Category: Key things to help you everyday

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Key things to help you everyday Latest industry developments Reporting Results

Code of Conduct and training of Village Managers in your Village budgets

If your village operator is a member of LASA (Leading Age Services Australia), the Retirement Living Council or the Property Council, you will be looking to implement the new retirement village Code of Conduct between now and December.

The Code of Conduct is a 30-page document that outlines how each village intends to conduct itself with residents. If you would like a copy, click HERE.

The Code is voluntary but there is a big push coming for every operator to take it up. Ask your boss!

Village management has until December to implement the Code. From January the requirements must be operating and each village accountable.

‘Severe’ breaches of the Code will result in the village being ‘sanctioned’ – named and shamed on the industry website.

From the picture at the top, you can see that ‘training’ has to be seen to be provided to you, and for it to be real and relevant training.

Have you got training in your 2020 budget? Have you discussed with your operator who will pay for training? How much should you allocate?

A tip. A KPMG focus group of operators all said the operator should pay and nominated $2,500-$3,000 for two days training, as a start.

This is an investment in your village, the success of the Code of Conduct, and of course yourself.

Our VILLAGE SUMMIT has been built around the Code of Conduct and the new accreditation system. (More about accreditation next newsletter).

Learn more about the VILLAGE SUMMIT HERE.

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Key things to help you everyday What the research tells us

The important role of the Village Manager in the Sales Process, especially with slow sales

Early indications reveal Retirement Living sales will be slow in 2019.

Negative media, the impacts of a softening residential housing market, tightening of consumer lending, and let’s not forget the influence of the Aged Care Royal Commission.

We know your role as the Village Manager in the Sales Process is an important one, whether you are totally responsible for the sales function or whether you work alongside the marketing and sales teams.

The Village Managers is the face of the village – and first impressions count!

Here are some things to think about.

  1. You can prepare the village for potential customer visits:
  • Lead the Village team to focus on customer service so that first impressions count
  • Meet with prospective residents early in the process, to ensure a strong relationship can be built
  1. Residents and word-of-mouth in the local community is gold:
  • Maintain resident satisfaction and engagement, to encourage residents to also be a sound referral source for the village
  • Maintain a planned welcome process that encourages a smooth transition for new residents; home readiness, neighbour buddies, induction, meals, etc..
  • Build community relationships to influence local community members to become referral sources for the village
  1. You are on the spot and a local yourself. You understand what the market wants:
  • Assist with development planning with real, local information
  • Influence the marketing strategies by providing intelligence around the current resident socio-demographic

This is what you do every day -the marketers need to understand this and engage with you more this year than ever before.

Categories
Key things to help you everyday Latest industry developments Reporting Results

NSW government to limit weekly fees for departing residents – max.42 days

Do your village contracts require you to charge a departing resident or their family or their estate ongoing weekly fees until their village home has been reoccupied? Most do.

But if you are in New South Wales the limit is about to be fixed at six weeks (42 days).

This means that after six weeks the operator is likely to have to pay the fees for the vacancy unit into the village budget.

This is really going to hurt a lot of operators, especially with slow sales and building vacant stock.

The average village home now takes over 300 days from when it becomes vacant to being reoccupied. That is 43 weeks, meaning in NSW the operator will be paying 36 weeks worth of village fees. At $100 a week that is $3600, or $36,000 for a 100 unit village that has a 10% turnover a year.

Is this new government ruling fair? On paper, no. If a normal lease tenant departs before the lease is complete they are responsible for the fees until the property is relet. However there is an argument that operators both take their time to relet and because they control the sale process the departing resident has no chance to intervene.

Irrespective, it is likely other states will follow the New South Wales government.

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Key things to help you everyday Latest industry developments Things to watch

Is your village listed on villages.com.au? Act now and save $200

Do you have a pay promotion listing on our retirement village directory website villages.com.au, the N0.1 digital search and education directory?

If not, perhaps you should. Did you know that:

  • 870,000 people searched for a retirement village on villages.com.au in the past 12 months
  • Google ranks villages.com.au No.1 in most searches
  • villages.com.au educate visitors on retirement villages and contract with videos and expert education

The investment is $800 for 12 months for a full promotion listing, but rises to $1000 in July.

Why not search your suburb or town HERE, to check us out.

Need help with photos and words – we can do that for you.

Email us HERE or call Nathan on 02 9555, 9576.

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Key things to help you everyday Latest industry developments What the research tells us

Retirement villages are a really important member of the local community – invest in it

Many of us don’t think about how much a retirement villages contribute in the local community and how many people we touch.

100 residents each have two local friends and let’s say two local children – that’s 400 people and 400 families.

100 residents have doctors, dentists, hairdressers, pharmacists, clubs and shopping centres they buy from.

With 100 residents, you have a business that may be valued at $10M+ that spends money every week on maintenance and operations.

The village is important and you as the village manager are important to all these people.

And they are important to you.

To maximise the enjoyment of your role and the value of your village, for your residents and operator, our advice is to get out in the local community.

Here are some suggestions:

  1. Join a local community club or business council – it can be refreshing to network with other local business managers
  2. Ask your residents if they have any special local relationships that you can promote e.g. membership of local clubs, children who run local businesses
  3. Check the council website or visit their office to get the calendar of local events over the next 12 months to see what you can participate in
  4. Understand and promote what transport options are available to residents
  5. Promote local events in the village (special business sales, community events)
  6. Identify local businesses that can benefit both the residents & business owners and suggest some special deals e.g. the local butcher offers of a village special once a week or businesses that can deliver, offer seniors discount, or are willing to do a talk/host event for residents are a great start
  7. Inviting local community groups into the village for an agreed function/activity or be a guest speaker

I like to think as Village Mangers we are striving to be great Community leaders in every way.

It’s the last day of January so why not start the year on a fresh note.

Categories
Key things to help you everyday What the research tells us

January means revisiting the basics. Top of the list: investing in ‘the village community’

All the research, and our experience, shows that one of the biggest drivers for people joining a retirement village is the ‘sense of community’.

What does this mean? It means having like-minded people around you that you can simply know are there, up to mixing with them on a daily basis. Village residents are not alone, compared to ageing in the family home, often isolated.

But sense of community just doesn’t happen; and it can drop away unless we invest in it.

Every January it is a good idea to simply reflect on what is going on in the village over the next 12 months that keeps this sense of community alive.

What are you doing as the village manager to keep the momentum going?

We can’t do everything and we are not entertainment officers. Think about three things you can invest in over the next 12 months. Here is a list I refer to.

  1. Are you undertaking a regular walk around the village (my preference is on a weekly basis, to get out from behind the desk)?
  2. Do you stage a simple regular Village Manager morning/afternoon tea – using this opportunity to get to know residents on a one-on-one basis?
  3. Do you need a small budget to make contributions to kickstart events? Perhaps ask the operator as it will build goodwill for the village.
  4. Check the social club/committee. Is it active and vibrant or losing its puff? Does it need new blood? Can you get involved for a period of time, suggesting bus events, Monday coffee meets for the men etc?
  5. Does the village have an objective, like raising money for the local surf lifesaving club or quilting for a women’s homeless shelter etc?
  6. Do you have a resident buddy system to accompany a new resident or reserved resident to activities within the village?
  7. Do you provide an opportunity for all residents to have a say in the items that are important to their lifestyle ie survey, informal meetings, suggestion box, feedback forms?
  8. Can you identify a common cause that can be worked on together by all of the resident community ie community market stall, Christmas event, rejuvenation of a garden area?

Pick just three as a start. My experience is a healthy village community makes a village manager’s job so much easier and rewarding.

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Key things to help you everyday Things to watch

Salespeople staying with the resident for first six months?

I had an interesting discussion with a leading lawyer in the retirement village sector this week.

When should the salesperson hand over responsibility for a customer?

At the moment once a customer says ‘I want to buy’ they are handed over to administration to process the paperwork and contract.

The lawyer says the salesperson has made all the offers on what a great value proposition the village presents, so perhaps they should be staying with the customer at least through to when the settling period is over to ensure their perceived promises are delivered.

This could be six months for some operators.

It’s an interesting idea. What do you think?

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Key things to help you everyday

Christmas village ‘To Do’ Check List, by Jodie Prosser

Whilst the Christmas decorations are up, the village choir is carolling and the Christmas celebrations are beginning in and around the village, the village manager’s work is not quite done.

Here are some hints and tips that might help ensure you have a peaceful Christmas season:

Getting in front of some risks

Schedule some time in the diary to disaster-proof your Christmas period:

  • In many states it is the commencement of fire season and unusual weather activities so it is a great time to review the Fire & Evacuation plans and even consider running an Evacuation drill reminder session for residents.
  • Review the emergency contact numbers for residents and remind them of when and what numbers they are to call for the different types of likely mishaps.
  • It is also an opportunity to make sure that you have access to resident’s emergency contact details.
  • Also the emergency numbers for support contractors during the Christmas period. Suggestion: put them in your phone or so they are easily accessible when off-site.
  • Confirm, test and communicate any phone diversions that may be put in place during the holiday period.
  • Ensure the CCTV and safety mechanisms in and around the village are working and have been serviced.
  • It even pays to check with service providers that assist with automated facilities such as automatic gates, lifts and automatic doors if there are emergency contact numbers for their services during the break.
  • If you are handing over to someone else, even within the organisation, during the break, make sure they are prepared for the likely emergencies that could occur, know where to find the required information, who to call, have access to the contact phone lists and are also contactable during this time.

Sales and marketing

  • Consider inviting depositors or potential residents to one of the Christmas activities.
  • Don’t stop marketing just because it is Christmas.
  • Ensure there is a plan for sales enquiries through the Christmas period, especially for those families that only come home once a year and this year is the year, they decide Mum needs to move.

General

  • Send a Christmas note and thank you to those that have made your job easier throughout the year; might be the plumber that drops everything when you have a hot water issue, the mail man that walks your mail into you on a rainy day, a personal carer that is always smiling and happy to help, or a helpful resident that puts away your office bins. There are generally those people around the village that do more than they have to make sure you thank them and wish them well for the holiday season.
  • Allow some time in your diary to do those tidy-up jobs you have been putting off during the year and get it off your to do list.

Finally, it should also be a great time of self-reflection of the many wonderful things that have occurred or been achieved in your village over the past year. Making a list of these can be rewarding. Perhaps consider sharing them with the residents in the last or first newsletter for the year.

Jodie Prosser

Jodie has 25 years experience managing retirement villages and is principal of Optimum Retirement Services

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Key things to help you everyday Things to watch

ResiRatings – now over 600 villages rated

We just completed the resident survey for three village operators. Vasey (NSW), BassCare (VIC) and The Henley On Broadwater (QLD). Plus Oak Tree topped up its previous research findings.

They all got great ResiRating results. Henley On Broadwater achieved 4.5 ResiRating stars, plus 94 Satisfaction.

This is what The Henley On Broadwater looks like on villages.com.au: https://www.villages.com.au/qld/southport/the-henley-on-broadwater-private-aged-care-11714

This is the story behind ResiRatings: https://www.villages.com.au/resirating/about-resirating

Want to know more? Ask Anna: annaa@docomemonday.com.au

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Key things to help you everyday Things to watch

AbiBird launches $10 ‘Duty of Care’ retirement village service at ITAC after VIC Coroner’s inquest

In our experience the residents of retirement villages are made up of three groups of people.

The first are outgoing and interested in every social activity. The second group occasionally attend events but keep their circle of friends pretty close. And the third are rarely seen.

This partly explains the sad events in a large Victorian Lendlease village where an elderly woman died but was not discovered for two weeks, despite having a weekly home care service. A very sad event.

The Coroner raised the question of ‘duty of care’. Under the Retirement Village Act residents must be ‘independent’, meaning they can look after themselves in every respect. But the reality is every village has a population of people with increasing frailty.

You will recall Aveo had the same challenge highlighted in the Four Corners program of a resident who had fallen in the hallway of his unit and his emergency call pendant was on the benchtop and he couldn’t reach it. He lay there for several days.

Here is a new solution. AbiBird is an advertiser with us but we think it’s worth mentioning that yesterday at the IT in Aged Care (ITAC) conference in Adelaide their new service for retirement villages was launched.

They will place one or two AbiBird movement sensors in a retirement village unit that can send out an SMS to a mobile phone or an email to the office that no movement is occurring when there should be. You can add a family member to this distribution as well.

The device can learn movement patterns or you can simply set fixed times, like first thing in the morning from 6am to midday.

There are no cameras or audio, so limited privacy challenges.

The cost is negotiable but let’s say $10 per month. There are no wires, no contracts etc and 4AA batteries last for 12 months.

This information is not up on their consumer website. If you want to learn more call or email James Tucker at AbiBird on 0408 725130 or jamest@abibird.com.au.

By the way, AbiBird is a uniquely Australian invention and is already being picked up in Germany and Ireland (of all places).