Transcript Generated by AI 00:00 Mark Parkinson here and welcome back to Park Place. 00:05 Very happy today to be here with Glenn Van Ekren. 00:07 As you know, Glenn is a contributor to Park Place. 00:11 More important than that, he is a huge leader in the sector, 00:16 having spent 20 plus years running the better organization and leading it to 00:21 really one of the highest performing organizations in our second. 00:27 Our mission here, of course is your success. 00:29 And I think the best way to do that is to pass on how other operators have been 00:34 successful. 00:36 You've heard me preach, you know many times that it's very 00:40 important to set metric based goals and reward leaders that that that hit the 00:45 goals. 00:47 There are multiple ways to do that, but I think one of the most effective 00:51 ways is by holding building contest or holding your buildings to certain 00:55 standards and rewarding them when they achieve those standards. 00:59 Both Insign and Vetter are two of the companies that we feature in the book 01:04 that we put out that have a really heavy emphasis on these building contest. 01:10 At Vetter, they created a program called World Class 01:14 Standards and Glenn, Glenn and Vedder have been incredibly 01:18 generous in sharing the details of that. 01:20 I think Glenn, you actually let us publish the standards 01:23 in the book that we put out. 01:27 I've seen first hand how effective this program is in your organization. 01:30 So let, let's just start out and Glenn, first of all, 01:33 thank you for being here today and, and tell us what this program of World 01:36 Class Standards is all about. 01:38 Well, thanks Mark. 01:39 It's great to be here and especially to be able to talk about something we are 01:44 extremely passionate about in this organization. 01:47 And it started about 01314 years ago. 01:52 I, I was challenged by Jack that in one of 01:55 our values, it said we wanted to be the best of the 01:59 best. 01:59 And he said, I don't like that very well because what 02:02 if every facility in the community is A1 star? 02:05 It wouldn't take much to be the best of the best. 02:08 And about a year later we adopted world class, 02:11 not knowing for sure what that would all mean. 02:15 But it revolves around this idea and it's a vision we have inside of our company 02:21 that our passion is to become a world class organization. 02:26 And This is why who is transforming the view of senior care by doing what we do 02:31 like no one else does it That became the kick start for us to say, 02:36 what's that going to mean? 02:38 And I understand, I mean, we have what, 15, 02:40 000 nursing homes in the United States and we're all doing the same thing. 02:44 And so the reality hit us that it's not what we do that's going to set us apart. 02:50 It's how we go about doing what we do that that will matter. 02:54 And so the question began, what are the standards that we can 02:59 embrace that we believe would set us apart, 03:02 that would help us to be ranked among the best in the nation or the best in the 03:07 world and have world class senior care? 03:11 That was the starting point and it's of course evolved as time went on. 03:17 And so you what you've done is you've developed 10 or 12 very specific 03:21 standards that you measure every building on. 03:24 Tell, tell us kind of if you could summarize 03:26 what those standards are and maybe give us an example of a few of absolutely. 03:31 Well, we finally we have settled on what we 03:34 believe are the 10 most important world class standards and the we tell our 03:39 administrators Dons, we understand the expectations are 03:43 demanding. 03:43 It's not easy to achieve these and each standard is worth one point if you can 03:49 achieve the entire thing. 03:51 Now they're partial points can be achieved with with lesser outcomes. 03:56 So why don't we have 4 that are heavily weighted? 03:59 Would it be OK if I just highlight those right now? 04:02 Be fantastic. 04:03 OK, well we believe the the success of better 04:05 senior living is dependent on the engagement and satisfaction of our team 04:10 members. 04:11 So we participate in the United States great place to work program. 04:16 A facility must achieve 85% positive responses to achieve to get there. 04:23 One point the national average and long term care is 70%. 04:28 So it it tells you a little bit about the standard that we set there. 04:32 The second one that is heavily weighted of course are our customer expectations 04:38 and you have to have an 85% rating there to the question, 04:41 I would recommend this facility to others. 04:45 And the third are our quality measures. 04:49 As you know the quality in our company remains a priority and we take great 04:54 pride in that. 04:55 You get one point if you are a five star in your quality measures, 04:59 you get a half a point if you're a four-star. 05:02 We don't even recognize three star. 05:04 We don't want to be average. 05:06 So you nothing there and then financial results that is determined by your budget. 05:13 If you're better than your budget, you receive 1 point. 05:16 If you're within 3%, you receive a half a point. 05:21 So those are our four most heavily weighted world class standards. 05:26 That's terrific. 05:27 And the, the, the standards are very objective. 05:30 You either hit them or you don't. 05:31 There's no wiggle room. 05:32 They're all numbers, right, right. 05:35 All metric driven, easy to confirm. 05:39 And so right, we really believe there's a buy in. 05:44 Our administrators have told us we love having a standard set that we and our 05:49 teams can shoot for. 05:51 And not only that, it just I think it creates great pride in 05:55 our leadership to know that they're a part of an organization who isn't, Yeah, 06:00 isn't just doing something. 06:02 We we want to do something special. 06:05 And Glenn, you guys have been so generous, you've let us send these out. 06:08 So if, if viewers want a copy of the better 06:10 world Class standard to shoot me an e-mail and and we'll get them out to you. 06:14 Now, I, as I understand it, Glenn, every building knows how every other 06:18 building is doing. 06:19 And this appears to have been become sort of a friendly but very serious 06:23 competition. 06:25 And the folks seem to, it seems to really matter to your leader. 06:28 Tell us a little bit about that. 06:30 It does. 06:31 So we make the results that we make them public, 06:35 meaning they get sent out every quarter to every administrator. 06:39 They know exactly how all their peers are doing. 06:43 And of course, we have some very competitive people in 06:45 our company. 06:47 Not so it, it's about the competition, but it's really about being able to 06:52 verify, yes, we are the facility. 06:55 We we say we are. 06:56 We can prove we're providing the quality of care. 06:59 It's not just anecdotal, but we can prove it. 07:02 And definitely every administrator is comparing themselves to their peers and 07:08 it impacts their desire to achieve results as well. 07:12 I will say they're also very good about celebrating those who are winning the 07:17 world class awards. 07:18 But Oh yeah, the, the competition is definitely there and 07:22 there's a financial incentive, particularly for the administrators. 07:25 I understand it. 07:26 Yes, their, their bonus is dependent on their world 07:30 class outcomes. 07:32 And so the ones I gave you, the four weighted ones, 07:35 team member satisfaction, customer satisfaction, 07:38 financial results and quality measures determine 80% of an administrator's bonus 07:43 and then the remaining 6 standards to determine the remaining 20% of their 07:48 bonus. 07:49 And how do you keep a balance between clinical results and financial results to 07:54 make sure that you're getting both great quality outcomes, but also, you know, 07:58 paying your bills at the same time? 08:01 Mark that is, it's definitely a delicate balance for us. 08:07 We, we are becoming increasingly sensitive to 08:10 being two things, technically correct and philosophically 08:14 sound, which what I mean by that is we must 08:18 achieve the quality results that we rest our reputation on, 08:22 but we need the financial performance to sustain the world class results. 08:28 And so this is being kept and obvious. 08:30 But we've all heard the statement before that without money, 08:34 mission is meaningless, and without mission, money is worthless. 08:38 And we just, we constantly seek to find the balance. 08:41 But I will tell you that the quality outcomes are really the motivation. 08:47 And if we do things right and follow the processes right, 08:51 we'll also have the financial outcomes. 08:54 You were telling me off the air that you've recently been around some 08:57 administrators, and it just reminded you of how effective 09:00 this program is. 09:01 Tell us a little bit about that experience. 09:04 Well, we have a very attractive coveted 09:07 traveling trophy for our quarterly winners and then the annual winner that 09:13 would be a composite of their four quarters. 09:17 They get to keep a handcrafted bronze trophy that looks like the world and it 09:26 opens up. 09:27 And inside one of our founders, Eldora, we crafted her hands on the inside. 09:33 And it's to symbolize the care that that facility provides. 09:38 I had the privilege yesterday of delivering to the facility their their 09:43 award, which was the annual award, the annual trophy. 09:47 And I just can't tell you the excitement that that generates when people know that 09:52 we were the ones who delivered the level of care that's expected in this company. 09:59 It was it was just an exciting time. 10:01 It's a hard thing to communicate without watching the emotions that exist in that 10:05 room. 10:06 Yeah, I know from talking to your team members 10:09 both in the C-Suite and in the buildings, how important this program is. 10:13 Glenn, thank you so much for sharing this. 10:15 I mean, here, you've opened up, you know, what I think is one of the biggest 10:19 successful programs that you have at Veteran. 10:21 Just shared it with everybody, which is incredibly generous. 10:25 It's what this website is all about. 10:27 Thank you all joining us here at Park Place, 10:30 and we look forward to future segments with Clint. 10:33 Thanks, Clint. 10:34 Thank you very much. 10:35 Fun time to talk about world class.
