Adrian C Danila's profile| Property Management | Resident Retention

Several years ago, one of the executives at the company I was working for told me: "I don't want to pay for maintenance personnel training. It's a waste of money-they don't tend to stick around."
Today, this company's maintenance open positions listings are pages long and growing.
What could have gone wrong?
Is your company investing the proper resources in maintenance personnel training?
Please share your feedback in the comment section.

Show previous comments (1)

Guest Insider awesome

Guest Insider People will not leave if managed right or they get spinned off.

tracie clemenz Love this!

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As technology continues to transform the multifamily industry, I'm interested in understanding the specific impact of keyless apartment front door locks on your maintenance operations. How has the use of these keyless access control systems affected the overall efficiency and productivity of your...

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What is the biggest advantage of centralizing maintenance operations in multifamily properties?
If none of the options provided reflect your preferred answer, please share your insights in the comments below.

Guest Insider None

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Which strategy do you find most effective for attracting new maintenance talent?
If none of the options provided reflect your preferred strategy, please share your insights in the comments below.

Jared S. Leese

Guest Insider Competitive benefits i.e., 4-day work weeks and unlimited PTO.

Guest Insider A combination of apprenticeships and engagement with high school and trade school students

Josh Hayes For me I can’t pick just one. They are equally as important. We need to figure out the best and right way to develop and build our future.

If I had to choose only one I’d go with apprenticeship programs and my focus would be the high schools and trade schools and sell them on the why’s.

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Hiring Managers: What factor do you believe influences candidates the most when choosing your company, other than pay?
If none of the provided options match your desired answer, please share your thoughts in the comments.

Guest Insider E all of the above. Most of the time when I'm conducting interviews all of these points come up and talk through each with the potential new candidate. I will volunteer the information as well even if the candidate doesn't ask, as it's a good way to show the value and benefit of working for the company.

Guest Insider I have found in my career, that flexibility, and growth are secondary to having the right leader. If the right leader is in place, teams will be willing to work harder, and longer if needed because the team is strong and motivated. I've turned down promotions to stay with the right team, and the right leader.
I've had staff do the same.

Guest Insider Leadership all the way! I always say that I work for a person/people and not a company. I've been super lucky to work for some truly incredible leaders and it has supercharged my career.

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What's the biggest challenge you face when trying to find qualified maintenance personnel for your multifamily properties?

If none of the options provided fit, please share your answer in the comments.

Chelsea Kneeland

Guest Insider It’s not like it used to be. The pool of talent is very small at this point. That’s for sure.

Guest Insider I went through 5 in two years time who either oversold themselves and couldnt handle the work, expected to be able to sit around and pass yhe tjme, or sounded excellent on paper but couldn't pass the background check.

Guest Insider Wow. What an overwhelming result, that while not surprising, I think reveals a lot about the maintenance staffing challenges we face as an industry and why without a major mindset shift, we are going to see them continue indefinitely.

I agree that there is a massive shortage of skilled or qualified candidates, there has been for the entirety of my career.

But why?

Interestingly, two of the biggest causes, at least in my opinion, were also options in this poll - undefined career paths and lack of industry visibiltiy.

I think the lack of candidates is a symptom, not a cause. As employers, we need to think about the roles we fill as a product and our employees as our customers. How good of a product do we offer them?

For a very long time that product for maintenance teammates hasn’t been very good. My evidence - our abysmal employee turnover rate as an industry of over 35% a year. Worse, many of those who leave their jobs leave the industry all together.

What if we viewed this problem... Show more

Wow. What an overwhelming result, that while not surprising, I think reveals a lot about the maintenance staffing challenges we face as an industry and why without a major mindset shift, we are going to see them continue indefinitely.

I agree that there is a massive shortage of skilled or qualified candidates, there has been for the entirety of my career.

But why?

Interestingly, two of the biggest causes, at least in my opinion, were also options in this poll - undefined career paths and lack of industry visibiltiy.

I think the lack of candidates is a symptom, not a cause. As employers, we need to think about the roles we fill as a product and our employees as our customers. How good of a product do we offer them?

For a very long time that product for maintenance teammates hasn’t been very good. My evidence - our abysmal employee turnover rate as an industry of over 35% a year. Worse, many of those who leave their jobs leave the industry all together.

What if we viewed this problem as a retention issue and a not a recruiting issue?

If we could keep the people we hired, help them to grow and advance in their career, we’d have less roles to fill and more importantly, we’d build an actual experienced workforce.

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Given the recent layoffs in our industry, how do you feel about job security in your current role?

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Multifamily Operators: Is your company currently exploring the centralization of maintenance services across your properties?

Josh Hayes I’d like to see who else is doing this and get some feedback from them.

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In which areas of your multifamily operation is your company currently utilizing technology to minimize the need for on-site personnel?

If your answer is different from the four options provided, please leave your response in the comment section.

Guest Insider None should be an option

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What is your company's long-term approach to handling economic uncertainty in the multifamily sector?

Brent Williams I could be wrong on this, but I believe starts are down, and with the interest rates the way they are, I would imagine underwriting is way down. Not sure the lead time, but today's supply glut will likely turn into a supply crunch a few years down the road. (I'll let Jay Parsons tell me how wrong I am).

If that is correct, we have about 2 years more of having a focus on resident loyalty, and then the market will shift aggressively into rent increases.

So at the end of the day, I would say the poll options are more weighted towards short term goals versus long term ones, although I could be way off.

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What is the most important factor for you when deciding to attend an industry conference?

Guest Insider Great poll, but where is the option for all of the above? All of these are pretty important.

Adrian C Danila Great question! LinkedIn limits the answer options to 4, unfortunately.

Guest Insider I agree that all of these are important.

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When hiring a maintenance technician, which of the following traits do you think is the most important?

Guest Insider Now when will the PM industry start realizing that most techs are underpaid and no career path within the industry. What do you expect with the avg range is $18-$21 an hr with no incentive. Bring your own tools, on-call emergency work not properly compensated, no bonus structure for renewal tenancy, no trades/contractor education path.

Guest Insider A steady stream of income compensates much else for many techies

Guest Insider I see it differently and stand by my coment.Steady income min wage could mean there working 2 jobs, mental fatigue, living pay check to pay check,.and work life bal. Is non existent.

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What specific measure, besides pay increases, has had the most significant impact on the retention of skilled and reliable maintenance staff within your company?

If your response doesn't align with any of the provided options, please share your answer in the comments section.

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Shelley Watson following

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What specific measure, besides pay increases, has had the most significant impact on the retention of skilled and reliable maintenance staff within your company?

If your response doesn't align with any of the provided options, please share your answer in the comments section.

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What is the most significant challenge your company is facing in managing maintenance at property level? If your primary challenge isn't listed here, please feel free to share it in the comments below.

Finding Skilled & Reliable Staff

2 people vote this.
Limited Financial Resources

1 people vote this.
Deferred Maintenance

0 people vote this.
Technology Implementation

0 people vote this.

Felicia Norman

Show previous comments (2)

Guest Insider there is definitely an overall lack of skilled labor that all of the trades are struggling with; however, why our industry struggles to hire and retain maintenance professionals starts with resources and budgets.

Unfortunately, the actions of both property owners and management companies show they do not assign much, if any, value to those teams or their impact on property performance. So no extra money inbound soon.

Proof:
- we remain transfixed on this 1/100 staffing ratio that for older assets has not worked for a most of my career
- little to no effort or investment is been made to allow the effective monitoring of the quality of work, (resident surveys upon completion don’t count) - what % of your WOs are callbacks? Do a 2 year look back and I bet you’ll be disappointed in what you find.
- quality of management, typically due to WO issues, consistently is one of the top 3 reasons a resident moves. Have we tried to fix it? No.

Does this mean we need to increase payroll? Not... Show more

there is definitely an overall lack of skilled labor that all of the trades are struggling with; however, why our industry struggles to hire and retain maintenance professionals starts with resources and budgets.

Unfortunately, the actions of both property owners and management companies show they do not assign much, if any, value to those teams or their impact on property performance. So no extra money inbound soon.

Proof:
- we remain transfixed on this 1/100 staffing ratio that for older assets has not worked for a most of my career
- little to no effort or investment is been made to allow the effective monitoring of the quality of work, (resident surveys upon completion don’t count) - what % of your WOs are callbacks? Do a 2 year look back and I bet you’ll be disappointed in what you find.
- quality of management, typically due to WO issues, consistently is one of the top 3 reasons a resident moves. Have we tried to fix it? No.

Does this mean we need to increase payroll? Not necessarily. I actually think we can lower payroll overall, pay individuals more and increase response times and quality of work by using technology to better allocate the resources and people we have. More on that from me in a full post coming soon.

Guest Insider No need to look, we all already know staff reliability and retention is the biggest issue

Rodney Cobb In my experience it's was each of these equally.

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Adrian C Danila

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