As the nation continues to wage a war against COVID-19, multifamily property managers are doubling down on the training of their workers—in all types of situations, including those unrelated to the Coronavirus.
And if research from Grace Hill is any indication, apartment operators are prepared to continue to deal with the pandemic. The firm's 2020 Multifamily Benchmark Report—culled from a survey conducted in July but released now following comparisons with more recent findings—shows that 60% of multifamily property managers and other workers are trained on COVID-19 policies and procedures, while another 25% are reportedly mostly trained (with 'mostly' being more than two-thirds of the way to training completion).
"The industry as a whole reacted very quickly," said Robert Gettys, VP of business development, of the multifamily sector's response to the nation's first COVID-19 outbreak in the Spring. "This is very indicative of an industry where people are serving people 24/7," he tells GlobeSt.com. "Our clients who had the best systems to deploy information to their associates had the best results."
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On another front, when asked about training in general, nine out of 10 survey respondents acknowledged that training is needed to boost retention of processes and procedures, yet 52% of participants feel they don't have "enough hours in the day" to train. Further, nearly one third of respondents said their budget and/or headcount is too meager to meet training goals.
Yet, Gettys noted, those results are not for a lack of trying by multifamily owners and operators. "In the second and third quarter of this year, we saw a 33% increase in training year-over-year, so it's not that companies aren't training, it's that they want to do even more, and to do it more efficiently."
For that, he continued, the keys are commitment and communication. "If I look at the most efficient organizations on training, they commit resources to deliver the training they need," said Gettys.
Further, he added, "The companies that are most effective make their culture a focus of their training. For example, if you're doing training on say, fair housing, explain why it's important for the business. If you convey that it's part of the company's core beliefs, [and not just something to learn for legal purposes], you see that your associates become more engaged with the training."
Gettys concluded that "It becomes more efficient because it's more likely to be adopted. Associates feel empowered when the culture is embedded in the culture."
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