Life lessons from the kitchen

We are on our way towards integrating the 13 retirement homes we acquired in May 2022 into the Sienna and Aspira family.?To get to know our newest team members and residents, Sean Norris, National Director of Culinary and I recently visited Aspira The Barrieview Retirement Residence, to help prepare and serve lunch to residents.

It was great to see the team in action. Bringing joy and happiness through food is one of the ways they show their residents how much they care.

The dedication and passion they have is evident. It’s also helping sustain the teams during the current labour shortages affecting the seniors’ living and health care sector. I saw first-hand that it’s a challenge that is always present – day to day, even shift to shift. I let our team members know that we continue to advocate for system-wide solutions, however we are very focused on creating the best team member experience to attract more staff and retain our current team members by:

·????????supporting career development across our 42 care communities and 38 Aspira retirement residences,

·????????offering incentives and rewards, such as SOAR, our employee shareholder program,

·????????and fostering a culture that allows everyone to reach their potential.

These actions we are taking right now will be our best chance at combating the labour crunch.?

As the lunch service was wrapping up, I was reminded that a busy kitchen provides some important life lessons. First, preparation is everything. Every meal goes smoother and comes out better when the right work is done ahead of time. The second lesson is the power of teamwork. A set of extra hands always appeared without asking when additional entrées needed plating. Working together we were able to deliver a great meal and dining experience for residents.

My thanks to the Barrieview team for the great reminder of these important lessons.?