By Julie Adamen

I’ve often joked that if you are an experienced community manager, you can always find employment in our industry unless you are a convicted felon, and probably even then.

Of course, management company executives and Association Boards know that really it’s no joke. Experienced community managers are in short supply and that supply is getting shorter everyday. As a national industry recruiter, I can give you some facts to ponder:

• I have far, far more demand for skilled managers than skilled managers ready to meet it.

• The demand for talent and service will get even greater.

• The salaries for experienced managers are going up, and that trend will not end anytime soon due to supply shortage and rise in demand.

• Management companies are able to charge unprecedented amounts for their services due to increased growth and increased salary requirements of experienced personnel (although many companies still do not realize this fact).

• We do not have the infrastructure for the future in recruiting and retaining good managers to our industry.

• Current and past methods of recruitment only work in a limited fashion, especially in the crucial area of portfolio management.

Where do the majority of management firms look for their new hires? From the same old source:  Other management firms. Accompanying this practice is a lot of moaning and groaning from the hiring company about picking up someone else’s (read: a competitor’s) bad habits (what - they can’t learn the bad habits your company has?) but that moaning and groaning is just window dressing.  They’ll hire them just the same, cross their fingers, throw salt over their shoulder, turn around three times, hope for the best and then forget about it the moment that person shows up for work.

The vast majority of portfolio managers in the industry  pipeline come from management firms – those managers  are seeking upward mobility, are moving, or are just plain tired of the same old workload (see “Why Manager’s Leave,” Pg. 00).. This practice drives up salaries because that is a finite pool, and there is a limited inflow of new managers to that pool. Managers still leave their companies for the same reasons they did 20 years ago, good bad or indifferent. Bottom Line:  There just aren’t enough of them to go around.

Over the years, I have seen a few new ideas for recruiting personnel by various management firms. Some methods have been relatively successful, others a dismal failure. Generally, those that failed usually did so because the company was so sure that they were on the right path and had the right idea they only accepted applicants who fit within that “right” box they created.  Unfortunately, carefully putting all their eggs in that one box caused, in my opinion, the failure of those methods (despite no doubt,  many staff meetings and internal focus groups, tests and internal angst and probably psychological evaluations…). Once these programs for recruitment of “just the right people” were implemented, the management firm thought their personnel troubles would be over.  Would be that it were, folks, but there is no single criteria to which we can cling in the hopes that it will be the panacea for our personnel ailments.

My favorite example gone askew had to do with a very large management firm that decided  they would only recruit and accept college graduates as applicants. Locally within the industry this was a much-ballyhooed idea and marketed widely.  “All our managers have college degrees!” Unfortunately, that meant for the most part they were recruiting directly out of colleges to 20-somethings. Yes, you see the problem and I need not elaborate much other than to say – that idea went quietly in to that goodnight in very short order.  Among other things, the   growth rate of salary and responsibility for the college grads was not what was expected by those grads and much less than other industries were able to offer.  The other large problem was that nature of our industry beast itself and the lack of experience new graduates have of dealing with service and political difficulties in the real world.

I, of course, do applaud that management firm for at least trying something new to bring folks in to the business. But their target market, methodology and execution just did not work. So – what can work?

Identify and Train New Blood

First: Toss out our most limiting preconceived notions. This may be very difficult for us to do, but here goes, say the following out loud: Understand, embrace and own that community management is not rocket science. There! You said it out loud. But I feel skepticism from you, and not unjustifiably so.

Skeptical? Well yes, because you’ve seen managers crash and burn faster than the last Tom Cruise movie. And it always seems that those who can hang in and “make it” share some traits (and believe me one of those traits is not tied to having a college degree). Yet - because we have not quantified the traits that make a person a good community manager, we have determined the business is, in fact, rocket science. We really not it’s not, but then what is it?

So let’s think:  Those who “stick it out” i.e., make it through their first year, do share many traits. These traits are good people, political, communication and organizational skills. They are organized, they see the “big picture” and they have a depth of experience allowing them to keep the business in perspective. These are the traits which we should seek – and  not be assessing our new blood on  whether or not they have the good graces to be happily thrown into a viper pit and survive.

It only stands to reason that if our current method of industry operation started out with real training  and support – more candidates would enlarge our pool of potential employees, and more new hires from out of the industry would succeed in the business Our number one requirement to be in community management shouldn’t be the ability to survive the initial snake pit, it should be the ability to understand customer service and provide it professionally and continually in the community environment.  And we need dedicated people and resources in our companies to make sure that’s what we are doing.

Management Executives: Open up your mind to opportunities

Now let’s go beyond the notion that community management is rocket science. First and foremost, this industry is a service business. And THAT fact should tell us where we should be looking for the next wave of managers for our pipeline.  There are many service businesses out there and that fact should open the eyes of executives and the industry as a whole so it can take advantage of a new supply line of personnel.

What is one industry’s misfortune can be the management industry’s gain. Look around your area: Is there another service industry that is downsizing? Or, retiring part of the workforce through buy out?  Does that industry have people who may have the real traits we are looking for? What departments within that industry are ones you want to target?  How do you get to recruit them? What are your criteria in interviewing them? And – how will you train them effectively for the job ahead so they stay with you?

The downsized. The auto and airline industry are two very well- known industries that are downsizing. Ford motor company announced a buy out of tens of thousands of employees, including executives. If I were in one of those geographic areas I would look to those who may fit my employee profile: Heavy customer contact, in person and or on the phone, responsible for other people or tasks that are more than rote or those who work relatively unsupervised and in a position to communicate with others verbally and in writing. .

I share with you the story of a United Airlines customer service supervisor who pounded the pavement in looking for a job in our industry. It took him three months to even get an interview in a management firm. He eventually found employment in our business, but I am astounded that those who received his resume over those months and trashed it because of his lack of experience (not through my service) in managing associations.  People skills are number one for airline employees who have heavy customer contact, and this person was exactly the type of new blood for which we should be looking. But, alas, lack of training programs at multiple firms most likely ensured his resume got placed in the round file. .

Retirees.  As the baby boomers retire out, many of them will be looking for second careers while still in their 50’s and 60’s, out of financial need or simply to keep active and relevant to the working world (don’t forget, 60 is the new 50!). Many of these folks still want to work full time, while others would be seeking part time work. Provided they have our needed skill set, our industry can provide them with these opportunities and more. As I have said time after time this industry does not penalize a person for age. And with our heavy people orientation, the mature job seeker (or, as I prefer to call it, “classic”) often has enough depth of experience to handle the worst homeowners with grace and humor. And, usually the more mature, the better they are in verbal and written communication skills.

Hospitality workers. Outstanding groups to go after, folks in the hospitality field (including the timeshare industry – timeshares are normally HOAs) are tailor-made for our industry: They get service, and they get people. What they don’t get is how little our industry pays compared to theirs. But I find that when folks out of hospitality finally come to our end of the business, they are management personnel tired of the very long hours and the 24-hour nature of their business (it’s much worse than ours) and are willing to start at lower wages than those to which they are accustomed

Recently I talked to a stellar candidate from the hospitality industry looking to make a change (she had managed several properties for Marriott). This candidate came to me through a friend of hers in our end of the business. She explained that she had sent her resumes to several management firms in her area (large, metropolitan area of the southwest), but hadn’t had any response save one:  She did get a call from a company thanking her for applying; however, they said no thanks, she didn’t have any experience managing associations and they only hired experienced people. Now, let me make it clear that this woman had managed multimillion-dollar hotel complexes complete with hundreds of employees and thousands of customers for a very good salary - and was ready and willing to start in HOA management answering the telephones – anything to get in the door. Yet – she was dismissed out of hand.

It just so happened the company that had the courtesy to call her and acknowledge receipt of her resume was a client of mine. I called over to their VP, and re-sent them the resume. I noted that this candidate and those like her are exactly the type of people we want to bring in to the industry. They    decided to bring her in for an interview and “Figure out some way to get her trained.” (Note that as this candidate had already sent her resume to this firm, thus our company receives no compensation for the hire). 

More. Teachers, preachers, flight attendants, retail folks and bank tellers, retired military from administrative and PR positions are some sources.  Anyone is a possibility who has or did have a position with heavy people contact. It is very helpful if that person also has written communication skills and rudimentary computer skills as well.

A word about colleges and universities. As we see the wages and working conditions rise in our industry and become competitive with other industries, and with the development of a better middle management we will be able to tap the higher education management sources. I see a lot of the top managers for large associations have master’s degrees in business or public management along with their industry designations, but all  of these people started somewhere else (usually city management) and migrated to our industry after retirement. And observe, if you will, those folks migrated to the top end of the industry. As for now, I still do not see recent college graduates as a great pool for sustainable management recruits for us as they do not have a proven track record in the customer service mindset that is acquired through life experience.  

Training is our “Get Real”

Herein lay our biggest obstacle to bringing new folks into the business: Most companies have no formal training program, which leads to our self- imposed frustration and conundrum: There aren’t enough managers. But we can’t hire anyone new to the industry because we can’t train them because we are too busy. We are too busy because we don’t have enough managers. But we can’t hire anyone new because we are too busy… This is our very own Gordian knot. How to untie it?

Training and recruiting equals growth through resource development:

Executives, you have no choice. If you are to continue to grow your business, you must dedicate a portion of your management resources to managing, recruiting and developing the people in your company. This means that dedicated management cannot manage and mentor personnel and manage associations at the same time. Both cannot be accomplished effectively, and the associations end up with the lion’s share of a middle-manager’s time to the detriment of the company overall (see last month’s article on the 80/20 Rule).   Middle-management – the Vice Presidents, the District Managers, senior managers – whoever they are and whatever you call them – must be the ones charged with developing, supervising, training and mentoring the new blood our industry needs.

Executives must, I say again, must get out of the mindset that middle-managers have to pay their salary by managing associations, and realize that they need to pay their salary through training new people, supervising and mentoring those people as well as more seasoned employees.   Not only will this role save thousands of dollars in turnover costs, the relationship of employees to their supervisors is directly correlated to their job satisfaction.[1]  Happier employees = longer term employees.    This fundamental change in human resource management and the company’s self-evaluation needed to help support human resources financially – will give management firms the latitude they need to retain existing business and take advantage of the explosive growth and need for services in our industry

No, it won’t be easy or free and I don’t mean to imply this fundamental change about our human resource mindset is a simple act. It won’t be. It will require hours of current business and process review – and will require significant re-structuring for our companies. It will require the adjustment of thought about how successful recruiting, training and supervision affect the bottom line in real numbers. It will also require a review of current contracts and future bids. It will mean the executive must understand the profitability of each account in real terms – not by simply adding to the gross revenues of the company.

The good news is that once this business review is undertaken, the executive will have a far better understanding of his or her business and where the money is coming from and where it’s going out. If embraced, we will be treating our industry as the serious business it is. Then we will stop focusing on putting out fires and focus on what is causing the fire to start in the first place: The lack of in-company training programs.

Let me be very, very clear:

• There are not enough experienced people to go around because 1) the explosive growth of our industry, and 2) the robust economy.

• Our work is not rocket science, it is a service business.

• We will have to hire people inexperienced in our industry but with the needed experience in people, social and political skills.

• We need to look aggressively to real sources for people that have those skills.

• We will have to provide training and transition programs to make new blood’s career change as smooth and supported as possible – more so than ever before.

The economy is strong and there many other jobs out there that pay better with substantially better working conditions.   The potential pool of recruits from which we have to choose has been around the block in their respective professions, they are emotionally mature, have strong value, and are aware of that value. They are usually well-educated and will not go for the old “trial by fire” method for a job that can be somewhat unpleasant in the best of times and downright nasty in the worst of times. We do not need to fuel any more negativity about our industry than is out there.  If we alienate those new comers, our new blood, they’ll find somewhere else to work. Period.

Our industry has a lot to offer second career folks: We are not ageist, racist or sexist. We allow our people to work relatively independently, and we can provide full- or part-time employment. We are a challenging business, and we allow people to muster their entire problem solving skill set to manage and solve those challenges, undoubtedly the most fun part of the job.  We are recession-proof and outsource resistant. We are a steady source of employment now and in to the future.

I see no limit to what our industry can become if we can just change our human resource mind-set to recruit new blood with the right skill set and train and mentor them. If we did, many, many more people would fill our employee pipelines. And isn’t that something to think about?