Short And Frequent: Senior Living Operators Embrace Bite-sized Training To Balance Workloads

Senior living operators are using shorter but more frequent training sessions for frontline staff to balance education with managing their already busy workloads.

Companies, including American House Senior Living, are embracing those practices across their portfolios. American House has a requirement for its staff to attend 30 minute training sessions every pay period, according to COO Alex Germain-Robin. The Southfield, Michigan-based operator rolled out the training practice across all of its communities in 2024.

Since switching to the newer training model, Germain-Robin said the company has better retained staff in their first 90 days and “drastically” lowered turnover from over 100% down to 60% companywide. 

“We needed to scroll out and understand what we’re going to do from an ongoing training standpoint, and really just evaluate how we’re going to deliver it,” Germain-Robin told Senior Housing News.

Dallas-based Frontier Senior Living takes a similar approach to training its staff with online training options. CEO Greg Roderick said the company’s human resources department hosts a minimum of two training sessions per week for department heads that are around 10 minutes each, with clinical consultants working with clinicians at least once per week.

Hayley Rotenberg, Frontier’s chief people officer, said the practice has helped improve retention, reduce turnover and led to the company’s best trust index store in six years, measured by a company-wide survey, and the regular training sessions and reminders are having a result in resident satisfaction.

“I haven’t had a letter of dissatisfaction from a family member on any level of any kind for over 12 months now,” Rotenberg said.

Other operators that host annual trainings for staff, such as Newark, Delaware-based Kendal Corporation, are finding benefits from keeping training sessions succinct and less than one hour to increase their effectiveness and allow staff to focus their attention on the residents, Chief Operating Officer Doug Helman told SHN.

Keep it short and sweet

American House has, along with adjusting the frequency of its training sessions, changed the format to include TikTok-esque short form videos, often produced by frontline team members across the portfolio. The company also shifted to working with Senior Living University, a training module platform with virtual learning offerings, as its learning management system, a move that was meant to keep training more “nimble and user-friendly,” according to Germain-Robin.

“They seem to register better with our teams and stick with them in those kind of bite-sized pieces,” Germain-Robin said. “This has a real modern and mobile aspect to it … it can be in the palm of their hands. We found that to be a really helpful shift for us and for our team members to stay compliant with training.”

The Kendal Corporation’s training for frontline staff centers compliance training sessions that last no longer than one hour, with many kept to around 30 minutes. If training needs to be more intensive and would take longer, Helman said it is scheduled over several sessions. Staff complete the training in a dedicated room within a Kendal community, and are scheduled by the employee to make it more convenient for them.

Kendal is now putting the training to the test as the company rolls out a new electronic medical record system, and staff are able to attend training online through Zoom or in person at their respective communities. In those instances, each community’s management team coordinates with staff members so responsibilities are still managed without the need of bringing in agency to fill in for missing shifts.

“We really trying to divide the training up in such a way that we can pull them off their normal schedule and into a training session, and then try to cover their time that they would normally be working on the floor or in their workspace, so that we’re not having to pay overtime for non-productive time,” Helman said.

Frontier takes the approach of broad, frequent training sessions for staff that last between 10 and 30 minutes to accommodate both attention span and the work its staff are putting in with residents. According to Roderick, when training sessions would last an hour or more, work would begin to pile up for staff and result in higher turnover rates. Last year, Frontier had a total of 371 training sessions scheduled for staff, and is looking to host around 250 in 2026.

The company’s leaders track staff training compliance using its learning management system and send out reminders to both employees and managers when needed. Roderick said monthly all-staff meetings also address upcoming training scenarios so frontline workers know what to expect ahead.

Making room for advancement

Operators also use more frequent training sessions as a way to offer career advancement opportunities.

One of Kendal’s communities, Kendal at Oberlin, has developed a program it refers to as “Homegrown Tomatoes,” which encourages frontline staff who express their desire to advance in their careers. Employees in the program meet with their supervisor to develop a career plan together. This includes working around an employee’s schedule to accommodate education or other career-advancing opportunities.

The shift to focusing on virtual and online training offerings has proved to be particularly beneficial for staff post-Covid pandemic, Helman said.

“We try to really offer up some alternative options for people to get some of that training online or through virtual offerings, so it’s convenient for them,” Helman said. “We’ve been able to find more creative ways to bring training to employees, and I think there’s also a stronger understanding of the work-life balance importance that we’re offering to our employees as well.”

American House also dedicates its training for professional development, and makes job openings transparent for all staff to see. While it is seen as slower and more intense than its regular training sessions, Germain-Robin said each staff member is encouraged to seek out and pursue mentorship opportunities. As a result, the company has seen 121 internal promotions since the start of 2025.

Incorporating shorter, frequent training sessions has been appreciated by staff across the American House portfolio, according to Germain-Robin.

“It’s been overwhelmingly positive, they’re thanking us for changing the way that senior living has been doing their training,” he said. “The old approach was to sit down in front of these modules eight hours each quarter and they had to do it all at once … Adult learners don’t want to learn that way.”

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