Succession Planning for Mid-Level Managers

Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining our webinar, succession planning for mid level managers, presented by Brightly, a Siemens company. After the tremendous response to our presentation at a recent conference, we're excited to bring back this important topic. But before we get started, I'd like to share some housekeeping items. Please note that the phone lines will be muted during our session. And if you have any questions, feel free to submit them through the q and a feature at the bottom of your screen at any time during the webinar. We'll be happy to answer your questions at the end of the presentation. Please note this presentation is being recorded and will be available on demand after the webinar. We'll be sending an email with a link to the recording once it's available. I would now like to introduce our speakers for today. Taylor First is a senior solution health care consultant at Brightly Software working in the senior living industry for over seven years. Francis Glynn is director of environmental service, Londonderry Village with fifteen years of experience overseeing capital projects, maintenance, housekeeping, and security. With forty one years in the senior living industry and a background as a retired Air Force master sergeant, Francis brings a unique perspective on the importance of planning and preparation to ensure community success. I will now pass it over to our speakers to kick off the webinar. Thank you. Yeah. Thank thanks so much, Regina, and and thank you all for for taking the time with us today. I met Francis probably towards the the beginning of my time here around seven years ago. And, as I started working with Francis, we we started having a conversation, that was very interesting because Francis said that he was planning to retire. And he has kind of kept with that plan, and and wanted to help establish a plan for for his kind of succession. He wanted to have have a plan in place for his moving on, and he wanted to set up Londonderry, his community, in the best place they could possibly be, with his moving on. And and there are a lot of factors that go into that from from the people, and we're gonna talk about that from the people to the to the software, but to the community as a whole. He wanted to to do a lot for the community so that he doesn't leave an organization in the lurch with, you know, being that single point of failure for for knowledge gaps and and information. So that's what we're gonna be talking about today is is understanding kind of Francis's journey through putting a process together, how to how to think about having a a succession plan and, having information that that we can move forward with. Anything you wanna add, Francis? Darnell, thank you for having me this afternoon, and, I'm always happy to share experiences. I was fortunate in my career to have mentors that share those experiences with me, those successes with me, and has put me in a position to be here today to discuss some of the successes I've had, working with Brightlake, here at, London Area Village for the last fifteen, sixteen years. Thank you again. Perfect. Thanks, Francis. Mhmm. Or or maybe even change the conversation with your organization. There are tons of articles and guides and studies on planning for the departure of a of an ED or a CEO that could lead to financial ruin of a senior living community. But there are only a few are there there are very few articles about the loss of the housekeeping director who's been keeping residents happy for twenty years. And the impact of the residents is real and also the impact of the community. There's also the the the impact of the the distribution, the disruption of a well well oiled machine in some cases, that are your departments. Francis and I are gonna touch on some things to think about as well as some things that he's had to deal with firsthand. Though not a map to the solution, hopefully, this session can be a compass to help you point you in the right direction, to maintain your course as you navigate choppy waters that can be turnover. We're gonna approach this kind of through the lens of facilities and environmental services as as that's where Francis experiences, but the idea should be easily transferable to any department. Just to give a little background on the scope that that Francis has been dealing with it, you know, large and well established, senior living community in in Pennsylvania, and the the number of people in departments that that Francis oversees with, you know, almost seventy staff members overseeing five departments. So pretty pretty good, size organization that that Francis has has under him as the director of environmental services. We are a very active community. We have a lot of projects going on right now. Coming into, as you mentioned, my retirement here in the next five to six years. And knowing that these projects are gonna take me to the end of my career, with completion of those projects, I really felt that it was important to make sure that I was capturing all that most recent data and information that we have established over the last few years. And, also, I know when I came into the community, I was unfortunately, I didn't have that opportunity. I was basically just giving an open campus. I didn't have someone, behind me that, left me that information. So I really thought it was critical at this six year mark that I make sure that that next person, whether that's an internal person or an external person, isn't sitting in the same shoes that I sat in sixteen years ago here here at Lenderdere Village. Perfect. Yep. Thanks so much. And to to kind of illustrate the what it means to to lose someone, whether it's kind of a a planned departure, an unplanned departure in in an important role, whether that's a senior director or a a long standing supervisor. Couple couple images that I feel like kind of embody what that means, and that is Mike Tyson's everyone everyone's got a plan until they get punched in the mouth. And that's what it can feel like sometimes. And, Douglas general Douglas Eisenhower, no plan for survives first contact with the enemy. And the enemy obviously is change. And and sometimes that that can be pretty difficult to deal with. So as we get started, wanted to just kinda take a quick poll of the room. Who are we talking to today? So I'll give you all a couple steps, seconds to answer, but who who hears in senior leadership versus more of a a middle level meter leadership role? I'll give you all a few seconds to answer that. Should be a poll popping up on your screen. Taylor, having the opportunity to to talk to both of these groups, one at Brightly and the other one at the previous, conference we were at. You know, it's a different approach. You know, I took approach, to the mid level leadership on my level to really talk in the weeds with them and senior leadership to encourage them to look at their mid level leadership and encourage those individuals to start that succession planning for those their career or their end of their careers because this industry is getting older. I look at my counterparts throughout the different regions, conferences I go to and a a lot of more my age. We're not seeing a lot of the younger groups. And we need to start encouraging this by succession planning and and doing that. We we do encourage it, indirectly and directly. Absolutely. And and to that end, it looks like we're we're about fifty fifty on the responses. So we've got a a well rounded group. So kind of at a at a high level, what we what we want y'all to be able to take away today, from this session, some some key takeaways. So make sure you're planning for the planned and unplanned. You know, obviously, you want to have a plan. You you wanna have someone like Francis say, I'm planning to leave, and here's here's the plan for for me leaving. But also the the, you know, the unplanned departure, whether that's a, you know, resignation or or a someone moving on or a termination, you know, of for for some reason. Planned and unplanned is is important to have a plan in place for that. Having an in in-depth succession plan, and we'll we'll talk about that, and and how to kind of think about that as a as a whole and how that impacts the community. Having a a plan creates internal and external confidence. You know? That that comes back to to marketing. That comes back to to word-of-mouth. If if an organization is is steady and and in in kinda forward thinking, that that reflects well on the on the community as a whole. Department of that organizational charts. You know, make sure that they they look like they're, something that people can grow into rather than just a a flat line where someone's just a a name on a line. We're gonna talk a lot about knowledge retention, because as as Francis said, when you come in with with no, you know, history to to fall back on, when you're starting at square one with a you know, you don't know how old the equipment is that we're talking to or where the equipment is in in a lot of cases. So having a a method for for knowledge retention, you know, you've got, you know, sort of you've got tenured employees on your staff, making sure that you have a way to hold on to that knowledge that they've built over, you know, years and decades of service. You know, I talked to someone recently that said that they said in the next five years, sixty percent of their technician staff is gonna be retiring. That's a scary number because that's a a lot of of history and institutional knowledge that's gonna walk out the door. And empowering your staff, you know, making sure that they feel like they're part of the process. You know, making it a a career, not just a job. So having those those growth opportunities within the the organization. Alright. And and to that end, again, and this is the last poll that we're gonna take. Please put questions in the q and a as we go through if you have anything that you'd like to talk specifically about. But how do you feel about your succession plan? You know, do you is it just, hey, we don't really have a plan. We replace people as as it comes. There's a plan in theory, but we don't really you know, when when someone leaves, we're we're still scrambling. And then, you know, do you have a solid plan in place for turnover? And I'll give you all a few seconds to answer. Alright. Our corporate industry at, Taylor, it really focused with succession planning, at the senior leadership level, your CEOs, your CEOs, and making sure your presidents are able to be replaced and keep that as smooth as possible. I think we have a tendency to neglect at the mid level leadership and down, to prepare them for that, for their departures or for that unplanned or planned departure from the community. And you also give opportunities to other people as we'll discuss further along here. Absolutely. Yeah. And and there's a plan in theory. I feel like that's the way a lot of people operate. Sure. There's a plan in a desk. HR's got some some plans, but that's that's pretty pretty standard. But but having an established plan can can help, soften the blow when you have those those departures. And I agree with Paul a hundred percent in theory. You know, I'm I'm a follower of that too. Coming up to a year and a half ago, it was in theory. Oh, this person, that person will take care of this, and we'll take care of that. And, we'll be able to move this out smoothly. But after I started to really get down into the weeds, it started to present itself a totally different picture to me. A hundred percent. Absolutely. Before we talk about changes in in staffing, because that's going to impact, what we're gonna talk about next is is some changes we've seen in the industry, changes we've seen in the people that we work with, kind of independent of of, your your inside teams. And that's changes in the industry, and the people who work in the industry. So dealing with changes to the the people we work with and and dealing with residents. You know, you've got younger folks coming on with tattoos and different hair and piercings and informality when when talking to people and dealing with you that are all all kind of derived from generational changes. But, Francis, I know you had kinda firsthand you you've you've had a a tech come in who's who's really dealt with that firsthand. Yeah. This was this was this was why we're highlighting it. My most recent experience is I had a wonderful tech, who had visible opportunities throughout, our organization here. And, you know, the the hurdle was the tattoos and the piercings and the different color hair. But the day to day working with that individual, I really shined a light on it, the leadership role that I saw in this person. And, you know, that was a challenge. It was it was a challenge for us to get the residents to be confident in that person, get the other staff to be confident, confident in or confident in that person. And it was easily done because once I was able to get that person in front of, and this is how I married them to our community, once I was able to get that person in front of the residents, had an opportunity every month. I do a chat with all of our residents here on campus. We stream it and also do it live. And I I set up a q and a per session with them, not from myself, but with that individual. And once they saw the inside of the knowledge that that person brought to the campus and to our department, it was easy. It was a very easy, transition, and the perception was just taken away once they knew that this person knew what they were talking about. And their experiences were right in line, and they knew that they could take care of them and our community. And and I feel like that that's gonna be something that we can talk about on on every slide and every step of this because senior living at the end of the day is is always a resident first operation. We want inspection. The residents feel comfortable and and happy with with dealing with the people that they have to deal with. So as a staff, I think, Francis, the the transparency that you showed is is fantastic. That's that's a great way of of allowing someone to be presented to the organization, and and kind of let them get comfortable. You know, it's like warming up the water a little bit. And by doing that internally, and it wasn't internal, they were a maintenance tech in the beginning. So the residents had the skills experience with them. So they knew they had the ability and so did other staff to do that job. But we also saw in them this person that they had the opportunity to be in a team lead or a supervisor role, and that's where it was hard to get it. That was the challenge. And, like I said, once we got them in front of the residents, they were able to answer questions and do things and really speak in a leadership, role. They, we have no issues right now, and I think, it's a great opportunity for them. That's that's fantastic. Alright. So as as we get into actually thinking about the succession plan, and this is a this is a slide I found found online, and I felt like it it really outlined and and focused on on a great approach to how to think about having that plan in place. And that's gonna be looking at at four major areas. How to assess the positions that that we're talk position or positions that we're talking about, how to assess the people involved in that in that position move. What kind of development processes do you have in place? And then what sort of technology or support are you gonna be bringing, to the process, as a as a part? You know, it it's gotta be part of that process. As as we move forward here in in, twenty twenty four, moving into twenty twenty five, you know, software solutions are are very much at the core of making sure you're able to, deliver a a really good experience. So we're gonna start with the people or sorry, with the positions and and kind of how to how to think about that, how to assess the the position that we are, hiring for or focusing on for, replacement? And that is look at what has to be done, not who's doing the job now. That is that's critical in in thinking about it because not you you're it's gonna be tough to replace a a Francis Glenn because he's got the, you know, forty one years of experience in the this industry. He oversees six teams. Are you really gonna be have have someone who can step into that role and take over everything that Francis does the way he does it now. Not just his his actual job, but his other responsibilities that, you know, involve those those resident chats and additional things that he does. So look at the job that needs to be done, not just who who's doing the job now and replacing that individual. Now is this gonna be a one to one replacement? Are you gonna be able to slot one person into that job? Will that internal job hire if if you're moving someone over, is that gonna create a trickle down effect of moving someone from another department? So if you're moving a, you know, a housekeeping supervisor up or a maintenance supervisor up, you're gonna have to backfill that role. So don't just think about that job, but think about the the the trickle down effect internally that could take place. So take the the big picture view, not just the the narrow view. And what impact will that have to the residents? You know, we've you've got relationships with people. People know what that person is is doing and responsible for and and a lot of cases have a lot of trust with that person. So making sure that you're bringing someone in who's gonna be able to to fill that role in those shoes. And in this process, Taylor, once you started and you look at your org chart and you really got that org chart that's starting to blossom and really fill itself in, this is something that you, I can almost guarantee you, you're going to find right under your noses. It's gonna be that person within your department or your departments that can jump into these. That's how easy this piece of of succession planning is. Assessing is just going to jump right out to you. It's important to make sure that we're blossoming out those org charts, and you'll be able to drop those people in and hopefully give them some opportunities. Absolutely. So so as as we we move from the positions, let's let's talk a little about the the people who are gonna gonna do those jobs. So how how do we look at the people? Do do you have the right staff now? You You know? Do you say, yo, I've got the right person in line. We've been grooming them. They're ready to step into that into that role. So so look at the staff you have today. Do you have the right people to to fill a role? Do you have the ability to to have a mentorship program? Do you do you have a bench of qualified people? You know, I I know internally, we we always try to create, you know, okay. We know who the next person we're gonna bring into a role is. So kind of looking to to make sure that your your staff is continually up up upgrading themselves, and and kind of increased responsibilities to have that ability to take the next step. You know, how do you bring people along? If if you see someone who who you say, okay. That person's ready for more, but maybe they don't see it. Maybe they're not currently motivated. They're just doing the job and going home. You say that person's smart. That person's talented. They've got more to to bring to the table than than what they even they think they do. And then finally, if you don't have that person, how do you recruit? Is it just looking at, you know, the the client base? Are you looking inbound things? Are you are you have a even have a referral process? Or, how are you bringing people in externally? Do you do you have a pipeline for that? Are you holding on to resumes from people who applied previously or looking at people who maybe have have left? But kind of if you don't have the right people, have a plan for for bringing people in. Tara, at this point, when when five years ago when we were the I wanna call it the probably the typical organizational chart, departmentally where you you have the team lead the leader or the department head, then you usually have a supervisor one or two below them, and then it really just fizzles out from there. At that point, we were looking at our campus and realized that we needed to put those other levels in, those supervisor levels, those team lead levels. So once I started doing that, this is where the people started coming out of the out of the woodwork. The all these the the staff I already had on on board, most of the changes we made, all but one, and we made, I wanna add up, about eight changes. All of them were internal. They were team lead roles. They were supervisor roles. They were departmental promotions as far as, taking a supervisor to a director position. So it was all internal. We only had to go outsourced, for one. And a lot of times, you could put those individuals into roles where they're dual purpose. They're a team lead, but they're also a working team lead. So you don't have to have that initial impact of having to backfill them in. When we went through this process, and we talk about internal and external, when we had to go external, obviously, we had to bring in our HR department and and really get them involved and start talking. But we didn't do that until myself and the president and, some of the other supervisors that were under me got together and formed our department and formed what it was going to look at. And then we approached HR, and they were right on board with helping us. I think that's important to be able to present your ideas rather than going to a department or another department like an HR department to try to get the feedback. You guys we know what we need in our department. And if we can get the support of our senior leadership and then present that to the HR components, you used to get buy in right away, and you can you can work through those challenges that you need to work to. And, Francis, I'm gonna tee you up with one. Mhmm. Did did you did you recently have a change where you brought in a director from another department that you didn't expect, that that wouldn't typically step into a certain role? Yeah. We we we actually my housekeeping supervisor was, was the, worked in marketing. He, did have no expectation. I figured he was just a marketing person. He applied for the position, brought him in, and him coming into the into the office and just open it up, his experiences, which I just covered over, because I just thought he worked in marketing all the time. Him coming in the office, giving us his giving me his previous experiences, and he really, really shine. I was able to bring that individual in. He was my supervisor. He since then has left and not here, not the campus, but it gave him an opportunity to move on. Now he is our marketing director. So it really created a path for him where he was just a, you know, line worker in the marketing area, came in as a supervisor, got his experience here on under the supervisory level, and now he is the director of the marketing marketing department. So, that's I call those success stories. You know, I I'm sure everyone likes to help, those people below them, improve themselves and get better, and and that was an opportunity that I'm very, very proud of. Well, it's awesome that you have another I I was actually thinking about your new IT director. Oh, okay. That that's that one. Yes. Because you know, much, you know, I do follow a lot of people, and we did have that. We have a we had an IT person in the ground. We had a grounds, supervisor who was, he he he ran our grounds. He had four or five guys underneath of him and girls, and we hope we position Open Up in IT and for director supervisor style position, and, he applied. And here it turns out he worked for Geek Squad. These things you don't find out until people really open up to you. You work for Geek Scott. He worked for a couple couple other IT companies, and he's also currently going to college for IT security. So, you know, we didn't see it, but it opened it up. And I can assure you that a lot of these campuses or your communities have the same type of people within them. Yeah. And I think that's that's such a a great example of not pigeonholing people into to what what they do now. You know, allowing them to to say, okay. You're you're on our on our team. Let's give you a chance, and and you bring them in for an interview, and they they can knock your socks off. So, allowing people to, you know, surprise you, I think, is a is a a a great kind of, way to think about it. And you do that by, you know, creating that that board chart that blossoms out to create those different levels from from your line staff on up. It gives them opportunities also as people move on or take on other careers. And you only open those up by creating that type of environment or that correct structuring yourselves that way. Yeah. And and it speaks highly of of the culture of inclusiveness that people feel comfortable in saying, you know what? I I have some capability in this area. Let me, you know, take a swing at it. So that's that's fantastic. So beyond assessing the individuals, and and sometimes that's opening the scope up to assess more individuals, you know, on your campus than than you thought. Let's talk about some of the, you know, the learning and and development processes to to kind of think about on campus. So mentorship is is always big. You know? Do you have people who other people can look up to? You know? Do you have the ability to, you know, put put in a, you know, a a young general tech with an electrician and say, hey. Go start learning a trade so they can specialize and and move up and become become that, work into that. Do you have a established advancement program? Do do people know what the next step in their in their career, with the organization is? Do they know how to get there? I know a lot of a lot of places struggle with that. What's what's the ability to move forward and and start to build a career rather than because that's when it becomes a career and not just, you know, we're doing the job. And then I know Francis has has kind of alluded to this a couple times, and I'll let him talk extensively about this because he feels very passionately about it. But your org charts, you know, these shouldn't just be things sitting in in a drawer on a shelf get gathering dust. Your org charts are are essential to understanding where people fit in the organization. And the the big takeaways for for my perspective, and I'll let Francis go into more detail on this, is don't keep it a secret. That those should be people should know where they stand currently, and other people in the organization should know where where people fit. You know, make changes regularly as you have changes, as experience changes, as the the people who are doing the jobs change. You know, make adjustments to those those real org charts and and make sure that they, you know, reflect what the current state of the organization is. And, friends, I'll let you talk about your, the difference between a, you know, a dead tree and a blossoming tree from from an organizational, chart standpoint. Yeah. And I and I referenced, you know, five years ago, we, you know, we were that dead tree. That tree that was just straight up, had a couple broken branches there that stemmed out. Very strong individuals in those positions, but beyond that, there was nothing. Now you look at our org chart, we now blossom. We have the different levels. We have several branches. We have several opportunities for individuals here on campus to have those opportunities that I talked about, to progress and move up. And, also, I, you know, my military career has always taught me as a first sergeant in the airport, taught me to make sure that we're taking care of the people below you and making sure that they have opportunities, whether those opportunities are with you or someone else. So having someone on board that can go somewhere else and have an opportunity because it's not here also opens up another, position for that person below and allows them to blossom up. And that's helped us with retention. If you think about that, giving those opportunities, that vision to that person that they have an opportunity to move up, it's gonna help them stay or make that decision to stay longer with you. If they see that they know what's going on down there, they could see if someone else is looking to depart or go do another career or do something else because of what they learned under you. That's always a positive thing. So it helps you with that retention piece of it. And we noticed a big difference in retention once we started to create those levels and tiers. And like I said, you know, it was only three, five years ago. And I can tell you from team lead up, there's there's almost ten people now in our department, and we did it like a reference earlier. We did it with all internally with only one person, with only one outside person coming on board. Yeah. And and I think that, again, that speaks so highly of of creating the a culture for, you know, people feeling like they're really part of something. You know? And and and a lot of cases, you know, from a dealing on with with people standpoint, you know, it's sometimes as as easy as giving people the why. Why are we doing this? Why are you taking on more responsibility? Why are we giving you more responsibility? Just just having the why to things, I feel like, allows people to feel like they're more a part of something than than just, kind of taking orders. So there there's a lot to be said for for creating that culture of inclusiveness and advancement, that that France is kind of laying out. Development. When you when you talk about development, Taylor, and and that's that's that's down at the bottom. That's tasking up. When you're tasking out and you wanna develop somebody, give that individual a smaller task. Let them be accountable for a task, and you're just gonna build that. And you're gonna see and that's that's the experience that I talked about the person with tattoos and and hair. That's how that all started. It started out at that bottom level, giving task, accountability, giving them required task to do, and they just grew from it. They another one, and it just grew, and they blossomed up. And that person is now into an assistant supervisor role here within the department, and that was from the bottom up because they showed themselves and what I talked about getting them in front of the resident. You know, I knew what they had in them, and once we showed it to residents and staff, they knew. So that's the opportunity you have by broadening out your organizational charts at our level. Where does it help you senior leaders, your CEOs and your presidents? You know, if you think about it, when you depart, you're usually taking care of your you usually have some structure below you with VPs coming up and and other organizations could bringing presidents in from other organizations. Here internally, we have to do it internally, and I encourage all of them to take this opportunity to encourage your your your lower leadership to to start thinking about organizational and how they look structurally below them because it's only gonna benefit you and also the organization. Mentorship program, whether that's a a formal mentorship program. But yours have you said yours happened organically. It it truly does. It does. It does. It it's not putting you you're putting structure in, team lead roles, and then a supervisor, an assistant supervisor. You put those roles in, it happens naturally. So the next person, once someone is accountable to someone else or has someone else accountable to them, they automatically start to mentor them. So that knowledge that is in that top person's head, that, director or that supervisor, that's gonna be passed on. It's gonna be passed down to the next person. So you're indirectly capturing that knowledge that this twenty or thirty year person community. Yeah. That that that's fantastic. And that just speaks to the, you know, having a well rounded group and, you know, having a plan, and and not just, playing it by the seat of your pants on a on a daily basis. And I think accountability is is such a, I feel like that word over time has has gotten a a bad rep, because accountability is a good thing. You know? Because there's accountability up and accountability down. Truly is. Up and down. It is not a negative. It can be in. You can make it a negative when you when you're when you're taking that path, but that's not the right path to take. Accountability is just everyday life being accountable for your actions and what you do and what you deliver and you make that positive, it's only gonna make those individuals shine below you. Yes. I I couldn't agree more. So last thing we wanna jump into as as part of that that pie process is the what kind of tools do you bring to bear? And I I truly think the the org chart is a tool, but we kind of, cut covered down the last slide. But we're gonna talk a little bit about software and tools and and, how that comes into play. First one is, does your CMMS, your your, operations management system, your cloud based maintenance management system, is that part of your process? Do you have a is that part of the plan, or is it just tracking individual work orders? Because there there's a lot to that that CMMS that that can be part of this kind of succession protection process. And and with that is the what knowledge is there that exists within the organization that no one else has? Do you have a fifteen or twenty year tech who's been the only person to work on a particular piece of equipment for the last ten or fifteen years? You know, what is that institutional knowledge that that resides with that person in understanding that so that that can be put into a system, put into other people so that that information, stays with the organization. So you don't walk into that forest fire of lack of knowledge. You know, that that wasteland of of, you know, I don't know what happened over the last fifteen years. So now we're starting fresh. And and talking about knowledge retention tools, you know, not allowing that that institutional knowledge to to leave and make sure that even the departmental baseline information, you know, goes beyond just, you know, the the medical and and financial information. That's work done in a resident's unit, work done on a on a piece of equipment. What's the the lifespan of that equipment, and how is that impacted over time? For me, Taylor, you know, this is we just talked thirty five minutes about the human element, the the staffing, and and how we're structuring them, that area of our departments. But we talk when we go to software, software obviously is a tool. But that other element to a successful for me success for me and my succession plan was the data. You know, how do I capture the data that is out there in these communities, that data coming from your vendors, that data coming from your long term staff, your new staff, all your projects, how do we capture that? And that's where a succession plan for me is a loss. If I don't make sure that I am capturing all the data that is coming into this campus in the database that can take this campus to another level, number one, and take it into the future. And when I started looking at this, this is where, you know, I really started to grow with brightly and the components that it has and you have at brightly. When I started to gather that data, collect it, and really the realization is that data is captured. You know, if you're using it and you're operating off of it, with it, you're it's just it's everyday data that you're capturing. But at the end of the day, when you start to compile it and bring it all together, it becomes that resource for the future. And it's it's critical. It's critical to succession planning under in my mind that the only the only place the only reason or only way that this campus could be successful is for me to make sure that I am capturing all the data that is coming on to this community. Yeah. And and in terms of of collecting that data, the the works of, I know, has as we've been partnering with Francis for a long time, has has been a part of his story. And I'll let him talk about some of the the different modules that he uses. But the worksub, you know, was was created around maintenance management. You know, work orders, preventative maintenance, assets, getting all that information in. But over time, our clients asked us to help them manage other other departments. They said, hey. You you're helping us manage our maintenance. Can you help us with our housekeeping? So we built a housekeeping module, you know, to to help manage those those daily schedules and those cleaning routines. You know, also helping to retain some of that day to day resident information that impacts resident satisfaction, like, you know, don't touch the trophies over the sofa or only use the natural cleaning supplies under the sink. You know, tracking things like IT work from even from residents, not just from the staff, but from residents. So you know how many times are you going back? Do you have are you able to deliver the amount of service? How many times have you gone to that resident unit? You know, transportation for for individual trips and room bookings for on on campus events and guest suites and tying the work back to those things. How often are you doing that? So we can bring multiple departments together. You know, the security of your organization. Are you, you know, those rounds and incidents that that you're you're managing? You know, in a in a lot of cases with with, you know, spiral notebook and a couple radios. So having that accountability back to, are your officers actually hitting those those those locations? And I know and and, Francis, your in your plan, you've brought, several of these modules on board. Yeah. Exactly. You know, if I look at my my few my past and look at my relationship with the WorksHub, for the last sixteen years, you know, we started off very small. We started off with the maintenance and housekeeping modules of of the works hub, that has since grown. You know, I go to a lot of these community, conferences, whether it's brightly or some of the others, and people have the CMMSs and they only they have the whole package. They buy everything and get everything, but they're only using one or two pieces. We didn't take that approach. We brought it on as the need presented itself. And over the sixteen years, the need has presented itself enough that I have every module that we're seeing on the screen right now in operation. So that gave me the the opportunity to bring them on slowly and make sure that everything was being implemented. Two of the most recent ones and successes, was is the space management. We recently brought on space management, identified the need, to assist our staff with identifying locations of all the assets on campus. It also gives me a snapshot of how when I wanna see what we're capturing, whether it's roofs on our campuses or our equipment throughout the build all the buildings we have, I can go in and get a real quick snapshot of how many assets we have in those areas. I can also depend on my staff, my maintenance staff, and also my director to, to look at those and also I'm saying we're missing something. Something's not there because it gives me the visual to gives them the visual to assess it immediately and say, hey. There's nine pieces there, not eight. And that that's a that's a quick reaction, and we can recover from that. And this is what you're showing on. This is the asset map. This is actually our organization. We also use this for the work order system. You can also layer this with the work order so we can assign work accordingly also, which we do. So when we bring up that and we see how many work orders are inside of this building, we can send one maintenance guy rather than five maintenance guys. And that gives you a real quick snapshot with, with the space management. The other the other one, and it's not you're not gonna get a screenshot of it, is the security. We have the security module, brought that on about four years ago, five years ago when we started to implement the security department. That has been so successful with them, and I'm not here to and this is an honest story. When we came in, nurse managers were responding to calls. Outside, the EMS was responding to calls. We started to bring on security on staff, and we needed a tool to help us with that, and we brought the security module on. Today, we actively have about a hundred and forty five incidents on campus a month that is documented and recorded. Each one of those incidents is distributed to key personnel on campus. For instance, our president. I don't need to go to our president and say, hey. This happened today. This happened today. That's an automatic notification to him, VP of nursing, CFO, everyone that needs to know about incidents that happened here on campus. Now we've taken a process that used to take twenty, thirty minutes of making sure that we're emailing or updating personnel or updating those individuals on campus when a when a security incident happens. And I can assure you if, you you have or other campuses that are our size probably can say they're having a hundred and forty incidents a month also. We just don't record them or they just don't record them and document it. I was really surprised how many we had. So those are two, live stories that we've had, that I can tell you about that, you know, over the last, couple months that we are really pleased about. Yeah. That's that's fantastic. And thank you thank you for sharing that. The, yeah, I feel like security is, in senior living is is often overlooked just with a few officers walking around. So that's that's awesome. Other aspect in in senior living that that's been overlooked for a long time is is the asset management piece, is actually tracking the work and history and then capital planning back for your assets and allowing the operations team to really take ownership of that. So make sure that you have the assets in, know where your equipment is, have a plan for replacing those assets. And we've got a we've got a couple of different tools, but that's the capital planning tool within the worksub or our our large origin platform that starts to take the actual work history that that is impacting those assets, your break fix history, your PM history, it impacts your assets moving forward and changes its its estimated replacement time frame based on what's actually happening to that equipment. So it kind of takes that FCA, the facilities condition assessment that assessment that some organizations do. It impacts that asset, based on what's actually happening to it in the field. So The initial market asset management, though, when you when you when you start really getting into your asset, it's very, very intimidating. Obviously, we have hundreds and hundreds of pieces of equipment on our campuses, and it is intimidating. But if you incrementally bring it on through the work order system, have those assets being captured as those work requests coming in. You know, we started this ten years ago, and our asset portfolio is huge because we just took the slow approach. And and now today, as I look at my future and my retirement, I'm confident that a lot of our asset assets are on campus. New projects, we automatically capture those immediately. That's done at the vendor level. My subcontractors have access to our asset management and our work order system. I give them the rights to that. So I don't even need to do the work. They're building that. So don't be intimidated by your assets if you're sitting out there wondering, hey. When do I start that? Start it. Start it at a no lower level. And I I can assure you before you know it, you're gonna have them all captured, and it's gonna be you're gonna see what, the screen is what you see on the screen right now. You're gonna see your assets looking like that also. Perfect. Absolutely. So kinda taking a step back to the the plan, you know, things to think about that all of these things impact, whether that's the the people, the the the campus, the assets, all these things impact, you know, internally. You know, what's internal confidence look like? You're creating additional staff. You're creating that that culture. You're creating retention, of your good staff, because you're giving them, more opportunity. You know, externally. You know, organizations with less turnover creates happier residents because you're keeping the people there who they know, and and they're gonna have a, a better feedback. And they're your your best sounding board for bringing new people in. You know, referrals are are worth, you know, ten marketing campaigns because they're gonna bring people in. So having that external confidence is is so important and stability leads to that. Financially, you know, hiring someone and training someone up is exponentially more expensive than than bringing someone along internally because they're already part of the process. So these things, all of what we're talking about well. And then operationally, keeping that information in house, making but making sure you have a plan if you need to bring someone in from outside. Because someone else is gonna be able to pick up that CMMS data and be able to hit the ground running if you do have to bring someone in from the outside because that information isn't leaving the community every time you you have turnover. You're you're keeping as much of that information in house as you can. And any any additional thoughts to that, Francis? No. That that that slide nails everything right there, Cam. Awesome. Perfect. So as as we've gone through all this, I just wanna kinda circle back to to what we we laid out as our takeaways, and that's to, you know, plan for the plan and unplanned. We know that that no no plan survives first contact with the enemy, but having a plan is gonna set you up for for more success than not. Departmental stability is is is crucial, and and having that that good culture can can help lead to that. The internal and external confidence, as we said, can impact the organization from a reputation and a financial stand point, making sure that that your, your org charts are are up to date and and looking like a a blossoming tree so that you have, you know, those advancement opportunities and not just a a flat line of of people, in in a row. That knowledge retention is is crucial, making sure that someone doesn't walk into the unknown and then are, in a spot trying to figure everything else out. And and absolutely empowering your staff, in those lower level leadership roles to make sure that they have a place to go, that they are ready to step up to the next opportunity that that comes along. Yeah. And a a note to UC COOs and CEOs, you know, encourage your your mid level leadership, to to look at all of these look at these areas. Encourage them. Sit down with them. Talk to them about what their organization or what their department looks like. Start to have that com that conversation. And for your department level individuals, your supervisors, and your, department heads, please go to your CEOs, go to your COOs, and show them what you what your vision is and let them know. We all we all work day to day. We all accomplish the tasks that need to be done to care for these residents on our campuses. But we also need to care for us, and we need to care for the staff. And by creating a nice organizational chart, allowing some movement within your departments or organization at the mid level and down, you're really opening up a great future for those individuals. It's gonna help you with retention. It's also gonna give them opportunities. It's also gonna be benefit you, and the campus and those residents that we support every day. So go up and talk to your COOs. Go up and talk to your CEOs or your VPs and and let them know what what you're thinking because they they you need to encourage them. I feel like we could have just had one slide that said talk to each other. That's it. It really is. We we we go in Taylor, we go in, you know, we have these great tools that that allow us run run these great these communities and these campuses at all different levels. But, you know, when we talk about what is my future look like or, you know, what is the future of the community looks like? You know, those conversations do happen at the senior leadership level, but they also need to happen at that mid level and that those supervisors and those team lead roles because I'll tell you, they will be, they will, they will be the success of a campus and community for sure. Yeah. Well, thank you so much, Francis, that for for all your insight. And we'll open it up to questions. And I I I feel like so much of this stuff, you know, sounds like just common sense. But even as as common sense that it is, I I feel like a lot of lot of folks aren't doing it. So kind of sometimes having the someone else say it or or or having some takeaways to reflect on whether you're actually doing these things with your with your within your organization is is crucial. You know, that that comment is is dead on. For many, many years myself, I it was common sense, you know, through experience through my military career and also in the civilian world of forty years in long term care. You know, it was common sense. I knew what needed to happen. And until that light bulb went off and that retirement date came into fruition, is when I realized that it was important. So so you don't need to be close to retiring to do it. You just need to be in a position to make it happen. And if you are in those positions to make it happen, definitely talk and open up and let them know what the importance is to create that succession plan. Alright. Perfect. Thank you so much, Taylor and Francis. We do have a few questions with a little bit of time left here if I can, send one off to you guys. The first one is, what is the best way to incorporate software in succession planning? Yeah. I I think I I mean, bringing the right software on the fit fits your fits your community's needs. And, you know, the the worksub, obviously, is is something that that we work with all the time because I think it, it satisfies multi multi departmental needs and ties your departments together and allows for that that kind of top down oversight as well. But also getting back into the the the out the, allocation of resources within our organization. Because we want to not just look at the work, but we wanna look at the people and the people doing the work and where are they doing the work and how is that impacting the resident. So making sure that that you have something that's going to do that, and that's that's what we think the the work sub does, and that's what Francis has been using for for a long time. Perfect. We got time for one more. It's uncomfortable knowing long term asset information lives in our team's heads or in our technicians heads. What would be the first step to start transferring this knowledge? Getting it into your that is your first Implementation. Implementation is your first step. Every time a work order is created, you were you were capturing that data. Every time an asset is being maintained, you are capturing that data. Implementation is important. I you know, in in the previous conferences of Brightly and and some others, you know, you talk to people and they're still using paperwork orders. They haven't switched over to the to the to the CMMS system that they have, Brightly or WorksHub. And it's it's implementation. And sometimes you gotta get a heavy arm on that or heavy hammer with that to make it happen, but that's how it's successful. And I can assure you because I went through this many years ago that I felt that, hey. This just isn't going to work. It isn't gonna we're not going anywhere with this. It's not gonna help us, but I can tell you sixteen years later, it has. It is a capturing the assets, capturing the information, capturing the data, yes, with everyday operational procedures is is is the way to go. Perfect. Well, thank you so much to both of you for answering our questions and for this great presentation. Recording. Thank you very much, everyone, and have yourself a great day.