Using our best Assets:
Leading the Way in the New Community
Management Working Environment
By Julie Adamen 

Last month we gave an overview on utilizing our best asset to attract new persons to the industry, as well as retain more of our current work force. That best asset is our ability to be flexible. And if we are to be successful competing in the general marketplace for employees, we need to shout that best asset from the rooftops. With that done, we need to follow up with training and supervision appropriate to what we will have created: The New Community Management Working Environment.

What is the New Community Management Working Environment? It is and will be the way we manage our communities and our employees in the new era. It's Flex-Time, Part-Time and At-Home Workers. It is thinking about new and better ways to manage, support and supervise our staff. It is the way to utilize our best assets to attract new professional blood to the industry.

Flexible Work Time

In dealing with so many management companies throughout the western US, I see a vast difference in how managers are "managed" by their employers. A few firms allow their managers to come and go as they wish. Mostly, though, management companies require their manager employees to be there, bright and early, at opening time unless they had a late meeting the night before.., and then they allow them an hour or so leeway.

Portfolio management is one of the most flexible positions in terms of when the hours are worked, in any industry. Why not allow employees to work appropriate "shifts?" Whether it's 7-4, 63 or 10-7, the job gets done just as well. In fact those working in some "off' hours may well be able to accomplish more in the same amount of time than their standard work day counterparts.

Who will it attract/retain? Commuters. Everyone knows that if you are heading in to Orange County, California, at 8am on the 91, it's going to take you a long time to get there. Likewise, if you are heading to or from Bellevue, Washington, on the 520 anytime near 8 am or 5pm, especially in bad weather (!), it's going to take you longer than if you are leaving your home at 9:30am. Let's face this reality and deal with it head on.

The upside for the employer: Working "odd" shifts can actually increase not only the individual employee's productivity, it can have a positive impact on office productivity as well. With fewer persons sharing the copy machine, a particular computer or printer, etc., working differing shifts can avoid the inevitable "Board pack day" traffic jam.

The upside for the employees: They can spend a morning with their child. They can avoid a road rage-inducing commute. They know their employer cares about them. They can be very productive when the office is quieter.

Part Time

Mention the words "Part Time" in our industry and mostly you get about ten reasons why it can't be done, and none of them are very convincing. The biggest stumbling block seems to be Board member perception: When they call, they want to talk to a manager right away! (We would contend that the biggest stumbling block is actually our industry perception that that scenario is unmanageable - but that's another article.) It is our belief that standard portfolio management (managing several communities from a corporate or satellite office) is a natural for part-time workers.

Who would it attracted by Part Time?

1. Professionals who have stayed at home to raise children now desiring to re-enter the work force.
2. Retired executives from other fields.
3. On-site managers looking to supplement their income.
4. Anyone looking for a white-collar part- time position with flexible hours.

And maybe more importantly, whom would it keep?

1. Current managers who need more time with their children.
2. Managers on the verge of burnout.
3. Managers nearing retirement who wants to keep on foot in the door. (Limited benefit packages or stipends could be offered the latter.)

The upside for the employer is obvious: Part-Time workers usually don't receive benefits, a majority of the overhead in having employees. It also gives them access to a broad market of employees, and from the best of those employees, it may cultivate future full time employees. I did hear from one executive who thought the idea was great: She felt it would give them more time to train, start a new manager out slowly and provide room for growth to a full-time position. Truly out-of-the-box thinking!

The Home Office Worker

Let's just get it over with and stop gyrating. Telecommuters can do community management, full or part time. Period. The reason is met with such resistance is that -we believe we are unable to appropriately supervise these workers. With that I would agree, as we are currently staffed and our firms organized, we are ill-equipped to supervise those employees. Again, we will have to adjust our supervision methods to manage the new work environment.

When I started in property management, one of the best things about working for the office I did was that there wasn't a time clock to punch. If the office opened at 9am, and the managers rolled in at 9:30 or 10 or 11 or 1 pm, it didn't really matter (as long as they checked in). It was acknowledged that throughout the month we spent many, many hours going to board meetings and driving to and from properties, often "after hours" or on weekends. The woman for whom I worked said it all in a nutshell: "It's one of the few real perks of the business."

Do our "old" ways work? To some degree, they still do. But by limiting ourselves to the "old" ways, we limit our pool of available and "appropriate" employees. But what we are talking about here is the effective use of options available to our industry. And these options may be one more cog in the wheel that rolls us into the future, and the new working environment.