Fun fact: The average age of property managers today is over 50 years old. That means a large portion of property management talent will be retiring in the next 10 to 15 years. Who will replace them?
The property management industry has a responsibility, and an imminent need, to recruit and retain younger talent. Recruitment is necessary to avoid talent shortages in the future. Retention is equally as important because high employee turnover within a business could result in low workplace morale, deteriorating service, and reduced ROI.
A number of solutions to the talent problem in this industry exist, thankfully—the least obvious of which, perhaps, is property management technology. That’s a huge value-add that goes beyond just streamlining processes and helping grow real estate portfolios; it also reshapes the property management job to be more desirable and sustainable, as we’ll explore below. Simple adjustments to company culture can also improve the recruitment and retention of millennial talent. It’s important to consider both areas, technology and company culture, to build your best property team.
Using Tech as a Recruitment and Retention Tool
Workplace expectations have changed dramatically in the past decade, and so have worker mind-sets regarding compensation. For example, millennials and Gen Zers would actually prefer more workplace flexibility than health-care benefits; however, a key pain point in the property management industry today is lack of flexibility. Managers are moving around all day, handling maintenance requests, doing inspections, accounting, reporting, even marketing, and are still expected to return to their desks to complete administrative tasks and answer tenant calls. Technology provides the ability for property managers to not only work on the go and have greater flexibility, but also to get the job done more quickly.
Technology that enables text-based communications with residents helps property managers avoid returning to the office while on the job to send communications such as overdue-rent reminders, package-delivery notifications, time-sensitive alerts, maintenance updates, and more. Texts also allow staff greater flexibility to leave work early to pick up a child from school or attend a doctor’s appointment. Texting even improves property manager/tenant transparency, because a record of texts between both parties helps cut down on miscommunications, resident frustration, and after-hour calls (daily stressors for property managers).
Similarly, mobile inspections enable more flexibility by letting property managers take pictures or dictate report notes with their phone. This cuts out the time they’d otherwise lose in travelling back to their office, uploading images from a camera to their computer, and then typing up the entire report from their notes. Top talent doesn’t want to be chained to the job 24/7 because it’s not an attractive lifestyle and can wear out even the best, most driven workers.
Technology also enables property staff to get their work done more quickly. When a unit becomes empty and needs to be leased, for example, vacancies can be posted to hundreds of third-party sites in an instant, eliminating mundane tasks like manual entry of rental listings to various websites, which can take hours or, sometimes, a full day.
Time-saving technology includes online rent-payment systems, too—and that’s not just a good deal for renters. Online payments make property managers’ “rent week” a far less grueling process. Agents don’t have to wait around their office after hours or staff the desks in case renters who want to hand-deliver checks make an appearance. Nor do they have to spend time going back and forth between the office and the bank.
Ultimately, any technology that eliminates the boring and time-consuming admin processes that no one likes to do makes a career in property management instantly more attractive to prospective candidates, as well as more enjoyable for employees. Technology reshapes the property manager’s role to be more desirable, less tedious, and more efficient.
Lasting employee retention only comes when workers feel a deep sense of job satisfaction—something technology helps them achieve in a career that’s anything but predictable.
Changing the Company Environment to Fit Millennial Expectations
Company culture is another top selling point for millennials. If your office offers as much employee centricity as customer centricity, this young generation will want to work for you. They’re hyper-focused on culture, and that starts on day one with a new hire.
There’s immense value in thoughtfully onboarding talent and teaching them all of the tricks, tools, and tech features available to them that will help streamline their daily priorities. Millennials also want to feel like a person and not a number when it comes to their companies. Training, mentor programs, and continued education/upskilling are key to their retention. Millennials want growth opportunities wherever they work.
The property management industry ultimately needs to differentiate how it approaches talent in order to keep its best workers and plant the seed of interest among younger generations.
