When do you say goodbye?

The Leasing Manager that we have has been here for two years. He has a great collections rate, averaging around 98%. Our current occupancy rate, however, is only 88%. Other than advertising in the local newspaper, apartment guide, For rent and on craigslist, he has not attempted to tweak the marketing at all to fill units. We overheard him telling a leasing consultant the other day, that he doesn't show units to people who come in and say that they are not moving until the summer and that he feels they are a waste of time. Many of the new move-ins have complaints that the units are either dirty or are in need of maintenance. We have quite a few people who call and complain that he is unresponsive and doesn't return phone calls.

I guess my question is: how do you monitor your leasing performance? And how do you know when to say goodbye to a mediocre employee?

Unceremoniously, in my opinion. Granted, this person may be better suited as an Assistant Manager whose primary role is rent collection, posting, and overall problem-solving regarding Resident issues. In my experience, your Leasing Manager should be bubbly, very organized and driven toward getting leases, renewing leases, creatively setting your leasing goals and planning Resident activities. If your Leasing Manager is cavalier in his attitude, this will be noticed by the entire Leasing Team and it will bring down morale. 88% Occupancy is not proving a competent performance for someone holding the poisition for two years.

You owe it to the Team to have a conversation with him to let him know what you are observing in his performance and discuss with him a plan to improve. This does not have to be confrontational but he also deserves to know where he stands regarding fulfilling his job responsibilities. Based on his response, you will probably figure out what your next steps need to be. Soemtimes, employees experience boredom, frustration, and apathy. You want to be open to what he wants to share while being supportive of your overall company goals.

If he has been there for two years, something tells me that he hasn't always been this way. Maybe he is burned out. Maybe he is bored.

I agree with Mindy; You do definitely need to have a conversation with him regarding his performance. Help him devise a plan to improve and figure out what is going to spark some motivation. Maybe he just needs feedback from you.. or maybe it could be something else - Is it time off? Training? Incentives? Praise?

I would also set a timeline for improvement; What changes do you want to see in two weeks time? 30 days? 60 days? Be sure to reconvene with him to discuss improvements you have seen or the things you have not seen happen. I would also offer him praise for the things you have said he does well so that he doesn't feel completely deflated about the "talk" you have with him.

Good Luck!

I ditto the other comments. Talk with him and see what's going on. Maybe a boredom cycle just needs to be broken. But if it continues after your talk, get some hard data--if you use Yardi, you can track Sources and use those ratios. You can get specifics about phone calls if you need to discuss this with him (not caller's names or numbers, but specific things they said). It can be done in a non-attacking way. You can say, "This person said you told them this... why? No hard feelings, I just want to know."

Sometimes you have to give specific examples to let the person know that you do really know what's going on and are watching. This is not to exert power, but to get them talking. If he knows all this and doesn't want to improve, then that's another story...one with a bad ending for him!

I agree with all of the other replies. Also, you might want to have him and the other team members professionaly shopped via phone, internet and in person to find out where improvement is needed.

I wonder about a few things in your post. Do the comps have higher occupancy? Why are the units not in tip top shape at move in? Are there models for touring? If they tour vacant units, are they rent ready? Are other team members responding to move in complaints?