Leadership for an Evolving Market

In long-term care services, it is more challenging than ever to recruit and retain exceptional employees. Cedar Community – a senior living community in rural Wisconsin – has succeeded in maintaining the quality of staff for which it has been known for nearly 70 years. CEO Nicole Pretre has prioritized the “people who take care of people,” making sure they feel valued, recognized and cared for, and improving total work force compensation. Another priority for Pretre has been diversifying the organization’s revenue streams; one way is by moving more into home-based services that complement the organization’s bricks-and-mortar business while maintaining the same standards of excellence. Pretre is pushing growth and expansion but nothing is done without consideration of the faith-based, nonprofit mission that she believes will sustain Cedar Community for many years to come.

Maintaining excellence and quality in senior living services is challenging during a global pandemic. Adam Marles, president and CEO of Missouri-based Lutheran Senior Services, has worked to help his organization – 10 communities in the entire LSS network – maintain a 4.7-star rating out of a possible 5 stars from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. His personal mission is to serve seniors as well as the individual employees who dedicate their lives to the senior care vocation. This involves striving to be as competitive as possible regarding compensation and benefits, and working to make people in the organization feel valued and appreciated. “My job as president and CEO is to do whatever I can to make sure everyone else is successful,” Marles says. His near-term goal for the organization is to emerge from COVID-19 stronger and better positioned to navigate the increasingly dynamic senior services sector than when the pandemic started.