HOUSTON—Commercial property management firms are facing a generational conundrum: young professionals are simply not joining property management quickly enough to replace retirees. In fact, 60% of those in commercial property management will be at retirement age in the next five years.

“With our workforce significantly changing due to the aging of baby boomers, our focus is significantly changing toward reinventing ourselves for the millennial workforce. With 60% of everyone in our industry reaching retirement age within the next five years, the majority of our workforce in the future will be made up primarily of millennials,” Rob Bridges, executive managing director–asset services, Transwestern, tells GlobeSt.com. “A number of our programs going forward will be designed around the needs of this changing demographic. We are in the process of developing a number of phenomenal programs that will be directed toward our millennial workforce that will differentiate Transwestern in the marketplace.”

While the industry as a whole is offering meaningful incentives for new recruits, Transwestern is on the forefront in those efforts to recruit and retain millennial talent.

“Commercial real estate has traditionally been a strongly regionalized industry. What we're doing now is radically different. We've consolidated our engineering, accounting and compliance groups to work more collaboratively and develop more consistent standards across all geographies,” Bridges tells GlobeSt.com. “We're developing a standardized training platform that will provide comprehensive materials specialized toward specific job functions. In this program, no matter what someone's job title, they will always be on a continuous educational track. As someone progresses within the company, they will move from training track to training track, depending on what skills are needed for that position. All of these things will create more unification in our workforce, more collaboration and a higher level of consistent service for our clients. And all of these elements will play into the hands of what a high-performing millennial workforce wants. We are collectively headed in the right direction to support the needs of the changing workforce ahead of us.”

The company's programs and recruiting efforts include a young professionals group which hosts educational, philanthropic, networking and social events. The goal is for the group to have a mix of professional development, community service and networking events. One of the events that the Transwestern Houston young professionals group held earlier this year included a kickoff with a catered breakfast in the office to outline plans for the year and build excitement.

Other events last year were a Dynamo game where young professionals met at BBVA Compass Stadium to cheer on the Houston Dynamo as they took on the Los Angeles Galaxy. Another event last summer was a deep Gulf fishing outing for red snapper and kingfish.

Another event was an end-of-the-year colleague social to boost networking. Transwestern held an event at Kirby Ice House where each attendee could invite an industry colleague to join and open up the group to countless other brokers, managers and accountants. Young professionals participated in Earth Day service at Centennial Gardens to assist the Hermann Park Conservancy with planting trees, cleaning flowers beds and maintaining the park's gardens.

A communication development seminar is planned for June 20, when young professionals will interact with professional coach Mariam Haddad, who will coach the group on email etiquette, public speaking and interoffice communication.

Transwestern also has a formal mentoring program, where younger employees are teamed up with mentors who help foster and develop the younger generations' initiatives and long-term goals; an emerging leaders council that provides millennial employees a voice and input at the board level, and focuses on initiatives that specifically impact the millennial workforce; and a wellness program, where each office has a dedicated wellness ambassador who coordinates events, educational luncheons and fitness activities.

“Recruiting will look very different in the future than it does today. In the past, because the industry has primarily sought out professionals with experience, the same professionals would move from company to company. In the future, it will be drastically different. There will not be as high a volume of experienced talent in the industry, so we will look to industries we traditionally did not recruit from, such as the military, hospitality and accounting,” Bridges tells GlobeSt.com. “Our interviewing processes will also change. We will look less at skillsets and more at aptitudes, educational background and cultural mix. We will rely more on peer-to-peer interviews and personality tests. With a significant portion of our company working in teams, it is very important for members to be highly collaborative and a good cultural fit. To that end, we will spend more time during the interview process to explain our educational platform and that we work in a more collaborative fashion than we ever have before as an industry–not just in offices, but throughout cities and regions. We're using technology in a manner that we never have before, especially in relation to communication in an effort to make all our team members feel connected at every level. We will host a series of virtual town hall meetings where senior leaders representing technology, human resources, accounting and engineering will give updates on the progress of all our initiatives. Team members will be able to call in questions from the field, where those panelists can answer in real time.”

While the industry as a whole is offering meaningful incentives for new recruits, Transwestern is on the forefront in those efforts to recruit and retain millennial talent.

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