Good ideas to motivate and build my team

Looking for some good ideas to motivate and build my team. Was thinking of putting together a board for recognition and maybe some small contests to get the team involved. Any fun ideas that have worked well for anyone as far as incentives, recognition, contests, etc.? Objectives are making the team feel valued, promoting positive feedback on surveys/reviews, good make readies and work order response, and of course, leasing.

I took my team to dinner to celebrate them doing a good job at the property. Also, I got together a list of their favorite things. For a whole week they had one of their favorites things at their desk. Also, when we did resident events I would involve my leasing in a game with the residents so it made everyone feel apart of the community.

One of my teams does a “put up board”. They write fun notes complimenting each other. I loved it. This was right after they put it up so there wasn’t a lot on it yet. They post any positive reviews on their too so everyone can see.

I’ve done a brag board, somewhat similar to above! But on a smaller board that can be put on a table in the leasing office. Print their best reviews. Write them a note from you. Include any thank you letters from residents. Everyone that walks in the office will want to read it and will compliment them.

My favorite as a small motivator is emailing Starbucks gift cards randomly. I’ll email a $15 gift card if they help me with one of my leases or if I heard they were super helpful with a resident, and put the thank you note right in the email. Small little surprises really make the team feel loved!!

I’ve done goal board and contests

I split my team up into groups. I gave them each a bunch of Rolodex cards. Pens and highlighters and Scotch tape. They had to build a house with those materials only. It was interesting to see who were the creative ones, leaders and followers. When their house was built they had to try to sell it.

Lot of dynamics in play. Are contests winners vs losers or we all win together ? win together is better long term. Find a way to recognize all who make winning possible. Short term sporadic events cannot overcome long term cultures. While performance matters, positive recognition and feeling valued drives behaviors that are sustainable. Daily praise and recognition are big influencers if meaningful and significant. People resent false praise.

I'm thinking more like some kind of recognition if your name is mentioned in a positive review or resident survey, and maybe all of those go in a drawing or something. I'm definitely all about the team stuff!

three $25 gift cards are more impactful than one $100 single prize. It is the recognition appreciation that matters more than an award for top rank. The team knows who are # 1, 2, 3 anyway.

Have you considered volunteering together? If possible, pick somewhere that you can regularly volunteer so the relationship builds.

Mary Elizabeth Martin I would love to eventually, but right now it's a bit of a distressed property, and we haven't been fully staffed since I took over management 3 1/2 months ago, so we're just playing catch up and trying to get back on solid ground. Looking for positive ways to motivate a largely new team, and get the property to a good place. Reputation management and just being behind due to not being staffed are our biggest challenges right now, so as much as I would love to get the team out giving back together eventually, right now we're more focused on just making sure this is a place the team wants to be so we can build on that together, and hopefully finding some good ways to translate that into resident retention as well.

We are doing an escape room as a team building exercise. I found a do it yourself kit online.

If they meet their goals reward them with an extra day off. Trust me

Shannon Fletcher Bellar yes to this!! Once did a spa day as a reward - massage scheduled that morning, and the rest of the day off.

Shannon Fletcher Bellar this is a fantastic idea!

My (new to the industry) and I got leasing gifts at the beginning of our lease up, which happened to start at the end of busy season. We got fun things like Starbucks gift cards, makeup, lotions and other bath set items. It was fun and super cute, and we always liked to see what was in our gift bag!

Looking at possibly taking this idea with me to my new property/lease up for the leasing team we will have in place.

Move in and move out surveys are fantastic if you have a good team. I always make a copy and give it to them. Also, appreciation bbq for maintenance and caretakers where residents are invited. I think they know we value them but it's so nice for them to see that so do residents.

Love these- lots of great feedback, keep it coming!

With most of my team being new, I'm really trying to build on that team atmosphere. One thing I'm thinking of is having a nomination box where the team can nominate each other for going above and beyond, and all of the nominations get recognized, but one gets drawn or picked for something special.

We do a GrubHub winner each week. Who doesn't like a free lunch of their choice?! It is a very easy reward to give, we have people scattered all over so a free lunch and an email to the whole team saying who is the winner and why each week is very motivating.

I had a 5 Star review contest for all of my properties. Every individual with a 5 star review was rewarded with a small gift and recognition within the entire region. I made special visits to the properties every time one was received. I brought homemade cookies, a gift card or some other item.
The team with the most reviews received a group lunch and the individual winner received money. It was fun for everyone, it helped them get comfortable to ask for reviews and even for their coworkers who were complimented. Every property improved their online rating.
Give them some training on how to ask for the review, (articles, roll play) have some cards made with your properties Google information that can be scanned from their smart phone to make it easy. The teams are still asking for reviews. It was awesome.

We do mini-games, as described in The Great Game of Business. Set a goal that addresses a pain point/weakness in a prescribed period of time. If the goal is met, the prize could be something as simple as a property branded piece of clothing that they can wear for work, or, for a big goal, you call them all in an hour before lunch and give them $100 and one hour to go spend it on themselves, telling they will have to show their purchases and receipt at lunch...and then you meet for lunch at a restaurant. Our team members also like a half day off for a mini-game prize.

I did build a sub... emailed all a roll, lunch meat, mayo, lettuce, tomato, cheese. Then at the end of each day depending on how many leases they had received the subs were emailed out to the entire team and who ever built the sub first ( and we had it uploaded to our TV) won a day off or 100 dollar gift card
Our maintenance team wanted to go bowling during the day so we did a 2 week challenge and if we received less than 1 item on all move in checklist for the 2 week period we went bowling