Brightview Senior Living

 | Case Study

Connecting frontline workers

Getting workers the news they need to keep residents healthy

How it started

Conducting a structured evaluation

In the effort to build on its innovative culture, the company had begun exploring a more modern way to connect with associates—especially on their mobile devices. Communication had always been a challenge. Frontline workers—caregivers, dining servers, housekeepers, maintenance, and activities associates—don’t spend their days in front of a computer. They also don’t have company email addresses. Information was typically delivered verbally by managers as well as through bulletin board notices and mailings sent to associates’ homes.

The goal was to conduct a structured evaluation of software communication solutions late in 2020 with a rollout sometime the following year.

Then, the pandemic struck. 

Assisted living communities have been on high alert during the pandemic because seniors are particularly vulnerable. Brightview Senior Living was determined to do everything possible to prevent coronavirus cases at its 41 communities that stretch across eight East Coast states.

Where they landed

Launching BVLink at lightning speed

It’s not an overstatement to say that arming associates with the most up-to-date information would potentially save lives. There was no time to waste.

Over the next three weeks, the Brightview Senior Living team worked closely with Firstup to meet the system requirements needed for implementing the BVLink platform. While the company wouldn’t normally implement a new technology tool in the middle of a pandemic, Julie Masiello, the Senior Vice President of Technology and Marketing, decided that waiting until a less chaotic time to introduce a new tool would be a missed opportunity. She decided that implementing Firstup as quickly as possible would solve this critical communication gap.

The Firstup platform delivers.

In less than a month, 93% of the 4,600 associates registered and began depending on BVLink for the news they needed to do their jobs in this new environment and keep residents healthy. The team accomplished this while simultaneously dealing with pandemic-related issues—such as staffing, protective equipment shortages, and frequently updated guidance from local health departments and other agencies.

“Having the right people involved from both teams was essential, and we feel like we got the recipe just right. The platform is robust. There are a lot of things it can do. But the Firstup team helped guide us to the tools that we needed right now, in this short amount of time, and help us become experts in those.”

— Jennifer Peters, Systems Training Specialist

About

Brightview Senior Living

Brightview Senior Living was founded in 1999, built on the idea that a great place to work is a great place to live. Today, Brightview builds, owns, and operates 45 senior living communities with over 4,500 associates along the East Coast: Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Virginia. Each of the Brightview Senior Living communities focuses on five elements of wellness which we call SPICE. Spiritual, Physical, Intellectual, Cultural, and Emotional, and its amenities and programs encourage active senior living communities and development in these areas, keeping residents active and healthy.

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