Forget Experience - Look For These Soft Skills In Your New Multifamily Hire
Is there anything worse than hiring for your apartment community or property management company? Whether you’re the person looking for a new property manager, leasing agent, maintenance professional, regional manager, marketing associate (should I keep going?) or the person looking for one of those jobs — the entire process is stressful and a little bit outdated. We are all worried about being so perfect or pretending to have enough experience, that we forget what it really takes to be good at the job in question.
This meme below sums it up so perfectly. I mean why are we even writing cover letters for these multifamily positions? What does it actually say about how one would approach the job? And most importantly, I must know who is actually reading these or if they just go right in the trash (in real life or on your computer).
The thing about apartment hiring is that most of the job description has to be learned on the job, even with someone with the most experience. You have to learn that business’s or community’s operations, their property management tools, their working style, their expectations, etc. Even if you have experience in the multifamily industry, you have to reteach and relearn certain things to fit a specific job.
So the question becomes…what are we looking for in a new hire or an employee?
Is it all about experience or should we be looking for something different?
Keep reading to learn about the soft skills that make a great new hire for your apartment community with or without experience. There are many things you can teach when it comes to a job, but there are certain qualities of a person that are just part of who they are. Yes, you can teach them but for some these things may come naturally — making your life so much easier. Let’s jump in.
#1: Resourcefulness
To me, resourcefulness is the most undervalued quality in a new hire in any industry but multifamily specifically. Now before I dive in, training is obviously extremely important. You should have an apartment leasing, management, and marketing training program in place to set up new hires for success. That said, training will never prepare you for everything. What will the new hire do when faced with the unknown? Will they freak out, will they bombard you with questions, will you need to handhold them, OR will they be resourceful?
Resourcefulness: The ability to find quick and clever ways to overcome difficulties.
Sometimes the best thing a new leasing agent, property manager, or any new hire can do is resourcefully solve problems even though they don’t know how. Yes, sometimes they’ll get it wrong and you’ll have to help them clean up the mess. However, the benefit is that they learn for the next time something like that comes up.
Now if you’re someone that is a new hire and you want to develop this skill here is what I recommend before you ask a question…
Ask yourself if this is something I can find in my files or in the provided training materials.
Google it, it’s amazing what you can find on Google.
If you do really need to ask a question, start an FAQ doc for yourself so you don’t ask the same question multiple times. Not only is it frustrating for your boss and all the people you work with, but it will eventually give you a lot of anxiety.
If you are the manager in this situation, here are some ways you can enable resourcefulness:
Have an internal FAQ doc that everyone is shared so you can answer common questions.
Delay your responses to questions you know they can find on their own…I know it sounds rude, but it’s my secret. Sometimes I’ll see a question, and I’ll wait a few hours up to respond. Usually, by the time I respond, they’ve found their answer and started to learn how to be more resourceful.
Film mini-training videos, especially if you must redo someone else’s work. Anytime I have to step in, I try to screen share as I’m doing it to show them how to do it and why I do it a certain way.
#2: Objectivity
Now the risk you run with someone being resourceful is that they may not always do something the way you want it done. That’s why new apartment hires and even property managers need to be objective.
Objective: Not influenced by personal feelings or opinions in considering and representing facts.
You want someone who understands that feedback is objective fixes to see this job done well and doesn’t reflect on their personal character. This doesn’t give you permission to be rude or brutal. To set up an objective culture, you have to have a foundation of support and trust.
When I trained my replacement for a role I was no longer going to do, I told this person that I trust them to make on-the-fly choices, as long as they are open and willing to make changes moving forward. You have to know that the person you’re training is not you, they will never be you. So when they don’t do things exactly the way you would, you need to be objective in the way you train and the person needs to be objective in the way they see feedback. You have to establish an open line of communication that is respectful, but very firm and clear.
When there is a change you want to see, then you need to address those situations as they happen:
Outline objectively why your way is better for everyone including them
Why their way doesn’t enable their own success
Move forward and let it all go
The key is the employee not seeing those call-outs as a personal attack. Once things become personal, the whole thing becomes much, much harder. That’s when tensions arise and it all becomes a mess. Some people naturally see things more objectively than others, so that may be important in the person you want to have as part of your multifamily team.
If you’re the employee…
Don’t be ashamed of making mistakes; it’s a learning opportunity. Take steps to learn, so it doesn’t happen again. Let the shame go…it’s just a job and everyone is fine.
You can’t change the situation or other people, but maybe you can devise a way to better deal with that situation. Change your habits or mindset…you can only change how you approach it.
If you are making a lot of the same mistakes over and over again and you notice your boss is getting frustrated, ask yourself if this is the right role for you. There is no shame if the answer is no; that doesn’t make you a bad person. It just means this job isn’t a fit for your specific skill set.
If you are the manager in this situation, set expectations from the jump like…
How you will issue feedback when mistakes are made?
What do you expect them to do after you provide the feedback?
How many times can the same problem or problems arise until you will put them on a performance plan?
#3 Self-Awareness
The last soft skill that is extremely important is being aware of your impact on others whether that be other people on your property management team or your residents.
Self-Awareness: Conscious knowledge of one's character, feelings, motives, and desires.
So hi, my name is Rebecca! Although I’d like to think of myself as extremely resourceful and objective, I know I am too direct. Sometimes I come in hot, and I know that. Usually, I’m just in the zone and come off short even though I’m perfectly fine doing whatever it is. Although I’ll be honest, sometimes I get annoyed (I’m human) and you can probably tell. Don’t worry; in 5 minutes I will forget all about it and move on. I’m not one to hold a grudge.
We are all human and have tendencies both good and bad. You just want to be someone and find someone that is at least aware. When they are aware, they can work on themselves internally to mesh better with the other personalities in the room. For me, sometimes I’ll type out something but don’t send it. Then when I look at it later, I realize how crazy I sound, delete it, and move on. Now I know y’all think I’m absolutely crazy.
If you’re a new hire…
Be upfront about what you are looking for in a work environment.
A job interview is as much for you as it is for them as long as you are respectful.
If there are negative experiences from your past jobs, ask how they would approach them (no names of course).
If you’re the manager in this situation…
Make one of your interview questions a scenario where they may face a common challenge and ask them to walk you through how they would handle it with absolutely zero experience or training.
If it’s an employee, you can do that exercise in a review and compare both of your approaches and see how you can meet in the middle.
To wrap this up, remember that it’s about the impact and not intentions. Everyone always comes into things with the best intentions, but the true test on both sides is if your impact is a positive one. One that makes not only your life but your team's and customers’ life easier.
You can train on property management software, leasing strategies, or even how to deal with resident complaints. What’s harder to train on are these soft skills. For the people it comes naturally to, you’re going to have a much easier time training them. For those whom these skills are not natural, it’s not impossible, but it takes a lot of self-awareness and commitment to change our natural tendencies. It’s best to keep an eye out for these skills immediately and acknowledge how important they are within your existing work culture.
PROPERTY MANAGEMENT GIFTS
Appreciate the team you have with these gifts for leasing agents, property managers, maintenance, regional managers, and more!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
I’m Rebecca, the Creative and Social Media Director at Sprout Marketing. I started as an intern YEARS ago while in college. I joined the Sprout team officially as the Branding Director a few years after college and worked my way 8 years later to be where I am now. Many of my skills are completely self-taught by the best teachers in the world: Google and co-workers. I did go to school for journalism, but I mostly picked up the skills I use today through various extracurriculars, internships, and jobs. I learned I like a work culture that allows me to tinker at learning new skills. Sprout was actually my first taste of that! Long story short, my first weeks into my internship I was watching online tutorials to help redesign their website with absolutely zero experience. Although A LOT has changed over the years, that type of spirit both in the culture of Sprout and my job still very much exists. If you really want to learn something the best way is to: Do it. Learn from it. Do it again!
