Hands-on tasks increasingly involve touch screens and an associated learning curve for many employees who joined the workforce in the analog age. This can be particularly true for commercial building operators and residential superintendents who now find smartphones in their toolkits.

Beyond new technological devices to master, staff who have traditionally been on-site systems stewards and maintenance multi-taskers are now expected to work new ways with new channels for performance monitoring – from supervisors, clients and the general public – that did not exist before.

In turn, managers in both the commercial and residential sectors face challenges to train and retain existing skilled personnel, and lure younger prospects into a rapidly aging labour pool. A recent panel discussion at the annual PM Expo in Toronto focused on the pressures and payoffs of leveraging operators’ experience and practical skills to meet the needs of an evolving workplace.

“We’re still dealing fundamentally with people who are more implementers and they very much want to be working with their hands,” says Peter Willmott, who oversees a contingent of 35 building operators/service technicians in his role as general manager, facilities services, with Colliers International Canada. “I know that most of my operators, if they could, would take that BlackBerry and throw it in the garbage.”

New protocols and expectations
The change of routine, immediacy and transparency involved in the switchover to online work orders and web-based communications is often jarring for predominantly older workers, many of whom have English as a second language. Although there are efficiency gains in remotely regulating building system controls and/or ordering supplies via a smartphone, those are new procedures that must be learned. Remote activation also necessitates something of a leap of faith for workers who are accustomed to manually turning equipment on and off, and visually and audibly double-checking from within the mechanical room.

This is coupled with heightened reporting requirements that have arisen with online systems’ real-time monitoring capabilities. Building management and tenants/clients have access to work order systems and building automation/energy monitoring data and are asking more questions. For example, if a work order can’t be completed because a part is missing, operators are now instructed to add an explanatory note in the system – a simple enough task but, again, a new and additional step in the process.

“For a lot of these guys, even getting a BlackBerry in their hands was, ‘What’s this all about?’ To move them into using technology was really difficult,” says Willmott.

Growing take-up of certification programs like LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) and the Building Owners and Managers Association’s Building Environmental Standards (BOMA BESt) program, and industry-wide targets for energy conservation and demand management brings other new pressures, both through the focus on low and no cost operational adjustments and responsibility for complicated, capital intensive systems and machinery. This often goes hand-in-hand with unprecedented requirements for documentation and recordkeeping.

As energy management specialists routinely advise, the panelists concurred that building operators must be informed and included in the LEED, BOMA BESt or energy reduction target-setting process.

“They’ve got to understand what the expectations are for the building and what’s been promised because they have to deliver on it,” says Willmott.

“We are asking them to become integrated into running the business,” says Angelo Potkidis, national lead, service excellence, with Oxford Properties. “It is going to be more collaborative.”

Company ambassador
Customer service is perhaps an overlooked element of the perceived behind-the-scenes job of operating a building. Panelists agreed that most building occupants and visitors interact with operators or superintendents much more frequently than property managers.

Rude behaviour, sloppy dress or voicing complaints about their employer will impart a negative image. Similarly, an operator’s demeanor in dealing with contractors and inspectors can build or damage relationships.

“They really are the face of the organization,” says Potkidis. “It is hugely important that your company spend the time to train them on some of these soft skills. It’s the manager’s job to help coach these folks.”

Being that accessible face can also be perilous, particularly in residential buildings. Steve Weinrieb, senior property manager with Park Property Management, outlined some of the pluses and minuses of immediate, interactive and widespread social media capability, which can be both a customer service tool and a vehicle for mischief-making.

“We use it for marketing, brand loyalty and communications,” says Weinrieb. “But it also allows people to be anonymous and vindictive. There’s a cockroach website, a bedbug website, and anybody can post comments.”

On-site personnel are even more vulnerable to having their conduct recorded and displayed to a potentially vast audience.

“Everyone now is a reporter,” says Weinrieb. “If I see a camera come out, I am just going to leave. You have to train your people to watch for this kind of stuff.”

Labour shortages
An influx of younger workers should bring with it Generation Y’s seemingly inherent comfort level with online technology and social media but, for now, the field remains skewed to an older demographic. This is arguably in sync with the broader real estate sector’s ongoing challenge to find entry-level recruits for various career paths.

“We need to do a better job of reaching out to the educational world to explain the real estate industry,” says Oxford Properties’ Potkidis.

University and community college programs – such as the University of Guelph’s real estate program and Seneca College’s building environmental systems program – have been a source for new employees looking to launch their careers. Associated school-based co-op programs provide further opportunities to find and help groom talented students who could be a good fit for a future permanent position.

Decline in the manufacturing sector also means tradespeople with experience that could be transferrable to the building sector are now seeking jobs.

“Perhaps that’s a source of future skills and labour,” says Potkidis.

Indeed, building operations might be an attractive recession-proof alternative for workers accustomed to industries that tend to expand and contract with economic cycles.

“Every building needs an operator regardless of the vacancy rate,” says Colliers’ Willmott. “And the building operators I have are making some pretty good money.”

Meanwhile, residential landlords have traditionally hired couples to jointly act as superintendents in buildings where they also live – a model that Park Property Management’s Weinrieb describes as “extinct.” Although he recalls receiving dozens of applications for open positions in decades past, job postings now generate little response. He speculates the perks – most obviously, accommodations and freedom from commuting – no longer balance out the pressures of being perpetually on-call and surrounded by an expectant client base.

“It’s not something people aspire to be. It’s a very hard job,” says Weinrieb. “So, if it’s not a traditional couple, you have to look at staffing the building in a different way.”

In part, Park Property Management has relied on in-house resources, including recommendations from rental agents who are constantly interacting with the public and even approaching potential candidates among its tenant base. Prospects are then thoroughly trained in building systems, maintenance and fire safety procedures at one of the company’s four training schools.

“We have one rental agent in our mid-town (Toronto) portfolio who has found seven couples,” says Weinrieb. “We can take somebody off the street and make him or her a superintendent but can we go to ‘career night’ at a high school and sell this? No.”

An aging workforce in an environment without mandatory retirement potentially poses other dilemmas. Colliers’ Willmott lamented the scenario in which workers choose to stay on the job until they are no longer capable of performing the work.

“We’re going to be in situations where we have to terminate these guys,” he predicts.

However, Oxford Properties’ Potkidis argues many workers still have contributions to make after the age of 65, which can be a benefit to the organization.

“It can help transfer skills to the younger generation coming up but it has to be managed,” he says.

Residential superintendents may have more opportunities to reduce their workload as they near or surpass traditional retirement age simply by moving to a building with fewer units to oversee.

Barbara Carss is editor-in-chief of Canadian Property Management magazine.