DALLAS — Improving diversity, equity, including and belonging “is not a quick fix” at the organizational level, National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care President and CEO Brian Jurutka said Wednesday during the first day of NIC’s Spring Conference.
But senior living companies will have their first opportunity to share information about their efforts with the Senior Living DEIB Coalition when a survey goes out next week, he told members of the media at a press conference. Ferguson Partners will launch the survey March 30 on behalf of the coalition, which includes NIC, the American Seniors Housing Association and Argentum.
The survey, Jurutka said, will capture aggregate corporate data that can be used as a baseline for future research.
“NIC, Argentum and ASHA want to encourage participation in the survey by all senior living stakeholder firms, because we really do believe that by providing investors and operators with insights and analytics regarding DEI, it’s going to help improve decisions, and we are ultimately going to better deliver on our mission to older Americans to enable access and choice.”
The three groups first announced the formation of the DEIB Coalition in January.
“The coalition really is working to develop a toolkit for senior living stakeholder organizations, to help them with best practices and tools to help from a DEI perspective,” Jurutka said.
‘Right from a business perspective’
Awareness of the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion has grown over the past two years, he added. “DEI isn’t just morally correct. It’s also right from a business perspective, quite frankly,” Jurutka said.
He cited a March 2021 McKinsey & Company report that noted that companies with greater diversity within their leadership teams have stronger financial results.
“Specifically, they cite that companies in the top quartile for gender diversity, they’re 25% more likely to outperform the industry median profit growth from bottom quartile companies. So, increased gender diversity results in better financial performance,” Jurutka said. “Similarly, executive teams in the top quartile from an ethnic diversity perspective are 36% more likely to financially outperform the industry median.” And beyond diversity, McKinsey said, inclusion is a necessary corollary, he added.
Senior living DEIB efforts are especially needed at higher levels of organizations, Jurutka said.
‘Ongoing initiative’
Outside of the DEIB Coalition, NIC has established a committee to help govern the organization’s DEI initiatives, and it is chaired by Brookdale Senior Living President and CEO Cindy Baier, Jurutka said. Members include NIC board members, members of NIC’s Future Leaders Council and other leaders in the industry.
“This isn’t a one-and-done. This is an ongoing initiative,” he said. “The landscape will change.”
In a related effort, NIC for the first time asked people registering for the Spring Conference to provide some demographic information, Jurutka said. Of registrants, 21.7% self-identified as female, and 4% self-identified as being part of an underrepresented group — people of color; people with disabilities; people who are first-generation immigrants; or people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender or other.
The category of registrant with the highest diversity included lenders and debt providers, 27% of whom are either female or part of an underrepresented group, Jurutka said. The registrant category with the lowest level of diversity was senior living or skilled nursing provider, at approximately 20%.
“Data is a key piece to helping understand where we are from a DEI journey perspective so we understand our progress over time,” he said, adding that diversity at NIC meetings has increased over the years, and the organization expects that it will continue to increase.
“It’s not a quick fix,” however, Jurutka said.
‘A new day’
The theme of this year’s conference is “A new day,” Jurutka said, noting that the last time the organization held a Spring Conference was in 2020, just as the first outbreak of COVID-19 was reported in a U.S. nursing home.
“It’s too early to say that the pandemic is behind us … but … we’ve shifted into this time period where we’re living with the pandemic, living with COVID,” he said.
Attendance at this year’s meeting is expected to be 1,700, which is 89% of the attendance at that 2020 Spring Conference, Jurutka said.
The meeting continues through Friday.
