As a nonprofit aging services provider, you aim to use your budget to serve older adults. You may be surprised to learn that operational expenses, including unemployment costs, can drain valuable funds and impede your mission-driven work. During this session, representatives from UST Workforce Solutions, a LeadingAge Gold Partner, will explore cost-effective workforce strategies to streamline your human resources processes, ensure regulatory compliance, and improve operational efficiency. You’ll learn how nonprofit organizations are leveraging artificial intelligence to boost productivity without reducing staff, and how certain unemployment funding options, including a little-known federal exemption, can reduce unemployment costs for 501(c)(3) organizations while helping them build a valuable long-term financial asset.

In today’s labor-constrained environment, senior living organizations need more than hindsight. They need actionable foresight. This session will showcase a tool that can help. You’ll hear about Retention Radar, a predictive workforce intelligence solution that identifies employees most at risk of leaving their jobs and recommends targeted, practical interventions to support engagement and stability. Presenters will explain how Retention Radar equips Human Resources teams, operations leaders, and community administrators to interpret workforce trends and make data-informed decisions. Users of the tool will share strategies for translating predictive analytics into targeted retention interventions and explain how Retention Radar helped them build healthier teams and enhance the resident experience.

Educators, providers, policymakers, and workforce leaders nationwide are rethinking how aging services providers recruit, train, support, and retain frontline caregivers. This session will highlight this collaborative effort. Presenters will describe a recent national meeting that examined the potential for multi-state collaboration to standardize certified nursing assistant (CNA) career pathways through state-based Geriatrics Workforce Enhancement Programs. They’ll share lessons learned from convening stakeholders across education, workforce development, aging services, finance, policy, and care delivery systems to discuss workforce solutions. You’ll discover how stakeholder collaboration can drive system-wide changes in policy, practice, and workforce development.

A centralized talent acquisition framework consolidates hiring operations under a single Human Resources (HR) team and helps your organization transform recruitment into a proactive, data-driven strategy. This session will show you how centralized recruitment models enable HR teams to conduct higher-quality candidate assessments and enhance the candidate experience through consistent communication, streamlined touchpoints, and clear expectations. Presenters will share strategies to help you assess and redesign your current recruitment operations, streamline workflows, and leverage technology to drive higher returns on investment. You’ll see how a centralized approach can lower vacancy rates, improve outcomes, strengthen workforce stability, and reduce your organization’s compliance and legal risk.

Intergenerational programs and community partnerships can enhance the well-being of older adults across care settings. This session will introduce purpose-driven engagement options that improve residents’ quality of life and enable them to share their wisdom with younger generations. Presenters will describe a summer camp for teens and older adults that offers opportunities for connection and storytelling; a LEGO-based engagement initiative; and a classroom experience that enables college students to conduct research informed by older adults. You’ll learn how to develop and scale these purpose-driven practices by identifying the right community partners, tailoring engagement strategies to residents with diverse cognitive and physical abilities, and integrating engagement into daily life.

When team members see a future for themselves at your organization, they will stay, grow, and thrive. This session will show you how in-house career coaching makes that possible by establishing clear career pathways, building trust-based coaching relationships, and supporting skill development. Presenters will outline a scalable career-coaching model used by a life plan community to foster workforce engagement, increase retention, and improve organizational culture. You’ll gain tools to build your own coaching program, including strategies for identifying champions, defining success metrics, and embedding coaching into everyday workflows. Don’t miss this opportunity to create a future where every team member thrives.

Direct care professionals face persistent challenges, including high turnover, low wages, and limited opportunities for career advancement. This session will showcase a promising solution: the Universal Direct Care Workforce Initiative. This career advancement model features immersive training for new hires, specialty training in dementia and behavioral health, and a “Care Integration Senior Aide” who documents and reports clients’ clinical conditions to the care team. A representative from PHI, a national workforce organization, will share data from the initiative’s first year, and a home care partner will describe evidence-based practices implemented through the program. You’ll learn how this model improves the quality of care and boosts workforce satisfaction and retention.

Studying the characteristics of senior living communities with healthy organizational cultures can help providers shape thriving workplaces of their own. This session will showcase how a two-year workforce-strengthening initiative at San Francisco’s Sequoia Living reduced turnover and enhanced resident satisfaction. Presenters will detail how the initiative encouraged residents and team members to embrace a growth mindset that respectfully challenges the status quo, foster an inclusive environment where all voices are heard, and exercise accountability and care to increase engagement and outcomes. You’ll discover how the initiative reduced Sequoia Living’s turnover to an all-time low of 17% and improved the “culture score” the organization receives from its employees.

Given the complexity of life plan communities and the scope of management responsibilities, boards of directors often focus primarily on their financial and fiduciary duties. This session offers a different approach. Presenters will unpack the board’s responsibility to dig deeper into compliance measures to understand what they reveal about a life plan community’s quality of care and quality of life. These insights will help the board participate in developing person-centered solutions that advance the organization’s mission. You’ll learn how a governance approach grounded in accountability, learning, and compassion fosters transformative collaboration among organizational leaders and how that collaboration can enhance the quality of life for older adults.

Can a Culture of Excellence® transform your organization’s revenue streams and financial performance? According to this session’s presenters, the answer is a definitive and enthusiastic “yes.” Representatives from Transforming Age, a leading national nonprofit network offering holistic and integrated solutions that enable older adults to age successfully, will explain how their organization developed a “Culture of Excellence,” a pocket-sized booklet containing guiding principles that have united team members across five service lines, helped the organization solve complex problems, and improved its financial health. You will hear the business case for creating your own Culture of Excellence and receive a framework and data points to measure how your organization’s culture impacts your mission and bottom line.

Everyone is a fundraiser. That’s the message of this session, which will help you support key strategic priorities in your senior living community by connecting donors, both emotionally and programmatically, to specific activities or divisions on your campus. Presenters will show you how to leverage the strategic vision of your board, executive team, divisional leaders, and key frontline staff to move the needle on benevolence. You’ll learn to build relationships with diverse team leaders across all care levels and lifestyle divisions, then work together to prioritize fundraising opportunities that align with donor interests and your strategic plan.

The aging services sector faces two significant challenges: a nationwide shortage of home health aides and a growing demand for culturally competent respite care for individuals with dementia and their caregivers. This session will explore how Hebrew SeniorLife addressed both challenges through one innovative program. Representatives from the Boston-based housing and service provider will explain how their in-home respite care program trains students and young professionals interested in clinical careers to provide cognitive support and culturally competent care to older adults. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn about and replicate this workforce-building and caregiver-supporting model.