Peer-to-Peer: A Place for Mom exec on the power of AI to serve families and employees

During 25 years in business, A Place for Mom has guided more than 2 million families through the process of selecting the right home care or senior living environment for a parent or loved one. The company has evolved over the years to meet customers' changing needs and shifts in how they seek support. 

That evolution continues now as the home care and senior living sectors integrate artificial intelligence tools and seek to connect with families through social media, video and community-driven media.

Chief People Officer Michelle Deitchman joined A Place for Mom in October as its rebranding effort got underway. She is focused on the employee experience in the face of change, bringing 25 years of human resource expertise to the task. 

Deitchman spent 20 years at the Hartford Insurance Group, rising to become head of human resources. At A Place for Mom, she aims to continue fostering a people-first culture and future-ready workforce, deploying technology tools that support employees and the company's mission.  Deitchman spoke with McKnight's Home Care Daily Pulse about her role at A Place for Mom and how she is helping the company thrive. 

McKnight's Home Care Daily Pulse: What are your responsibilities as chief people officer?

Deitchman: The chief people officer is also known as the head of human resources. That person is really an employee advocate that looks after the culture inside and makes sure that it matches what the brand is outside. At A Place for Mom, with our team supporting and guiding over 700,000 families a year, it is my responsibility to make sure that we take care of employees, understand their needs, their wants, and make sure that they have the right training and careers. People join A Place for Mom not for a job — they join for a career. And it's my responsibility to make sure that they have a career with us.

McKnight's Home Care Daily Pulse: What exactly are employees doing at A Place for Mom?

Deitchman: We have individuals who work directly with families. They're either answering online requests or calls directly. Then we have individuals who support those people. Often, our employees have a healthcare background. They join us because of the mission.

Everyone at the company supports that frontline employee or the employee that's working with families, which is just amazing. I have seen many cultures and many organizations that I have benchmarked through the years. But really having the customer at the center and the family at the center and having employees support them in that way and everyone being so aligned is remarkable.

McKnight's Home Care Daily Pulse: What new tools are you using to reach potential customers?

Deitchman: We have to make our processes contemporary and meet families where they want to be met. There are families that want to talk to someone, there are families that want to interact digitally. We want to provide the support to families in the way that they want but that's also aligned with our mission. We are aligning our strategy with AI-enabled tools, so that employees have the data, information and guidance as they interact with families.

We're starting small with a test and figuring out if this is the right interaction model. Overall, we're looking to make the process smoother for families and digitally enabled. It's exciting, for sure, but we're not changing our model with the flip of a switch. We're being deliberate and smart about it.

McKnight's Home Care Daily Pulse: How do the AI tools work?

Deitchman: Before, there would be a phone call, but we know that sometimes people don't want a phone call. They want to know what senior living is near me, or I want to know what's near me with this set of criteria. That's how they want to interact. 

Then there comes a point where, OK, you should probably talk to someone because this is getting more complicated and you should have more guidance. That's where we offer that guidance up.

McKnight's Home Care Daily Pulse: As the chief people officer, why is it important for you to be so engaged in how the company communicates externally?

Deitchman: It's important to me to make sure that the audio matches the video — that the brand and what people see externally is what's happening internally, and how our current tools and technologies relate to HR and people. That's my first order of business. My vision is to ensure 110% that what is viewed from the outside is actually the experience on the inside. I'm going to listen and learn and make sure that employees are feeling heard. That they understand that someone is in their corner and listening to them.

McKnight's Home Care Daily Pulse: What have you learned from employees so far?

Deitchman: Our employee survey results do talk about their relationship with their manager as being extremely strong. And they are mission-driven. They are here and stay because of the mission. That is organic at A Place for Mom, which is outstanding. 

Now it's building upon that, with new tools and tech like AI, to build their career when it's not what it was before. How do I become more efficient day-to-day using AI technologies so that I'm not doing the stuff I don't like to do and that doesn't help families at the end of the day? That's what I'm focused on.

McKnight's Home Care Daily Pulse: How do you put that vision into action?

Deitchman: Internally, it's making sure that our employees have the tools at their fingertips to be able to do their job and have career paths that they believe that they can aspire to, and that they also can attain. It's [ensuring] that their managers have tools to be the best possible leader that they can so you know that you have future-ready talent. 

Going back to AI, you know where the world is really going, and the future-ready talent and future-ready leader is more important than ever. It's my job to make sure I'm preparing the organization for that.

McKnight's Home Care Daily Pulse: The workforce has gone through so many changes in recent years, from everyone working from home to people now needing to be back in the office. How are you managing the workforce at this time?

Deitchman: More important than where an employee sits is the culture that they belong to. Do they feel connected to the culture? Do they feel connected to the vision? Are they aligned? And that is the number one most important thing. 

So if you're sitting at home or you're collaborating with your team or you're in an office, if you're not connected to the culture, the families or the customer will feel it. A Place for Mom employees are deeply connected to the mission and to the values, and they live it every day. We're 10 steps ahead of where most companies are right now.

McKnight's Home Care Daily Pulse: What is the next initiative or goal you will be working toward?

Deitchman: Understanding the caregivers' motivations from a retention and engagement standpoint. What's next on my plate is to get to the heart of why people stay, why people leave, and ensure that engagement continues to be high because our families will feel it. Also, making more contemporary our HR systems and how we interact with employees, who then interact with families. That's everything from career mobility tools and training and development. 

We have to make sure that our employees feel that we're investing in them. They feel it, but I want them to feel it at a whole different level.

McKnight's Home Care Daily Pulse: How can home care agencies best partner with referral services like A Place for Mom?

Deitchman: Having AI, data, and tools, especially in the home care space, is where we're starting. We want to know that we're interacting and providing data and partnering well so that we win together and we're helping families together.

 Editor's note: Peer-to-Peer is a feature from McKnight's Home Care Daily Pulse in which we talk to the leaders in home care — your peers — about their operational initiatives, efforts and ideas. If you think someone in home care would make a good subject for Peer-to-Peer, please email Liza Berger at liza.berger@mcknights.com.