We Know Our Residents

‍Moving Beyond Gut Feelings to Build Calendars That Truly Reflect Resident Needs

"I Know My Residents"

We’ve all heard (or said) it: “I know my residents.”

And in many ways, it’s true. Great rec teams build real relationships, learn preferences, and notice small shifts in mood or behavior before anyone else. Rec teams truly do know their residents.

But what about the rest of your team? And what happens when someone is out sick, or on leave? And how do resident population changes get factored into planning?

From new move-ins, to changing care needs, to family dynamics, to shifting interests, to cognitive decline, to new staff members... resident populations are always changing, and programming should too!

I believe one of the hardest changes is moving from “I know my residents” to “we know our residents.” It’s turning gut feelings into data. It’s sharing your Lego. But once you have shared insights about your residents, it changes the way your team can impact residents in beautiful ways.

Do You Have The Data? Is It Easy To Use?

Most communities already collect a wealth of resident data:

• Detailed resident profiles and life histories
• Assessments (interests, wellness dimensions, level of care)
• Attendance logs
• Participation styles (active, passive, refused)
• Program catalogue and tagging
• Calendar history

But what happens to all of that information? And is it easy for staff to add it into digital systems?

Often it sits in spreadsheets or scattered in paper notes, only looked at during compliance check-ins. It was used to plan last month, not predict next month.

Moving From Planning to Personalizing

What if your program calendar could reflect not just general interests, but real participation behavior?

Imagine knowing that:

• A resident always attends programs in a specific room but avoids another
• Someone has stopped engaging in physical wellness activities
• A resident consistently registers for programs with a certain facilitator
• Two residents with similar interests have never attended the same event, and one might love a gentle introduction
• A new program shares traits with a past favorite and is likely to draw repeat engagement

These are the real patterns staff observe in day-to-day interactions with residents. It is what makes “I know my residents” a super power. But rec staff aren’t around 24/7. Digitizing this information makes the patterns easier to see, and the analysis is automatic.

This is the foundation for creating programming that actually resonates.

Why This Matters to Your Communities

Better programming isn’t just a nice-to-have, it’s a differentiator that impacts everything:

• 🧬 Resident Health: Engagement supports cognitive, physical, and emotional wellbeing
• 📈 Satisfaction Scores: Residents and families feel seen when their day-to-day reflect their actual needs
• 🧲 Move-Ins: Prospects choose communities where life feels rich and responsive
• 🔄 Length of Stay: When residents stay engaged, they stay longer and feel healthier
• 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Team Retention: When rec staff see their efforts make a measurable impact, they feel more connected and less burned out

In short: engagement drives outcomes for everyone.

The Shift From “I Know” to “We Know”

Often in senior living, departments operate in silos. Each one is holding pieces of the resident story, but rarely seeing the full picture. True engagement isn’t just the responsibility of the rec team; it’s the collective work of care, culinary, leadership, and lifestyle teams. When each department has access to shared insights about a resident’s interests, needs, and participation, we move from isolated efforts to coordinated care.

Bringing all of this information under one roof ensures that everyone is operating from a single source of truth. That’s what “we know” really means: a collaborative model where teams work together to deliver consistent, meaningful experiences, because they’re all informed by the same resident data.

This is the real evolution happening in senior living. We’re moving from siloed knowledge to shared intelligence across teams, across communities, and across time.

It means designing calendars not based on guesswork, but based on:

• Resident attendance patterns
• Gaps in meeting resident needs
• Recurring interests and “streaks”
• What’s working and what’s not

New AI-based tools can feel like they’re replacing your intuition. Instead, it’s freeing up the space you used to hold all this information so you can be more creative in delivering a quality experience for your residents. Data and AI recommendations should amplify your gut feelings.

Think of it like this:

• You might see “John is unlikely to attend because John has never been to Bingo” And when you read that, you might think “Yeah, John hates Bingo!”
• But you might also see that “Mary is unlikely to attend Chair Yoga because Mary has not been to a program with a physical dimension of wellness in the last 30 days.” Your reaction might be that Mary loves physical exercise and this unlikely to attend is surprising. This can help you recognize that something might be going on with Mary that needs to be addressed.
• You can also see that Alex hasn’t been attending any programs, but it’s because you don’t have any programs that resonate with their hobbies and interests. They might have new interests that your previous residents didn’t have, and your programming needs to shift.

Where We’re Headed

At Welbi, our platform supports this shift, using AI to surface hidden patterns. Communities can start asking:

• Are we planning based on what our residents actually need?
• Are we planning based on who’s actually attending?
• Are we missing residents with silent preferences?
• What are we not offering that our population might be asking for, often in subtle ways?

The answers are already in your data. You just need a way to see them.

Thanks for reading,
Elizabeth Audette-Bourdeau
CEO, Welbi