Berks senior community uses AI to boost employee retention

A Berks County senior living campus is using AI for a unique purpose – finding employees that will stay longer, 

Kevin DeAcosta, president & CEO of Aspire for Well-Being, which operates The Highlands at Wyomissing, said it has partnered with tech company, Arena, to use AI software to determine which job candidates would be likely to stay in their post longer and flagging those who are more likely to stay at the job. 

“At The Highlands at Wyomissing, we recently installed an AI platform that helps organize job applicants based on their likelihood of being hired. The platform uses their application and job history and retains this information for at least one year,” DeAcost said. 

He noted that in October of 2025 alone, 117 applicants applied for positions at The Highlands at Wyomissing. 

Of those, 69 were highlighted as most likely to be successful. Having this head start cuts down time spent combing through applications. 

“The goal is really designed to improve the quality of candidates,” DeAcosta said.  

In the short time since we first utilized this tool, there has already been a measurable impact – there has been a reduction in turnover at all benchmarks: 30, 60, 90, 180 and 360 days. 

The AI is used as a voluntary questionnaire for applicants on their website. 

DeAcosta said so far more than 96% of those seeking a job are answering it. 

He did note that while the technology does use predictive methodology to sort candidates into three catagories based on how likely they are to be long term employees, it does not exclude anyone by the sorting, it simply flags and gives priority to candidates that have qualities that would indicate  they would stay for the longer term. 

Because of the success with the hiring, The Highlands is now exploring how it can use AI in other areas. 

 In finance, for example, AI will be able to evaluate up to 10 financial statements in a day-and-a-half – something that would otherwise take weeks.