Multifamily professionals know how important it is to keep residents satisfied with the community in order to boost retention and save money. But keeping onsite teams happy can be overlooked with all the hustle of keeping residents in a good mood. With all that your onsite teams do to ensure the steady operations of your community every day, here are three easy ways to make sure your onsite teams feel supported and stay motivated:
1. Keep Onsite Teams Working on What They Were Actually Hired For
We get it, job descriptions can evolve over time, but through interviews and the job description you provided, onsite team members should already have a good idea of what their role within the community entails. Leasing, vendor management, resident outreach– your onsite members need a lot of time in their day to ensure each aspect of their job is done correctly and to the best of their ability. When your team begins taking on extras, like delivering resident packages or sorting and searching for resident packages, your team loses too much time. It may be time to ask, “Did you hire this team member specifically to handle resident packages? Is that a position you want to add in the community?” Likely your answer to both is no.
Your team members may benefit from the community taking its packages offsite and out of mind, and minimizing other tasks that they’ve taken on that weren’t originally a part of their job description. Learn more about taking packages offsite here.
2. Check in With Your Team
Your onsite team is the backbone of the community, but individually they are probably also the backbone of many other areas in their lives, perhaps in their family, an organized group or with friends. Do you check in with your onsite team members frequently? Do you know about their lives outside of work or what any of their goals, likes and interests are? Building solid professional relationships with your onsite team members is imperative to bridging the gap between Owner/Operator and team. According to Andrea Couto, VP of Solution Engineering at Betterworks, “to build stronger, authentic relationships, people managers will need to become highly relational-forming connections based on similar interests and listening in order to learn new perspectives and new ideas.” Couto also notes that shifting from a managing style to a coaching style is essential.
Next time a team member asks for a day off to head to a family reunion or a friend’s birthday, ask them how it went the very next time you see them! Ask your team members if they could use your support or if they need help in any areas of the community, and offer solutions regularly. Relationships and trust built between you and your team members makes all the difference in your teams’ day-to-day motivation!
3. Surveys, Surveys, Surveys!
Feedback from your team just became your new best friend. Sometimes it can be hard to gather meaningful feedback from your people face to face. A team member might feel stress over speaking directly with their property manager about issues or challenges they’re facing day-to-day, and in turn, not bring it up. By administering anonymous surveys for feedback periodically, you give your onsite team members the floor to speak openly and honestly about areas they see need for improvement.
The Society for HR Management reports that when organizations adjust their strategy by responding to team members’ feedback, it leads to higher retention in employees, lower absenteeism, increased productivity rates, better quality customer service and overall higher team member morale. Owners and Operators aren’t just gathering ideas on how to improve their onsite team experience, they are also getting meaningful tips for improving the resident experience. Working with your team to decipher what changes need to be made is a key way to keep onsite team members around as long as possible, boost happiness and productivity!
