Employment Options that Make Dollars and Sense:
Continuing our Series on Working in the New
Community Management Environment
By Julie Adamen

A Story...

Once upon a time, there was a business called Wizard Management. It was structured just like most of the other management companies: there were managers, and there were supervising managers. Managers handled between six and 12 accounts, with the help of an assistant they shared with at least one other manager. Wizard had a good record of retaining their managers; each stayed with the company an average of four years.

The supervising managers each also managed a full portfolio of accounts, shared duties on marketing presentations, attended transition Board Meetings, dealt with those difficult clients and handled all the inevitable squabbles that result from a lot of people working high-stress jobs in a relatively, small space. It all sort of worked, but the end result was that each client received acceptable service, not great service. 'Acceptable" service had become the standard at Wizard.

When Wizard Management faced the resignation of four of its experienced portfolio managers due to those managers' evolving lifestyles, their top staff sat down to review the issues. What they knew was that finding one experienced portfolio manager (let alone

four) would be next to impossible; the rest of the management staff was working at peak capacity. They knew what they had done in the past was now just barely getting them by and continuing in that same direction would not lead to the excellent service their firm strived to attain. When the meeting ended, the consensus was that the managers were just too valuable to let go. Instead, they decided to approach those employees with employment options: At-home or Part-Time Positions.

In the changing employment market, our industry needs to retain its current managers and attract new blood to the business. At-home working managers is just one option from which we have to choose. But where to start?

The At-Home Manager: Begin at the Beginning

Evaluate your firm's need for employment options. Is there a way to reward long-term employees? Do you need to attract others to the firm? Do you need to bring in new people to the firm, and likewise the industry? Are you losing employees, and will employment options help save a percentage of them? If you answered yes to any of these, you may wish consider employment options.

Formulate a plan. Once you have decided to take the leap, senior staff should formulate a plan for implementing employment options, including who is eligible, how it will be offered, benefit options, and how those taking advantage of employment options will be appropriately supervised. Also, the requirements for home-based workers need to be outlined, including the cost of the equipment needed for the home-based office, etc.

Bring the employees in on the discussions for employment options. It may seem like a big time waster to some supervisors, but the "line" employees often have a perspective that those a little higher up have lost. That perspective can be valuable in formulating an effective implementation of employment options. They may also be able to alert supervisory staff to those Boards or Board members who will need the most attention during a transition.

Start with a known quantity: current employees. Offer employment options to current employees. If you have too many takers, create a "waiting list" for those positions. As the plan begins to take effect, these employees who are doing the jobfrom home or on a part-time basis, should be asked to evaluate the working "system," and make suggestions on ways to change it for the better. The input of supervisors, coupled with the above, should allow changes to be made when and where needed. Remember, this will be a dynamic process.

Implementing Your Plan

As with any well thought-out plan that you want to succeed, the plan for implementing effective employment options must be comprehensive and consistent.

The Comprehensive Plan. The Comprehensive Plan will consider all the tools needed (anothf telephone line, computer upgrad headset for the phone, etc.), and will give general guidelines on working hours, will require the at-home worker have childcare other than the worker, and more. A separate Job Description may be needed for at-home workers.

Consistent supervision will be the key to the success or failure of at-home managers. Supervising those who chose an employment option will be different, but only as difficult as we make it. By using a simple system of checks and balances, follow-ups and regular interfacing with those employees, it can work. For example:

• The at-home employee is required to check in via telephone or email with their supervisor twice a day in the beginning, and once thereafter.

• The employee must give to their supervisor an accurate monthly calendar of events for the associations, including Board packed due dates, meeting notifications, etc.

• The supervisor periodically calls that manager's Board members to check in (this will give them a warm and fuzzy, too - all that new attention!).

• The supervisor reviews Board packets, minutes, etc. The majority can be accomplished electronically.

• The supervisor and the manager meet hi-weekly in the office.

• The employee is required to attend all general in-office staff meetings and educational seminars.

In our "management by exception" industry, consistency is often the first thing to fall by the wayside when time runs short. When devising and implementing your plan, consistency needs to be equated with "making money" in importance. In order to achieve the consistency, the supervisors of at-home workers need to be assigned duties that are appropriate to their span of control.

Selling It to the Boards

Do they have to know? Rather, do they need to be told up front? We would venture to say no, in that if your plan is consistent and comprehensive, they should they be, as a whole, unaware of the change. Calls still go to the same 'number where they are routed to customer service, an assistant, the escrow dept., or the manager's home, where there is voicemail (just like in the office) if they are on the other line or just plain busy. In this age of complete home offices, the change should be smooth.

Working from home always sounds good, but it's not for everyone.

Many Type A personalities have a hard time adjusting to the isolation of suddenly not being a part of the office gang. To help make a successful transition, the new at-home worker should be given working guidelines and transitional education and support.

Epilogue...

Wizard Management made a decision for the long-term health of its organization. Yes, the up-front challenges were not simple. Yes, managers could flake out. Yes, there would have to be changes and adjustments, this is known as growing pains. But Wizard knew each challenge would be manageable. With that single decision, Wizard took the first of a thousand steps towards moving their firm and the industry into the new community management working environment.