Michelle Belhumeur, the Executive Director of Gorham House, has been named the 2019 Business Person of the Year by the Gorham Business Exchange (GBE). This distinction is awarded annually to a creative and imaginative business person who has served as a leader and mentor in the community. Belhumeur, who will celebrate her twentieth year at Gorham House in September, was nominated by businessman Shawn Moody. “Her professional career touches so many families’ lives in so many positive ways,” said Moody.
It seems that Belhumeur was always meant to work with the elderly. When she was in high school in Lincoln, Rhode Island helping out with church bingo, “A lady coming to bingo every Sunday night asked me if I wanted a job at the nursing home in our town, and I said, ‘I’d love a job, but I’m not old enough. I’m only 15,’ ” Belhumeur recalled. “And she said, ‘I think you’re tall enough. Let’s just say you’re 16.’ So I started in housekeeping.” She worked at the nursing home for seven years, “and I’ve really been in this field ever since. It seems like I’ve almost always worked with people who are elderly, and it’s just my favorite population.”
After Belhumeur earned her Bachelor’s degree in social work from Rhode Island College, she worked as a social worker for two nearby nursing homes and later shifted to hospice home health social work when her son, Craig, and daughter, Nicole, were born. She and her family moved to Gorham in 1993 when her husband, Marc, was transferred to Maine for work.
“I think I applied to Gorham House when I got here, but they didn’t have a job available,” she said. In the meantime, she began working with orthopedic patients at the New England Rehab Clinic and then as an outpatient case manager for the elderly at Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston. After a few years of commuting, “I was actually recruited to come to Gorham House [in 1999],” she said. “And I’ve been here now for 20 years.”
Photo courtesy of GBEMichelle Belhumeur was presented the Business Person of the Year award on May 15 at GBE’s Annual Meeting event at Spire 29. She was joined by Katie Sherman, Executive Director of GBE, and Ethan Johnson, GBE’s President.
Belhumeur, who has been the Executive Director of Gorham House since 2013, has dubbed herself “the queen of customer service,” she said. “I think the thing I’m most proud of is the customer service we provide. To me, it’s the heart and soul of our business.”
She leads the Gorham House’s annual mandatory customer service training and is well-known around the building for her props. To emphasize her ground rule “that we don’t say no to people,” she brings a window to each training. “I say, ‘We don’t slam the window on anyone’s fingers. Figure out a way to keep that window open and really try to say yes,’ ” she said. To demonstrate another ground rule, she brings in a packet of sugar and a packet of Sweet ‘n’ Low. “I don’t want fake sweeteners, I want the real thing. The real sugar.” In recent years, Belhumeur has begun her own part-time small business where she holds customer service trainings for other healthcare companies.
In addition to providing excellent service for her residents, Belhumeur puts an equal amount of effort into supporting her employees. “In our entry-level jobs, a lot of our employees don’t have a lot of confidence. I love to push them and say, ‘You have more going for you than you realize, and we’re going to push you. I think you should try this job,’” she said. As a result, many of her employees, including several at the director level, began their careers with Gorham House in an entry-level position. It’s rewarding, she said, to help her employees grow and realize their potential.
The nursing home industry has its share of logistical challenges, but Belhumeur has remained open-minded and optimistic. Primarily, there is the issue of staffing, the result of statewide low unemployment rates. “We’re doing fine right now, but two years ago, trying to find staff was just so hard,” she said. To combat this problem, Belhumeur joined the METRO bus committee and has been working to get Gorham House a stop on the line. She’s hoping access to public transportation will allow qualified candidates from Portland and Westbrook to fill future staffing needs.
Despite its difficulties, there is no doubt that Belhumeur loves her job. She finds ways to empower her residents to be as independent as possible and regularly connects employees, community members, and students with her residents. In fact, Gorham House has an in-house preschool where “the children get to know the residents as their ‘grand friends,’ and it’s just a wonderful program. I just presented at a national conference last March about the effects of having a preschool submerged in with elders,” she said. The presentation was for a LED Talk — similar to the well-known TED Talk series but specifically for healthcare — and can be found on YouTube here.
Belhumeur was presented the Business Person of the Year award on May 15 at GBE’s Annual Meeting event at Spire 29.