from today

38. 1997-2012: 15 Years of Service Excellence
Thank you for spending
time with me!

39. 1997-2012: 15 Years of Service Excellence
What processes frustrate you?
• Communication between your ALC and other
healthcare entities?
• Employee retention?