Month: July 2018

The role of the village manager is both challenging and rewarding.

How challenging is reflected in the fact that for many it is a high turnover career.

In January this year we commissioned Australian Online Research (AOR) to survey the managers in villages covered in our National Resident Survey villages. 283 responded, a significant number (out of 545 invited).

From the chart above you can see 21% had been in the job for less than a year and 51% had been in the job for less than three years.

As you would know, it takes a couple of years to understand a village, its budgets, its residents, the service providers.

So this turnover is not good.

Village managers were also asked for any added comments they would like to offer. The following are some of the themes which emerged:

1. High job satisfaction

2. Dealing with unrealistic expectations of operators, residents and families:

• Increased demands of compliance, regulatory and corporate reporting, taking away from needs of day-to-day job
• Challenges of increasing care and support needs of residents as they age, which may exceed the intended ‘offer’ of a retirement village
• Unrealistic expectations for village manager to be on call 24/7
• Poor understanding of contract terms by longer-term residents
• Increased pressures to do more with same budget

3. Issues with job appeal and description undervaluing the role

• Complexities of the job undervalued, requiring complex set of skills
• Poor pay structure
• Poor job growth opportunities (e.g. promotion)

4. Insufficient staffing/support to run the village

5. Need for more authority – particularly with maintenance and approval of capital expenditures

6. Impact of bad press on the industry, perceptions and demands

7. Decline in respect by residents – no longer mutual respect, but matter of ‘we pay your wage’

Do these themes match your own?

One of the most common phone enquiries we get here at DoComeMonday Media is the question of whether Not For Profit villages are better than villages with Private operators.

We asked AOR to explore this in our villages.com.au National Resident Survey 2018, where we had 30 Private and 25 Not For Profit operators participate. Here is a direct quote from their report:

With an understanding now of the different segments, it is useful to compare the Private and Not For Profit sectors and how they fall out.

Residents living in Not For Profit villages are more likely to be in the ‘Couldn’t be happier’ segment, at 28% compared to 22% of those in Private villages.

This reflects the relatively higher proportion we saw earlier of residents who gave a rating of ’10 – very satisfied’. However, at the same time, Not For Profits also have a higher proportion in the ‘Generally unhappy’ segment, at 15% compared to 11% of those in Private villages.

This relatively higher polarisation suggests that where the Not For Profits deliver on the promise, they deliver well. But where the delivery falls short, the shortcomings are numerous.

Above is one of the summary conclusions by the leading market research firm AOR, who we commissioned to survey the residents of 557 villages – yours might have been one. Nearly 20,000 residents completed it.

Like all good research, it tells you what you already know. Being a village manager is a tough job.

What we did not know was the high turnover – 50% of managers moved on in less than three years.

This means one of several things. Village managers are not enjoying the work (not supported by the research). You are not getting the support you expect from HO or the owners (this is supported by the research). This goes to variability in training. And the fact that the job is demanding and, as suggested by the researchers, underpaid for the skills, responsibility and hours.

How much do village managers earn? Most sit between $55,000 and $90,000. You will have an idea if that is just reward.

Over the coming issues, we will discuss this further and the other findings of the research. (If your village participated your organisation will have a full report – you could ask to see it. Fascinating and very beneficial.)

What is the awareness of villages?

Retirement villages are better understood and more favourably thought of than many would think.

In January we commissioned market research firm Australian Online Research (AOR) to survey residents of retirement villages. 19,600 residents participated.

As a control we also commissioned AOR to survey non-residents and their perceptions and interest in joining a village.

The top graph above reflects the answers by 1,109 people to the question: “Are you familiar with the concept of retirement villages?”

24% know quite a bit and 55% know a little. Only 23% say they haven’t heard of them or are not familiar.

I expect this matches your own experience.

The graph underneath, unsurprisingly, shows that 63% of the 1,109 people surveyed know someone who lives or has lived in a retirement village.

What we hear is that prospective residents have nothing against the concept of a retirement village but, with their kids, they are more wary of the contracts.

This is good if it leads to better understanding at the commencement rather than at the end of the village journey.