How can a property manager reduce staff turnover?

Successful, long-term retention of staff (both employees and tradespeople) is a property management skill that requires intuition, understanding and a dash of luck.

Condominium residents expect and deserve a level of service that befits their chosen lifestyle. A wise property management professional pays special attention to site demographics and relies on information gathered from existing employees, tradespeople and residents to ensure the service longevity that is so crucial to success. It costs money to train employees and introduce new tradespeople to a condominium property that has specific criteria to be met – and every community most assuredly has its own expectations.

Training is paramount but determining the expectations of the average resident is essential to know how and what to train staff.

For example, a security guard at one property would appear out of place if he stopped chatting with one resident to assist another with parcels, while a security guard at another property would be expected and carefully trained to do just that. While the basic qualifications of the security guard may be exactly the same in both instances, site-specific mentoring would make the difference.

Mentoring and guiding qualified employees and tradespeople to meet the expectations of each unique condominium community is a prerequisite to keeping the right people in place year after year. Public acknowledgement of service longevity is, quite simply, the perfect topping.

Debbie Dale is president of Muskoka Condo Services. She can be reached at Debbie@muskokacondoservices.com.