In today’s ever-changing world, organizations are so busy looking for ways to attract new staff that they’ve overlooked an important means of addressing staffing shortages –failing to make the best, most effective use of their current team.

Utilizing what you’ve got is important when profit margins are razor-thin and budgets are being slashed, but there are ways to make your buildings more efficient and staff-friendly without breaking the bank. In general, this involves balancing operational improvements with cost-effectiveness.

Divine Dining Without Stepping Up Staffing

A great place to start for most organizations lies in a service they already provide: Dining. Since dining options and quality are one of the top priorities for prospective residents and their families, this is a great place to start. Consider these innovations that can enable high-quality dining with minimal staff:

Use grab-and-go spaces to modernize and provide quality food with fewer employees. Determine what foods can be prepared in advance and appropriate quantities. Have self-serve ques that minimize the need for staff.
Partner with community businesses to offer food trucks on the property to provide meal and snack options for residents. This will bring variety and create excitement for residents as they quickly develop favorites among the rotating selection.
Weigh the potential benefits of eco-friendly disposables to reduce time and energy spent on dishwashing, organizing, and storing dishware.
Use technology to automate food ordering, reducing the staff time for order taking and manually transporting orders to the kitchen. In addition to saving time, this can help prevent errors and delays.
Make use of menu planning software that enables food service managers to create well-balanced menus that accommodate residents’ dietary requirements and preferences. This technology can also generate nutritional analysis reports that can help residents and caregivers track things like caloric, salt, and fat intake.
Open dining venues for shorter hours. Instead of being open all day, consider having some venues operating between 6 and 8, 10 and 12, and/or 2 and 6. Perhaps open the pub only on weekends. Connect with local businesses to create things like pop-up bourbon or scotch tastings or wine and cheese events that they can plan and staff.
Consider breaking down the larger dining room into smaller spaces and rethinking the flow in and out of the dining room. The fewer steps it takes to go from the kitchen to the dining room, the greater the staff efficiency.

AI and Staff Efficiency

Of course, it is essential to consider the value of AI and other technology to make staff more efficient. Using AI can:

Consolidate and analyze data by quickly identifying opportunities for quality improvement, recognizing trends (such as growing numbers of infections or decreasing vaccination rates), tracking resident activity and engagement, and measuring the impact of various programs. AI-generated predictive analytics can enhance effective and prompt decision-making.
Enhance creativity and streamline content development. AI won’t (and shouldn’t) replace your communications or marketing teams, but it can make it easier and more efficient for them to write reports, articles, emails, and marketing materials, and create images and other visuals.
Identify employees’ training needs and interests to connect them with the appropriate programs and courses.
Make tasks such as scheduling and budgeting more efficient and accurate.
Provide real-time performance analytics to gain a better understanding of your staffing needs.

And There’s More…

The most important thing to consider when considering staffing issues is reflection- look around your organization, talk to your staff and residents, and watch for areas where time is wasted and efficiency could be improved. Identify activities and tasks that take up staff time but could be eliminated or streamlined. For instance, instead of making housekeeping part of standard monthly services, make it an add-on. Many residents are able-bodied and prefer to do their own cleaning/tidying. By making it an add-on service, the community will be able to maintain a smaller housekeeping staff. Elsewhere, make sure Wi-fi, charging stations, hand sanitizer dispensers, and other tools and supports are readily available and accessible. Take steps to reduce the time staff spend searching for supplies or running from one building or floor to another.

Weigh the benefits and disadvantages before investing in technology and other tools. Then, monitor their usage, and good training will ensure that they are effective employees. Make sure staff will get adequate training to use these devices efficiently and easily. Then monitor their effectiveness over time.

Increasing staff efficiency makes staff work better and smarter, reducing the need for an increased number of workers, and can lead to greater returns. Staff efficiency practices can also increase employees' job satisfaction and enable them to spend more time with residents, doing the work they love.

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