Can a person’s behavior and values really determine if they will be a future SuperStar for your property management company? If you knew the formula for hiring SuperStars and could cut your recruiting costs in half, would you start today? This article outlines three simple but critical steps for adding structure to your hiring process and raising your level of success.
Strengthening the interview process: Prepare a consistent written interview game plan, to be used by each person conducting the interviewing for your property management company. Prior to the first interview, carefully review each resume looking for any gaps or red flags that need to be resolved in the interview. Then, identify the values and behaviors of the SuperStars currently employed by your company and use this important data to develop your interview questions to probe for these special attributes. Next, prepare a list of questions to be asked by each person in the interview process, as these questions should focus on the key success factors at your property management company. For example, if your company is “performance driven”, then the behaviors or critical success factors you want to listen for must be consistent with these characteristics. Lastly, make sure your interview plan includes how to do effective reference checks.
Tip From The Coach: Remember, the single best predictor of future behavior is past behavior and what people have done is less important than who they are. Be certain to conduct multiple interviews as few people reveal enough about themselves in one session. In addition, spend only 20 percent of the interview talking, so you can spend the rest of the interview listening for behavior and critical success factors.
Recruiting close to home: It takes a special kind of person to thrive in the property management field and the people who do, tend to spend time (personally and professionally) with people like them. So, consider your current employees as your best recruiting source, as they understand the soul and spirit of your property management company. Some of our clients hire 50 percent of all new employees from employee referrals and it makes for very cost effective recruiting.
Tip From The Coach: Consider some form of cash incentive or special award to those who refer new employees to your property management company. Your appreciation will go a long way in helping to find future SuperStars and will enhance team spirit. However, just because a current employee recommends a person, doesn’t change your employment process.
Using powerful assessment tools: In addition to the traditional interview steps, use written assessment(s) to validate your interview process. This kind of tool can be custom-built for your company and will benchmark the behavior and values of your current SuperStars for each key position within your property management company. By using this benchmark you will be able to compare the behavior and values of each new hire to your current SuperStars and numerically be able to compare any variances, before you finalize your hiring decisions.
Tip From The Coach: Once a benchmark has been developed for your company, the accuracy of your hiring will greatly improve. This benchmark will also help to reduce employee turnover, increase morale and solidify your company’s position as a market leader. While there are many types of assessments, it is critical to use validated instruments in your hiring process.
Want to learn more about using assessment tools in the hiring process? Send an E-mail to ernest@powerhour.com and we will send you a two-page behavior and values assessment form which can be completed in ten minutes or less. Complete both pages and fax your assessment forms back to our office at 435-615-8670. In return, you will be confidentially sent an 18 page assessment (a $200 value) outlining your unique leadership and communication styles/values. In addition, once you receive your assessment we will schedule a 45-minute call (a $750 value) to review your results and to explain how this tool will help you hire property management SuperStars. In summary, hiring SuperStars is vital to the success of your company…why not do it right the first time? (A small processing/analysis fee of $25 will be assessed, limit one per company)
Ernest F. Oriente, a business coach since 1995 [30,100 hours], a property management industry professional since 1988--the author of SmartMatch Alliances--and the founder of PowerHour...[www.powerhourseo.com and www.pirmg.com ], has a passion for coaching his clients on executive leadership, hiring and motivating property management SuperStars, traditional and Internet SEO/SEM marketing, competitive sales strategies, and high leverage alliances for property management teams and their leaders. He provides private and group coaching for property management companies around North America, executive recruiting, investment banking, national utility bill auditing national real estate and apartment building insurance, SEO/SEM web strategies, national WiFi solutions, powerful tools for hiring property management SuperStars and building dynamic teams, employee policy manuals and social media strategic solutions. Ernest worked for Motorola, Primedia and is certified in the Xerox sales methodologies. Recent interviews and articles have appeared more than 7000 times in business and trade publications and in a wide variety of leading magazines and newspapers, including Smart Money, Inc., Business 2.0, The New York Times, Fast Company, The LA Times, Fortune, Business Week, Self Employed America and The Financial Times. Since 1995, Ernest has written 200+ articles for the property management industry and created 350+ property management forms, business and marketing checklists, sales letters and presentation tools. To subscribe to his free property management newsletter go to: www.powerhour.com. PowerHour® is based in Olympic-town…Park City, Utah, at 435-615-8486, by E-mail ernest@powerhour.com or visit their website: www.powerhour.com