Are you ready for the future of aged care?

Rising expectations from the baby boomer generation is putting pressure on the aged care sector to provide new solutions in areas such as lifestyle services and premium accommodation.

It’s well known that government funding is a limited resource which will largely be funnelled into the provision of care, so providers need to explore alternative funding sources. As baby boomers, much more so than previous generations, have become accustomed to higher quality homes and more leisure-focused lifestyles, many are looking for access to entertainment, learning and wellbeing options when they move into an aging-in-place setting (such as fitness classes, beauty services, in-room massage, housekeeping, in-room movies and wine tasting evenings).

While this opens up a spectrum of opportunities for aged care providers, the primary challenge is planning which ‘extras’ to invest in. As with any business planning – the key first step is to start by reviewing your current business and identifying the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats you are facing.

A great starting point for this review is a 3×3 SWOT analysis. Using this valuable tool, you can:

  • Consider how to leverage your strengths and turn them into executable opportunities. We strongly encourage our aged care colleagues to dedicate a majority of their focus to this space.
  • Identify how to use your strengths to mitigate threats.  While we don’t endorse spending too much time worrying about threats, it is extremely valuable to use strengths to deal with these.
  • Think about how to best develop your capacity so that weaknesses are overcome, threats are mitigated and opportunities are moved on.  Again, the focus is less on weaknesses and threats, but rather about building capacity (and strengths/opportunities).

Download the 3×3 SWOT Analysis tool

 

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Richard McArtney

Partner
Bentleys Newcastle

Heath Shonhan

Partner
Bentleys Queensland

Lauren Welk

Partner
Bentleys Queensland

Roger Ellinson

Director
Bentleys New South Wales

Nick den Heijer

Director
Bentleys Auckland

Ian Hillsdon

Client Director
Bentleys New South Wales

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5 top tips to become ‘future ready’

  1. Categorise your operating expenses. Understand the split of your operating expenses across the key categories of care, accommodation and services. Assess each expense line and look for opportunities to extend or adapt services in ways that increase efficiency and/or introduce new revenue streams.
  2. Understand your clients. Understand what’s important to clients and their families to identify sustainable opportunities. Annual client satisfaction surveys can help measure consumer habits and better pinpoint the services and extras that are important to your client base. Consider significant generational differences between the older ‘builder’ generation and the baby boomers and build flexible approaches and tiered offerings that cover a range of needs.
  3. Build staff support. Embed the findings from expense and client reviews into your business strategy, ensuring that your team understands future growth plans and is committed to achieving outcomes. The quality and reputation of your care services is reliant on your team ‘owning’ the vision.
  1. Think outside the box. Look for partnerships and alliances that provide benefits of scale. Negotiate with service and extras providers to develop a range of offerings that increase choice for your clients and business for them. Consider partnering with outside organisations to develop unique offerings that give you a point of difference in the market.
  2. Embrace change. Stay up to date with current and future consumer trends and in-demand products and services. Don’t be afraid to test the waters with your clients. Ensure that your team members also receive some benefits and celebrate the milestones along the way.

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