IGNITE Leadership Academy Action Learning Project 2016-17 | Page 12

Cheryl Farr
Administrator
Heritage Green Rehab & Skilled Nursing
On-Boarding — The New Hire Experience
1
How would you describe your Action Learning Project and the difference you hope it will make to
advance your organization’s mission (or the field) and benefit the individuals you serve?
As a former director of human resources, I have witnessed the vast amount of employee turnover in my facility and healthcare in general. The
focus of my Action Learning Project is to gauge the employee new-hire on-boarding experience and further invest in employee training and
growth potential. The Action Learning Project will focus on the on-boarding experience from the application process, the applicant interview,
the new employee orientation, the training period, and finally, growth potential and promotion.
I believe that the on-boarding of new hires to any organization is the most critical step in retention. I would like to create and establish a fresh
new approach to facility on-boarding and the new hire experience by attracting new hires and helping them adapt to the facility culture. We
only have one chance to make a first impression and my goal is to engage our employees from the very start on our culture. Investing in their
future training and growth potential will provide them with a sense of purpose, job satisfaction, and buy-in to the facility’s mission and core
values. With the baby boomer population making its way out of the workforce, now is the time to mold the new generation of workers to
care for our elders. This is especially crucial within the first 90-days of employment.
2
How have the relationships you’ve develope d as part of your project (with mentors, partners,
stakeholders, etc.) influenced this direction and you as a leader?
Working in this industry for so long, I have had the opportunity of working with many people and sharing our ideas and best practices. As we
reviewed the unfavorable retention statistics of my organization, we knew that we had to do something to turn it around. Within the past
6 months, retention has been added to our organization’s strategic plan and I have been part of our Corporate Retention Committee which
includes peers from other facilities within my organization at every level. I feel strongly about committing to the employee and in turn, they
will commit to quality care to our residents. As a leader, I recognize that employee retention is not a job just for an Administrator or Human
Resource Director. It is a job for everyone and it takes everyone to make a difference.
Being part of the Ignite Leadership Academy has opened my window of opportunity to network with people in my industry that are going
through the same challenges as I am. I have been able to collaborate with the fellows and share ideas and practices that have worked for them
and will start incorporating some of these ideas into my own facility.
3
What have been important turning points for you, in your own learning, as you’ve engaged with the
action learning process (you might consider a surprise, insight, setback, or challenge)?
What I have found (working for an organization that employees over 800 people) is that not everyone thinks like I do. There are a
lot of strong personalities and the naysayers that say, “we’ve already tried that and it didn’t work”, or “it’s about the residents and not
the employees.” So, the challenge is working with the different personalities and coming to some form of acceptance and agreement
to the practices that we want to incorporate. My thought is that we should at least try it and if it doesn’t work for us then we try
something different.
Over the past 3 months, I have had the opportunity of viewing our new hire orientation at all three of our nursing home sites. The difference
in facility culture and facility presenters and how they engage the new hires was astounding to me. It was also interesting to me to see the
challenges that they all face every week to pull off a new employee orientation. Challenges such as new hires not showing up for orientation,
presenters not being available, technology not working, presenters not prepared, and construction that interfered with where the orientation
was held. All of these factors, to me, are an important part of the new hire experience.
(Continued on page 13)
LeadingAge New York
12