Gottfried Ernst is COO at Cogir Senior Living. Ernst is a seasoned professional in the senior living industry, with over 20 years of experience. Ernst came aboard at Cogir earlier this year, and he strives to help the company innovate on its senior living services for a new generation of residents.
In his Changemakers interview, Ernst discusses the value of technology implementation, Cogir’s multicultural approach to staffing and the unique ways his company adapts to change.
How have you changed as a leader since starting in the senior living industry?
When I started in this industry, I was more focused on learning and adapting to the tasks at hand. My focus was more on understanding the industry better and developing my skills to best fit. Over time, I’ve developed a deeper understanding of team dynamics, effective communication and the importance of empathy in leadership.
As my leadership style matured and I became more confident, empathy and vulnerability has helped me over the years to really connect with people. I’ve learned to delegate tasks more efficiently as well. I trust my team’s expertise and provide support where needed. That has worked for me. Additionally, I’ve become more adept at navigating challenges and conflicts and finding constructive solutions that benefit both the team and the organization as a whole.
I’ve evolved into a more confident and compassionate leader who strives to inspire and empower those around me. That’s what I believe and that’s what I stand for. I continuously try to improve how I can be the best leader for my team and for others.
Do you see yourself as a change maker and are you always excited to drive change?
I one hundred percent see myself as a changemaker. I thrive on change. I am a problem-solver by heart. When you have a problem-solver mindset and you look for opportunities to do better in solving problems, change is inevitable as a result of that drive. Sometimes the change is welcome, sometimes it’s not. I get excited to drive change and always look forward to supporting the people that are on this journey with me and getting them excited about it as well.
In what ways or areas do you think that you are a changemaker?
Definitely operations, I’m an operator by heart: Team members, employee retention, resident service and business optimization. I like to think about how we operate highly efficient communities while providing operational excellence to our customers.
Can you provide an example of a change you’ve made in operations and why you made that change specifically?
In a former company, I changed the way we gather feedback from residents using technology. I’m a firm believer that successful businesses don’t just give a survey once a year to the customers and allow them to weigh in. I believe in continuous serving of our residents, team members and customers to be able to really get a holistic and full picture of what we can do better. That was an area that I dove into and made a change to and it worked really well.
Another example is I worked on a program that allowed our independent living customers to choose what package they would like to be part of when they move into the community, what service package they want with housekeeping and more. It was a dynamic senior housing concept where the customer is in the driver’s seat in what we offer, not us. It was not easy to execute economically, but certainly something that I’m very proud of.
Then in the post-Covid era, it’s important to give team members more flexibility and truly allow them to be in control, similar to the residents. I implemented different ways of providing shifts, applying for schedules, and allowing our people to actually tell us when they can work versus the other way around. That made an impact on the retention side and certainly helped us with staffing on the clinical side as well.
Can you talk about a time that you tried to execute a change and things didn’t go according to plan? How did you pivot and what did you learn as a result?
One time, I attempted to reinvigorate the front desk functions. We stripped away that desk, put a headset on the person and called them a “hospitality manager.” I underestimated the amount of administrative work that is involved in the front desk function, so that was not accepted very well. Ultimately, we had to give that person a desk with a computer where they can get some work done, make phone calls and check work orders. That was where I thought I was thinking outside the box too much, and it wasn’t adopted very well. We came up with a hybrid concept where the person still was engaged in the lobby as a greeter and helping people, and hosting some parties in the lobby while answering the phone. I think we were in a good spot.
Another time, I attempted to centralize the resident evaluation or assessment process via video during Covid, but I didn’t think through the human element of the process: Touching, feeling, communicating in person with the resident, and really getting a good understanding on their conditions to make sure we can best service them in our community.
That was a judgment error that I made, because I wanted to centralize that process. I thought it would really drive efficiency and consistency of assessments, but it didn’t work.
Change makers tend to be risk takers. Do you agree with that statement, and how do you describe your own appetite for risk?
I 100% agree with that statement. No risk, no gain.
Over time, I’ve been a little bit more deliberate in my risk-taking by testing things out before I implement them on a global scale. I generally take the approach of beta testing or piloting. I then dig into the feedback from the people in the community to make the program more successful long-term.
In your opinion, what is the single greatest driver of change in the senior living industry today?
Change in resident demand,desire, and what they’re looking for as we continue to gain occupancy, margin compression, and staff retention. Those are the three main drivers that drive change in our industry today and will continue to do so.
There is a need for diversity, equity, and inclusion, otherwise known as DEI in the industry. Can you talk about the need for that and also what you’re doing to drive change in that area?
We have a very firm policy of diversity, equity and inclusion at Cogir.
Cogir is a multicultural company. It’s based in North America, but it takes people from all walks of life, cultures, backgrounds and interest levels to service our seniors and to become the best. We very strongly believe in a multicultural approach.
In Canada, we have partnered with firms that help us bring immigrants to the country and then train them. Those firms also help us staff some of the more difficult to staff positions like dishwasher, server, and care partners. That’s been very successful. We’re looking to potentially adapt that sort of concept here in the States.
We are planning on expanding our program and highlighting the multicultural aspect of our company and our residents. We’re currently establishing a program where each month we celebrate our diversity by recognizing the great impacts that people make from the various backgrounds that they have.
I myself am an immigrant from Austria and I pride myself in supporting those who want to come to this great country and work in our senior living space. We have one community in California at Cogir that’s entirely Japanese, and we’re very proud of that. All the residents and most of the team members are Japanese-speaking and it is a very unique community and that is the sort of concept we want to build on.
In what way is Cogir changing for the times right now?
Number one, how we service our customers by evolving our offerings and options to them, and really being nimble on what our customers are telling us that they’re looking for. That is on the care side as well as on the service side. I think our residents are getting an appetite for technology now through telehealth and having services brought to them.
Number two, resident retention components, but being very clear on what they can expect from an economical standpoint. Living in our communities, we provide transparency through an invoice that we give our residents when they move in. They can predict what their charge is going to be in the bill.
Third, involvement of family members in the daily lives of our residents through social media. We are currently undergoing a campaign where we connect with our family members to show them real time how their loved one is doing and how they’re connecting and making friends. We’re really tapping into the connection with the family members, which is very important to us.
From a business optimization standpoint, being able to service ownership groups who have a need for turnaround help. We’re learning how to be really good turnaround specialists while continuously strengthening our ability to maintain stable assets and optimizing performance in those. We need to be diverse experts at the management company to service all ownership groups that have a variety of needs.
Then lastly, we are changing through a multi-service center approach by partnering with companies who provide services in our communities. That has been very attractive in Canada. We’re looking to expand on that in the United States in the next few years.
Use a movie book or TV show title to describe the year ahead for the senior living industry in 2024. What would you pick?
“The Boys in the Boat.”
We are all learning how to row as one team and achieve new heights and performances. I think getting a fresh start and being newcomers as well as resetting ourselves to be open to change is going to be important. That book made an impression on me because it doesn’t take experts to be good at something. It takes people who are open-minded, tough, hard working people.
Choose one artist, scientist, thinker, entrepreneur, or any other person, living or dead to help change the senior living industry for the better. In only a few words, who are you choosing and why?
Steve Jobs, because he wasn’t afraid to take risks, disrupt and be a pioneer versus a follower.
