Engagement in the New Normal

The United States economy was off to great start as we moved into 2020, this new decade of the 21st century. Then, the world was hit with a pandemic that affected everyone on a personal, professional, emotional and financial level. Since mid-March, the world has been turned upside down and our new normal continues to change weekly, sometimes daily.

Remember handshakes and pats on the back? These forms of greeting and connecting were replaced with – don’t shake hands, let’s fist bump – oh, better yet, bump elbows. Then, we were encouraged to stay 6 ft. apart or social distance – it’s cooler. From stay at home, shelter in place, lockdown, essential or non-essential workers, the way we conduct business and connect with those around us has changed.

As an essential business, apartment management companies have had to decide who could work from home and who should continue to work in the office. Do you leave the onsite office open and take additional precautions? Or do you lock the doors, staff the office accordingly and change the way your staff interacts with residents, prospects and suppliers? Leasing has been changing quickly from in-person tours to no tours to self-tours and/or virtual tours. Maintenance changed from full-service to emergency maintenance requests only. In a time of crisis, how do organizations and their leaders effectively manage changes in operation with their teams while also maintaining a high level of employee engagement and stay connected and engaged with our customers?

Managing Emotions for Productivity

Many have never seen nor experienced the magnitude of this global crisis. With so much uncertainty and change in both business and in our personal lives for the foreseeable future, how do leaders navigate these uncertain waters to connect with their employees and to communicate and lead in a way that maintains employee engagement and productivity?

Employee engagement is the cornerstone of high-performing teams and organizations as underscored in his quote by Jack Welch, former CEO of GE.

“There are only three measurements that tell you nearly everything you need to know about your organization’s overall performance: employee engagement, customer satisfaction and cash flow. It goes without saying that no company, small or large, can win over the long run without energized employees who believe in the mission and understand how to achieve it,”

An article by Quantumworkplace.com discusses how fears about the pandemic, exposure, quarantines, and their impact on employee’s ability to work causes concern, anxiety, worry, uncertainty and fear that if not acknowledged and address can impact employee engagement and productivity. Addressing these emotions in the workplace can be vital to your company and community’s success.

Suggestions to help manage employee emotions in the workplace include:

• Be transparent and communicate regular

ly with your employees. Provide updates and information, even if you don’t have all the answers. If you have to make difficult decisions to reduce hours or headcount or change the way you do business for the short or long term, the time you take to communicate with your employees at all levels builds trust, understanding and engagement.

• Be inclusive and ensure that your mes

sages reach all employees. If you have Spanish speaking employees, provide written updates in both English and Spanish. Have a Spanish-speaking person available to lead calls, to communicate important information and to answer questions. This not only opens communication across all parts of the company, but goes a long way toward building good will, trust and engagement. • Check in frequently. Whether it’s the CEO of a company conducting an all-employee call or a manager performing regular one-on-one check ins with each staff member, creating connection by communicating with your employees helps boost both individual and team morale. • Don’t just talk, listen. Don’t discount or ignore your employee’s feelings or concerns. Each person deals with crisis and change differently. If employees feel that their concerns are heard and addressed, that understanding and empathy can have a positive impact, even when you can’t tell them what they want to hear. They appreciate that you listened to them. • Ask for feedback. Any change, even when not implemented during a crisis, can be uncertain and confusing. Check in with your team members, ask for their feedback and then act on it. Sometimes small tweaks in a change or new way of doing things can make a big difference to those implementing the initiative. By asking for and valuing feedback from your employees, they feel that they are part of the solution and are more likely to be vested in the success of the property and the company. • Be a resource. Many companies have an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) as part of their benefit package. Access this or other resources through your health insurance provider or human resources department to provide assistance for employees and their families who may be struggling. Make that information readily available to all employees and provide frequent reminders about the types of services provided. Develop training for your managers and maintenance supervisors to recognize and address stress and other related emotions due to the pandemic or any crisis. This training can be invaluable to your teams and to your leaders. How leaders can engage and connect with their employees and customers in a challenging time. By KATHY CLEM, CPM, AAA Staffing

Many have never seen nor experienced the magnitude of this global crisis. With so much uncertainty and change in both business and in our personal lives for the foreseeable future, how do leaders navigate these uncertain waters to connect with their employees and to communicate and lead in a way that maintains employee engagement and productivity?

• When possible, be flexible. With school and day care status uncertain, how are your employees who have children handling day care? How is time off handled if an employee must take time off due to illness? Everyone has faced added stress and change during this time. What can you do to be flexible or to develop “out-ofthe-box” ideas that will help your employees, to keep them working and engaged while maintaining your business operations?

Your commitment to employee engagement in both great and challenging times will help create a strong culture of engagement that can have a positive impact on your bottom line. “To win in the marketplace, you must first win in the workplace,” – Doug Conant.

Source: https://marketing.quantumworkplace.com/hubfs/Marketing/COVID19%20Microsite/Managing%20Employee%20Em otions.pdf?hsLang=en&__hstc=151234879.e3f73 08c2738b3e944b294764e366943.1587934012016. 1587934012016.1587934012016.1&__hssc=1512 34879.1.1587934012017&__hsfp=4112605840.

Engagement with Customers and Employees: it’s all about HEART

As important as having a plan in place to focus on employee engagement across all levels of the organization, it is also important that you also provide your teams with the training, resources and tools to connect and engage with their customers in our ever-changing new normal. The Harvard Business Review found five key strategies that help companies work through a crisis and maintain their relationship and connection with customers in their model called HEART. Let’s look at each component. • Humanize your company. As with your employees, communication is the cornerstone of customer relationships. Let your customers know that your company understands the consequences of the personal, social, economic and financial impact of the crisis and that your company is not focused only on profits during this difficult time. Ensure that your messaging conveys empathy and clearly communicates the steps you are taking to help customers and employees. Use your company and community websites, social media and email distribution as platforms to provide information. This does not require long, rambling narratives. Keep your message brief and remember, at the end of the day, your customers will be most interested in the value you create for them.

How you listen is as important as how you communicate with your customer. More of our communication with our customers for the foreseeable future may not be face-to-face. Whether employees are communicating with customers by phone, Skype and/or Zoom or by email, the customer wants to feel that someone is listening. For example, it doesn’t matter that 75% of your residents have the same financial hardship during this crisis. What matters to each resident is that you actively listen to their story, their problem. You can show empathy and concern as you listen; resist the urge to interrupt to tell them the rule or policy that applies. Have a list of options and resources to help your residents, in addition to communicating the policies your company has in place. • Educate about change. How has your daily operation changed this week, this month? Are you continuing to minimize face-to-face contact? Are you taking extra precautions to clean and disinfect offices, common areas and amenities? Have you moved from personalized prospect tours to self-guided or virtual apartment tours? Is maintenance only completing emergency service requests? Are you providing residents with instructional videos so they can complete minor, non-emergency repairs in their apartment? Are you offering online alternatives to the residents if use of the fitness center and other amenities is limited?

Make sure that any changes to the way you are doing business are communicated clearly and updated as changes occur. This is another area where community websites, social media pages, resident portals and regular emails can keep residents and customers informed.

Also communicate with suppliers and contractors to inform them of changes that may impact them, including those related to safety and personal protection, scheduling, deferment of scheduled work and any changes to payment terms that may impact them. • Assure stability. Let your customers know that although some of the ways you conduct your business has changed, your company’s values and the reasons that they chose your community as their home have not changed. For example, if there is a period that you only accept payments by ACH or credit card to limit face-to-face contact, can you waive or reduce the credit card convenience fee charges? Or, your property promotes its large state-of-the art fitness center, but you are forced to close it for a period of time. Consider offering online fitness classes for your residents by hiring a fit

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ness instructor to provide instruction through Zoom or other web-based options to ensure your residents have onsite fitness options. • Revolutionize offerings. Not all change is bad. Make sure you promote changes and innova- tion to show how you are connecting with and serving your customers in new ways.

Remember the online fitness classes you offered when the fitness center was closed? If you have residents taking advantage of the online classes, why stop when the fitness center reopens? You may have found another way for your residents to find value in your community. Self-guided and virtual tours may give your prospects more flexibility when shopping for an apartment. Online leasing and renewals, which may be mandatory when face-to-face contact is limited, may prove to be a great time saver for customers and the staff. • Tackle the future. As companies go through the many phases of change and government regu- lation related to our new normal during this crisis, leaders will need to establish and communicate a timeline to re-evaluate the changes made to their operations and polices put in place to assist resi- dents who have suffered personal loss, job loss and/or financial hardships during this time.

Make sure you take note and communicate ways that your company and your team has gone above and beyond what was required. What has your company learned from this experience that can be used after the pandemic to strengthen the way the company operates going forward? Showing how the company is taking ownership of the situation can inspire confidence and loyalty from both its employees and customers.

A focused plan to maintain and improve engagement and connection with employees and customers during both good and challeng- ing times can reap great benefits. It’s value – priceless.

Source: https://hbr.org/2020/04/ensure-that-yourcustomer-relationships-outlast-coronavirus.

Kathy O’Connell Clem, CPM has over 35 years of property management experience. She works with AAA Staffing, an employment agency servicing the apartment industry nationwide since 1998, providing temporary, temporary-to-perma- nent, and permanent placement services. Clem is also the owner of Vast Resource Coaching and Consulting, providing profes- sional and personal development coaching to individuals and teams and consulting to the property management industry.