Building a strong workforce for one Connecticut life plan community meant borrowing from a pandemic practice that built on its already strong culture.
Culture, communication, compensation and compassion create the 4 C’s model that Duncaster President and CEO Kelly Papa uses to recruit and retain staff members for her 94-acre life plan community in Bloomfield, CT. Papa shared information on the model during a Monday LeadingAge membership call.
Duncaster does not suffer the same workforce crisis affecting its peers, Papa admitted, but she said it is coming. She is betting on the community’s strong culture, which is rooted in being tender with people but tough on standards, to maintain a strong workforce. Every step, every tool and every task relates back to a grander vision, Papa said.
“We have a shared vision that is unique here,” she said. “It’s the idea that everyone is going to the tip of the peacock feather — we all share the vision. It’s what draws people to work and stay here.”
Communication, Papa said, means participatory decision-making and seeing all perspectives.
Deep conversations on compensation, she said, mean ensuring that remuneration is where it should be in a given moment. That could mean helping with food insecurity or helping with other immediate needs of staff members.
Addressing personal wellness and acknowledging what workers have gone through during the pandemic is the cornerstone of compassion for self and others, Papa said. Whether it is big things or small things, she said that a “deep sense of appreciation and gratitude” permeates all calls and team meetings.
“We have one another’s back when it means the most,” Papa said. “Our culture is such a relationship-oriented organization.”
Matching values
Duncaster’s low turnover rate stems from its ability to match a candidate’s cultural values to those of the community through its online recruitment process, she said.
The value of the tool became evident when its director of dining services, newly promoted to her role, had to hire 12 new people. Six of those employees wound up leaving the community, but six stayed. Papa said the common factor among the six who stayed and are doing well is that they were all referrals from other staff members.
“It’s hard to put words to a culture, but they know it, they feel it and they refer the right people,” she said.
