Rents and occupancy continue to rise, but so too does staff burnout.

Apartment rents and occupancy are soaring at near record levels in almost every market. Technology-driven automation and business analysis continues to significantly improve, with continued innovation to come.

Yet, across a variety of rental housing industry conferences, panelists continue to preface their comments with, “Our onsite teams are so busy,” “Our people are burned out” and “Hiring is our number one challenge.”

The Stage Is Set

During the past year, U.S. multifamily rents rose 14.8%, covering an explosive rate of price growth that began in the second quarter of 2021, according to Yardi Matrix’s multifamily report. The trend has continued this year, with rent growth at record highs through April.

Apartment companies are investing more time in hiring, adding headcount and offering higher “competitive” wages to attract more workers. There are more job listings than available workers, with the ratio of open positions to job seekers in the U.S. at an all-time high.

While companies can validate the claim that some workers—upon agreeing to take the job—aren’t showing up for day one or are quitting early on, their argument that finding qualified candidates is equally challenging could be debated given the many third-party and onsite training programs that are available.

Maintenance Trainer Mark Cukro, ServiceTeam Training, said recently, “Find workers with soft skills and then bring them onboard and provide proper training and you’ll help fill job openings.” He then listed nearly 100 industries where these soft-skilled worker candidates are currently employed.

Training is one factor in this struggle. So are wages, staffing models and job descriptions. Some say the industry is “backward” on these and needs to rethink its approach in today’s workplace culture.

Technology is intended to make things easier, but companies find that’s easier said than done—at least during the early stages of implementation.

Wage Increases to Match Renewal Rent Bump

Diane Medina, Vice President, Grand Peaks, suggests that perhaps increasing wages at the same pace as lease trade-outs could make sense.

“With automated technology taking over in some areas, we see the teams’ focuses shifting,” she says. “They are now more than ever having to focus on elevated levels of customer service and resident relations to keep the high paying renters happy. Residents expect more when they pay more.” Workers tend to agree.

Adrian Danila, CAPS, CAMT, Regional Director of Maintenance-East, Lessen, says, “[The industry] is screaming in pain that people are hard to find and don’t want to work while we are kidding ourselves that we’re offering competitive pay.”

Long-time apartment management professional Steve Wunch, Vice President, Marketing and Events, Leap Easy, says he’s said for years that “site teams should be paid a significant salary rather than an hourly wage and miserably small commissions/bonuses. The people who are the backbone of the industry and on whose shoulders a property succeeds or fails are under-paid and under-appreciated far too often.”

Top Performers Frustrated, Fatigued

Melanie French CPM, SPHR, Managing Principal, DLP Capital, says today’s unprecedented conditions are likely causing higher performers to have to pick up extra work to ensure that the job is getting done.

“When this happens, no one wins and top performers become frustrated and fatigued,” French says. “Leaders cannot let this happen, especially heading into whatever is ahead of us.

“The multifamily industry has used essentially the same headcount per 100 units for 40 years. The workload has increased significantly with changes in technology, social media, customer interactions, increased amenities, additional open office hours, a more demanding customer base, more meetings, 50-page leases, cell phones and more.

“In the 1980s, corporate offices used mail, fax or phone to request reports/info. The number of requests employees receive with quick turnaround times in a single day is tenfold what it was before email. Yet the staffing levels are the same.”

French says that this is a “real challenge and one that each of us has a responsibility to change.”

She says she’s working to find efficiencies, tools and ways to reduce administrative tasks for frontline staff.

“Residents want a sense of community without feeling their home life is being infringed upon,” French says. “I would counter that simply hiring more people is not the answer. We must seek long-term solutions that move us forward while adapting with times: This is the topic we should be discussing. We are either part of the problem, or a part of the solution. The choice is ours and I choose solutions.”

One thing French is trying is giving her office teams administrative hours each day. These workers still come in at the same time, but open their offices at 11 a.m.

“This gives them two to two and a half hours five days a week to use on administrative tasks, meetings, walking units, property inspections, training or even renewal appointments,” French says. “My reasoning is that if they focused on administrative tasks in the morning then ideally, the rest of the day is focused on the most important piece of our business—the customer and resident piece.

“Losing those 10 hours did not reduce occupancy, did not cost us leases, did not lead to teams coming in late. Not at all. This team of professionals instead found themselves less stressed and appreciative of the time. This isn’t the answer for everyone—but was one worth attempting.”

Reallocating Job Responsibilities

Camden’s Chief Operating Officer, Laurie Baker, says that over the years, her company has introduced new technologies and it has been able to gain incremental benefits with process efficiencies.

“Today, with the culmination of all the things we’ve implemented over the last decade [Chirp, Funnel, Mobile Maintenance, Camden’s 24/7 Contact Center, Oracle cloud, etc.], we are now able to distribute the workload in a different manner, finding efficiencies and creating new opportunities.

“Positions look different, and we are able to reallocate job responsibilities to create more meaningful roles. For example, we used to have part-time leasing consultants but with technology and processes that handle contactless tours and self-guided tours, we are able to offload those tasks, allowing us to leverage our technology investment instead of having part-time resources.”

Baker says that technology aside, “our onsite teams are coming out of a very stressful two years of working through the pandemic. Add to that personal stress that people bring to the workplace, and you can imagine how it has certainly taken its toll. Talent is tight for every company in every industry. This just puts further strain on our teams.

“Now more than ever, workers are looking beyond only wage for a workplace that aligns with their values and provides a culture for growth. We have invested in onboarding programs to provide less experienced workers the skills they need to be successful.”

Scott Wesson, Senior Vice President, Chief Digital Officer, UDR, says his company invested a lot of time and energy in re-architecting work processes and job roles well before the pandemic struck.

“As a result, we were able to automate, eliminate or centralize a great deal of the onsite work,” he says. “Consequently, we have been able to reduce onsite staff by 40 percent. What this means is that our teams on the ground have never been more important, but we’ve done a lot to make them better, more fulfilling jobs.”

Staff shortages are currently top of mind, and it’s hard to say how long they will persist. Dom Beveridge, Principal, 20for20, says there’s a lot more to the staff shortages issue than the adjustment that has come since the federal government was sending stimulus checks in the two years after COVID-19 struck.

“During the pandemic, lots of people decided to work less,” Beveridge says. “Early retirements, reductions in hours for part-time workers, etc. Pretty much every sector seems to be having the same problems with hiring and it’s not clear when or if it ends. If the country falls into a recession that will change things, but I generally think that if you can automate work out of a property, then you should do it.”

Companies Must Look Inward

Greg Albright, formerly at Village Green, says that companies struggling with workplace issues such as retention must first look inward. “The pandemic was a huge whack-job on the mindset of the labor force, especially the younger end of the labor force” he says. “People faced their own mortality, and it changed priorities. People are much less patient for an employer to make needed changes or to hand out raises. They can just pick up move to the next company that pays better, has more flexibility, better work/life balance or any combination of those things.

“The point is, if you’re at corporate standing around wringing your hands about turnover right now, but back before COVID-19 you treated people like they were expendable because you knew there was a surplus of labor; yeah, your turnover rate is going to be higher.

“Folks had a lot of time to assess their work lives during the pandemic. The companies that have low turnover rates now are the companies that were treating people well before the pandemic and continued that through the pandemic and beyond. Also, retention starts with amazing onboarding. Just like retention rates with residents starts on the initial tour of a property, employee retention starts at the first interview.”

A ‘Love for Service and Community’

Barret Newberry, Founder and CEO, Leasera, says he wonders how strained the industry is because “a majority go without the ‘right’ tools that are needed but perhaps are not affordable because of their companies’ budgets.

“Every property manager I know walked into the industry with a love for service and community. Certainly, for many, attrition due to being overworked is an end result, and it’s tough to see.”

Long-time developer and operator, Eric Brown, says that the one person to every 100 units staffing model is a myth. “With technology, labor yields should soar, therefore lowering that number,” he says. “Couple that with a centralized leasing model where apartment operators have multiple communities grouped geographically and then that number drops again. But many companies aren’t taking that step. Their day of reckoning will arrive when they must right-size operations with reduced labor, thus driving up NOI. For now, for many, any talk of reduced labor seems taboo.”

Integrations Continue to Be Bug-a-Boos

Kristi Fickert, Vice President, Realync, says that technology integration must improve.

“Some technologies today can function well as stand-alone tools; and I don’t think this should keep us from embracing new tech that could alleviate some of these pain points, at least for now,” she says. “This might not be the most ideal state, but it can start to give both the renters and onsite teams time back in their days, flexibility and an overall better experience.

“I hear more often than not, ‘We absolutely cannot consider X tool until it fully integrates with XYZ CRM/PMS system,’ and while I agree, we do ideally need these integrations. If we wait for these to catch up, we’ll always be behind and will be slow to meet renter demands, too.”

Fickert says that Tricap Residential Group is a great example of diving in.

“Many have paused on rolling out centralized leasing models because the tech stacks don’t talk to one another or aren’t built for a model like this, but they decided to do it anyway,” Fickert says. “Is it perfect? Nope. However, they’ve increased pay by about 70 percent for those same roles that were traditionally onsite, resident satisfaction scores have gone up and their teams only work Monday through Friday with every weekend off. I love that they didn’t wait for integrations.”

Jeremiah Weise, VP of Product, Nurture Boss, says one thing he’s observing is that the efficiency gains that technology is bringing “are necessary just to keep up with the status quo.

“On average, properties are now managing six times the number of leads compared to two years ago [according to a Knock blog], making tech-enabled efficiency gains practically a prerequisite.”

Weise’s takeaway is that “high occupancy doesn’t equate to less work, and while more leads are preferable to too few leads, if the number of doors available is fixed, more leads just equals more work for the onsite team to achieve the same outcome.”

How Busy Are They?

Some industry observers say they don’t believe onsite staff members are as busy as they say they are (and probably feel they are) unless they are at a property that is short-staffed due to the hiring challenge.

Donald Davidoff, President, D2Demand, says he finds that younger people are more stressed than in the past, “so they may feel worse than the objective observation would say.”

He says there are more technology systems and other tools and processes to work with such as the vast increase in package deliveries, reputation management response responsibilities, etc., and that’s not making things easier.

Beveridge says if onsite teams are extremely busy, it’s during peak times.

“Every time I walk into a community for a tour the atmosphere seems relatively relaxed,” he says. “There are peaks and troughs of demand, and that’s one of the main reasons why people should centralize functions. Shared service models are better at dealing with peaks and troughs than coverage-based property staffing models.”

 

Paul Bergeron is a frequent contributor to units Magazine.