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Looking For Job Security? Think Senior Living

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Whether you’re looking for a new job or focused on your current one, as we head into 2021 there’s one sector for careers that’s often overlooked, but has a solid foundation for both stability and growth. And that is the silver one. As in, senior living.

Long-term care health facilities, assisted living communities, residencies and memory care centers all bode well for job growth.

According to Statista, life expectancy has increased to 81 years and 77 years for women and men, respectively. As Baby Boomers live longer, there will be an increased need to care for them. That doesn’t necessarily only allude to long-term health facilities; people are living healthier lives than previous generations and may need independent community living areas.

Census projections show that by 2030, one-fifth of Americans will be 65 or older and The Bureau of Labor Statistics indicate that by 2026, there will be 7.8 million direct care job openings due to a shortage of workers. The direct care workforce is set to grow more than other occupations and it’s projected to add the greatest number of new jobs in 38 states compared to other occupations.

We spoke with several employees at Atria Senior Living, an operator of independent living, assisted living, supportive living and memory care communities in 26 states and seven Canadian provinces, to find out more about their careers that have become their passion.

Abby Figueroa, senior vice president functional operations, has worked for Atria Senior Living for 13 years. Previously working for Atria in community roles including community business director and executive director, she previously served as regional vice president and senior vice president of the southwest division.

Figueroa said, “There are always going to be seniors who need support and it’s interesting if you talk to people in the senior living industry, you’ll come across that most people never thought that, ‘Wow, I want to work in senior living! It’s not something on your forefront.’ I view the future of senior living industry to be one of the most exciting and simply because it’s not just fulfilling a task or a job. There’s so much more to senior living and it has a wide capacity – you can be in IT, you can be an accountant, you can be a nurse, you can be in legal.”

Before joining Atria, she worked as an accountant. “I was working with spreadsheets in a cubicle, and I thought, ‘I don’t know if that’s the right fit for me.’ It’s a very life changing experience [entering senior living]—once people get into it, this passion just comes alive! This isn’t just a job, this is something I can do for a really long time. it’s the ability to be challenged from a business sense in different jobs and the mobility to try on different things to see if it’s the right fit. And if that fits, then Atria is going to support you and mentor you to get there.”

By fusing her background crunching numbers and business strategy with the human element of senior living, she added, “You get to be the part of the team that figures it out that’s going to support the next generation.”

Working at the support center in Louisville, Kentucky, Figueroa referred to the residents as her grandparents. “There were 213 residents on our roster when I first started [in a previous role as community business director and executive director in a community role], it feels like I have 213 grandparents and I want to make sure that I don’t let them down and want to make sure they feel at home because that’s what I would want for my grandparents. What else can I be doing?”

Crediting her mentors for helping identify her areas of expertise and opportunities to advance within the organization, her former supervisors lent themselves to the culture supporting its 14,000 employees to set her up for success.

Bill Deignan, assistant executive director, at Atria West 86 in New York City, also alluded to one previous boss in particular as guiding his career. “She’s always been my work mom, looking out for me, reaching out if I ever need anything. She’s been with Atria for over 20 years. When I pursued every single new job, I always called her to pick her brain about what she thinks and guidance about how to handle the interview process.”

Deignan landed his current role in the height of the pandemic in New York City last spring, following policies and procedures communicated by its headquarters in Kentucky. “It’s a real testament to everybody in the community and how serious and well they were able to adapt to all the new safety precautions.”

Having previously worked as a receptionist and engage life program instructor at Atria planning programs from a walking club to bingo, to now overseeing day-to-day operations for its 133 residents, he says a successful worker in this industry is a people person. “You have to be someone who likes to engage with people, you have to be very task oriented and organized. You have to want to really serve our clients, serve our residents. They’re always first. That’s really why we’re all here and why we do what we do – to help our residents and enhance our lives. That’s number one and it always will be with senior living.”

This was a serendipitous career path for Deignan—originally he wanted to be a special education teacher. In college, he learned about senior living and changed career paths. “Wanting to fill that need to help people and make people’s lives a little bit better, enhance their lives. I didn’t really know much about the assisted living industry and as I’m learning more about it, it’s a fantastic field. With Baby Boomers starting to reach that age of potentially need assisted living, it’s not going anywhere. My Plan A didn’t work out. It wasn’t for me, but my Plan B, it’s worked out extremely well.”

Unlike Deignan, Yesenia Molina always had this career path as Plan A. The life guidance director (memory care director) at Atria Westchase in Houston began her career as a caregiver over 20 years ago at the same location.

This recipient of The Texas Assisted Living Association 2020 Hero Award oversees all operations in the memory care neighborhood from staffing, hiring, resident care and regular, close communication with families.

Molina mentioned each day is different: “Manage your time every day because you don’t know what’s going to happen. It’s sad because especially for the families, but with this disease I feel I’m in the right place as I have that on my heart that I’m happy I’m able to help them in any way, even the families.... The day goes really fast, I don’t feel like I’m working.”

Pointing to patience and adaptability as key skills “because one minute they cry, one minute they don’t feel good,” she always tells new employees it’s good to have experience working with residents who have Alzheimer’s and dementia.  Molina noted, “We want them to feel at home not like at skilled nursing or at hospital. We can them residents. When I see a resident smiling and eating breakfast, that’s my favorite thing—to see them happy.”

In addition to working with residents, she’s a lifeline to their families as well. “At the end of the day, who has pain is the family seeing their parents with this disease and the communication that I have with them – especially during this time. That’s why I try more to communicate and send pictures because they haven’t seen their parents for a few months. Working with communicating with the family is a big thing.”

In addition to residents and their families, Kelsey Reidt, resident services assistant at Atria Del Sol in Orange County, California, said her team is like family, too.

Reidt stepped into her current role from wait staff during the onset of the pandemic and got hands-on training from colleagues. “It’s a complete friendship. It’s a team like I’ve never been part of and a team others would envy. There’s not a single one of us we can’t go to for help, if someone needs to cover a shift, we’re always there for each other.”

Recently, Reidt got certified as a medication technician and The California Assisted Living Association awarded her with the Outstanding Caregiver Excellence Service Award in 2020. From learning how to properly shower a resident to making residents smile by giving them haircuts as per their request (with a growing wait list), is part of the job.

While she said “compassion and having a big heart” are needed for her role and with aspirations of becoming an executive department, she has a roll up your sleeves approach to getting work done. “There’s not a department I won’t step into if need be. I don’t consider just care as my department – my whole community is my department. I’ll go into maintenance, housekeeping, kitchen, I’ll go into laundry. Whatever the whole community is all of our jobs. That’s the one thing I don’t like hearing —’it’s not my job’–if it has to do with the residents and if it’s in our building or around our building, it’s our job.”

The only potential pitfall? Burnout and that’s something her supervisor keeps a close eye on. “If she sees me getting worn down or if I signed up for 12 doubles in a row, she says, ‘No, you take a day off, you reset, you come back and you do it again.’ She won’t let me work myself into a stupor.” (Atria employees can see their set schedule in advance, trade shifts and request time off from a Mobile App.)

Among the variety of roles, one common thread and skill set remains: passion for seniors. (And from the employees interviewed, a recurring theme was internal upward mobility and years with the company. Figueroa mentioned Atria rewards employees for longevity. For instance, after two years of service, workers earn an additional 50 cents an hour. When additional milestones are met such as a 10-year mark, there’s a $2,500 one-time bonus. The company also offers 401(k) match of 50 percent up to four percent, tuition reimbursement and more benefits and perks.)

“You always feel like you have lots of grandparents,” said Figueroa. “The more that we can support the staff to stay with us and come up with creative ideas, mentoring, support and benefits – it really works out for everyone in the long run....everyone is there for the same reason because they want to work with seniors. If you don’t want to work with seniors, you don’t last in the industry long.”

When she hires candidates for roles ranging from dishwashers to nurses to regional vice presidents , the same theme emerges. She asks if they’ve worked with seniors in the past? She added, “Did you have a relationship with your grandparent? Walk me through some situations where it caught your attention, how did you react to that? What’s their personal view working with seniors? We want them to be passionate to build our culture and team.”

There’s a “shared passion of wanting to make someone’s life better,” noted Figueroa. “When you experience that, it’s amazing and it happens to people in different ways. The med tech is a 10-minute interaction to give their meds, but what’s the icing in that cake is you get to know their grandbabies really well. They’re telling you about their five-year-old grandbaby and it’s moments like that that make it so amazing.”

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