Hiring Green in Multifamily

My best maintenance technician didn’t have any industry experience, but he had drive. By CHRISTIN DANIELS, CAM, Buyer’s Access

Hiring Green in Multifamily

Maintenance H iring green maintenance talent into entrylevel positions is a sound investment strategy and the apartment industry is equipped with resources to train new hires. Entry-level roles are built for the inexperienced or low-experienced candidate who either has some transferable skills and is trying to break into the apartment industry or has recently earned an industry credential and is embarking into their first position post-completion. Hiring green can help your company gain competitive advantage, build loyalty and when it provides your company a downline of quality talent to assume leadership roles when tenured team members retire. It’s also the most rewarding experience you will have as a manager, hands down.

Experience for entry-level is inconsequential in multifamily management. Industries outside of multifamily offer transferrable skills that fit ever so perfectly into apartment positions. When we give people, who are eager work in our industry, a chance it strengthens our companies. A sense of purpose requires little else to motivate someone’s career growth. Untouchable Pride

Recruiting green talent to fill all entry-level maintenance roles should be the default if you’re looking to build a solid recruitment and succession pipeline of loyal team members. Hiring entry-level candidates for entry-level positions is the way to build a dynamically rounded, loyal and resilient team. Hiring a new graduate from a local trade or association credential program over the industry veteran who has held three Hiring green can help your company gain competitive advantage, build loyalty and when it provides your company a downline of quality talent to assume leadership roles when tenured team members retire. It’s also the most rewarding experience you will have as a manager, hands down.

of the same positions at three different companies within the past two years is the better move if you want to build to last.

There is also something about that moment when you catch your new maintenance technician pause to fluff decorative pillows in the leasing center using the exact method taught by you in last week’s team meeting. Watching new associates, especially in entry-level positions, start without any experience develop into a mentor for the next entry-level hire is unmatched in the job fulfillment department. How do you screen for that type of initiative when only interviewing candidates with experience? You can’t. So, where do you find these gems of talent?

The Perfect Pick

You can find talent gems who have worked many other industries, such as hospitality or retail industries. The National Apartment Association Education Institution coined April the Residential Property Management Careers month and they spend all month promoting the apartment industry to people in other industries. It is easy for property management professionals to get loud about our industry’s competitive pay, stability, high growth potential and extremely rewarding career paths to choose from. Visit local high schools, community colleges and community organizations to promote our industry as a viable career and recruit new hires at the same time. Your leasing agent would be a great candidate to speak to high school or college seniors about the apartment industry’s amazing career path, how fun working in the apartment industry is and how well it pays. For maintenance positions, the best place to find talent in trade schools and association credential programs. Recruit those are about to graduate or who recently graduated. In those programs, you will find the gems who lack nothing but a little training. Of course, technical skills are a plus, but prior experience is not a requirement for entry-level maintenance or make-ready technicians. Plus, training is the easiest part of our industry, wouldn’t you agree?

From Housekeeper to HVAC Certified When I was onsite, I got particularly excited about recruiting new maintenance talent into entry-level positions. I preferred no experience, and if they had transferable skills or were recent graduates of an industry-related program, that was always a benefit. Here is why.

A gentleman, who had zero experience repairing anything, once approached me for a job. After his third attempt, I had an open housekeeper position. He applied and I hired him for the job. During his first 5 months as a housekeeper, he learned how to repair sheetrock and before I could even suggest it, he was HVAC certified with a passing score of 95%. His drive to learn, to become a maintenance supervisor and make a positive impact on the team and his community was so great that he was doing things our lead maintenance technician did even though he was currently a housekeeper. And, he was happy to do it. Eventually, he got promoted to make-ready technician and then again to maintenance technician. Managers should look at vacancies in entry-level positions, especially maintenance, as opportunities to invest in people who will eventually become the leadership of tomorrow.

Green team members can be trained and groomed into dominating forces. When you invest in someone and give them a shot, they usually know it. If you hire someone without experience into entry-level positions, their loyalty is unmatched and watching them grow is a rewarding experience. When you invest, people appreciate it. Then, they pay it forward.

Christin Daniels, CAM, has been in the apartment industry since 2006. She was exposed to opportunities in the apartment business through industry influencer, Debbie Phillips, who encouraged her to explore the career. Finishing in 2008 with a Bachelor of Science in Housing and later a Bachelor of Science in Consumer Economics, Daniels promotes the industry everywhere she goes. She has developed multiple teams. She has sourced external talent from outside industries and has developed them into industry leaders. After working her way from leasing to community manager at highly valued assets, she wanted to influence the industry on a broader scale and became the outreach content and sales development strategist for Buyers Access. Daniels can be reached at cdaniels@buyersaccess.com.

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