Building a Better Senior Living Community Team: HR Insights with Britt Riese

Transforming HR Through Strategic Leadership and Technology with Britt Reese

In this episode of the Aspire for More with Aaron podcast, Aaron welcomes Britt Reese, a strategic business consultant with Paychex. They discuss the evolving role of HR from administrative to strategic, with a focus on technology, employee well-being, and developing strong leadership. Britt shares insights into current HR trends, the importance of continuous learning, DEI initiatives, and actionable steps to enhance the employee experience and organizational culture. The conversation highlights practical examples and provides valuable advice on addressing HR challenges within the senior living sector.

00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome

00:51 Understanding Paychex and HR Services

03:10 HR Evolution and Current Trends

07:18 The Role of Technology in HR

15:05 Enhancing Employee Experience

22:56 Strategic HR Action Items

29:47 Final Thoughts and Closing Remarks

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Transcript

Erin: 0:35

It's time again for another episode of the aspire for more with Aaron podcast, where I have a new friend, Ms. Britt Reese here on the episode with you today. She is a strategic business consultant with paychecks, and I am honored to be able to have this discussion today with you, Britt. So thank you for being here.

Britt: 0:56

Yes. Thank you, Aaron. I am so excited for our conversation today, but I do first want to give you a little shout out because I know you work really hard at bringing us such great content in the industry and resources and. I just want to make sure you know that and your content is, the passion and the relatability behind your content. I think it is really great messaging for our industry and I just know that it is helping so many people. it's fun to listen to, of course. So thank you so much for your work and everything that you're doing. yeah, so I have been working on the paycheck senior living team for about 10 years now. and before I talk about my role, though, I do want to explain a little bit about what we do, because a lot of times I think people hear paychecks and they think, oh, you do payroll, which is true. We do, but that's only really one component. My team is more of a strategic partner. We handle all aspects of HR. So that's, payroll benefits, workers, cop. HR compliance and strategy. And, we bring all that together with technology and expertise. so it's the full bucket. I don't want to spend too much time on this, but let me give you a quick analogy of what we do here. This might help position this a little better. So I know we're both football fans, right?

Erin: 2:14

Yes, we might appreciate

Britt: 2:16

my analogy here. So think of it as, the quarterback is being your senior living organization. You've got that vision. the plays, you're trying to move things down the field with your team and make that goal into the end zone. So at the same time, though, you're going to have all these defenders trying to stop you from making that progress. And in the world of HR, that could be your staffing issues. You could get a DOL audit, maybe a large workers comp claim, maybe there's a new state leave law that comes out. So all these different factors. So think of us as your offensive linemen. We're helping manage through and stabilize those items so you can continue to make that progress. So that's my little analogy for you. and just a little background on me. So my background is in HR. Prior to being with, Paychex and the PEO, I was in HR in retail and, then moved to this, the senior living, for about eight of my years with Paychex, I've been on the senior living team supporting our large senior living clients and, have recently moved over to our business development. Side.

Erin: 3:20

That's exciting. I love a good football analogy.

Britt: 3:23

I figured you'd like that. Yes.

Erin: 3:26

Yes, it's so true. HR is really where we're having to spend a lot of our efforts on these days. A, because we are in a bit of a staffing crunch crisis right now. And B, we need to try to develop a team culture as much as possible. So based on your experience and your background. Your HR background and senior living now in business development. Do you see the evolution? Like, where were we, where are we now? And where do you see us going? do you see those trends?

Britt: 4:03

I do. And I love this question probably because I'm an, an HR professional. So it's always interesting for me to look back on my profession, right? I'm sure you do the same thing and it's just, especially in HR, it's wow. So if you think about it, HR used to really be more of this administrative behind the curtain person that was keeping your office organized, right? employee files. Time cards, and they really had little to no technology. So think of just these huge stacks of paper, right? And they probably had the punch time card, system. so just trying to keep that all organized and really as an HR professional, that's definitely not the reason I would have went into HR. it has really evolved from there today. I think we've really evolved more into a strategic role. And, really playing a key role in shaping our community culture, driving that engagement, making sure employees are equipped with, the tools and information that they need to be effective in their role. And then also just supporting our leaders in our organization to in that same manner. And then. So I think that's where we're at now, but I think looking ahead and you said it too, I think it will continue to be a key component for organizations. And there's really a lot of things that are driving that, um, technology is a big one, And we can dive into that a little bit later, but also, employee wellbeing, we hear, that continues to be a main focus. Right now, D. I. And kind of a personalized employee experience is something that will definitely be staying focused on as well. But I think, as far as the position itself, I think, historically, H. R. has been one of those roles where. People are set in their ways, right? HR said we have to do this and we have to do that. And a lot of that has been dictated by laws and rules and compliance. We have to add those steps for a certain reason. but with that being said, I do think HR is going to have to be able to adopt a little bit more quickly. Data is not everything, but I think it is a really big piece of the puzzle. And as we're getting more information and with all the changes in the expectations of the workforce, we have to be able to adjust. And I think maybe even quicker than we have in the past. And I know you have more experience maybe on the resident side, but I think there's some parallels to this with kind of the resident expectations and having, we're having to adjust there. It's the same on the HR side and that kind of employee experience too. I

Erin: 6:29

think sometimes a lot of rules and laws and regulations can make things feel stale and not customized or comfortable, but we can add pizzazz into the areas. That can accept it, right? HR does not have to be dull and gray. It can be colorful, like your background and your shirt, we can certainly add customization into the areas and celebrate. I think celebrate our differences, which is that DEI component, acknowledge them, and then celebrate them, because that's important, we are the sum of all of our parts, and I love that saying, and the more that we can accept that, instead of not trying to focus on that, is important, and I think that is, I think that's what HR is trying to teach us. it's just that sometimes we see it as being dull and gray when it really can be colorful,

Britt: 7:35

For sure, and I think you know This is why a lot of people are getting into the hr profession now is for more of this kind of strategic moving forward pieces versus the administrative stuff that it used to be So we, we're just trying to push it a little bit, in that area.

Erin: 7:53

It's true. So technology, you mentioned that, and it's like such a buzzword these days technology, technology, technology. I do some work with the technology company as well. It is hard to adopt new things. It's hard to switch. Different platforms, like it's hard all the way around, right? For sure. So how has technology, reshaped HR and how does it have the ability to reshape HR? Have you seen people resist? Oh, for sure.

Britt: 8:28

Yeah. There's, that kind of goes hand in hand technology resistance, right? but we know technology will continue to evolve, right? That's just the world we're in now. I don't know if you've been in like the driverless cars, seeing the robot waiters. I don't know. It's, there's technology everywhere and it's going to involve, but, let me give you some data points, that might help set us up here. Page text does this poll survey every year. it's around HR and this isn't just specific to senior living. It has other industries as well, but I think it's very valuable. And I think it aligns with a lot of the conversations that I've had with senior living groups. but here's what the recent data said. 95 percent of HR leaders plan to make investments in HR technology in the next 12 months. So this is a key focus for a lot of groups right now, but here's the top five priorities that they're focusing their HR. or their technology needs on. So one is improving recruitment. And I think this one's been around for a long time. We know recruitment, even pre COVID has been, a focus for senior living. So I think that one, is not surprising. Another one, facilitating communication between employers and managers or the management team. So facilitating the high level with the media, mid managers. Boosting their personal productivity number four is helping leaders communicate plans and successes to management and then the fifth one is mitigating employee burnout. So I think the main theme here is really improving efficiencies in communication. So finding technologies that kind of fill that gap. But I think there's also, the other piece and we talked about it a little bit is, the data and the analytics that come out of technology. That's the advancement here. and some data points around that is the number one goal for HR leaders today is to convey HR program success. And you said this a little bit. When you were talking about the role of HR and, we're just trying to show that what we're doing is having an impact on the organization. and it's hard in HR because a lot of the things we do is more, it's a more of a feel, culture, it's a feel, it's a, how, you know, those pieces in there and it's hard, it can be hard to measure in some ways. So I think. Being able to convey that, we are making progress here is huge. and we know. it's, it all winds up happy employees, happy residents, happy organization, healthy organization. It all impacts the bottom line. So being able to convey that, and then I think another data point, just looking at organizations that have. larger 500 plus employees, 45% of HR leaders are focused on using company data to make better informed decision making. And I did think this data point was interesting. It's under 50%, it's 45%. I think the main reason for that is I think we're getting better, but I think there's still opportunity. In our technology, as far as connecting our systems and our data and, feeling confident in what the numbers are saying, and I know data isn't everything, We have, but it tells some of the story and I think, it's getting better, but that's definitely a big piece.

Erin: 11:55

Yeah. Data tells a story, but we have to be careful like that. That it is not skewed in 1 way or another

Britt: 12:03

for sure,

Erin: 12:04

because the numbers don't lie unless they're being answered in a different mindset than what is meant to be,

Britt: 12:12

for sure

Erin: 12:13

elected, I've come to the, to that realization. So it looks like HR is starting to use data that there is. Okay. but there is some technology pieces that are out there. And it's funny, we use the word connect with technology. Because connection is very, very important. like that is the key to me in creating a team. Creating that experience that everyone wants is that connection piece. And in technology is this connected to that? so we can get the right story. And with people, are we connected to the greater vision? And the desire to create that experience that everybody wants

Britt: 12:54

for sure. And I think, going back to one of those key focuses, priorities for HR professionals and technology right now, that communication piece and, finding ways to have better communication. One thing that I think a lot of people have right now, but maybe I'm, I think we underestimate the value of just a standard employee self service portal somewhere, a resource, a technology where employees can just go to one spot and find their resources that they need. They don't have to go find a leader. It's all right there. you can put your benefits on there, your policies, think, EAP resources. there's some things out there too that we have but it's like maybe dig into that a little bit further and maybe utilize that as well. And then of course, I know you talked about maybe like the technology overload And we certainly don't want to push out all these, different technologies So my advice with technology and going in line with the data Since there's so many different resources out there and you don't want to, dump that all on your leaders, make sure to start with a clear understanding first of your specific needs and challenges. I know you can walk into a conference and every booth has something really cool and Oh, that's really cool. That's really cool. then you start Plugging all these in and you lost focus on what you're actually trying to solve. So make sure that you're starting with that clear understanding of that specific need and challenge and how it's going to be incorporated into your other technology and make sure you're involving your team in the process. they're the ones that are going to use your technology. So involve them early, get their, input. There might be things you're not thinking of. And then obviously you need to have a plan in place, train, implement, and it has to be ongoing. We know we have turnover, so it's got to be a continuous focus.

Erin: 14:37

Yeah, and there's people on your team who will struggle with technology. Just, you have to create a plan that will help them get it. Or at least get the information that's needed, for sure. And then there will be people who have no problems, when we went from paper open enrollment to technology open enrollment, that was like a thing. where they could just fill out the paper and give it to you and that's not even a problem. But now, all of a sudden, it was a whole new process and that required so much attention from me and my leadership team that it was, it can be overwhelming. When you go from a paper to electronic, there are, you're going to have to learn, you will learn who all needs your help in that specific way, and it will always fascinate you how they get the payroll side of technology down very quickly.

Britt: 15:33

pay is very important.

Erin: 15:35

And then the HR piece, the open enrollment piece, it's hard to manage like

Britt: 15:40

for sure. Yeah,

Erin: 15:42

fun times, right? So the employee experience is something that we all have to focus on, right? The resident experience, the employee experience, from an HR perspective, what does that look like? Or how does paychecks, leverage the employee experience throughout the entire time. How do you help the community leverage the employee experience?

Britt: 16:06

So this is a great question and the employee experience obviously is something I mentioned earlier, including the more personalized experience, right? So first, just to break down what we mean by employee experience, the employee experience encompasses everything that an employee encounters and feels throughout the time of their organization. And a lot of times we spend. most of that time focusing on the initial employee experience, right through their onboarding. And I think, that makes sense, right? That's their first impression. We gotta have a good experience. And, so I do think that's important, but we need to keep in mind, that we need to focus on the all stages of the employee journey to really retain them. So although there has to be that initial focus, we have to carry that out. And there are several key elements that You know, can support the positive employee experience and, that could look like supportive work environment opportunities for professional development, recognition, communication, employee well being, we've heard all these things, but I think the additional layer on this is being, bringing those. intentional personalized value to those employees. So instead of doing this kind of mass check the box event, okay, we've got a recognition program for our employees, we checked the box. So it should be good. How can we take that kind of a step further? How can we make sure each employee feels connected or value from those programs that we're putting into place? I don't know, About you, Aaron, but I, communication engagement are really those keys for me, I think it all starts with having that good communication. And employee engagement and making sure they feel part of the team and are important. And, if you aren't setting the stage with those two key elements, they don't feel safe or valued. It's not going to be a great experience for them and they're not going to feel included.

Erin: 17:56

Yeah, so I have come to the realization recently that value and worth and alignment and willingness get blurred. if I have a value and worth problem, and you are talking to me about my alignment and my willingness, I'm only hearing value and worth, right? I don't even know what alignment and willingness is

Britt: 18:19

not there yet. You

Erin: 18:21

know, I can go back and I can look at certain situations in my career. And I can see where somebody was talking to me about alignment and willingness, and all I heard was value and worth. It's all right. I do all of this and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So yeah, we have to make as leaders, whether we're at corporate level, regional level, community level, we have to make value and worth our routine consistent efforts. So when the tough conversation comes, we can talk about alignment and willingness. Yeah. And we start every conversation with your worth and your value are not in question here because you are very important to the success of this team. But we do have to talk about alignment and willingness because that's where we see the problem being if we can understand that potentially worth and value is standing in the way of alignment and willingness, we can attack it by making sure that they understand how important they are to us. In their role, for sure. Simple and hard at the same time.

Britt: 19:22

It is. And I think one like good example, maybe of this is I always find it so interesting to me that the there's still such a big number of organizations that continue to have a strong focus on annual reviews. And that's their main. Source of providing feedback and we've moved along the line. We understand that we have to have conversations in between, but we're not necessarily holding people accountable to those, conversations in between. We're more holding them accountable to the annual review and I understand. We have to have that because it aligns with, the performance and the merit increases and things like that. But we have to bring the focus into what's happening in between there. And we can't just say that we have the focus. We have to actually have a strategy around that and a plan in place, of what that looks like. Cause that brings that individualized experience and that value throughout.

Erin: 20:15

Yeah. Yeah. absolutely. You Can't just talk about experiences one time a year as a leader. You're going to forget all the little things that they did. And then you're only going to remember because it's human nature, right? like that is human nature to forget all the good and only remember the bad. So unless you're really good at capturing. Different elements throughout the year for 50 employees, 100 employees or whatever, you have to really focus on where can you communicate what that good choice that just happened, that good interaction between a resident and an associate or a family member and associate and then say to them, let me just tell you what the impact of what you just did was, because if you can show somebody their impact. In the moment, then all of a sudden you just built a lot of confidence in that moment. I made a conscious effort to do that. And I think I learned that over time. I don't think it necessarily came at the beginning, but that's how you build that team. It's Oh. Really? They didn't understand how the two connected. If a resident's family walked down the hall and you didn't acknowledge them, then you just set yourself up to fail there. But if a resident's family is walking down the hall and you say, Hey there, let me tell you a fun story about what your loved one did today. Now all of a sudden you set yourself up to win. And they're not going to think about it that way unless you tell them. And then show them how you are building rapport and trust with this family member.

Britt: 21:48

For sure. Yeah. And it has to be intentional too. You can't just do it when, Oh, I've got time now, so I'll do it. you've got to keep it going. Yes,

Erin: 21:59

it's true. It's true. so as an HR strategic business consultant, do you hear that your HR people who work with the team get all the negative emotions from the leaders? I used to call my HR person and unload. I just, so even if you're a third party HR provider, they, you still get an executive director to unload on the HR person.

Britt: 22:23

all the time. And you know what? I think that's one of actually the advantages of being third party too. We build these connections with our clients. Obviously we're part of their team, but I think since we're not. Sitting next to them. One of the advantages that we can do is pull it back a little bit and just, okay, let's look at this from, a different perspective and kind of help navigate that way too. But no, all the time.

Erin: 22:47

I, have been known to do that and I would have an HR person. That told and she was leaving and another HR person was coming in and they'd be like, sometimes Aaron just calls it, talks things out. She just has to talk it out before she does it. And you just have to listen, yeah, that's

Britt: 23:05

what HR is, for to, again, going back to, we support the leaders to like, they have to have a resource to talk it out. That's, knows what's going on.

Erin: 23:15

Yeah. And so y'all do the workman's comp part of it too. We do. Yeah, have lots of stories on that too, but we certainly don't have to go there. all So paychecks does both things. They do payroll and they do HR. So that's exciting. So give me your before we wrap it up. Give me your top five. of like, why it's important the action items. All those things, what HR being a strategic HR partner in a community is.

Britt: 23:46

Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, let me give you five, If I needed to focus on HR today and where should I start? And I'm going to preface my list, maybe with saying, none of these alone are going to erase all your culture issues, you may or may not have. And certainly depending on the needs of your organization, one may be more beneficial than the other, at least this gives you some ideas of maybe some things you haven't thought of, where to look, based on where we're going, where the trends going, So the first one. I'm going to give you is implementing an employee wellness program. So we are the well being program. So we've heard this a lot. and when we say being, keep in mind, this includes more than just your medical dental insurance. This includes the buckets, financial, social, physical, mental, the whole, the whole person. So I would start with reviewing what you currently have. And a lot of times you may find that you have more than you think. So for an example, a lot of medical carriers actually have additional resources attached to their medical coverage. a lot of like wellness programs and some different things. So look there, look at what you have and see if there's things attached to the resources you already have. Another great starting point is your EAP or employee assistance program. If you don't have one, this is a great starting point for you to get one. you may consider adding that. And if you do have an EAP, again, I'd recommend reaching out to them. and discussing how you can better educate your team on the services they provide. I will say in my role as, an HR business partner, I leaned a lot on EAP provider and I learned quite a bit. there are so many cool resources that they're able to provide that I never knew of. And a lot of it was actually included resources specific to your leadership team and helping them through different situations. And, when to insert a certain resource or what they have to help support you to help support your employees. So I definitely, take a look at your EAP, and make sure that they can help you educate too, because that's another thing. You have these resources, we've got to be able to educate people on them. The next one we we talked about already, but adapting advanced HR technology, again, use your current data, identify, what opportunities you have, and then look for technology that may be able to fill that gap, start small, and make a priority list and make sure that you have a plan to implement and continue to train on those technologies that you, are using. The next one is going to be promote continuous learning and development. So take a look at your training plan for your leaders and your team. Does it include enough diverse programs? So one on one LMS group training, outside opportunities, and is it continuous? Is there an individualized aspect of it? So are you asking your employees on an individual basis what their learning preferences are and how you can help bring value there? So this can be weaved into, your one on one conversations with your team members and understanding again where you can provide value in their experiences. You may have someone that doesn't seem engaged, but it's probably because they're, you're not engaging the right way with them. So make sure that you're, asking those questions and bringing that value. The next one is strengthen DEI initiatives, especially with the younger generations. DEI is huge. so creating and implementing DEI programs to foster that inclusive workplace. We have such a diverse workforce and make sure you're embracing it. Get your team involved with the planning process and start simple. I think a lot of times, people don't know where to start with DEI. they don't feel comfortable with it. just know there's a ton of great resources out there and there's a lot of great people that you can bring in to consult with. for my HR people out there, SHRM is always a good starting point for resources on that. And then the last one, which I think is very important is, cultivating strong leadership, focus on leadership development. And one thing that I love about senior living. Is that most of our leadership team is promoted from within and that is amazing, but keep in mind that they may not have all those leadership skills in place. Most of the times they don't. And that's something that you have to continuously work on with them. Build your trust with your team. Keep that open communication. Make sure that they have resources. They need people. They can reach out to you to continue their development, especially those kind of lower level leadership positions. Those kind of green leaders. that are new to the position. We talk a lot about mentorship with, our care team. We need to make sure we have strong mentors in place with this team too, and cultivating that leadership. So that's my list for you, Erin. Hopefully that's

Erin: 28:34

helpful. I like that list. I like this Marcus Aurelius quote that says, what is in the way becomes the way. and I think that leadership development does if you focus on it the right way, it actually alleviates all the four other points. It helps enhance all the four other points that you made and mentorship is important. And I see, and I hear a lot of people say, a lot of the, a lot of the pain points that we have is when people get promoted. from a lower level leader to a bigger level leader, or from a high performing community that is then told to go into other low performing communities and turn it around, if they don't have that context, they don't understand if they've never worked in a community that needed to be turned around, they don't understand how to do that. Or in my case, I was promoted to an executive director and I had never managed anyone in my entire. Life, right? So there's a lot of nuances in context that people don't have. So mentorship is important and I think it can solve a lot of the problems if we focus on it in specific ways with DEI and with technology and, All those other context clues that you gave us. It's very important. And I do think it is a piece of the puzzle that we're missing inside senior living because our bandwidth is so low, we can only solve so many problems in a day. And without other department heads, it can get very challenging, That full time solution is still being worked on, but mentorship and that's very important and allowing people to, to fail up, allow them to get it wrong. So they can get it right, for sure. Yes. What an amazing conversation. Thank you for shedding some light on some HR. You make HR very colorful and bright. Love that.

Britt: 30:33

That's what we're here for.

Erin: 30:35

Yes, that's what we're here for. So again, Brit works with Paychex as a strategic business consultant, and we met at the American College of Healthcare Administrators. So that was fun. anything else you want to close it out with? A favorite quote? Anything insightful, anything else?

Britt: 30:53

I not necessarily, just, I think, like I said, start small. This always sounds like a lot, right? And I think if there's just one thing that you can pick out and work on continuously and have focus on, I think that can go a long way.

Erin: 31:10

Always start small. That's really, I think one of the big mistakes that we make is thinking that we. You have to be great. Change it overnight. You got it. You have to change it overnight. that just does not work. I even thought that here recently, I was just like, ah, but no, everything's a process. Everything's a process. So thank you for shedding light and having this conversation with us and, inspiring us on how to make it better, because that's what we need more inspiration on this journey inside senior living. So I appreciate it. And as always, for my listeners, aspire for more for you.