Great Place to Work Award

Connecticut Assisted Living Association (CALA)
2025 Best Practices Award for Staff Recruitment and Retention
Shady Oaks Assisted Living: “Four Happy Staff Appreciation Efforts”

During 2025, Shady Oaks Assisted Living developed four happy staff appreciation efforts: Staff Name Hearts, staff-to-staff “Thank-You-Grams,” family-to-staff “Tips,” and $25/hour pay. These efforts deserve recognition and sharing as Staff Recruitment and Retention Best Practices.

In June, Shady Oaks created a Staff Hearts display. We installed a 6-foot hardwood planter at our main entrance, filled it with white stone, and topped it with 57 sea glass 3-inch blue hearts. Each heart has an engraved staff name. This celebrates all our staff at our home’s front door.

In July, we started our staff-to-staff “Thank-You-Grams.” Staff fill out colorful fun forms with details of appreciation for other staff. We post these publicly; we add copies to staff records; and we deliver copies to thanked staff. We now average 24 staff-to-staff Thank-Yous per month.

In August, we began a family-to-staff “Tip” program. When residents pass away, families get reimbursements back to that day. We now ask if they might instead donate this as a humanitarian staff “Tip.” So far, four families donated, and we raised $17,199 for staff appreciation programs.

In September, we reached $25/hour for CNAs. Indeed.com lists average CNA wages in Bristol as $21.63/hour. Shady Oaks CNAs start at $24.50/hour, do six paid hours of online in-services, and boost their pay to $25/hour. Applicants cite our high wages as their #1 reason for applying.

We proudly share these four efforts: Staff Name Hearts, Thank-You-Grams, family-to-staff “Tips,” and high CNA pay. They are easy to replicate, and they made a happy difference here.

These four efforts helped recruiting. We have more applicants referred by word of mouth and current staff. We now post on Indeed.com 53% less often than we did in 2023; we spend 61% less on Indeed advertising verses 2023; and we average 124 applicants per open CNA position.

These four efforts also helped retention. Among full and part-time staff, our retention rate in the last 6 months is 87%. Annualized, this is 74%, which is very good for nursing homes and assisted livings. Moreover, our retention is 22% better than in the six months before our efforts.