By: ALFA
Once known best as community trekkers, regional directors evolve into key players that link corporate and local initiatives. Here’s a look at how the regional directors at several companies have evolved into a even more pivotal and far-reaching managers …
Kristen Bolling no longer has to go it alone. As a regional director of operations for Seattle-based Emeritus Senior Living, she used to oversee all the operational details for the company’s communities in five states.
“From a company perspective I used to be the be-all and end-all,” for those communities, Bolling says. “I had everything directly under me—nursing, marketing, operations.”
Now Bolling’s region includes just one state, Virginia, and corporate backs her up with several subject-matter experts assigned to her region.
“It’s a collaborative, team-management model now,” she explains, one that makes more sense given the growth-focused outlook of many senior living providers.
Throughout the industry, the role of regional directors has evolved in recent years. Once widely known as executives who lived out of the trunks of their cars as they traveled from community to community, many regional directors are now part of more supportive and collaborative systems that operate according to better metrics and clearer expectations.
At Baltimore-based Erickson Retirement Communities, Executive Vice President of Health and Operations Debra Doyle oversees three regional executive directors who in turn are responsible for 20 communities. Three years ago, her job didn’t exist. The company created the position to make regional oversight more focused and integrated with big-picture goals.
“It is part of a much larger, business-infrastructure approach,” Doyle says.
As the liaison between headquarters and the field, Doyle is able to keep people’s attention focused on the concrete outcomes that ultimately signify success. “For the regional director, it brings clarity, it brings resources, it allows them to manage much more by facts and data versus intuition,” she adds.
One of those regional director resources is Six Sigma, described by Doyle as a quality management and process improvement methodology. Six Sigma features standard operational procedures, documentation requirements, and other management tools. As a result “the expectation is more clearly defined for the regional people, so we know that we can get the same experience from one regional person to another, which in turn means we can get that consistency from one community to the next.”
Consistency may have been more difficult to accomplish in the past, when the chain of command took a broad leap from the corporate level out to the regional directors. A number of larger assisted living companies are trying to close that gap with positions like Doyle’s, a management layer that helps ensure corporate messages and ideas arrive intact at the regional layer.
Take, for example, Olathe, Kansas-based Bickford Senior Living Group and its 37 properties. Theresa Hogenson once served as a divisional director—what other companies call a regional director— in Iowa and Illinois. Hogenson’s territory now includes Nebraska and Iowa, but her job is certainly not the same.
Now Hogenson is an area manager of operations, charged with supporting the regional directors, not just by providing guidance and direction, but also by facilitating communications between the regional representatives and the home office.
“Maybe there was a disconnect between the field and the corporate office,” she says. “Now I see myself as the hub for the communications to come through, so that the individuals are all getting the same answer.”
Raising the Bar
In addition to creating new positions, some senior living companies have assigned new tasks at the regional level in an effort to raise the bar of operational efficiency and excellence. Even smaller organizations have found ways to maximize the efforts of their regional leaders.
Hershey, Pennsylvania-based Country Meadows Retirement Communities has two vice presidents of operations, each of whom is responsible for overseeing a region that includes four campuses. The company’s vice presidents also function as regional directors because they serve as that critical link between the communities and corporate when it comes to implementing initiatives and reporting outcomes.
In the past, different representatives from corporate have worked at the local level to implement new programs in Alzheimer’s care, restorative care, chaplaincy, and other areas. Now that responsibility falls to Vice President of Operations Michelle Hamilton, who oversees a region of communities. Hamilton says it makes a difference when corporate messages and mandates are consistently delivered through a regional executive.
“This way, the expectation is very clear for the executive director,” she explains. “It’s not like you have corporate coming in and saying, ‘Your program stinks.’ Now the regional executive can come in and say, ‘Here is the expectation. We are here to help.’”
Because regional directors make frequent site visits but don’t work on site, they’re also in a unique position to assess a property’s look and feel. And when they observe out-of-synch environments, it often comes back to how the executive director is managing the staff. Hamilton offers an example:
“I have had times where I have walked into the fitness room and seen that the fitness coordinator is not dressed the way she should, where there is no activity, where there is music playing that isn’t music the residents would enjoy,” she explains.
But she’s not there to fix the gym. Rather, she sees the gym as a symptom of something larger. For example, perhaps the executive director filled the fitness coordinator position with the wrong candidate. Bolling talks about the balancing act between wanting to hire the strongest possible candidate and wanting to yield to the executive director’s view.
Lisa Fordyce, a former regional director and now vice president of operations for Seattle-based Emeritus Senior Living, agrees: “The regional director is there to provide guidance, support, and direction,” says Fordyce, who oversees four regional directors. “You have to have a passion, and you also have to have compassion. You have to have a thorough understanding of the people you are working with.”
Measuring Success
It’s a new world for the regional director: new layers of management, broader duties, even involvement with regulatory issues.
“As regional directors, we have to have deeper relationships with the state, with our regulatory bodies,” Bolling explains. “A key part of my job involves communicating state-specific policies and regulations. By understanding what the regulations are, that’s how I am best able to guide those communities.”
Like the corporate executives they answer to, regional directors use occupancy, revenue, staff retention, and dozens of other reports to measure the success of their efforts. But when the reports are stellar, how much of that is due to good community-level management versus good regional-level management? Again, consistency is key.
“You need to see how the communities move along the grids year over year,” Doyle says. If you can chart progress over time, “that usually means the regional person is being effective in his or her job.”
— Adam Stone, a contributing writer to Assisted Living Executive.
Who's Who
Contact information for members in this article.
Kristen Bolling
Debra Doyle
Lisa Fordyce
Michelle Hamilton
Theresa Hogenson
Kristen Bolling no longer has to go it alone. As a regional director of operations for Seattle-based Emeritus Senior Living, she used to oversee all the operational details for the company’s communities in five states.
“From a company perspective I used to be the be-all and end-all,” for those communities, Bolling says. “I had everything directly under me—nursing, marketing, operations.”
Now Bolling’s region includes just one state, Virginia, and corporate backs her up with several subject-matter experts assigned to her region.
“It’s a collaborative, team-management model now,” she explains, one that makes more sense given the growth-focused outlook of many senior living providers.
Throughout the industry, the role of regional directors has evolved in recent years. Once widely known as executives who lived out of the trunks of their cars as they traveled from community to community, many regional directors are now part of more supportive and collaborative systems that operate according to better metrics and clearer expectations.
At Baltimore-based Erickson Retirement Communities, Executive Vice President of Health and Operations Debra Doyle oversees three regional executive directors who in turn are responsible for 20 communities. Three years ago, her job didn’t exist. The company created the position to make regional oversight more focused and integrated with big-picture goals.
“It is part of a much larger, business-infrastructure approach,” Doyle says.
As the liaison between headquarters and the field, Doyle is able to keep people’s attention focused on the concrete outcomes that ultimately signify success. “For the regional director, it brings clarity, it brings resources, it allows them to manage much more by facts and data versus intuition,” she adds.
One of those regional director resources is Six Sigma, described by Doyle as a quality management and process improvement methodology. Six Sigma features standard operational procedures, documentation requirements, and other management tools. As a result “the expectation is more clearly defined for the regional people, so we know that we can get the same experience from one regional person to another, which in turn means we can get that consistency from one community to the next.”
Consistency may have been more difficult to accomplish in the past, when the chain of command took a broad leap from the corporate level out to the regional directors. A number of larger assisted living companies are trying to close that gap with positions like Doyle’s, a management layer that helps ensure corporate messages and ideas arrive intact at the regional layer.
Take, for example, Olathe, Kansas-based Bickford Senior Living Group and its 37 properties. Theresa Hogenson once served as a divisional director—what other companies call a regional director— in Iowa and Illinois. Hogenson’s territory now includes Nebraska and Iowa, but her job is certainly not the same.
Now Hogenson is an area manager of operations, charged with supporting the regional directors, not just by providing guidance and direction, but also by facilitating communications between the regional representatives and the home office.
“Maybe there was a disconnect between the field and the corporate office,” she says. “Now I see myself as the hub for the communications to come through, so that the individuals are all getting the same answer.”
Raising the Bar
In addition to creating new positions, some senior living companies have assigned new tasks at the regional level in an effort to raise the bar of operational efficiency and excellence. Even smaller organizations have found ways to maximize the efforts of their regional leaders.
Hershey, Pennsylvania-based Country Meadows Retirement Communities has two vice presidents of operations, each of whom is responsible for overseeing a region that includes four campuses. The company’s vice presidents also function as regional directors because they serve as that critical link between the communities and corporate when it comes to implementing initiatives and reporting outcomes.
In the past, different representatives from corporate have worked at the local level to implement new programs in Alzheimer’s care, restorative care, chaplaincy, and other areas. Now that responsibility falls to Vice President of Operations Michelle Hamilton, who oversees a region of communities. Hamilton says it makes a difference when corporate messages and mandates are consistently delivered through a regional executive.
“This way, the expectation is very clear for the executive director,” she explains. “It’s not like you have corporate coming in and saying, ‘Your program stinks.’ Now the regional executive can come in and say, ‘Here is the expectation. We are here to help.’”
Because regional directors make frequent site visits but don’t work on site, they’re also in a unique position to assess a property’s look and feel. And when they observe out-of-synch environments, it often comes back to how the executive director is managing the staff. Hamilton offers an example:
“I have had times where I have walked into the fitness room and seen that the fitness coordinator is not dressed the way she should, where there is no activity, where there is music playing that isn’t music the residents would enjoy,” she explains.
But she’s not there to fix the gym. Rather, she sees the gym as a symptom of something larger. For example, perhaps the executive director filled the fitness coordinator position with the wrong candidate. Bolling talks about the balancing act between wanting to hire the strongest possible candidate and wanting to yield to the executive director’s view.
Lisa Fordyce, a former regional director and now vice president of operations for Seattle-based Emeritus Senior Living, agrees: “The regional director is there to provide guidance, support, and direction,” says Fordyce, who oversees four regional directors. “You have to have a passion, and you also have to have compassion. You have to have a thorough understanding of the people you are working with.”
Measuring Success
It’s a new world for the regional director: new layers of management, broader duties, even involvement with regulatory issues.
“As regional directors, we have to have deeper relationships with the state, with our regulatory bodies,” Bolling explains. “A key part of my job involves communicating state-specific policies and regulations. By understanding what the regulations are, that’s how I am best able to guide those communities.”
Like the corporate executives they answer to, regional directors use occupancy, revenue, staff retention, and dozens of other reports to measure the success of their efforts. But when the reports are stellar, how much of that is due to good community-level management versus good regional-level management? Again, consistency is key.
“You need to see how the communities move along the grids year over year,” Doyle says. If you can chart progress over time, “that usually means the regional person is being effective in his or her job.”
— Adam Stone, a contributing writer to Assisted Living Executive.
Who's Who
Contact information for members in this article.
Kristen Bolling
Debra Doyle
Lisa Fordyce
Michelle Hamilton
Theresa Hogenson
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