TALA recently surveyed our Assisted Living provider members on masking and Covid-19 vaccine policies to ascertain their impact on employee hiring and retention. Results indicate a variety of experiences however overall, most indicated that masking and infection policies have not had a negative impact on recruitment and retention.
Most respondents to both surveys represented a larger network of Assisted Living (AL) communities. In all surveys, about 20% of respondents had 30 or fewer beds. At least 50% of responses indicated that Covid-19 infection protocols including masking and vaccines have not had an impact on retention.
Regarding mask policies, more than 70% indicated their staff are expected to wear a face covering of some sort around residents and in indoor spaces. 61% don’t think that having a mask policy is impacting their ability to recruit or retain staff. 66% don’t think that infection prevention and control policies have negatively impacted their ability to attract and retain high quality employees.
Survey responses regarding workforce and Covid vaccine policies indicated that over 30% had a positive response to a vaccine mandate announcement. 5% had a neutral response to a vaccine announcement while about 30% had a negative response. 65% of total respondents have had a vaccine mandate at some point over the past two years and 42% still have a vaccine mandate for employees in place. For those that did not have or do not currently have a vaccine mandate, 10% indicated a positive impact on recruitment or retention while 30% expressed a negative impact on recruitment or retention.
