NIC launched its Executive Survey Insights (ESI) series in March 2020 to provide timely insights on key property operational metrics within the senior housing and skilled nursing sectors during a critical time. Since this survey series was launched, more than 50 waves of the survey captured the property market’s performance through numerous challenges – COVID-19, labor deficiencies, supply shortages, threats of a looming recession, inflation, and rising expenses.
As the industry navigated these circumstances, the real-time insights captured in the ESI reports and accompanying chart packs provided industry stakeholders with perspective on these issues and ensured the narrative on senior housing and care operational trends was accurate.
Future NIC Surveys
To continuously improve transparency within our industry, NIC is pausing the ESI survey while we evaluate our surveying opportunities going forward. As the senior housing and care industry is now at a pivotal point, NIC’s forthcoming surveys will focus on the forward-looking perspectives of the industry’s leaders to provide actionable insights for developing strategies for navigating our dynamic and evolving market.
Executive Survey Insights’ Hot Topics
While we are taking the time to re-engineer our survey tools, let’s revisit a couple of the most pressing issues addressed by NIC’s Executive Survey Insights during the past few years.
Impact of COVID-19 Variants on Occupancy
A question throughout the entirety of the ESI series investigated the pace of move-ins and move-outs over the prior 30-day period. Within each wave, respondents also gave insights about the primary causes behind the changes in the pace of move-ins, including organization or state-imposed ban, resident or family member concerns, delays in lead conversions, or potential residents’ fear of an unstable economy.
Impact of Labor Shortages on FTE Recruitment
Labor shortages were an unfortunate hallmark of the COVID-19 pandemic. Questions pertaining to the severity of staffing shortages, agency utilization, and attracting and retaining employees were always of great interest.
These survey questions provided reference points on where other organizations stood and insights into strategies to address the situation and which of those strategies were most successful. For example, in June 2022, the most effective method cited for attracting new community staff was increasing wages, followed by flexible schedules, and hiring bonuses.
Upcoming NIC Launch
NIC’s ESI findings have garnered great interest from media and have provided the senior housing and care industry with timely information on relevant market trends. Keep an eye out for NIC’s launch of its new survey series in the coming months!