Approximately one-fifth of senior living and skilled nursing operators responding to the latest Executive Survey Insights report by the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care consider staffing shortages across their organizations to be severe. Wave 45 survey results were released Friday.
Two-thirds of the participants in the survey indicated that the problem was moderate at their facilities.
Approximately one-third of respondents said they have staffing shortages at up to 50% of their properties, one-fourth reported shortages at 50% to 99% of their properties, and one-fourth reported staffing shortages at up to 25% of their properties.
Employee retention has declined since the Wave 38 survey in March, NIC noted. In Wave 45, 29% of responding organizations said they had kept more than 80% of new staff members on the job after one month, whereas 46% of organizations said they kept more than 80% on the job after one month back in March.
Also in the Wave 45 survey, 12% of organizations said they retained more than 80% of new staff members after one year, compared with Wave 38 in March, when 16% said they retained more than 80% of new staff members at the one-year mark.
Fifty-seven percent of respondents in Wave 45 said they expect their use of agency staff to decrease over the next six months; 8.5% of respondents said they anticipate an increased reliance on agency staff during that time frame.
“Staffing retention challenges and a heavy reliance on agency usage can have a substantial impact on operating expenses and in turn [net operating income],” Senior Principal Ryan Brooks wrote in summarizing survey results.
None of the respondents in Wave 45 said they had decreased operating expenses since the beginning of 2022. Most (87%) reported operating expenses to be higher, and 13% reported that operating expenses have remained the same. One fifth of participants said that their operating expenses have increased by 20% or more compared with before the start of the pandemic.
“Multiple respondents explicitly underscore industry-specific compensation increases that are above the rate of inflation,” Brooks noted. “One respondent indicated that frontline staff at their organization received an average increase of 24% in compensation.”
Some participants (12%) appeared optimistic that labor challenges will ease before the end of the year. Overall, one-third of respondents said they believe that labor markets will ease in the first half of 2023, approximately one-third said they believe that staffing challenges will improve in the second half of next year, and one fourth said they anticipate that it will take until 2024 or beyond before staffing challenges ease.
NIC said that the Wave 45 survey included responses from Aug. 22 to Sept. 18 from owners and executives of 47 small, medium and large senior living and skilled nursing operators across the country, representing hundreds of buildings and thousands of units across respondents’ portfolios of properties.
