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Episode Overview
In this episode, Luke Fisher (CEO of Mo) and guest co-host Dan Kessler (President of Energage) sit down with Kara Rodriguez, Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer at Mozaic Senior Life, to explore how this nonprofit senior care provider sustains a culture rooted in belonging, empathy, and joy, even in the face of immense challenges.
You’ll hear about:
- Why Mozaic competes on meaning and values, not just wages
- The hiring philosophy summed up as “Hire for the heart, teach the skills”
- Rituals that keep teams connected from “Rumour Mill” meetings to hot dog–costume CEO appearances
- How 3 out of 5 executives entrust their own family members to Mozaic’s care
- Balancing emotional highs and lows in senior care with intentional moments of joy
- Why listening is the first step to becoming a top workplace
This is a candid, uplifting look at how workplace culture can transform both employee retention and resident care with lessons any leader can adapt.
Read the top takeaways
Read the guide we created based on Kara’s recommendations
Episode Transcript
Luke: Hello, and welcome back to Culture In Action. I’m Luke Fisher, CEO of Mo. Today’s guest is Kara Rodriguez, Chief Human Resources Officer at Mozaic Senior Living. They’re an award-winning top workplace that’s rewriting what great culture looks like in senior care. In a sector where turnover’s extremely high, Mozaic has achieved half the average staff turnover, and it’s definitely not by accident.
From hiring for the heart and growing careers from housekeeping to IT, to joyful rituals and radical listening, Kara shows how culture can drive care, connection, and real business results.
Today we have a top workplace in Mozaic Senior Life. It’s an amazing organization. I’ve heard some of their stories already, and in an industry that has on average 40 to 50% employee turnover every year, Mozaic sits at half of that number. They have three out of five of their executive team have loved ones cared for by their organization. I think that is probably the biggest compliment you could imagine.
So welcome, Kara. It’s absolutely delightful to have you. There’s also for anyone else here watching another face, which is a special treat. So Dan, who is president of Energage, is co-hosting with me for a series of these. So welcome both of you.
Dan: Thank you.
Kara: Thank you.
Luke: So Kara, as the star of the show, it would be wonderful if you wouldn’t mind just introducing yourself and what brought you to Mozaic.
Kara: Excellent. Well, hello everybody. I am Kara Rodriguez. I am the Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer of Mozaic Senior Life. We are a long-term care facility, but also providing community services and healthcare, medical home care and hospice. I’ve had a 30-year career in human resources. Throughout my career, I’ve always been drawn to organizations that lead with purpose and put people first. It’s an honor to be part of a team that makes such meaningful impact every day on the lives that we touch.
Luke: Great. Thank you ever so much. And one of the things that really struck me when we spoke is that you joined the organization with exceptionally stable foundations. I think over 50 years, there’s only been two CEOs. Is that right? So how does that even happen? What’s allowed for such sustained leadership?
Kara: It’s our culture, right? We have a clear mission. Everybody who is here from leadership through the entire organization stands behind our mission and what we’re here to do every day. We’re committed to our values. We don’t just post them on a wall and say once at orientation. Our values are part of our annual review process. It’s part of our big employee award ceremony every year. We do three times a year recognition on our values. So it’s intrinsically who we are and how we behave every single day.
You know, equally important is we have a board of directors who stands behind our mission and our culture and our values and supports us. As human resources, the support I get from our board of directors in driving and maintaining our vision and our mission is critical to our success.
Dan: That is awesome. And I think that, you know, one of the ways that we’ve been able to help validate that, Kara, is Mozaic has earned multiple Top Workplace awards. So for the listeners, Mozaic has been a top workplace in their region in western Connecticut. They’ve been a top workplace in their industry in our healthcare award and nationally with all employers with USA Today.
And so that is quite an accomplishment and I think really a manifestation of everything that you’re sharing about the culture. So would you mind maybe sharing a little bit about if there was a moment that you and the team decided you wanted to kind of go for this external recognition as a top workplace and what were some of the reasons for pursuing that?
Kara: Yeah. So when the opportunity presented itself to participate in the Top Workplace survey, it was a reflection on what do we hear our staff saying around us? What’s going on in the building? Often you think you’re doing all the right things, and the anecdotal information we hear from our staff is that we are doing the right things. But the survey gave us the opportunity to say, let’s give our people a voice in a very public way of letting us know how we’re doing and essentially letting the world know how we’re doing.
We wanted to celebrate our culture – a culture that our staff helped build, right? It’s not just leadership that makes the culture happen. It’s every one of us. We wanted to be able to benchmark our progress against our industry as well as other employers in our area where we’re all trying to find the best talent. So what is one way that our staff can help us have that voice of how well we do on building our culture at Mozaic?
Being recognised wasn’t the goal. Honoring the commitment, passion, and heart of our staff was the goal. The award is really a reflection on what we already knew at Mozaic. And we know we really are a truly special place to work.
Dan: So well said, Kara, thank you for sharing all of that. Just building on that a little bit in terms of how you all compete for talent. Specifically in your region you’ve got Yale University, which is this huge big brand name and there’s other providers that you’re competing with. So what are some of the things that you do to attract and retain people when maybe as a nonprofit you can’t compete as much on compensation?
Kara: That’s the big thing, right? In a world where cost of living has increased exponentially. Why Mozaic versus another healthcare system that can provide a higher wage base? That’s always the point for us of do we compete in that world. People join us and they stay. And a big part of that is because they want to do the meaningful work, but they also want to be in an organization where they feel seen and heard and valued.
We work really hard to provide a supportive environment where employees can grow their careers. We hire people into our CNA training program where we educate them and provide the opportunity to become a certified nurse’s aide. And many of those folks remain with us for years and years. They become LPNs, they become RNs. Recently we had one of our housekeepers become an IT person and join our IT team. So it’s how do we create those internal development opportunities so that folks don’t need to look elsewhere to continue to grow and be all that they are.
Knowing that the work that they do matters at Mozaic is a big part also of why they stay. They get to see the impact that they have every day on the lives of our residents, those that we care for in their homes and the families, right? We don’t care just for those people that we give physical care to. It’s also their caregivers, their family members.
We also focus on development. I mentioned all of our different recognition opportunities and we make sure people feel that they belong. We call it our flag wall. We have a poster that has the flags of 96 different countries. Someone has worked at Mozaic who has come from those countries. So we do a lot of communications around how do you fit in here? How do you show up and be the best person you are as your authentic self every day? So that’s also a big part of why I think we attract and retain a great workforce.
Luke: And Kara, if I may, just a follow-on question is, you said something really interesting, which was why Mozaic and what I tend to find at the common thread of Top Workplaces is it’s not just a one way track. You have to ask why that person too. And with people that have come from 96 countries, there must be something that unites them. When you are picking, who do you want to work with?
Kara: I mean this may be an interesting thing for people to hear me say, but crying in your job interview is actually seen as a positive thing. And that’s the empathy that they bring. So many of our applicants share stories of their loved ones that they cared for through their old age or their other prior positions, where they were just so touched and moved that those tears come. We hire for the heart – that is critical to us. Having empathy is critical. We can teach you the tactical pieces of a job. It’s do you have the heart to deliver the care and compassion that is integral to who we are as an organization.
Luke: Yeah. That’s amazing. I think I almost know the answer to my next question, which is Mozaic maintained full occupancy even during the pandemic when almost everybody else in your industry was struggling and had to close beds. How much of a role does your culture play in that?
Kara: It’s integral. I am trying to find a different word besides integral. Through the pandemic, it was scary what was happening every day. Changed how we kept our residents and our employees safe every day, but our staff showed up for each other and for our residents every single day. We’ve built a culture rooted in accountability, compassion, and teamwork. So that foundation is what helped us succeed through the pandemic.
We found unique ways for family members to connect with their residents and when work was so much harder during that time for everybody, but the staff went above and beyond, whether it was a FaceTime call or getting a family member, getting a resident near a window. They went above and beyond with each other to make sure people felt supported during a really scary time. Some days people were stronger than other days. And so you leaned into who was strong on a particular day to lift you up and get you through it. So teamwork and compassion were so important during that period for us.
Luke: Amazing. I was doing a bit of research about the company. I feel like you can see your culture beaming from the outside and then I thought, oh, I wonder what it would take if I wanted a family member of mine, although I’m in the UK residents over in the US to join you. And it turns out you’ve got a multi-year waiting list. And actually that’s much harder than I thought it was going to be to do. I just wonder what you think drives that kind of belief and trust from families because it’s a hard decision to place a family member with you. And there must just be an overwhelming level of trust and belief in your organization to have such a long waiting list.
Kara: True. Our reputation precedes us and we say to every person that works at Mozaic: you are our reputation. The decisions you make, how you show up every day, the care you provide is our reputation, and without every single person here, that waiting list dissipates. Right. So it’s ensuring that our engagements, not just with the residents, but with their families is top notch every day.
We talk about customer service and how do you go above and beyond every day? And my mother lives here at Mozaic. She’s been here for two years. And to say that I trust the staff is an understatement, right? From the little things of she’s dressed and ready to go, looking fabulous every day to my phone call to say, I just talked to mom and she’s saying something’s wrong with her toes. Go check on her. And I know they’re going to go do that and they’re going to get back to me. So it’s the two-way communication. It’s the reputation, it’s how we’ve cared for generations of families. That keeps us having this waiting list.
Luke: Yeah, it feels like that’s deeply rooted in your culture.
Dan: It’s really extraordinary, Kara. I think one of the things that Luke and I talk a lot about that I think Mozaic is an incredible example of, is how building a winning and sustaining a winning culture, in addition to being the right thing to do for the team, it really does drive business results and drive success for whatever it is that a given organization is focused on achieving. And so maybe from a Mozaic perspective, just to help folks understand how those things really are connected, are there data points or even just anecdotes that you have around how the work that you’ve done to build such an amazing culture have translated into things that matter for you all, whether that’s resident satisfaction or donors, or whatever those goals are that Mozaic is driving towards.
Kara: Yeah, sure. We don’t conduct formal family surveys, but we get a ton of anecdotal feedback from families. And it’s everything, right? When things aren’t perfect it’s how we respond and that people choose to continue to be with Mozaic. The connection between our employee experience and resident satisfaction really shows up in a lot of the heartfelt feedback that we get. One of the things that we do is take the notes that we get from families and make sure we publicize them across the organization. We’re always receiving notes of appreciation and recognition of a job well done while residents are still here and with us. And after they’ve passed on their family’s coming back and sharing the comfort that they had in knowing that their loved one was here and the care that they received.
So that’s a big part of how we get feedback from us all living our culture. On the donor side, we get gifts all the time that are left to us in people’s wills or upon the passing of a resident. The family comes back and makes a donation into our programs. It’s sustained by the donors that repeatedly give to us every year when we are – communication is a big piece of it. Making sure the families, whether they’re still inside our community or have, you know, that chapter in their life has closed, but keeping communications open around all the things that we do and that we work to achieve to make a full rich life for those that are living here.
Dan: Wow. Thank you Kara, for sharing all that, and I think it’s just such a great reminder that regardless of organization, industry that you’re in, it’s that connection between the culture and the employee experience, what you’re trying to achieve, just comes through so powerfully. One of the things that we see pretty consistently in Top Workplaces that have built such strong cultures like Mozaic is these rituals emerge. And they serve as – they tend to be more symptoms of really great workplaces, if that makes sense, because those rituals tend to be pretty unique to the culture that you’ve created and help reinforce it and strengthen it. And so I know that Mozaic is no different in that there’s a number of rituals that have emerged over the years. And so I thought just to bring that to life for folks, if you wouldn’t mind sharing a few of those that are maybe most meaningful or some of your favorites.
Kara: Yeah, sure. So every other month we have three standard activities that happen. One is either breakfast or snacks with the CEO. And so Andrew Banov, our CEO, and I meet with about 10 team members from a diverse group of departments with a diverse group of years of service, and the whole purpose of that – there’s no agenda. We are there to get to know each other. So before I mentioned belonging and how important it is to us, this is an opportunity for us to really get to know the people that are working here and getting direct feedback on what works well and what could we do better. So that happens every other month.
We also have a meeting that we call the sounding board. And again, every other month, Andrew and I meet with about 20 to 30 diverse group of team members, and we go with an agenda to that one. So there’s key points, Andrew and I want to make sure everybody knows about messages that need to get back to the team. Things like open enrollment is coming, we’ve increased the 401k match, those types of things. But the end of the meeting, our last agenda item is called the rumor mill. In any organization there are rumors and it’s a chance for people to bring up those rumors for us to give the facts about what they’re hearing. And typically nothing that substantiates the rumor mill, but it’s so great to squash those things because they can cause a lot of angst.
And then the final part of that meeting is everybody gets a chance to talk about what’s on their mind. It’s a great opportunity for us to find ways to improve, things that are happening in the building. It gives us a chance to take action if it’s something that can’t be changed. It gives us an opportunity to talk about why does this exist the way it exists. So it’s just that great dialogue, two-way communication.
The other bimonthly item that we do is called a new hire tea and a birthday celebration. And so this is just another really informal opportunity where we get to welcome new people to the organization. They get to connect with longer service people. So they’re building a network of people they can go to to ask questions. And it gives us a chance to touch base with everybody at least once a year in that forum to celebrate them a little.
We do other things like there is an official nursing home week. We don’t do a week for every discipline in the building. We do one week, we call it senior care week. Andrew dresses up as a hot dog when the hot dog truck comes. But it’s a big deal, right? People show up whether they’re working or not, not just for the free food, but to have that moment with Andrew. Getting their picture taken in a hot dog costume. And then he dresses up. We do a big education fair in December. Every year we give out a little holiday gift, and Andrew every year picks a different costume that he’s in. So it’s kind of, we can have fun at work and how do we bring that fun in? And if our CEO can act a little goofy, we can all act a little goofy and have a good time together. So it’s just building the environment.
Luke: Yeah, I was going to ask you how, in a world in which the realities of your work, as wonderful as it sounds, as a workplace, is pretty emotional, right? In terms of the realities. I can see that the experience is absolutely filled with moments of joy. And it would just be really intriguing to me – how do you intentionally – do you plan for those? Do they just happen? Is it just a case that people care so much that they want to do things? How do you inject the joy when the realities could be quite sad?
Kara: I think it’s a combination, Luke, of both things, right? We definitely plan for some of the things that happen, but I think a lot of it is unintentional and it starts with orientation, right? Where I am saying to people, you’re expected to engage with the residents that live here. And so that may mean, we’re a Jewish faith-based organization. We celebrate a holiday called Purim, which is about dressing up in costumes.
Luke: Got it.
Kara: And so it’s an all out event. Everybody get your costumes on and we’re doing a parade for the residents. We have an amazing therapeutic recreation team, and if you’re going by and they’re playing cornhole, jump in and play cornhole, right? It’s just expected that we’re going to participate in the residents in those joyful fun moments so that the hard moments when we lose those that we’ve cared for for a long time, it balances it out. Because we’re definitely going to have sad moments when people pass away. But then we have a lot of great memories that we’ve made with those individuals that we can draw on. And one of my messages to everyone is, you know, take solace in the amazing care and how well you let this person live out the rest of their life. And focus on that as we grieve the passing of people.
Luke: Yeah, indeed. And it almost seems like the team bonds in the highs and in the lows.
Kara: Absolutely.
Luke: And you’ve got to balance those, right? In terms of how many happen. Because at the heart of it is, it must just be resilience and fortitude, right?
Kara: It absolutely. And I’m just thinking through yeah, it goes back to when we spoke about the pandemic and our occupancy, it’s that lifting each other up and in one person’s weak moment, you’re the stronger person and you do that for each other as you ebb and flow throughout your days and what’s happening with those that we care for.
Dan: You know, Kara, you shared that your mother is a resident of Mozaic, and I think Luke mentioned at the beginning that actually three out of the five executives also have loved ones who are under the care of the Mozaic team, which is just in some ways that says it all. And I guess I am kind of curious about how does that actually show up, right, in those daily, the exec team meetings and just daily decision making and conversations? Because it’s such a unique and powerful component, dimension, I guess to Mozaic and to how you all operate.
Kara: You know, I think we all want the residents to be treated as we would treat our loved ones, right? But we come at it with that lens. It is our loved ones, right? And we expect no more for our loved ones than we expect for every other person that we are privileged to care for here. So when we’re thinking about what’s happening in the building? It’s about the good for all and firsthand knowledge of, well, how would my mother react to this? Right. How would Andrew’s father react to this? So it gives us a good lens on changes that we’re making and how it could impact the residents.
It’s also helpful because with our three parents living here, we get a lot of firsthand feedback about what they perceive as working well or not working well. Which is great because their perceptions are other people’s perceptions too. So if there’s a perception that we need to change or help people understand better, we’re well equipped to do that.
Luke: Kara, I’ve been furiously scribbling down some of the things that I’ve heard through our discussion because I’ve just seen the next question on our list is the one from the last podcast guest, which means we are nearly at the end and I feel like we’ve been through a rollercoaster of emotions and loads of good stuff.
And here’s what I’ve heard. Which is the moments that matter really matter. There are so many of them that seem to happen and are inspired by the culture that you have in your organization. Not just the highs, but also the lows and how people come together in those situations. Sounds amazing.
You have a really common language, like a unique but common language in the organization. It seems like everything is labeled and there’s a thing that is associated to the rumor mill. And it fits in and the outfit and the blend of those things is just uniquely you rather than someone else’s, right? The culture is absolutely like front and centre, and you can see why you have, as Dan said, earned rather than won or anything else. Like you made the awards happen and the impact on the organization.
I then put myself in the shoes of a listener and I’m like, wow, I want that. I want to be a top workplace. So to the question that the last person asked, which I think plays as much to this as all of the good stuff that you’ve shared about is what do you stop doing? If you are listening to this and you’re like, there is a lot of cool stuff I want to do those 20 things that Kara’s doing, and Mozaic are doing, if you’re really serious about staff engagement, like what do you need to stop doing?
Kara: Stop talking. And start listening. So a lot of the activities that you heard me talk about are just that – it’s the CEO, it’s me, it’s all of our leadership listening to what the employees, the residents and their families have to say. Our culture goes just beyond it. It’s not just the employees, it’s all of those that we serve. And so we need to be prepared to listen and then take action in order to keep our culture alive.
Luke: Yeah. Amazing. Okay, cool. Right now we have a quick fire round. These don’t take very long at all. So what’s one piece of technology that you couldn’t live without in your role?
Kara: So you’re going to think this is silly. Screensavers. When I was thinking about this and walking out last night and our screensavers were rolling by, it’s the screensavers, it’s an effective communication tool in a dispersed organization where everybody doesn’t have a company email. So it’s a great way to share recognitions and upcoming events and the good to know stuff, but the things you have to take action on too. So, not high tech, but it’s really important to us.
Luke: That’s amazing for me because we’ve just built an automated feature that does that just for customers. That’s great. A thinker or a book that shaped how you lead or your views on workplace culture?
Kara: So I’m sure we’ve all heard of Brené Brown. She is someone that I read often and helps me think through culture and what should we be tweaking? Is there something more we should be doing? So yeah, Brené Brown is a go-to for me.
Luke: I saw her live in Vegas. She was great. Really, really good. Yeah, it was very cool. A culture trend that you’re most excited about right now?
Kara: There’s a lot of talk about psychological safety. And so researching that and how do we create that in the workplace and how do we create it? How do we sustain it? Take it from those current buzzwords to something that’s practical that we can execute on, and continue to just create a really safe work environment again, where people show up as their authentic selves and do the best they can do.
Luke: I love that. Take it out of the academic HBR language into something that’s labeled neatly that fits the audience of people that you’ve got, so that it’s practical and it’s simple and you can see that everywhere in your organization, which is amazing. Two left. One piece of advice that you would give to an aspiring top workplace.
Kara: I’ll go back to that. Listen, right? Those opportunities where you’re directly engaging with your team members and listen to what they have to say. Always do best when I listen and go away and reflect, and then you take the emotion out of what you may have just heard. And then you can put an action plan in place. So, yeah.
Luke: Amazing. Final one. What’s the one question you would love to ask the next guest? You have no idea who they are, none of the context, but what would be the one question you want to ask them when it comes to creating a great workplace?
Kara: I’d love to know what was the one practice or mind shift that they needed to make in order to become a top workplace?
Luke: Nice.
Dan: Love that.
Luke: Yeah, it’s a goodie. Kara, thank you ever so much. I’ve really enjoyed it. Dan, I’m sure you have too.
Dan: Thank you so much, Kara.
Kara: Thank you, Dan. Thank you.
Luke: We’ll see you again soon and thank you for listening.
