by Cindy Heilman | Leadership, Resident Centered Dining Service, Retain Staff
Changing how you look at something changes your whole perspective. That is a key phrase to removing burnout from your long-term care and senior independent living community workforce.
From grocery stores to art galleries, changing your product around gives your shoppers a new way of looking at what you have to offer. It freshens the atmosphere. Flexibility in work schedules and routines will do the same for your food serving teams, including everyone who participates in bringing food and beverages to your residents. Most importantly, it prevents burn-out, reduces sick-day absences, and promotes good health. Allowing flexibility in schedules shows your employees that the company cares enough to improve their working hours. Service providers tend to be exposed to emotional and physical demands during their long hours, which creates stress. This high-pressure environment leads to burnout.
Good training and scheduled discussion meetings are resources needed to manage these chronic stressors and exhaustion that spread low morale. Employees with burnout compromise the quality of care residents receive in your community and damage your community’s reputation. Keeping your staff fit, energetic, and uplifting affects your residents, keeping them happier and healthier. Also, think of the costs saved by preventing a problem instead of the expensive cost of hiring new ones. Open communication with management includes clarifying what duties are expected of each individual. This helps to solidify working relationships that ease an already tight labor market.
It is promising to know that burnout can be avoided by learning how to work smarter with intention. Kind Dining♥ training series encourages practicing newly learned skills that give confidence to all staff who participate, not just your food serving team. They will continue to find value in their work performance and build a better self-image. Your team will learn to manage their behavior and accountability while improving their mental health. You want your residents to enjoy top-quality experiences every day. Your highly trained staff plays a major part in that experience.
Our Kind Dining♥ online and on-demand training series consists of 9 service training modules divided into 3 sections. The Foundations of Service, The Nuts and Bolts of Service, and Maintaining Service are happy and proud to announce the series is now approved for 11 Continuing Education Units for RDNs, & NDTRs from the Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR). Please consider attending one of our monthly complimentary Taste of Kind Dining Showcases to see Module 1 of the series. Contact Cindy directly atcindy@higherstandards.org.
Be♥ Kind: Do you know body language extends communication beyond mere words?
by Cindy Heilman | Leadership, Resident Centered Dining Service, Retain Staff
A friend told me about running into a woman she used to work with while she was out shopping. The woman looked terrible! She asked if she had been ill. “No,” the woman replied, “just tired of the same old job, the same old complaints, and the same old me.” My friend quickly decided to abandon her list of errands and share a cup of tea, cake, and lend an ear. Maybe she could help. Her friend was a nurse in an assisted living community and was burned out from too many hours, no one seemed to care, and she was trying to gather enough energy to look for a different community to work in. Normally she loved her work and couldn’t understand why she was feeling so run down. My friend knew immediately that a good training curriculum could turn her working life into a productive one where she would be happier and healthier.
Do you know that employees experiencing the oncoming feeling of burnout are more likely to take sick days and are probably looking around for another place of employment? Their taking sick days increase the workload for coworkers spreading burn-out to others without their realizing it. Replacing employees is costly and troublesome. Even before the Covid-19 epidemic threw assisted and long-term care communities into the employee crunch, management was aware of the burn-out syndrome. Pressure in service-oriented positions that grow worse from working too many hours without respite because you are needed doesn’t solve the problem. Being aware and facing the problem is the first step to repairing the situation. Scheduling flexible hours and freeing up the rigid routine would change that feeling of being in a rut. Allowing employees to have time off to tend to their personal responsibilities lifts that burden of weight that sits on many overworked shoulders.
Training comes in to face and solve burn-out problems. Kind Dining♥ training discussions can recognize if employees believe they are being treated fairly and give them a chance to add ideas to improve their work and to express if they are being supported by their manager. This is vital to their mental attitude in the workplace. Kind Dining♥ training exercises help to reduce burn-out by teaching new skills, helping gain confidence, and helping find value in what your food servers and all your staff do. Your employees will learn how to manage their own behavior and improve their self-image leading to a happier, healthier life.
Kind Dining♥ training is now approved for 11 Continuing Professional Education credits for Registered Dietitian Nutritionists, & Nutrition & Dietetic Technicians Registered, as well as for Certified Dietary Managers.
Be♥ Kind: Do you know body language extends communication beyond mere words?
by Cindy Heilman | Build Communities of Belonging, Resident Centered Dining Service
One of the huge negatives left behind after the pandemic faded is isolation.
So many residents who enjoyed the camaraderie of living in an independent living community still have that sense of being left out.
Many elders didn’t have a chance to bond with other residents to build friendships when the pandemic hit.
Now is the time to move back into routines of meeting friends for lunch or dinner or even to begin the day with conversation over coffee and bagels.
Again, this is a place where a food server can perform a vital service. Be on the lookout for a resident who needs a bit of assistance in meeting others. If you notice diners still taking meals in their rooms, suggest going down to the dining room.
Reassure them that you will introduce them to others you think will enjoy sharing a meal and some news of the day. It is a small kindness on the part of a food server that makes a huge difference to a resident. You will also be helping someone already in the dining room waiting to meet a person new to them. That small kindness will touch more than the one person you are helping.
When you perform this small kindness, watch the results with great satisfaction and the enjoyment of knowing you have created happiness that overflows and spreads to affect more than the one person you started with.
You also have a hand in keeping the people you serve healthier. Research has shown that loneliness may increase failing health where social connections to others can create overall immunity to illness.
Feeling left out and alone drags on your immunity which fights against disease. There is enormous power in fulfilling a small kindness.
Training employees to give their best behavior and to like the results of new skills they use, such as kindness shared is a major key to success.
Kind Dining♥ training turns your employees into the company’s most valuable assets.
Residents rely on your food servers in many ways which include being content to invite friends and family to join them at meals. It is noticeable when your food serving team cares enough about a diner in your community to extend intentional kindness.
We invite every employee within senior living communities to be cross-trained in our fun, focused, practical skills, and competencies, which makes each meal an enjoyable experience.
Be♥ Kind: Do you know loneliness lessens the immunity of an older person?
by Cindy Heilman | Build Communities of Belonging, Leadership
It’s like a party!
When you entertain, you want your guests to feel special to have received an invitation to your home. You prepare foods and beverages that entice, tempt an appetite, please the eye, and you serve a variety so there is a choice. You want your guests to know they are welcome in your home, and to socialize with other guests you’ve invited.
Mealtimes at your senior living community have the same goals that you do for a party at your home. It’s on a larger scale but the standards and challenges are similar. It also takes the same skills you want your food serving team in your community to perform as naturally as breathing.
A good host will be aware of certain people who need to connect and be brought together, knowing they will benefit from each other’s company. You want food servers who can spot a possible problem and know how to dissolve it before it develops. Most of all, you want your guests to be glad they came and will take away happy thoughts and memories of the evening.
Some people are legendary for the parties they’ve given and are known internationally. They weren’t born that way. They became great hosts through learning, practicing, and using social skills. They wear invisible antennae that tell them what is happening in their realm. These are the skills that you want your food servers to have and to use each time they step into their role as food servers.
It includes every employee that carries a plate of food or even a glass of water.
It includes full-time employees and part-timers, which may include teenagers who want the experience for their resume`.
An investment in training your food serving team, all of them, and following up with practice, practice, practice, promises that residents and guests will talk about your community in a way that will exceed the paid advertising you do. Your residents will feel and know they belong in your community. Your dining rooms will buzz with conversations that connect people as friends and create a general feeling of happiness throughout the halls of your community.
Kind Dining♥ are key words to your success. We offer virtual training sessions that you can extend to use with part-time and newly hired employees, as well as your full-time and long-time ones.
Training teaches ways to add kindness to their skills. It can open doors to culture change and understanding coworkers and residents.
A kinder, happier staff is a healthier one that creates committed employees who stay with the company. The spread of kindness to residents reinforces their immunity to illness. It begins with your food servers carrying pleasant considerations along with the food.
Know those food servers are still the company’s best assets. Investing in them is an investment in your community and your company’s growth.
Be♥ Kind: Training teaches ways to add kindness to a food server’s skills.
by Cindy Heilman | Leadership, Resident Centered Dining Service, Retain Staff
David and Matthew were driving to their usual Saturday morning basketball game to stay in healthy condition. Both worked in the management department of different long-term care communities but discussed problems and ideas because their workplace routines were similar regardless of what community it was.
Matthew began as soon as David put the car in gear to pull away from the curb. “The boss called an impromptu meeting this week to discuss management’s weakness in leadership. It seems our filling in at meal times has not brought the high response he expected. Not the best comments were made from the residents he polled nor from the full-time food serving team we were supposed to be helping because of the labor shortage. He was pretty upset, though he stayed calm while he called us failures.”
David chuckled to soften the self-criticism knowing Matthew took his job seriously and wasn’t the sole person responsible for the poor response. “Don’t be too hard on yourself. We, meaning management, are not always able to sit in on the training sessions the food-serving teams get. The boss expects us to know about serving meals. I’m not sure how we are supposed to know if they don’t allow us in on the training. I never waited tables in college. My part-time job was working in the library.”
“He also revealed a bit of his plans for 2023, saying that for the first time, an allowance for a series of training is placed in the budget and for onboarding,” Matthew said with surprise in his voice. “With all the change of employees and lack of a full staff nowadays, he felt it important that we all get the training necessary, to be a completely fulfilled community organization. He claims that will include leadership training, I like learning new ways to look at the work I do. I confess, I never paid much attention to the waitperson when I was out for dinner. So I don’t know the proper ways to serve either. Just never thought of it.”
“I agree with you. Onboarding. Are you familiar with that term? David asked.
“I wasn’t. He said it’s about the newly hired, that they are easily confused and lost in workplace routines, guidelines, etc. He added that the largest number of employees that quit, do it within the first 90 days of being on the job. They wander through the halls, carry trays, and talk to you with a dazed look in their eyes. They have no idea what is required of them, let alone come to love the work they do.” Matthew replied. “The onboarding is training intended to make them comfortable and knowledgeable in their responsibilities to the point of developing commitment to the community and the company. I understand that it works. I’ll keep you informed before our next week’s game and I’ll drive then. Take care and I’ll see you next week.”
Kind Dining♥ training sessions introduce and train new employees so they can become part of the company/community family. They guide all employees to work together as a team helping each other while they are tending hospitality and healthcare to residents.
Kind Dining♥ knows the difference between teaching the basics and educating employees to become committed, long-time members of the community family; employees that stay with the company because they love the work they do, the community residents, and the rest of the work team.
by Cindy Heilman | Leadership, Resident Centered Dining Service, Retain Staff
Because many retirement and assisted living communities are shy of the number of employees needed to keep their community running smoothly, many are resorting to hiring gig workers.
After your company has responded to excellent training for its food servers and ancillary employees it is imperative to be certain gig workers are involved in the training program. To hire these part-time or short-term workers without providing the same, educated training the rest of your staff participates in, would upset the care invested to make your community stand above the others.
Staff retention is part of the goal to turn your well-trained staff into permanent, committed employees who accept the responsibilities of their work, and build relationships with the rest of the food serving team and with the residents.
Of course, this can be attained with the new workers who choose to attend fewer hours than a full week for their reasons. They can still be added to your list of permanent employees.
We are stepping into an era where applicants coming into the retirement and assisted living Marketplace are members of the Generation Z group of independent thinkers. They are often only accepting fewer working hours than what has been the norm. This may help fill the empty gaps made in your staff by the pandemic.
Remember the importance of their training. Instill your core company values ensuring empathy, respect, and kindness with coworkers and residents. The old guard can be a great help in working with gig employees by offering to mentor them. The practice of what gig workers learn in the training session is part of this mentoring.
Integrating a hybrid workplace in your community may be the answer to the short-staffed problem. The idea of Gen Z is focusing on the balance and flexibility of work and other life. It has been suggested that for some, this will be their primary income. For others, it will be a second income position. Combine this generation with the ‘baby boomers beginning to settle into retirement or assisted living communities.
Is your community ready for these major changes?
Training is helpful to include education about person-directed regulations required by government policies. If gig staffing is the way for your company to correct or supplement your strained staffing issues, at least they can depend on the company to provide training for proper service to introduce and meet your person-centered goals and residents’ service expectations.
Kind Dining♥ is ready to assist you in this goal. Our training series is experiential, meaning that we engage trainees by using action, reflection, application, and performance. Servers build empathy to respect the aging process and connect with the residents on a one-on-one basis.
We teach personal and professional skills that improve the lives of your residents while improving the lives of those who serve them. These skills will benefit the performance of your gig employees as well as refresh your permanent employees who will be there to help them through the process of becoming an employee that makes the company proud.
Be♥ Kind Tip: A hybrid workplace may be the answer to the company’s short-staffed problem.
by Cindy Heilman | Leadership, Resident Centered Dining Service, Retain Staff
“Our last training session took an unexpected turn this time. I was quite surprised at first. When I gave it some thought, it all made sense.” Kelly spoke with her usual enthusiasm. She and her mentor Coleen were enjoying lunch at their favorite bistro in town. They agreed that the service was as good as the food. They always took note of both.
Colleen replied, “It must be important if it impressed you so.”
“Well, you know how much stress is placed on our assistance in helping our residents in every way we can when we serve their meals or snacks. But in this session, we were shown how learning new skills give us value and aid us in building our self-confidence. In turn, we learn to manage our behavior! I never thought of it that way! Remember Midge and her behavior problems? We were all sorry she couldn’t change her bullying ways which resulted in her leaving. We food servers certainly show accountability.” Kelly took a deep breath.
“I’m so happy we work as a team and no longer have to worry about facing a bully.”
Colleen smiled and added, “Remember that it improves our mental health, too. Those additional skills you continue to learn to reduce experiencing burnout. Hopefully, the pandemic is behind us, though we still need to be conscious of residents who may face loneliness. Generally, isolation is gone but individuals suffer from it. We food servers are the first to notice, I think.”
“It’s from our daily and personal contact with each resident. Building trust with them one conversation at a time helps. A few have opened up to me when they had a mild case of the blues. Our communication by sharing thoughts keeps the feelings of isolation away. ”
Too often, retirement and assisted living communities are staffed with under-trained employees including those serving meals. The well-trained employees will start their day being aware and recognizing different moods older adults may be carrying. C
ommunication and asking open-ended questions to keep a person engaged can turn a blue day into a happy-I’m-so-glad-I-chose-to-live-here-day. It’s a small moment that can bring about a big change in an attitude, all while serving a meal. Setting an intention to make that difference by showing empathy and compassion will lift the spirits of the server, too.
New skills learned during Kind Dining♥ training sessions build confidence in your employees by their becoming aware of the value of what they do. They learn to manage their behavior, and accountability and will avoid the tendency to burn out. This improves mental health by keeping spirits high.
Be♥ Kind Tip: New skills learned in training sessions keep spirits high and build confidence.
by Cindy Heilman | Leadership, Resident Centered Dining Service
Your food serving team is the most powerful segment of the senior care community! Their work responsibility begins long before the salad is washed or onion is tossed into a pot. Your registered dietitian might be busy researching and choosing foods for individuals who need particular attention to what they can and cannot eat. They are designing meals for residents recovering from illness or physical disability for added nutrition selected for healing. Dietitians and other Nutrition Professionals are very passionate about food. They work closely with your Chef and Food and Dining Service Directors.
Menu planning to satisfy the many different palates and tastes and preferences of your residents; finding sources for fresh vegetables and fruits, the best meat suppliers, and other foods get the chef’s attention before even thinking about firing up the stove or filling a pot with water. Chefs are very passionate about food. They also work closely with the other chefs and cooks in the kitchen.
Food preps do the chopping, slicing, dicing, and preparing foods to ready them for the chefs. They need to be dexterous, energetic, and stress-free. They are very passionate about food and often are there to gain experience too, hopefully, become a chef one day.
Assistants and helpers fill in other necessary jobs in the kitchen. The best are reliable, efficient, and skilled at maintenance. They are also passionate about food. It is why they choose to work in the kitchen. By now you know this is a unique team of workers that ready the food for the servers to deliver to residents either in the café, dining room, or their private quarters at least three times a day. Since culture change requirements suggest keeping the kitchen open, the kitchen must be manned at all times.
All of these people are highly skilled. When the results of their efforts are favorable, word spreads and the community will attain a high occupancy. The quality of food and its presentation often is the only promising difference when a potential resident is searching for the right place to call home.
With a top team preparing meals and snacks for your residents, you want to have highly skilled food servers from all departments delivering these wonderful meals. Your food servers are the bridge not just from the kitchen, but from the community to the residents. It’s vital they use their developed skills to gain trust, open communication and build relationships.
Kind Dining♥ training sessions are now available online and on-demand using training modules that are divided into 3 sections. The Foundation of Service, (1-3), the Nuts & Bolts of Service, (4-6), and Polishing Service (7-9). The series takes approximately 8 hours to complete. The curriculum has recently been approved for 11 hours of credit (CEU), including 1 for Ethics, from the Commission on Dietetic Registration. Allow yourself or your wait staff to become passionate about serving food that was prepared in a kitchen full of people passionate about food.
Be♥ Kind Tip: Allow your wait staff to become passionate about their work.
by Cindy Heilman | Leadership, Resident Centered Dining Service, Retain Staff
It’s a tragedy when older adults are turned away from becoming part of your community, not because you have full occupancy but because there are not enough staff to tend to them. Occupancy in long-term care communities has dropped drastically recently. Often the lack of good training is the reason for some employees to leave a community, especially if they have not been a member of the staff long enough to build a commitment to the residents, other employees, and the company. Kind Dining♥ training courses show the way for new employees to find their purpose in their community through education and practice. Developing good work habits and learning to give and receive help from fellow employees builds relationships in the workplace. These actions add to a person’s enjoyment of coming to work each day. They build self-confidence and nurture the desire to do better. This leads the employees to love the work they do. It will also lead to learning and extending kindness to their coworkers and the residents they are in contact with each day.
For employees who have been members of your community for a long time, participating in the Kind Dining♥ training refreshes their work ethic, introduces new ways to work smarter, and with intention, and creates bonding with other team workers. Training is vital in keeping your staff from leaving to search for a better company that invests in them by way of education.
When an excellent training program is available in the company, it will attract candidates who want to be part of your community. The pandemic has shown a lack of good candidates to hire, but a new generation is now seeking to enter senior care. It benefits your company to show why this young generation would want to be in your workforce. Kind Dining♥ training modules are now available online. We will help you to keep your food servers, your newly hired employees, and all your employees to be an educated, invested team. A well-trained team helps your community to stand out from all others with employees who have learned to be dedicated to their work.
Be♥ Kind Tip: Invest in your employees by way of a good training curriculum.
by Cindy Heilman | Build Communities of Belonging, Leadership, Resident Centered Dining Service
When talking about the travel we did when being much younger, my friend, who prefers traveling solo, and has since she was 14 years old, told me about a time flying to England 40 years later. When she boarded the airplane, she settled in, delighted to have made early plans to get the window seat. It wasn’t long before her seatmates, a mother and a young child sat down. The woman looked all around, hoping to find three seats together so her husband could join them for the long, seven-hour flight. He sat across the aisle, a row back, in the middle of two grumpy-looking, complaining men, on either side of him. My friend, remembering how important it was for the family to be together when she was young and married, offered to move. She would exchange her precious window seat so the husband could join them.
Keeping an eye on all her passengers, as flight attendants do, she came over to my friend and remarked. “That was very kind of you to give up a window seat for that family. It’s quite unusual to see that on a flight. Thank you.”
My friend just acknowledged the compliment, surprised that anyone had even noticed. As soon as dinner was over and the trays cleared away, the same flight attendant came to her row. She leaned in and handed a napkin-wrapped bottle of wine to her, the same white wine she had at dinner. “Just a little thank-you gift,” she said. “It’s so nice to see kindness.” Without any fuss, she went back to her duties.
Kindness generates kindness. What seemed a small thing to my friend was enormous to the family and impressive to the flight attendant. Of course, my friend wasn’t thinking about any acknowledgment or reward, it only seemed the right thing to do. It may have been a small thing that the flight attendant responded to, but it is still remembered by her many years later.
It doesn’t take a college degree or years of training, just a mention during the employees’ weekly discussion or training session. Remember to be kind. When one employee performs a kindness it will reverberate.
Kind Dining♥ training was designed to assist you in honing the skills not just of your food serving team, but all your employees, in building communication between coworkers, residents, and management, using cross-training exercises. These training sessions, now available online, focus on working smarter, with intention. The sessions are friendly and supportive. Change begrudging attitudes to employees who love to come to every work day. Encourage them to show kindness to all people. Take a close look at your food service team and realize how important they are to your residents, to each other, and the success of your company.
Be♥ Kind Tip: Kindness that is practiced grows into a natural way of life.
by Cindy Heilman | Build Communities of Belonging, Retain Staff
“It’s Spring! Walking in the park to find a bench and have lunch was a great idea, Kelly! I’m bursting to tell you what happened to me since we had lunch together last month. Even at my age, I’m still learning new lessons to apply to my everyday living.” Colleen said.
Kelly scoffed. “Have you become ancient overnight? The last time I looked you were a foxy 35-year-old woman.”
“Well I was only comparing it to your young 20 years,” Colleen laughed “which reminds me of what I was going to tell you. I was shopping at the grocery store a couple of weeks ago. Funny, I was up on my toes, trying to reach a box of pasta from the top shelf. Things I need always seem to be where I cannot get them. When a long arm reached over and brought it down for me. I turned and it was Brad Bevins, our basketball star from high school days! ‘How kind! Thank you!’ Those were the first words out of my mouth before I even realized it was him.”
“He said, ‘you’re welcome, it’s just a small thing to do.’ I told him, ‘It’s a small thing for you, major to me, being a shorty.’ We chatted, catching up a bit. It’s been high school days since I’ve seen him. I did hear he was in a car accident earlier in the year and I mentioned it. He said he’s recovered with the kindness of a lot of people. With time to think while he was healing, he vowed to do kind things for people every day, strangers or not. It’s sort of a pay forward.”
Kelly commented, “That sounds like our last discussion at the employee’s training session, about spreading kindness not only to our residents but to each other, too.”
I’m sure it’s one of the reasons I don’t dread coming to work on Monday mornings. It makes all the difference in the daily work we do. Being generous is infectious and it works wonders in our community.
Kind Dining♥ promotes that kindness practiced will come naturally. It is another ability the food serving team needs to add to their improvement list.
Kindnesses used expand outward to include coworkers where offering a helping hand forms on-the-job friendships. Trust is formed when coworkers treat each other with kindness.
Encouraging the Golden Rule – treat others as you would like to be treated- is a perfect guideline for attitudes toward residents and coworkers.
Employees who are trusted and treated with kindness, remain with the company.
Be♥ Kind Tip: Kindness means listening, truly listening.
by Cindy Heilman | Resident Centered Dining Service
It may be a small kindness for you to give, but it is a major kindness when received. There are many small things we do throughout the day that we don’t think of as being important. The person on the other end of your thoughtfulness may see it as major helpfulness. Even the simple act of truly listening to someone who needs to tell you the thoughts or ideas running around in their head is a sincere kindness. Taking a few minutes of your time shows that you genuinely care. It’s a selfless act of compassion and understanding. It is the first step in building trust and creating a connection for friendship with a resident or a coworker. A small act of kindness is also contagious. Without realizing it, you are at the beginning of spreading good cheer, setting someone into a happy mood, or implanting a positive attitude that will expand and grow.
You very often will not see the results of a good deed completed. But you will carry with you the light-hearted feeling of having improved someone’s day. The by-product is how it will affect your own attitude. Knowing you have extended yourself for someone else’s benefit will create a glow within. It overflows and touches everything you do and everyone you meet for the rest of your day. Think of the residents in your assisted living community and imagine the major influence you have by doing a small kindness for them. You have the ability to lift a person’s spirit who has been struggling to get through the day.
Kind Dining♥ offers online training sessions that you can continue to use with part-time employees and newly hired employees. Training teaches ways to add kindness to their skills. It will open doors to culture change and understanding of those they work with and residents, too. A kinder, happier staff is a healthier one that creates committed employees who stay with the company. The opportunity for growth is here. Inviting the spread of kindness is adding our unique hospitality to healthcare. Encouraging a kindly attitude can blossom, grow, and reap rewards for the givers and the receivers in your community. It begins with your food servers, from all departments, carrying pleasant considerations along with their meals. We all know those food servers are still the company’s best assets. Investing in them is an investment in your community and your organization’s growth.
B♥ Kind Tip: You can change someone’s day for the better with a small kindness.
by Cindy Heilman | Leadership
Recently on an online program about reframing aging, the first male guest speaker stated that a retirement home is the last place you would want to put Mom! Ack! This man has been out of touch with today’s retirement and long-term care communities! He hasn’t been cooking three meals a day for the family for the last 40 years or packing school lunches for 30 years. Doesn’t Mom deserve to have her meals served to her for a pleasant change? Has she not earned the right to share meals with friends around the table in the dining room, meals that she wasn’t required to prepare and clean up afterward, meals that are served to her by well-trained servers who care about her enough to combine hospitality and healthcare seamlessly?
The uninformed guest speaker must not use his computer or spend enough time visiting communities, which educates us to keep up with the major changes that have taken place in the senior living marketplace, especially in the dining environment. The state and federal guidelines ensure meaningful choices, food available throughout the day if necessary to a particular resident’s meal preference or dietary requirement, and even encourage meal plans written by dietetic professionals often incorporating fresh foods from community gardens and healthy food choices and designed to boost brain health. These plan options in most plant-based foods help protect cells while staving off harmful inflammations and oxidation. Regulations address the communication and coordination of all staff serving residents to be knowledgeable regarding the residents’ dietary and dining preferences. Ongoing surveys, now being conducted in digital to keep information current, are accessible. They reveal the residents’ opinions, which are vital to the community’s desire to offer quality care and service to those who have chosen their community as a home. Comparing and contrasting what communities offer is necessary due diligence.
Retirement living is not limited to members of the family who can no longer take care of themselves. They are a choice of living care-free or maintaining homes that drain their life savings when those funds could be used for enjoyable days of meeting new friends, sharing activities, day trips, and healthy meals created and served especially for them. Multiple generations are now taking advantage of very different senior years. Today’s senior care community chefs are coming from 4 and 5-star restaurants and taking up the challenge of creating interesting daily menus and preparing healthy meals that residents anticipate.
Kind Dining♥ training courses teach everyone on food service and dining service teams who herald from all departments, including those who serve part-time, to be a member of a winning team by learning to work together, respect one another, treat their residents with the greatest empathy and respect, while treating each other with the same caring respect of a teammate.
B♥ Kind Tip: Read recent surveys to know if your food service is superior.
by Cindy Heilman | Leadership
The trend shows that employees seek work positions where they can grow as individuals; feel accepted for who they are and their work. Challenges, education with training, and a voice that can make suggestions and improvements seem more important than a high wage. They want to be productive and make a difference. The Millennials and Gen Z are the most diverse group of employees. In today’s job market, they are evaluating the company they choose to join. Diversity is important to that decision, alongside inclusion and equity. It is understood that they desire an environment of various cultures, backgrounds, and customs. Because of these qualities, they will respond with empathy to your diverse residents.
Employees who feel like they belong will display a caring consideration about their coworkers, encouraging them to work as a team and the residents they have been hired to serve. It is imperative that everyone in your company’s organization, especially management, is comfortable with this policy of diversity. If they feel alienated, diversity will work against the company using this plan to attain success. Requiring management to attend training sessions with your food serving team, housekeeping, and other departments will close the cultural gap and build a solid foundation through empathy and knowledge. Cooperation is a goal to create a company with family-like bonds that work toward company goals.
Working with a sense of value to the company, where the employee has the responsibility to make decisions when necessary, for the good of your residents, encourages them to invest their intelligence and expertise. Employees with that assurance become part of the company, valued for their integrity. Equity confirms the faith the company has in the employee’s development. Choosing excellent training that is not a program but a way of life for your newly hired employees and a refreshment course for your present employees is a wise decision.Kind Dining♥ training sessions fulfill the education, knowledge, and interactive exercises that lead your employees to build that sense of improvement because they want to work smarter and with the intention; to perform at their highest ability. Kind Dining♥ training courses appeal to all cultures, backgrounds, ages, and full- or part-time employees. Our training sessions can create a work team that looks forward to coming to work every day.
B♥ Kind Tip: Employees who feel like they belong reach for higher performance.
by Cindy Heilman | Resident Centered Dining Service
Coleen and Kelly were out for their monthly lunch date. They decided to go to a small, family-owned Mexican restaurant near Kelly’s neighborhood, instead of the bistro where they normally met. “Variety is the spice of life,” Kelly said as they were seated by the wife of the chef. They took a few minutes to read the menu while they nibbled on freshly made corn chips and sipped their Margaritas. Coleen has been mentoring Kelly for a while. They enjoyed off-premises discussions to help Kelly learn but also to keep in touch with how others approach food service.
“I’ve only been to a Mexican restaurant a few times, so any recommendations from you would be welcome,” Colleen said.
“Okay. I’ll order for you.” Kelly replied as she rattled off, in Spanish, her choices to the waitperson.
”Wow! I’m impressed! I didn’t know you spoke Spanish. Did you learn in high school?”
“It’s confession time.” Kelly smiled. “My mother is Mexican and my father is 3rd generation, Irish. That’s why my first and last names have an Irish ring. My middle name is Carmelita. How is that for being American?” She chuckled at Colleen’s obvious amazement. “My mother came to the States as a teenager to work. My grandparents and extended family still live in Mexico. I am ready to offer my other language for service in our Community. I wanted to be sure our Community welcomed diversity first. It was a deciding factor in my choice, of where I wanted to stay and work long term before I revealed my knowledge of languages. Please excuse me for not telling you sooner.”
“Of course. I guess I understand that. You are young and investing time and training in building a life career in the field. I’m so glad because now I feel you are going to stay with us. You are an asset to us in the foodservice department. I thought you were a natural.”
“Well I did grow up serving food but I also realize that the restaurant business is a wee different from the bigger picture of retirement living and long-term care communities. I am content with the diversity in residents, but also in our food serving team. I felt included and welcome from day one. I see that each person on the food team is valued. It’s important to me to be comfortable in a multicultural situation so I can devote my efforts to learning my duties and responsibilities.
Our Kind Dining♥ training series offer proven solutions to help communities redefine their dining experience post-Covid, and repair the damage done by reducing the gaps of loneliness, isolation, and feelings of not belonging that were exacerbated. Our interactive exercises promote active learning and teach kindness as a way of life that creates communities of belonging. The training is rich in media and designed to appeal to servers of all ages, cultures, and levels of education. Kind Dining♥ is now online and on-demand and delivers immediate skill building for your employees, bringing more kindness, civility, dignity, and empathy into every interaction. Staff learns to value their service work, strengthen their interpersonal skills to get along better, and focus time and energy on what matters most. Food serving teams from all departments will perform with confidence, hospitality, and appreciation for their healthcare environment serving older adults. The best practices taught were designed from evidence-based research, firsthand experience, and knowledge with your senior living community in mind.
B♥ Kind Tip: Get to really know how your food servers feel about each other.
by Cindy Heilman | Resident Centered Dining Service
Tom was talking to his younger, married brother Bob about taking time to do some repairs around their mother’s house. “I can’t be here to do all the repairs that are needed. I have to fly out tomorrow for a meeting in Chicago and I’ll be gone for ten days. It seems like one thing after another has broken or stopped working since Dad passed away. You are just going to have to do them because I can’t.”
“Sorry Tom, with the kids’ school schedules and Lisa’s overtime required at the office, I cannot get away either. We need to find a solution to make the repairs and somehow arrange for Mom not to be alone so much. It isn’t healthy. She misses Dad terribly. Neighbors can only help so much.”
While Tom was away and found free time between work obligations, he began to surf the ‘net. To his complete surprise, he found an abundance of retirement living communities, within easy access to his condo and his brother’s house. Each one sounded like a vacation resort for active, daily living. He easily pictured his mother enjoying life again, finding new friends within the community, participating in activities, and near enough so he could drop in any time. Plus, she could spend time with Bob, Lisa, and the grandkids now and then, when their busy schedules allowed, of course. Mom could have her own apartment for peace and quiet when she wanted it Two of the communities near them had assisted living units close at hand, in case they became necessary. Wow! He had no idea this style of living existed for older adults. Selling Mom’s house would take care of the expense. After all, Dad used to say that their house was an investment, so he always took good care of it. I wonder if he was thinking how much this investment would benefit Mom now.
Times have changed and senior retirement has been one of the biggest changes. No longer did retirement homes have the negative image they suffered so long ago. With communities stating their offerings, showing photos of grounds and buildings, and inviting the public to come for lunch to see for themselves how wonderful living was available for seniors in this modern age. Stopping in for lunch and a tour will give prospects a taste of the food offered and the dining service given.
Kind Dining♥ training, now online and on-demand delivers immediate skill building for your employees, bringing more kindness, civility, dignity, and empathy into every interaction. Staff learns to value their service work, strengthen their interpersonal skills to get along better, and focus time and energy on what matters most. Food serving teams from all departments will perform with confidence, hospitality, and appreciation for their healthcare environment serving older adults. The best practices taught were designed from evidence-based research, first-hand experience, and knowledge with your senior living community in mind.
by Cindy Heilman | Resident Centered Dining Service
Advice. We are all familiar with advice, whether giving it or receiving it. If you are over 30, you may have already followed some bad advice and suffered its results unhappily. It’s not unusual for a person starting in life after completing their schooling to ask a senior family member for advice to guide them in their life path. With your career based on long-term senior living, what advice would you give to elder friends or family members considering moving into a community? Are they curious about what life is like inside a retirement community? They want to know what isn’t printed in the brochures or advertisements.
Since they are seniors, they probably have an image of how their parents lived the last chapter of their lives. Would you think décor’ and floor plans are more important to them than location? How about rooftop restaurants and swimming pools? Social life? Events & activities?
If they plan to tour a few communities, would you advise them to seek out the food serving team and ask about the foods served. Is it farm-fresh, and are meals created and cooked in the community kitchen? Are the schedules for meals rigid or available throughout the day? Would you tell them about social hours around the dining room tables where the conversation is shared, and newcomers are encouraged to join in? Remember, tell them to note if the food servers wear name tags and know the names of the people they serve at mealtimes. Are they greeted at the door? Tell them to notice the friendliness of employees they’ll meet in the hallways and common areas. Do they carry a pleasant demeanor as they carry trays? Tell them how foods connect people also in special ways on holidays and birthdays.
You can tell these older adults that it is in training, but when the team is well-trained, you won’t notice it because it comes so naturally. It’s in the combination of hospitality and healthcare. The two go hand in hand to form contented residents. Training educates, builds self-confidence, and forms healthy relationships with other employees and residents. Kind Dining♥ training sessions are designed for all employees that present meals, whether full-time, temporary, or part-timers, including nursing and health care, housekeeping departments, care staff, and managers. Our training program is experiential, meaning that we engage trainees by using action, reflection, application, and performance.
B♥ Kind Tip: Do you know what a difference you make by coming to work today?
by Cindy Heilman | Resident Centered Dining Service
Do your employees know how important each resident in your senior living community is to your company’s success? A long-time friend who is an avid reader sends items of interest to me about long-term living, which she knows I’ll enjoy. For example, a recent article told how one woman, I’ll call her Carol, happened to visit a retirement community by running an errand. She was delivering historical information pamphlets and was doubly surprised. First, she didn’t realize the woman lived in a retirement community, and secondly, she was pleasantly surprised by how nice retirement living can be! She had no idea!
The community impressed Carol so much that when her out-of-state mother passed away, she invited her step-father to come for a visit to check the community so he could live near family. He did. He came. He was impressed. He happily moved in. Her husband’s parents decided it was time to sell their home after experiencing a bout of medical convalescence. They left the state they lived in to move into this community where they would be near their son and daughter-in-law.
Carol’s brother, also living out-of-state, was growing older but didn’t want to leave his home for so many years. Carol suggested he visit and consider the retirement community a summer home where he could be near family for half the year. He, too, came, toured the community, and began spending his summers near his sister. Carol came next. After her husband passed away, she began living in the community as a second home to cut down on driving the long distance for visits. When the coronavirus hit, Carol and her brother decided the safest place to be was in the community. They both moved in full-time.
Of course, it wasn’t that simple. But once it began with a casual visit, it generated another and another. Word of mouth is a reliable advertisement. It comes from the most important source-the people who live there.
The community seems to have sustained all the important reasons for the family to keep moving in. The staff was well-trained and supported the community. Training employees to give their best performance and to like the work they do is a significant key to success. Kind Dining♥ training turns your employees into the company’s most valuable assets. It’s who residents rely on, so they can invite friends and family to join them. Your employees caring about the residents receiving quality compassionate healthcare and hospitality are goals they can reach with training sessions and practice. Kind Dining♥ training services are now offered on-demand online in 9 eLearning modules, divided into three sections, for 8 hours of instructions.
B♥ Kind Tip: Remember, improvement is an ongoing process!
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Tom was talking to his younger, married brother Bob about taking time to do some repairs around their mother’s house. “I can’t be here to do all the repairs that are needed. I have to fly out tomorrow for a meeting in Chicago and I’ll be gone for ten days. It seems like one thing after another has broken or stopped working since Dad passed away. You are just going to have to do them because I can’t.”
