The Ceca Award for Senior Living

Honoring team members in both clinical and non-clinical care support roles

The Challenge

Employee retention has long been a central focus of senior living workforce professionals. But with the COVID-19 pandemic complicating matters, the task of finding and hiring the right employees across both clinical and support teams has taken on renewed importance. As a result, it’s more critical than ever to think creatively about how you can attract talented people into the field—and keep them there.

The most rewarding part of working in senior living is serving and caring for your residents. Providing an exceptional resident experience is the central job function across every department. SL professionals have a special opportunity to build relationships and engage their residents over long periods of time, so it’s essential to give them consistent and positive reinforcement of both individual and organizational values.

Be an organization that caregivers WANT to work for!

“The Ceca Award program accentuates everything we are about at Goodwin House—kindness, compassion, and teamwork in service of our residents. Partnering with Ceca has helped us to recognize many of our ‘unsung heroes’ in both clinical and support roles, so they feel appreciated and see the impact they make each day. And it’s enhanced our ‘resident first’ culture, as they are actively engaged in the process of honoring our team members for actions that improve their quality of life. We seek to honor and uplift our employees, and the Ceca Foundation has shown us avenues to recognize them through their peers, managers, residents and family members.”

Barbara D'Agostino

Executive Director, Goodwin House Alexandria

The Role of Engagement

Engagement defined

Engaged employees are willing to go above and beyond to solve problems—often without being asked to do so. Engaged employees view their work as a calling and feel a sense of belonging at their organizations. They give maximum effort and strive to see their companies succeed. (Source: Achievers.com)

Research has long shown a correlation between overall engagement and turnover. According to the PRC study, there is also a strong overlap between caregiver engagement and better patient experiences.

So if turnover is a major challenge for senior living communities, and better resident experiences are desired, what can be done about it?

The Solution

Recognition is a top driver of engagement

The Ceca Award program was inspired by one family’s experience finding the right senior living community for a parent. While it can be stressful making decisions about a loved one’s care, the peace of mind that comes from knowing they are in good hands is priceless.

The program is unique in its focus on recognizing high-touch acts of care in senior living communities in a high-tech way. As a nonprofit, Ceca’s mission aligns with yours—providing an exemplary experience for your residents. And Ceca’s easy-to-use online platform allows you to publicly recognize more of your employees, across more departments, for acts of care that define your values. The power of Ceca’s program is that it engages all employees in your care community, with almost 33% of those honored working in non-clinical support positions.

Understand the Philosophy

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