ICYMI: Workforce Solutions Big and Small a Top Priority for LeadingAge Minnesota

Posted on July 6, 2023 by Kari Thurlow

This message from President and CEO Kari Thurlow was initially sent to members on July 3

During the first month of summer, I had the honor of connecting with many members in person, first at District Meetings and then at our recent Board of Directors strategic planning retreat.

In these critical conversations, I had the opportunity to learn more about all the amazing work in your organizations: you are leading change, refocusing on the future, and doing all you can to serve seniors in all the places they call home.

It seems as though we have newfound optimism and energy as we have ended the public health emergency and can finally move beyond the crisis we endured for the last several years. Certainly, significant headwinds remain, especially concerning our current workforce supply, but opportunity exists as well.

We entered the 2023 Legislative Session with an ambitious agenda that proposed bold investments to improve caregiver wages. Together we successfully advocated for historic investments in seniors and their caregivers and will receive approximately $1 billion in funding for the sector over the next four years. We are proud of your advocacy, we are thankful for the lawmakers who prioritized our caregivers, and we are hopeful these investments will help ensure seniors have access to the right care at the right time.

But our work isn’t done! With a nearly 20% shortfall in Minnesota’s caregiving workforce, we must continue our work to elevate the field of aging services and the profession of caregiving.

With guidance from the Board of Directors and support from the LeadingAge Minnesota Foundation, LeadingAge Minnesota has prioritized building a committed workforce to support our seniors. I want to highlight just a few of the promising strides we have taken together beyond legislative advocacy to address our workforce needs:

• Campaign for Minnesota Caregivers -LeadingAge Minnesota is committed to expanding the pool of available caregivers. Earlier this year, the Long-Term Care Imperative, a collaboration between LeadingAge Minnesota and Care Providers of Minnesota, secured over $700,000 to launch a statewide campaign targeted at Minnesota job seekers to promote careers in aging services. Our goal is to launch this campaign by the end of the year. Throughout the campaign, we will leverage the voices of our most trusted messengers—Minnesota’s caregivers.

By developing a new website of resources for job seekers paired with a statewide campaign, we will share the many opportunities within the field while attracting new caregivers into the profession. Ultimately, we hope these efforts support LeadingAge Minnesota members in your local recruitment efforts.

This project is supported by the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) Long-Term Care Workforce Capacity Building Project, with funding from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

• Improved Testing Access – A significant barrier to recruiting CNAs is the lack of access to testing, and we are committed to addressing testing deserts in Minnesota. LeadingAge Minnesota successfully advocated for a pilot project for in-facility testing at seven locations around the state. Now that the pilot is complete with great results, MDH wants to expand the number of in-facility testing sites. This is excellent news, as providers can more quickly test and qualify new CNAs. If your organization wants to be considered for this expansion, please contact Anna Mowry, LeadingAge Minnesota’s Director of Workforce Solutions.
• Workforce Data Portal and Salary Compensation Tools – The LeadingAge Minnesota Data Portal continues to expand its offerings to assist members with benchmarking in critical areas, including workforce intelligence that helps inform your business decisions. As a benefit of membership, you can access vital workforce data, including market reports on compensation, employee turnover, employee retention, and vacancy rates, to aid in your recruitment and retention strategies. If you’d like to learn more about the Data Portal, contact Jeff Bostic, LeadingAge Minnesota’s Director of Data and Financial Policy.

These are just a few examples of the work underway to address our workforce challenges. We invite you to explore additional resources outlined online via our Working to Repair the Pipeline Guide, in our resource library, and on our workforce resources page, but we are far from finished. Addressing our critical shortage of nurses, identifying technology solutions, and improving criminal background check delays are all included in our work ahead. We are committed to approaching these solutions through collaboration with our members and stakeholder partners.

We have also heard from you regarding the continued need for tools and resources to support new leaders in the field. The development of an executive leadership program is underway, with a goal to give new and emerging leaders the skills they need to foster a positive workforce culture, lead strategic planning for their organizations, and build meaningful relationships with their community to garner support for aging services.

While we continue to address workforce issues that arise on the state level, federal action on mandated staffing ratios for nursing homes looms, with a proposed rule due from CMS any day. The potential impact of this proposed rule is significant, not just for nursing homes but for the entire continuum of care. We are prepared to lead advocacy efforts to ensure that policymakers understand that there are too few people to hire in nursing homes, the costs of delivering quality nursing home care far exceeds reimbursement, and a single staffing level cannot fit the need of every resident in our nursing homes. Collaboration with our national partners will be essential in these efforts as well. Our national partner, LeadingAge, has urged federal policymakers to “Get Real on Ratios,” and we couldn’t agree more. It will take all of us working together to ensure policymakers are thoughtful and data-driven in their approach. The stakes are far too great for policymakers to get it wrong.

As always, we welcome your input, and we value your feedback. Feel free to share your thoughts with me or any of the team at LeadingAge Minnesota so we can continue to build a trusted community working together to enhance the experience of aging in our great state.