Business

Funeral service. . . . .by the numbers

By Funeral Director Daily / July 20, 2021 /

Funeral Director Daily published this article last week that we titled “We saw a lot of deaths in 2020”.  The article tried to put a number to the number of death care cases across the United States in our Covid-19 pandemic year.  We came up with the number of 3,427,321 which was a 20% increase…

The regulatory environment for 2021

By Funeral Director Daily / July 19, 2021 /

It’s not all that common but it does happen in the death care profession from time to time.  The “it” I’m talking about is regulatory infractions that can cause a funeral home or other other death care business, such as a crematory, to be shut down for some period of time. When it does happen…

We saw a lot of deaths in 2020

By Funeral Director Daily / July 16, 2021 /

An article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune which you can access here was headlined, “U.S. overdose deaths hit a record 93,000 in pandemic last year”.  The article went on to say that the calendar year 2020 saw a record number of deaths due to drug overdoses in the year. . . an increase of 29%…

Canadian arbitrator rules tattoos, nose piercing acceptable funeral home employee expression

By Funeral Director Daily / July 15, 2021 /

In a decision that came down in early July 2021 a Canadian arbitrator has ruled against a funeral home and for its two employees in a case involving employees rights to a pierced nose and un-covered tattoos.  You can read the article from Canada’s National Post on the decision here. In essence, the decision by…

Metrics or Targets and the abstract of evaluations?

By Funeral Director Daily / July 14, 2021 /

Really good funeral directors are great to have working on your team.  If you have a really good funeral director in your employ, how do you know it? Are there metrics that can be quantified to tell if you do have a really good funeral director on your team?  If so, how do you get…

Robot working overtime at Arbor Memorial funeral home

By Funeral Director Daily / July 8, 2021 /

Canada’s privately owned  funeral home and cemetery company, Arbor Memorial, was recently selected as a “Gold Standard Winner” for Deloitte’s Best Managed Companies award for the 4th straight year.  The award is the country’s leading business award program recognizing entrepreneurial companies for the caliber of their management abilities and practices.  You can see a press…

Denial leading to desire

By Funeral Director Daily / July 7, 2021 /

Remember when you were younger and wanted something. . . .but mom or dad said you could not have it?  Did it make you more determined to want whatever that item was? Over the long holiday weekend I saw a couple of items in the news that made me think of that long lost feeling. …

Happy 4th of July weekend. . . a little history and America’s longest celebration

By Funeral Director Daily / July 2, 2021 /

On July 4, 1776, the 2nd Continental Congress of the 13 American colonies unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence announcing the colonies separation from Great Britain.  The Declaration summarized the colonies reasons for wanting the separation. I love history, and especially American history.  For part of the past year I have spent studying the writings…

The sky is not falling

By Funeral Director Daily / July 1, 2021 /

I was somewhat amused as I watched this television news report from ABC News 11 in North Carolina.  The story is entitled, “For the first time there are more cremations than burials in North Carolina:  What is behind the change?”  I wasn’t amused due to the story line, what somewhat amused me is the anchor…

The psychology of the service

By Funeral Director Daily / June 29, 2021 /

A front page article in the Sunday Minneapolis Star Tribune was entitled, “Families finally put loved ones to rest“.  The article deals with just what it sounds like, the process of finishing the services for those who died during the COVID-19 pandemic and funeral or memorial services were delayed because of the social distancing rules…