Introduction
Retirement is a definitive end or stage that is anticipated by every American employee. This is a period when they do not need to hustle with traffic to work or interact with demanding bosses. At this stage, people have unlimited time to involve in leisure activities. Retirees face a series of challenges ranging from problems of old age, inability to take care of themselves and lack of company. Many people die soon after retirement due to stress, resulting from lack of company and proper care.
Problem Statement
This paper addresses the steps to be implemented in solving a marketing problem. The paper looks at the strategies to be implemented in the convincing retirees to sell their apartments and move to the Riddle retirement home. The Riddle retirement home offers an excellent home for the retirees; they are able to enjoy the company of one another, engage in sporting activities. The home also prepares food, laundry services and medical care to those housed there.
Background
After retirement, many people opt to retirement homes to avoid the putting a burden to their children. Some also consider life in retirement to maintain the living standards that they were used to as employees. Charges for assisted living in retirement homes are high in most nursing homes, compared to the riddle retirement village.
The riddle village provides a state of art lifestyle for the residents. It is based on the benefits that the riddle village provides that this proposal seeks to launch an awareness campaign on the benefits that retirees would get from joining the riddle village retirement home.
The retiring older population depends mostly on the social security benefits for their livelihood after retirement. Most of them claim the benefits early and end up receiving much reduced amounts that can not sustain them well in old age. The number of retired men and women that began collecting their social security paybacks surged as from 2009 (Casey, 2009, p 430).
This was attributed to the increase in population of people of age 62 years and above. Retired men and women are mostly left along at home while the younger people go out to work. As such, they have no one to assist them with physically involving jobs such as washing, cooking and cleaning. They also lack the company of peers and spent most of the time on their own.
Mr. Samuel Riddle of Delaware County donated his piece of 72 acre land together with $ 2.5 million for construction of a hospital for his community (Schwarzschild, 2007, p 209). A memorial hospital was put up in his honour covering a total of 34 acres. The remaining piece of land was used to put up a fully equipped and modern retirement home.
The home is decent in every manner and is designed to provide a healthy, conducive and secure environment to the residents. The apartments developed at the riddle retirement village comprise of large lobbies, dinning rooms and bedrooms ranging from one to three in number. The apartments are also attached to ensure that the residents do not move outside for either dinner or seeing an ill partner (Schwarzschild, 2007, p 211).
The riddle village is committed to enriching the life of the retired individuals by providing care and a high quality living environment. Health care and recreational services as well as the security of the residents are guaranteed.
The workforce providing care is highly skilled and committed to providing quality home care to the retired residents. Apart from providing the best care to the residents, the management is also committed to the welfare of the workers, making them be committed to the work because they are satisfied by the employer’s treatment (Schwarzschild, 2007, p 212).
Commitment by both the management and workers to the quality of the life of the residents has made the village run for this long. The village has a future, based on the achievement that it has gained in providing quality care to the residents.
There are other retirement homes providing similar care to retired individuals, however, the uniqueness in the quality of home care provided by riddle village makes it a preferred place. Most other retirement care centers do not prepay sufficient amount of money to cater for the health care of the residents. This is attributed to failure by the care centers to attract younger populations.
The centers have only older population whose age again continues to advance with time (Roe & Beech, 2005, p63). With the soaring cost of medical care in the US, many retirement homes have had to alter their policies in regard to health care service provision to the residents. The retirement community as a result has been forced to subsidize their older medical service contracts as a result of the increased medical care service ceilings.
Statement Need
Because of the numerous problems that retired people face alone at home, there is a need for a home that provides them a dignified and quality life after retirement. The riddle village ranks as the best place, providing retirees an excellent living environment after retirement.
The solution lies in convincing retirees to sell their apartments and joining the riddle village retirement center. The centre provides a compressive care ranging from medical, cooking, washing and recreation facilities. There is also the benefit of company provided by the staff as well as peers who are also residents of the village.
By selling their apartments, they will be able to subsidize their living expenses at the centre and enjoy the quality living standards that the center provides. Since most of the retirees are elderly people beyond a productive age, the riddle centre would provide them with an excellent environment to spend the rest of their life after retirement. Besides, the retirees will be willing to be in a place that is devoid of stress and provides a quality living standard.
The admission policy to the village is not discriminatory; it is not based on sex, race, religion or any other discriminating criterion. Admission is strictly based on the state and federal rights law that emphasize on like opportunities for all people (Hunt, 2005, p 59). This applies not only to residents but also the workers in the organization. This fact eliminates the fear that an individual may sell his or her apartment and fail to be admitted to the village based on any illegal discriminatory criterion.
The home provides a variety of three living levels making it flexible for those interested in joining. The three levels of living include residential living, assisted living and skilled nursing care (Schwarzschild, 2007, p 44). Resident living provides an opportunity to one who is fully retired from all chores.
Services provided to such individuals include; cooking, cleaning. Residents enjoy the relaxation in luxurious environment of the riddle village. The retirement community provides recreational, social cultural and educational lifestyle making it a complete lifestyle (Roe & Beech, 2005, p57).
Assisted living is meant for individuals seeking a little help with their routine activities. Services offered at the riddle village to assisted living individuals include; bathing administering drugs and dressing. The riddle village management provides such individuals with private studios or single bed roomed apartments. Skilled nursing care is provided by the supportive staff that works diligently to provide nursing care to individuals who require medical services.
The riddle village retirement home provides more advantage to the resident, with a flexible lifestyle commendable to the retirees. With the numerous advantages, and the quality of life that the village offers, it is expected that the retirees will prefer life in the village to staying alone at their home with no one to take care of them or provide social company. The benefits of the village to those admitted are as soon as one becomes a member; there is no waiting time to begin enjoying the benefits.
Plan of Action
The solution is to be implemented in a time frame of three months based on a sensitization process. This will involve carrying out a sensitization campaign to make potential residents of the village aware of the offer that the riddle retirement home has for them. The campaign is to be carried out through different media outlets as well as through word of mouth. The effectiveness of the strategy applied shall be assessed on a monthly basis by finding out the effect of the campaign on the number of enrollment at the riddle retirement home.
Key personnel to be involved in the campaign will include; the senior management team at the village, workers unions and the media people. Employers will also feature on the list of key persons required for the campaign. Employers have a responsibility of providing advice and direction to their retiring employees on how to spend life after retirement.
Many employees fail in this responsibility and let out their retiring staff without proper life skills to survive after retirement (Casey, 2009, p 434). With the retirement home centers, retirees leave employment walk into an environment that provides quality care. Employers will be expected awareness about the riddle village home offers retirees through seminars and other forums that they use to interact with employees.
The management team at the Riddle village shall provide information that shall be used to assess the effectiveness of the strategy applied in the sensitization program. The information is important as it will let us know whether the strategies in use are producing the expected impact or not.
In case the strategy does not produce an expected impact, then appropriate amendments shall be putting place to avoid waste of funds. The media people will play the role of passing on the information to the general public. This will be through TV and radio programs that relay relevant information on retirement.
The campaign process will involve printing and distributing brochures and flyers with information on the services provided by the riddle village. TV and radio adverts as well as spreading the information through word of mouth will be significant means of getting the information to the targeted audience. The campaign will take place for three months, TV and radio adverts will be aired for one week within the three month period.
Budget for Implementation of the Solution
The costs to be incurred in the implementation process for the solution will include printing of flyers and brochures, travelling costs, placing TV and radio ads, and contingencies. To minimize the cost of printing, a personal printer shall be used to reduce printing cost to an average of $ 100.
Travelling costs shall be high as it will be a requirement to distribute the flyers and brochures. The US general service agency rates the rate per mileage at $ 0.5 per mile; the journey to be covered in the process will be approximately 1200 miles, resulting to a cost of $ 600. Running a TV and Radio ad for a week will cost averagely $ 7,000. Contingencies for the process will be at an average of $ 500 to cater for unforeseen expenses. The total budget for the implementation of the solution shall be $ 8, 200.
Work Schedule
Implementation of the proposed solution will require contacting the key personnel needed to assist in the implementation. They include; five major employers within the Delaware region, preparation and printing of awareness materials and preparing TV and radio ads. This will require an average period of one month in order to contact each of the listed persons and prepare for the start of the implementation process.
The implementation process will be for a period of two and a half months. Radio and TV awareness will take one week, as the distribution of flyers and brochures take the rest of the time. Brochures and flyers distribution shall target busy places such as churches, markets and hospitals. It is expected that the huge numbers of persons who visit such places will aid in spreading the information to as many people as possible. The period of three months is sufficient to allow the monthly evaluation to determine the effectiveness of the strategy.
Mode of Evaluation
The response received at the riddle village retirement home in terms of applications from potential applicants. The information shall be sourced from the riddle village management team on a monthly basis. An increase in the number of applicants wishing to join the riddle village will be viewed as a success of the program. It is expected that the approach will create awareness to potential applicant.
Conclusion and Recommendations
Retirees face many challenges living on their own after retirement. They pose burdens to their children as dependants requiring personal and medical care. Boredom and stress sets heavily on them causing miserable life for them. Riddle village retirement home is a noble idea for retires. The village is designed to provide excellent and quality life for them, recreation, education and social needs of the residents is well catered for by the organization.
This report recommends riddle village retirement home as an ideal place for people in retirement based on the standard of life that the organization provides its resident. The management also caters for the well being of their staff meaning it is a good place as well for workers. This information should be spread out to as many people as possible so that retirees are made aware of these excellent living conditions for them.
Reference List
Casey, B. (2009). Redundancy and Early Retirement: The Interaction of Public and Private Policy in Britain, Germany and the USA. British Journal of Industrial Relations, volume 30 Issue 3 p 425-435. Web.
Hunt, E. M., (2005). Retirement Communities: an American Original. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Roe, B. H. & Beech, R. (2005). Intermediate and Continuing Care: Policy and Practice. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Schwarzschild, E., (2007). The Family Diamond: Stories. New York: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill.