CANA was proud to welcome the Millennial Directors, Zach Carnley and Matthew Morian, to the CANA stage at the 2019 Cremation Symposium. With Glenda Stansbury representing the Baby Boomers, this panel talked about our changing workforce and generations working together. They discussed navigating culture clashes, learning new ways of communicating (both language and mode), and the kinds of experiences one should have to earn their spot on the team. After leaving Las Vegas, the Millennial Directors weren’t done. In the past few years, they’ve spoken about their experience on many associations’ stages. We asked them to write a definitive millennials-in-the-workplace post, putting the topic to bed. After all, they're here, they're in their thirties, —and what are employers’ other options, really? As we examine the millennial experience in the workplace—their search for a suitable work environment and their growth and leadership goals—we hope this post can both inform older generations of readers, and also encourage the younger generations to keep working to find their place in funeral service. I have been fortunate enough in my career as a funeral professional to be involved in many different wonderful organizations. Credit goes to each of my employers who gave me the opportunity to have a voice and to speak on a topic that is near and dear to my heart. We all know that millennials are the bulk of our profession and steadily becoming the bulk of the families we serve. With that said, I have spoken in front of a few organizations on the best way to work together and blend generations to make the business more productive. During many of these presentations, I have asked for audience participation—and participate they did! the perceptionMost everyone—millennials included—has quite a few thoughts on how they should work and the tasks they are given. I have heard everything from, “Millennials are extremely lazy, spending all day on their phone,” to “They are the most goal-oriented, outside-of-the-box thinking and solution-solving generation out there.” Most people I talked to would rather have a dedicated, creative millennial than a traditionalist because, for the most part, they are thinking of ways to better themselves and your business. True, some are there to put in only the bare minimum of what is requested, but you will find that all across the board. In my presentations, I focus on the expectations millennials have of their employers: a fair schedule, decent pay, typical perks such as insurance and retirement, and room to introduce new ideas. I also speak on how we must focus our efforts as leaders to hone in on what they bring to the table and simply not make them “pay their dues.” the solutionAs I said, I have been given almost carte blanche with most of my employers to focus on finding ways to better serve families. That is the attitude leaders need to have towards their millennial employees. Obviously, it’s the leader’s job to make sure these ideas are carried out efficiently with respect to the business. I have always considered it a blessing to get to travel around and be involved in numerous organizations and to socialize and learn from people who have been out there doing it. I hope to keep this up, because I always want to be up to speed on the latest our profession has to offer, both for the business I serve and, of course, the families I serve. I wish many more employers would jump on board with this thought process. You must give your employees the opportunity to spread their wings and attend conventions, conferences, and educational seminars. They will learn so much more from other funeral professionals, things that they can bring back and put directly into action. The reality of it is there are so many scholarships out there that most people can attend these events at little cost. It’s is our job as leaders to send our people to these events and help them grow as professionals, which in turn will help you to grow your business. - ZACH CARNLEY company cultureIf you are wondering how to attract millennials to your business, then you have to ask yourself, “What do they really want?” I believe what millennials yearn for most in our profession is a healthy work environment. They desire a workplace that has strong leadership, a flexible schedule, and a solid company culture. MISSION-DRIVEN Company culture should be a top priority for any funeral home. Whether you are a family owned firm or part of a large corporation, it is important for your coworkers to know why you do what you do. A company’s culture is often made up of three key components: their values, their mission, and their vision. A company’s vision is essentially their long term goal as a business. It will not typically change overtime as it should be something you continuously strive to achieve. Your mission is what you do every day to help attain your company vision. It is what defines your enterprise to the world. Your values are then an outline of the intended character of your coworkers. If an employee lives by the values you set forth then they are carrying out your mission and will ultimately fulfill your vision. A funeral home with a solid company culture is one with a future in which millennials can see themselves being an integral part of. FLEXIBLE Having a flexible schedule is another trait of a healthy work environment. A flexible schedule in our industry is a difficult task to tackle. To attempt to detail it would require an additional blog post. Simply stated: a flexible schedule allows for a work-life balance that decreases the likelihood of employee burnout over time. For millennials, it may mean the ability to go their child’s tee-ball game or to go to a concert during their normal shift. Without tipping the scales too far for any one person, a leader should do their best to accommodate their colleagues instead of making it more difficult for them to find that balance. The results will be better morale and a willingness to go the extra mile for the company because the company went the extra mile for them. STRONG LEADERS In order to maintain a flexible schedule and support a company culture, you have to have strong leaders. Leaders do not have to be managers or supervisors. Those titles can be bestowed and stripped away without any discernible change occurring. A leader is one who cares for and supports those around them. They help others succeed and become the best they can be for the sake of the company, not for themselves. Luckily, leadership can be learned! It is a skill that can be honed with practice. If you have the heart to serve (you’d hope so, working at a funeral home) then you have what it takes to lead. Set a good example with your actions. Set an even better example through your interactions with your coworkers. Stay positive and motivate others to do the same and you’ll see a healthy work environment begin to flourish. With that, you’ll have an inbox full of resumes from millennials in no time. - MATTHEW MORIAN You can listen to the full panel in "Professor B and the Y-Men: Mentoring the Next Generation of Heroes" with Glenda Stansbury & Zach Carnley, and Matt Morian from CANA's 2019 Cremation Symposium, and our other presenters, for just $100. Visit goCANA.org/CANAheroes to learn more.
In 2020, maintaining and keeping good quality talent on your team isn’t just a want, it’s an absolute need. It’s what’s going to determine your success and the foundation of your business moving into this next decade. This next generation needs a purpose, something that fires them up and gets them out of bed in the morning. Yes, millennials want to make a living, but they want to make a meaningful living. According to Forbes, millennials ranked meaningful work as one of the top needs they have from their workplace. the harsh reality“People don’t leave bad companies, they leave bad managers.” If leaders and those in positions of power can take this quote by Marcus Buckingham to heart, I believe we would see so much more retention amongst our profession. Here are some harsh realities:
These are some powerful statistics that mean if we aren’t encouraging a culture of growth, this next generation has no problem going to find it elsewhere. employee engagementHow connected do you think your employees are to your company? If we are being honest with ourselves, there are plenty of areas we can improve in this category. According to a study done by Gallup in 2017, 230,000 employees were surveyed in 142 countries on their current engagement. Employees fall into one of three categories:
Only 13% of employees they surveyed were truly passionate and motivated by the work they did every day. An astounding 63% were not engaged, and 24% were actively disengaged. The impact of a disengaged employee can negatively impact your business in the following ways:
Unfortunately, there isn’t much we can do about the actively disengaged. They just need a path out. However, the statistics show that around 63% have the potential to be engaged if we put the effort in to putting meaning behind what they are doing. What category would you put most of your employees in? Do they fall into the popular category not engaged? Maybe it’s time to rethink how you’re motivating your employees. Do you share a common purpose that they can buy into with passion? How often do you give praise? Could it be time to put more incentive compensation plans in place? Purpose and incentive are the keys to motivating engagement. Once we have worked to get our employees into the “engaged” category, the positive benefits have an astounding impact. Statistics show that 50% will post messages on social media and 24% are more likely to help boost sales than disengaged employees. Find ways to bring meaning back so that your employees live in the engaged category, and your firm is guaranteed to reap the benefits. create your planHIRE THE RIGHT PEOPLE Obviously, all this talk about having engaged employees is only possible if we hire the right people from the get-go that are naturally motivated. Service attitude is a big thing we look for at JCG. Recognize if they have the natural ability to go above and beyond to exceed a customer’s expectations. Are they good listeners, do they care, are they genuinely interested in other people and have a desire to always be learning? You can teach service aptitude (the ability recognize service opportunities), but you can’t teach attitude (the desire to serve). ONBOARDING AND TRAINING Develop a welcome program that makes them remember their first day. Decorate their desk with a welcome sign, write an internal spotlight, or take them to lunch with your team. Remember, their first day of work is one way to set the tone for their engagement. Spend a lot of effort on helping them to understand WHY you do what you do and how they bring value to that purpose. The first few weeks are critical to employee engagement. The more they buy in early, the more likely they are to want to stick around. Initial training an on-going training is essential to employee engagement. You must teach them skills to be successful. Have a minimum standard for customer service expectations in writing and don’t train just once. Reinforce the expectations as often as weekly. This includes modeling, observing, and measuring behavior. RETENTION AND RELATIONSHIPS Employees are more engaged when they are recognized, so communicate! Provide for feedback, and even ask for feedback yourself. Peer recognition is another way to keep employees engaged. Set up a quarterly award that gets everyone involved to recognize their peers. Feedback is the key, as this next generation craves it. So where should we start? A good place to assess where your engagement is at is to survey your staff about their happiness at work. Ask about if they feel valued, and if they appreciate the kind of feedback they get. It might be a rude awakening, but we all have to start somewhere. Getting the data is the only way you can grow from today into reaping the benefits of having engaged employees long into the future. Want to learn more about increase employee engagement and improve customer service? Join Lori Salberg and more cremation rockstars in Las Vegas for CANA’s 2020 Cremation Symposium, February 26-28. Lori will present on “Developing a Collaborative Growth Culture” to re-invigorate organizations by fully engaging employees, improving performance of the business overall. See what else we have planned and register for CANA's 2020 Cremation Symposium: goCANA.org/CG
After the celebrations are over, the beginning of each new year reminds us to refresh and improve our habits. It is not too late to resolve to accomplish the following items this year and establish a new routine for years to come. 1. Update and review current government laws and regulations.Regardless of your role in the industry, it is important to understand the current laws and regulations that govern your work. Put aside the necessary time to review the federal, state, and local laws and regulations which affect your day to day operations. Right to control final disposition and cremation authorization issues dominate legal complaints against people and businesses in this industry. If you have difficulty finding the statutes and regulations, try searching the web sites for your state association or licensing board – they often have links available. CANA Members: If you need further assistance, use your legal consultation benefit and give me a call. 2. Educate and train staff on any new laws or regulations affecting your business.Keeping yourself updated on new laws or regulations is just a first step. The next is to educate and train your staff and co-workers on what you have learned. Hold a “lunch and learn” with your team and give everyone the tools to succeed. 3. Update your forms to bring them into compliance with any law changes.Out of date, non-compliant forms are an easy target for regulators and plaintiffs’ attorneys alike. Confirm that your form documents include all the required notices, consents, and disclosures. Consult with an attorney if you have any questions regarding current legal requirements. 4. Educate and train staff on the changes in your forms.Compliant forms are important, but the persons who use them every day must understand how to utilize them to the fullest. Avoid the problems caused by improperly filled out forms. If done and utilized correctly, forms often provide the best documentation in defense of legal complaints. 5. Review and update your operational policies and procedures.OSHA compliance is critical to a successful operation. So, too, are human resource policies, and so much more. If you need assistance in your review, CANA has partnered with Cremation Strategies & Consulting to offer a program which will help you compile operational policies and procedures customized for your business. Learn more here. 6. Review and update your employee handbook (including social media policy).Employment issues are a prevalent headache across all industries and business models. Address common concerns in your employee handbook, so that everyone is on notice of the standards to which they will be held accountable. Implement clear, unambiguous policies on work hours, time off, sick leave, vacation time, and dress codes. Have appropriate sexual harassment policies in place. Communicate your expectations regarding social media use and restrictions on employee posts on business matters. Make sure employees are aware that social media is not for airing of workplace grievances or complaints. CANA Members: Read up on what my office suggests for these policies as part of the Crematory Management Program. 7. Educate and train your staff on your policies and procedures.Periodic training and review of operational and employment policies and procedures are critical. There cannot be compliance without your employees first understanding your expectations and standards to which they will be held accountable. CANA Members: You can keep your standard operating procedures current and your staff informed with the Crematory Management Program and support from Cremation Strategies & Consulting. 8. Meet with your insurance agent or broker.Make sure your insurance agent or broker understands your business. Too often there are gaps in coverage discovered when you need insurance assistance or defense to a legal claim, when is too late to put the protections you need in place. Many gaps in coverage result from your agent or broker not understanding your daily work and operations sufficiently to make sure that what you actually do is covered. Just because you have “professional liability” insurance, you have no guarantee that all of your professional services are covered. Proactive insurance strategies will serve you best. CANA Members: Have you looked over CANA’s newest benefit, a professional liability insurance program for crematories? Read what makes this policy different and how it covers businesses like yours. 9. Meet with your tax planning professional.Do not leave money on the table. A tax professional’s advice can add value to your business and improve its bottom line. Mitigate your tax risks and exposures prudently. 10. Budget for and plan to attend meaningful continuing education opportunities.Take some time to think about the education and assistance which will benefit you and your business most in the upcoming year. Then, search for continuing education opportunities that will assist in meeting your goals. There are in person and online resources available to address almost any concern as an industry professional or business owner. Some jurisdictions even allow you to get your crematory operator certification online. If you attend CANA’s convention in Seattle this year, please say hello. I look forward to seeing you! CANA Members: Not sure how to get started developing a defined professional development plan for your employees? CANA Education Director Jennifer Werthman is here to help you achieve your goals – reach out any time. Getting your new year off to a good start can jumpstart accomplishing your business’s New Year’s Resolutions. Best wishes for your success in 2020! CANA Members: Your association is here to help! If you ever need these resources or anything else offered by CANA, reach out. Excerpted from The Cremationist, Vol 53, Issue 1: “First Quarter 2019 Top Ten Legal Checklist” by Lara M. Price. Members can read this article and any other advice in The Cremationist archive. Not a member? Consider joining your business to access this and all archives of The Cremationist plus the many resources referenced here to help you find solutions for all aspects of your business – only $495
“Gina was a rescue beagle, shuffled between three or more households before finding her permanent home with our family and becoming the bereavement dog at the cemetery. Because she is so calm, affectionate, and well-behaved, we thought Gina would be a perfect addition to our staff. I found a trainer in the local community who worked to train me and Gina together on site at the cemetery. Over time, the demand for Gina’s services has grown among the bereaved seeking comfort. She’s trained to help people who come to make arrangements for memorial services and purchases of niches and urns. Gina helps lift families’ hearts, because no one can resist a warm, willing bit of affection.” — J.P. DiTroia, Fresh Pond Crematory The use of therapy dogs is becoming more common, and there can be wonderful benefits to your business for having one in-house – after all, cute puppies are a great way to engage families! But as J.P. DiTroia, Lindsey Ballard, and Robert Hunsaker discovered, it’s not enough to just pick up a random pooch. The trio got together at CANA’s Cremation Symposium to tell attendees about their experiences integrating canines into the workplace. Their presentation illuminated several key points about therapy animals and the ways to incorporate the support and comfort dogs can provide to grieving families. DOG SERVICE—DEFINITIONS AND REQUIREMENTSFirst, it’s important to understand the difference between therapy, service, and emotional support dogs. Therapy dogs are trained to provide affection and comfort to people in various settings, such as disaster areas, hospice, schools, nursing homes, and, of course, funeral homes. These pets have a special aptitude for interacting with members of the public and they enjoy doing so. Typically, emotional support dogs provide benefits to their owners through simple companionship as prescribed by a mental health professional. Service dogs are trained specifically to help people with disabilities such as mental illness, visual impairment, seizure disorder, etc. Due to the nature of their work, the latter two are permitted to travel with their human partners, but therapy dogs are not afforded special rights to enter a business unless they’re officially going to work there. Not all dogs will make good therapy pets. The work—and, yes, it is work— can be tiring and stressful for the dog and requires the right personality. There are many characteristics to look for in a suitable therapy dog, including a deep love for all people (strangers included), emotional and physical calmness, and an affinity for being hugged and petted (sometimes by surprise or roughly). People have found success with rescue dogs, but caution that these animals can be particularly sensitive to certain situations and people and that may impact their training and work. Some breeds are more suited to guarding or protecting, but not emotional support. Bella, a black Labradoodle, is the beloved Hunsaker family pet, but Robert soon identified that she would make a great addition to his funeral home staff. Not only is her temperament well-suited to working with people, but she’s also hypoallergenic so she doesn’t shed and most people aren’t allergic. This is important since she’s interacting with the public. Fletcher, an Australian Labradoodle, was destined to be the funeral home therapy dog first, and a happy addition to Lindsey’s household second. Lindsey researched what breeds were most appropriate to the work, prioritizing that the animal be hypoallergenic, too. She chose a breed, located a breeder, and, since he would also be the household pet, made sure to identify the perfect pup for her family. training methodsThe three presenters emphasized that once you find the right dog, both the animal and the humans who work with the dog have to be properly trained. The dog needs to learn good manners and to be able to respond appropriately in various situations. The people need to learn to interpret the dog’s body language and communicate effectively with the dog. There are many organizations that can provide therapy dog certification, including the American Kennel Club, Delta Pet Partners, and Therapy Dogs International. OFF-SITE TRAINING Unlike J.P.’s Gina, Bella wasn’t trained on site at the workplace. Because the Hunsakers hadn’t originally intended for her to be a therapy dog, she didn’t start her training until she was a little over two years old. It’s a common misconception that therapy dogs have to be adopted as puppies and trained from the beginning. Most trainers will help determine whether you have a prospective therapy dog or not by doing a needs assessment. Bella was put through her paces by her trainers before they committed to taking her on. Robert emphasizes that it is best to make sure you have someone who’s qualified to train your animal in what you want her to do before you add the dog to your staff. Bella was trained by Lorenzo’s Dog Training Team, a national organization based out of Ohio. Robert did his research, talked to the vet and other community members, and decided on Lorenzo’s because they’re a nation-wide organization with trainers throughout the US. Bella was enrolled in their four-week off-site training program. Lorenzo’s would bring her back to the funeral home on the weekend to train Robert in the commands Bella learned off-site that week. Having her gone for a month was rough, but the results were amazing. The follow-up training 30- and 60-days after she came home ensured that Bella maintained the skills she learned, and added a couple of new skills each time. IMMERSION TRAINING Lindsey brought Fletcher home on a Monday. Tuesday was his first time in the funeral home. And Wednesday was his first puppy obedience class. She had already mapped out their long-term training schedule to follow a two-pronged approach: 1. Socialization, and 2. Obedience. Long before Fletcher was old enough to start working with the public, Lindsey emphasized his socialization with as many types of people as possible – diversity of appearance, size, and age as well as people with wheelchairs, beards, hats, etc. That way, he’d be ready for the broad range of people he’d meet at the funeral home. She took Fletcher to all of her business locations so he’d become familiar with the each different environment, including the floors, staircases, elevators, and future human colleagues. Lastly, she worked on exposing him to the diversity of experiences he might encounter: thunderstorms, interactions near caskets and during bath and meal times to make sure he would be comfortable with anything that might come his way. Fletcher attended, and passed with flying colors, many types of obedience training at every level of difficulty. Then, beyond standard obedience, he was also trained in tricks, therapy classes, and agility classes. Once this basic work was accomplished, it was time to pick out a specific therapy group to work with. From the beginning, Lindsey knew she wanted to be part of his training every step of the way. So she chose Pet Partners, a non-profit that hosts a national registry of trainers. Rather than certifying only the dog, both the human trainer and the pet are registered as a therapy team. Lindsey and Fletcher were trained equally as a dog and trainer to support each other, with a special concentration on teaching the human half how to read the dog’s body language and advocate for him. Once Fletcher was a year old, the duo was able to take the in-person evaluation for certification. Once certified, they’ll still need to be re-evaluated every two years to ensure continued training. on the jobBella comes to work every morning, about 5:30am. She has a set area in the funeral home where she comes in, gets brushed every morning, gets her vest on, and, with that, it’s an immediate transformation from an active, three-year-old pet to working therapy dog. She’s very visible. When a family comes in, the staff can tell immediately whether they want to engage Bella. Probably 80-85% of family members acknowledge her and want to have some type of interaction. Due to her training, Bella won’t interact until commanded to do so as some people are afraid of dogs or dislike them. She’s been well trained to stay. If engaged, Bella will attend arrangement conferences and aftercare appointments, funeral services, and visitations. She’s active in the grief support group at Robert’s funeral home on the third Thursday of every month. She attends most of cemetery gravesite services, and some pre-planning presentations at area nursing homes and care centers. She’s very busy. Robert is sensitive to her needs. Working dogs are constantly thinking about what they need to be doing. It’s emotionally draining for the animal. So, in the afternoons, Bella has a special place in Robert’s office that’s become her area to decompress. She’ll take a break there for an hour or two. And when she gets home after work, she’s tired just like any of us. Even if it’s not particularly physically draining, it’s a lot of emotional work. Like Bella and Gina, Fletcher attends community events, greets families, and sits in on visitations and arrangements. For Lindsey, the biggest value of the therapy dog is greeting families. While funeral professionals are very comfortable walking into a funeral home, crematory, or cemetery, it’s often a hard step for families to take. Fletcher welcomes the families at the front door and helps to keep people at ease. Lindsey also finds that families linger longer with Fletcher there. When a devastated husband and daughter dropped by to pick up their loved one’s urn, their visit lasted for twenty minutes. When the daughter saw Fletcher, they stayed to play with him, pet him, take selfies, and derive comfort. The dog clearly made an impression: the next day, another family member came back to pick up information on cremation jewelry and asked about the dog. things to considerEXPENSE There is more to the process than just finding the right dog and going through training. You will need to consider all of the costs involved (purchasing the dog, training, vet bills, food, etc.), how much time and commitment will be required for both training and daily care, the logistics of when and how the animal will interact with people at the business, and more. Robert estimates that they’ve invested about $2,000 in Bella-- $1,600 in training and $400 in equipment (vest, collar, leash, and other needs). Then there was the initial cost of getting Bella (around $500) and monthly expenses (between $150-$200 for food, grooming, and the vet). The dog has a standing groomer’s appointment every other Thursday to stay presentable; she goes to the vet every six months to ensure she stays healthy. Liability for having a pet on site also needs to be considered. Check in with your insurance provider to see if they offer coverage for therapy dogs. Additionally, the professional training service you use may offer some form of coverage. Besides the monetary expenses, a substantial amount of time is invested therapy dogs as well. Robert estimated that reinforcing Bella’s training took 30-60 hours over the first three months--about an hour a day. And he still spends 30-45 minutes to get her ready every morning and reinforce things she’ll need to do that day, particularly if she doesn’t do it frequently. Similarly, Lindsey and Fletcher maintained a continuous training schedule for more than two years of in-person and online classes. And considering that Lindsey was also completing her MBA, moving, orchestrating the remodel of one of the businesses’ locations, managing staff turn-over, and running the family business, there were some days that made prioritizing Fletcher’s training a challenge. STAFF INVOLVEMENT Robert involved two of his staff in Bella’s training to handle her when he’s absent. They know her schedule, her needs, and her commands so she can still work. He emphasized that you can’t take on this work by yourself – you’re serving families and you’re running a business, so you need buy-in from your staff to make it work. Lindsey agrees that managing staff is key, but never thought about the great impact it would have on them. Funeral directors are often up at all hours, working extended days, and emotionally drained. For Lindsey’s staff, being able to take a moment to pet the dog and play fetch or tug with her has been great. THEY’RE STILL DOGS One of the most valuable lessons for Lindsey was the need to advocate for Fletcher. His afternoon breaks are key to his well-being, as are mental and physical exercise in the morning to make sure he’s focused for the day. She also stresses that you have to be ready for anything. These dogs might be staff, but they are still animals who tend to sniff people in embarrassing places, lick or scratch themselves without regard to proper etiquette, and must relieve themselves when necessary, so be prepared. J.P., Lindsey, and Robert agree that this experience is only for those who really love animals, especially dogs. It’s a commitment for the trainer and the entire funeral home. Despite this, everyone concurred that the benefit to their businesses and the families they serve made all the effort worthwhile. One interesting aspect of the presentation at the symposium was that it moved attendees and panelists to discuss how to memorialize the therapy dog itself after death. These animals have a big impact in the community and bring people in to the funeral home. Robert recommended having a plan to begin training a new dog for continuum of care for the community. Lindsey mentioned how a professional colleague who has maintained several therapy animals holds services and invites other bereft pet owners to come in to memorialize together. J.P. emphasized the service, the memorial, and the final placement. This post is excerpted from Robert Hunsaker, Lindsey Ballard and J.P. DiTroia’s Therapy Animal panel at CANA’s 2018 Cremation Symposium. Save the Date for CANA’s 2019 Cremation Symposium: February 26-28, 2020 at the Paris Las Vegas Resort and Casino. Can’t join us? We’ll have recordings available so you don’t miss out on this amazing content.
Many funeral directors are facing more and more direct cremations with no services. They are at a loss as to how to overcome that trend. There are many ideas, theories, notions and educated guesses as to why families choose cremation. Cost. Environmental footprint. Control. Convenience. Lack of information. Religious affiliation, or lack thereof. All of those certainly are factors and can play a part in any one person’s decision. So we are going to look at the three Big C’s in Cremation. costI would like to go back in time to the early ‘60s when cremation first came on the profession’s radar, and find that first funeral director who said, “Well, I guess I shouldn’t charge as much for this since I’m not embalming or casketing” and take him out. I’m not a violent person by nature, but really?? That idea got started somewhere and we all just went along with it. Sure, let’s charge less for something that takes just as much time to accomplish, has much more liability, and requires just as much staff involvement. That makes perfect business sense. Within that nonsense also was created the message to families that they were somehow lesser-thans or 2nd class funeral customers. I actually worked for an owner who said to families, “We bury our dead, we burn our trash.” Because we didn’t take these families seriously and did not take their needs for a meaningful funeral service to heart, they left. Why would I pay $8,000 to someone who thinks I’m not as important as the people who buy the box? I can be ignored at the $695 box-and-burn immediate disposer who is more than willing to take my money and do nothing else for me. Families are hiring us to perform a service. If I hire an orthopedist to perform surgery on my shoulder, his price is for the surgery. He doesn’t talk about which instruments he might have to use or the amount of time it might take or how many nurses will have to be in the room. He says, “This is my price to fix your shoulder.” Why can’t we have a price for body preparation? Yes, we’d have to figure out the correct GPL language but we could certainly have more productive conversations with our client families if we didn’t have an if/then/or approach to pricing. controlYes, for a small group of people the cremation choice is made based upon cost. But the large majority are choosing cremation based upon control. These people have attended bad services in their past and are determined that they are not going to go to another one. If I have a burial, then I’m beholden to the funeral director to get the casket from point A to point B and so I’m stuck with whatever service is offered to me. I can’t throw the casket in the back of my car and drive off and arrange a service that fits me. But I can walk out with an urn in my hand and have control over the type of service that I hold. We’ve all been to “bad” services. The cookie-cutter, insert name here, hope someone says the name correctly, impersonal ritual that offers nothing about the person and what his death will mean to those mourning his loss. Every time one of these boring, hurtful or meaningless services occurs, another immediate disposition/no service is created. People say “When I die, don’t do that!” Cremation offers a choice, a sense of control over what happens in a memorial service. Does that mean that most are held at someone’s house or at a bar or a restaurant with toasts and stories? Probably. Does that mean that the value of having a gathering that celebrates the life and explores the grief and provides a guidepost for mourning the loss is lost? Definitely. STORY 1 Once I served as a Celebrant for an 80 year-old-man who died of suicide. It was a difficult service, but we honored his life and talked about the depression over health issues that caused him to make such a choice. We discussed what the grief journey was going to look like for those who were trying to make sense of the death. We encouraged the standing room only crowd to be an integral part of the family’s next steps as they turned tears into memories. It was a pretty good service. That afternoon I received an email from a woman who was in attendance begging me for a copy of the service. This lady tracked me down and said she needed a copy of my words. So, I asked the family for permission and I sent her a copy. Her backstory was this—her son died of a heroin overdose and her daughter, his twin, died of suicide four years before. They did not have funerals either time. They cremated, then met at a restaurant and told stories. They did not trust that someone could handle such delicate and hard situations, so they just avoided. She needed those words to help her on her own grief journey. This happens hundreds of times across the country to our Celebrants. Because the celebrant is a ceremony expert, focused solely on the ceremony and often devoting much more time to the ceremony than funeral directors and clergy can, the celebrant can be a tremendous resource. What celebrants offer can even be attractive to those who initially think they don’t want a ceremony at all. —Diane Gansauer, Director of Celebrant Services, SCI Colorado Funeral Services in Metro Denver Until we change the service experience for those families, they will continue to walk away. Our pricing, our lovely chapels, our offers of assistance—they’ve been there and done that and don’t trust us to be able to do something that is meaningful. Which brings us to the final C: celebrantsMy bedrock message is “Celebrants can change your business, Celebrants can change your families, Celebrants can bring your cremation families back to your firm.” The religious landscape of our country is changing. The percentage of people who identify as a “None”—not religiously affiliated, not engaged with a church—is rapidly growing. Statistics from the Pew Research report show that almost 25% of the overall population now considers themselves “nones” and over 35% of millennials are disenfranchised with religious experiences. This has incredible implications for funeral service. Some funerals homes have stained glass windows, Bibles in the foyer, hymns on the speakers and scriptures on their websites. There is nothing wrong with having an ability to serve your religious families, but today anywhere from 25% to 80% of your community does not identify or resonate with those representations. If all you have to offer is a minister and a religious experience, they are going elsewhere. High “nones” equal high cremation rates. It’s just that simple. The greatest impact a Celebrant can have with a family is the one on one interview time, an opportunity to sit down and become part of the decedent’s family, by hearing and learning first-hand about the life of their loved one, and sharing a personal glimpse into the life of the decedent with friends and family at the funeral service. That is one of the greatest gifts you can ever give to the family. Out of that experience comes the most gracious of compliments that you will ever receive, which is to hear at the conclusion of the service how well you knew the loved one. The Celebrant experience gives you that opportunity to serve the family in ways you may have never dreamed possible. —Kevin Hull, Vice President and Location Manager, Cook-Walden Davis Funeral Home Celebrants are the answer for a majority of your cremation families. So many of them are not offered any options by their funeral professional. So, they either opt for the rent-a-minister or do nothing. Another immediate disposition walks out of the door. When someone attends a service where every word of the service is focused on the life, on the family, and on the grief experience, their decisions can change significantly. “Oh. . .we can have this kind of service? Then I’m willing to talk to the funeral director about paying for THAT” Over 50% of the services I perform through referrals from funeral homes in my city come from someone who attended another service and came back and asked for that Celebrant. People pay for value. People pay for meaning. People pay for gatherings that heal. My friend, Ernie Heffner from York, PA, ran numbers on his Celebrant services and found that cremation families who used a Celebrant spent 36% more on other goods and services. It’s not about the money. It’s about the value, the experience, the assurance that someone is going to hear their stories, to honor the life and work with them to put together a service that fits them. People pay for meaning. STORY 2 I did a service for a man in his 40’s who drank himself to death. He left an estranged wife, a 19 year old daughter, 18 year old son, and a brother who was a recovering alcoholic himself. This meant two hours of slogging through a lot of baggage and feelings to get to the stories and to give them permission to say what was needed. But we put together a service that honored his life while being honest about his struggles and his demons. After the service, the brother handed me a thank you card with $300 in it. The funeral home had already given me a check for my Celebrant fee of $400. I said, “Oh, you’ve already paid me.” He said, “Please just take it.” The card read “Thank you for performing J’s service and I especially thank you for the time you spent with us Sunday evening. I’m hoping it provided as much healing to the others as it did for me. Thank you.” People pay for healing gatherings. In today’s world, the most crucial element in helping a family lies in the ability of the Celebrant to actively listen and recreate what they have heard into something with meaning and value. Celebrant Training is funeral service’s best option to develop the skills to become an outstanding funeral professional. At our firm, all of our funeral directors must go through the Celebrant Training so they can understand the importance and value of working with our Celebrants to help the families have a truly outstanding experience. This is especially important for cremation families that are looking for something other than traditional services. Celebrant Services play a major role in making Krause Funeral Homes a place of exceptional funerals. —Mark Krause, President Krause Funeral Homes & Cremation Service We’ve been saying this since 1999: Families need a service to begin their grief journey in a healthy and honest way. Unless we are willing to provide the professionals and the services that they are looking for, they are going to walk away. When families have options, funeral homes are going to lose every time unless their option is better, more appealing and soul touching. Looking at everything we do when it comes to serving the cremation family—pricing, style of service, presentation of choices, availability to Celebrants who can do exactly what the family wants and needs – is the only way that full-service funeral professionals are going to stay in business. How we deal with all of the C words will determine how much farther down the road we get to travel. CANA is partnering with Glenda Stansbury and the InSight Institute for the second time this July to offer Celebrant Training. Limited to 40 attendees, this course packs a lot of information, emotion, and training into three days but is increasingly considered a must for the most successful businesses in the US. Learn more about this class coming to Louisville, Kentucky from July 29-31 and register online.
At CANA’s 100th Cremation Innovation, Rick Baldwin and John McQueen took the stage to share their strategies for selling across multiple brands in a high cremation market. Their presentation discussed decades of changes in the marketplace, a history of trials and successes, and business strategies crafted in the trenches of Florida’s dramatically expanding cremation rate. This post features highlights from John McQueen’s presentation that specifically address market domination via brand segmentation. ANDERSON-MCQUEEN FUNERAL HOMEI want to give you a little bit of perspective about where we came from. Our father started our funeral home in 1952. It was a typical traditional family funeral home. He passed away when I was 22. I was very blessed to have a very intelligent brother who was in the business with me. We were two young guys, we were able to figure out “What are we going to do in the future going forward?” We continued to grow our traditional business. Around 1997, we realized that our consumer was starting to change. The consumer of yesterday was mostly happy with an average product or average service. I even remember when I started in the business, the training program that Batesville used to instruct us for our casket presentation was “This is our average bronze casket” or “our average wood.” Everybody wanted to be average. It was a more product-focused industry in the past. We wanted to sell the casket, we wanted to do all that. Nowadays the products have become less and less important to the consumer. By 1999, when we were getting ready to open our low cost alternative, we had figured out that the consumers had migrated to the two ends of the spectrum. So it kind of made that middle collapse. Basically, you have the price-seeking consumer on one end and the solution-seeking consumer on the other end. One of the problems with this, in our opinion, is that’s where the traditional funeral home lies—in the middle. the profit zoneThere’s a book out there called The Profit Zone, and they talk about how, over the last 15 years, the winners in the marketplace have been the price discounters. Those with the low-cost position. Walmart is the example. The next is the superstores. Those that have a particular focus, along with a low cost combination. The best example of that would probably be Best Buy. If you want electronics, go to Best Buy. They have everything and anything you could possibly think of, and they have it at a really great price. The third winner in the marketplace is the high-end specialists, those that differentiate themselves from everybody else in the market. They charge a premium price to do so. The best examples of those would be L.L. Bean, Ritz-Carlton, Harley-Davidson, Starbucks. You could throw Zappos in there. Think about how scientific jargon and bureaucratic language could have killed the inspiration of the moment if they’d crept in. As a Harley owner myself, you can own any motorcycle out there. I can buy a motorcycle that’s a lot cheaper than that Harley-Davidson—but it’s not a Harley. You gotta be part of that class, part of that family. So they’re able to command that bigger price to do so. To give you a couple other examples of firms that have used this, you have the Marriott International Corporation. They actually are the largest hotel corporation in the world from a profit standpoint, with the exception of MGM. But then again, MGM has casinos associated with them, so that revenue helps them out a little bit there. At the top, Marriott has their Ritz Carlton, in the middle they have their Courtyards, and at the bottom they have their Fairfield Inns. At every one of their locations, you get a quality night’s sleep. They’re going to assure you of that. But the amenities that go along with each of those tiers vary greatly. To give you an idea, they have 5,400 properties around the world with about 1.1 million room nights. Their revenues on an annual basis are about $15 billion as of 2017. Another business is Swatch Watch Group. They started out as the firewall brand for Blancpain and Harry Winston, as the top Swiss watch company out there in the marketplace. Those are still their top Swiss watches, but they saw that they were losing market share because these other companies were coming in at a much cheaper price because they were able to undersell them. So they started Swatch. Swatch has grown so big now thought that they actually changed the name of the parent company. Now they’re the Swatch Watch Group, and they’ve rolled out a new low cost brand, which is their Flik Flak, for the younger children, to pull them into the loop. Their revenues last year were greater than $7.5 billion in watch sales. This model works in many industries. MULTIPLE FIRMS, ONE MARKETWe ended up adopting a similar business model, but we wanted to avoid cannibalization. We have multiple firms in the same marketplace. We don’t want to cannibalize that existing firm at the top because that’s where we maximize most of our profits. How do we avoid doing that? We need to differentiate ourselves – with location, hours of operation, pricing method, marketing and branding, but never staff. It’s just as important that the staff at your low-cost brand is as on-the-game as at the top end of the brand. I will tell you on my final note for you here that as you move forward into this world, if that’s what you want to do, there’s some roadwork ahead for you. You need to forget some of those things that made you great at your high-end brand because things operate differently in that low-end spectrum. But you do want to borrow from your high-end brand. So you can use your back-end operations, share some of those commodities together. It’s a black limousine going on a funeral. Who cares where it came from, right? You can share that, you can share the crematory, you can share the preparation room. Those kind of things you borrow from one another. But most importantly, I’ve found over the years, with the low-end brands especially, you have to be able to adapt. You’ve got to be nimble, you’ve got to be able to move quickly. If the market starts to shift or something you’re doing’s not quite working right, then you need to tweak it and move forward. Don’t just stay stuck in the road. the kia effectI’m going to finish with the biggest failure in funeral service today. It’s what I call the Kia Effect. I read more and more articles and hear more and more new consultants that have come into our industry. They all want to tell us that nobody values a funeral any more nowadays. Everybody wants cheap, cheap, cheap. If you’re not the cheap guy in the market, then you’re not going to be successful. I’m here to tell you that I don’t believe that. Our high-end brand grew more market share over the last two years than our low-cost brands did. We ended up generating about another additional million dollars out of that high-end brand over those last few years than we were doing with our low-end brand. So, it is growing. But, the difference is, you need to be on your game if you’re going to have that high-end brand. You’ve got to be able to show the value to the customer, explain to them what we do, explain why we do it, how we do it, and really educate the consumer on that. If we do that, we’ll continue to have the business at the top end as well as picking up the business at the bottom end. This post excerpted from Rick Baldwin and John McQueen’s presentation at CANA’s 100th Cremation Innovation Convention. The full presentation, including Rick’s contrasting strategy of “Simple and Easy,” is available on demand from CANA’s online learning platform. Members can also read a version of the full presentation in The Cremationist, Vol. 54 Iss. 3 titled “Local Innovation: Selling Across Multiple Brands in a High Cremation Market.” The CANA Convention is known for highlighting local innovation each year. At the 101st Cremation Innovation Convention this summer in Louisville, Kentucky, Gwen Mooney and Michael Higgs of the historic Cave Hill Cemetery will discuss how the cemetery and its foundation work strategically to actively sell cemetery property and build community engagement – all through the "Art of Story.” Learn more about this session and what else CANA has planned and register now: GoCANA.org/CANA19
CANA’s 100th Annual Cremation Innovation Convention is only two weeks away. That means you’re figuring out what to pack, finding your dog-sitter, and — oh, yeah — who will keep the homefires burning while you’re gone. Don’t worry, after doing this for 100 years, CANA knows what we’re talking about. Update! One hundred years of conventions proves that CANA successfully tackles the topic of cremation by continually providing relevant, progressive content. The 2018 convention was no exception. Weren't able to join us? You can access the presentation recordings on our Learning Management System. View session descriptions and pricing here: gocana.org/CANA18.
Come on, did you really think we’d come up with 100 Things you need to add to your to-do list? We know how busy you are. You take care of the packing, we’ll do the rest. See you in Ft. Lauderdale! With a wide range of valuable networking and educational opportunities, the event will feature sessions that examine the last 100 years of CANA conventions and growth in cremation, evaluate where businesses are today, and focus on the next 100 years by providing strategic and practical information for long-term success. See our full program and learn more about how we'll mark more than 100 years of cremation success here: gocana.org/CANA18
a new workforceAs of 2017, the Millennial generation filled the majority of positions in the US workforce (35%), more than both the Baby Boomer (25%) and Gen X-ers (33%). It is predicted that by 2030, Millennials will hold 75% of the roles in the death care industry, a very large increase in a very short period of time. As baby boomers retire, they take decades of experience and honed knowledge, skills, and abilities with them. Young professionals, even with all their energy and excitement, cannot immediately replace the decades of experience of your senior staff. The upside is that these incoming employees won’t carry years of pre-conceptions and assumptions about their community, which will make their onboarding and training that much easier. The downside is that it takes time and well-thought out training programs to get new recruits up to speed. a new traditionThe US cremation rate passed 50% for the first time in 2016. We can officially say it – cremation is the new tradition. As consumer preferences have changed, the knowledge and skills required from funeral directors to work with consumers has changed as well. As an employer, it means you require specific sets of skills in your employees and expectations for their experience and training. It requires innovation. Our hard-working schools provide the education, but they can’t make a professional – only experience and guidance can do that. This component is why so many states and provinces require apprenticeships before licensure as well as continued education to maintain licensure. A mid-career professional considering their advancement can’t return to school easily, so they must rely on CE providers to address the gaps. In a previous blog post we talked about how to assess the quality of a learning experience, but how do you assess the importance of the topic presented? In this cremation-focused world, how can you know you’re getting the latest in industry education to meet the current needs of your community? BACK TO BASICSWhat makes someone successful at their job? How do we evaluate staff to assess their skills? How do you know you have a solid base of knowledge to build on as you move forward in your career? CANA is working to address the fundamentals of the profession as we know it today now that cremation is the new tradition. Competencies are the foundation of every profession – these are sets of knowledge, abilities and skills that a person needs to be successful in their job. Competencies are used in many ways within each profession:
After completing school, students generally complete an apprenticeship where they learn hands on skills to apply that knowledge learned in school. Once the apprenticeship is over, state and provincial agencies take over and monitor continued professional development through required continuing education. And that’s where CANA enters the lifelong learning continuum. As we look at competencies within our profession, CANA believes we could be doing more related to cremation. We can’t set employees up for success if we aren’t teaching them the knowledge, skills and abilities that are specific to cremation, particularly the employees who graduated many years ago, and have seen the profession rapidly changing around them. This is what we refer to as a skills gap – when only a limited set of the population has the needed competencies to do the job. And we see a big skill gap when it comes to cremation. what can we do?Fear not, CANA friends. After all, we are All Things Cremation. We have been diligently working to identify those cremation competencies and will be developing education programs and other resources needed to support employees as they work to achieve them. We can’t wait to share them with you. Be sure to attend CANA’s 100th Annual Cremation Innovation Convention with your staff where I’ll preview these competencies and talk about how to use them to support your employees and improve your bottom line — and earn some professional and innovative continuing education while you're at it. And watch for future blog posts where I explain the process we go through to identify competencies. Join CANA July 25–27, 2018 at the Fort Lauderdale Marriott Harbor Beach Resort & Spa where Jennifer will uncover the competencies that make a cremation professional as part of Session 4 • Cremation Fundamentals, topics related to foundational business practices. Travel together at a discount! For over 100 years, CANA has drawn the best and brightest in the industry. Now, you can share the wealth of professional cremation education and network with innovators and save! Early birds get $100 off and any Additional Employee registration is $200 off that. With a wide range of valuable networking and educational opportunities, the event will feature sessions that examine the last 100 years of CANA conventions and growth in cremation, evaluate where businesses are today, and focus on the next 100 years by providing strategic and practical information for long-term success. See our full program and learn more about how we'll mark more than 100 years of cremation success here: gocana.org/CANA18
Do you have a budget for training and development? If you do, is it only for mandatory training required for maintaining licensure? If you answered no to the first question, or yes to the second question, read on. Sadly, most people only pay for continuing education classes only because they have to. As long as they have the credits they need, that’s all that matters. In that case, they look for the bare minimum – something that offers the least amount of work for the most amount of credits at the cheapest rate. You all know what I’m talking about. Those $50 online classes that get you 4 hours of continuing education credit. Four hours and $50 later, you haven’t actually continued your education or developed professionally because few people learn anything from a “class” where you read endless pages of content, or “watch” boring narrated slides while you’re really catching up on CANA’s blog. But what if the money spent on that required continuing education could actually help boost your bottom line? Successful companies know that training and development (T&D), as well as succession planning and anything related to workforce development, should be an integral part of your business strategy. Your people are your most important asset, so they should receive the time, energy and investment that shows it. workforce developmentWhat do successful companies do? They make a Competency Model – they outline all of the knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) a person needs to be successful in a given job or job area. Training dollars are focused on filling the gap between the skills employees have and those they need; since the competencies are tied to business goals, you are spending money on personnel (read: professional) development that will directly impact the bottom line. These competency models are also used in succession planning and career growth. When you have them available for all positions, employees know what is expected of them, especially if they want to be promoted or move to a different position in the company. When hiring new employees, the models help you identify what training you may or may not need to provide if you hire a particular person return on investmentIf improving your bottom line isn’t enough motivation to focus on T&D, maybe keeping qualified employees will. Are your employees getting poached by other firms because of the industry’s talent shortage? Continued opportunities for development and advancement keeps employees engaged and reduces turnover. What about the retirement of the Baby Boomers? It’s no secret that a skills gap exists between what employers need and the skills many of our future employees have. If you’re facing the looming retirement of experienced staff, getting new employees in and up to speed quickly is essential. That means starting now with comprehensive succession and T&D plans. “But wait!” you say. “Paying for classes is one thing. But the travel expenses, lodging and food, in addition to the lost work time, it all adds up!” Yes, it does, and I have several responses. First, the long-term payoff of having well-trained staff more than covers the classes, the travel expenses and the lost work time (or it should, if you choose quality training programs). Plus, the commitment you demonstrate to your employees makes them feel valued and that you are invested in their future. Second, properly trained and qualified staff generally leads to lower legal risk, which is priceless – ask anyone who has been sued. So how can you provide quality education in a more budget friendly way? Online programs are a great option since they eliminate the travel. quality online educationI earned my Master’s Degree in 2005 and the program was entirely online; it was cutting edge for its time. I remember having to watch video lectures every week for class, mailed to me on VHS tapes, and promptly falling asleep on the couch within 20 minutes. BORING! Don’t get me wrong, the program was tough, and I put the work in to prove I was worthy of the degree (just ask me about my work product sample!). But studies show, and my personal experience agrees, an interactive online learning experience is more effective. It wasn’t available back then, but we’re capable of this now, 13 years later, with all the technology advancements. Unfortunately, if you want to take quality online education that actually increases the bottom line, you may struggle to find it. Remember that $50 class for four hours of credit? That’s not the quality I mean. Research shows that lectures aren’t effective for adults to learn, yet it continues to be the delivery mechanism of choice—especially for online courses—because it’s easy for those putting the presentation together. Truly valuable online opportunities can be rare. Maybe that’s why there are still states, like Pennsylvania, that don’t accept continuing education credits obtained through online or distance learning methods. They know that there haven’t been many—if any—truly effective online programs available. CANA is changing that. CRITERIA Though it can be costly and time intensive and requires a unique skill set to develop, the use of online education that is designed following best practices is now an expectation within the most successful companies. Unfortunately, there are still many industries that lag behind in this area—ours being one of them. This is why it’s important for CANA to set the standard. Our association needs to show what quality online continuing education looks and feels like. But how do you know if you are investing in quality education, especially when it’s offered online? There are three key criteria to consider before purchasing an online course.
ask for helpNot sure how to get started developing a defined professional development plan for your employees? I’d love to talk to you. Call 312-245-1077 or email me Jennifer@cremationassociation.org and I'll work with you to achieve your goals.
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