Over the past nineteen years of working in the residential property management industry, I have had the opportunity to work with many different residents, vendors, owners, and coworkers. Throughout my journey in property management, I have been involved in a lot of very productive inter-office communication, as well as some dialogues that have been less than productive. When communication inside a property management office flows well with positive and productive undertones, the result is a high level of organization and efficiency. Poor communication dialogues in the office will result in a loss of efficiency, a higher level of employee turnover, as well as other negative consequences.
I have been fortunate in that I have worked with multiple family members inside our office, as well as some friends of our family. We have also had some employees that have been hired externally, but our communication tactics have remained fairly consistent among all of our employees over the years. I like to think of this strategy as ‘family style communication’, as it resembles the way we might interact with various members of a family unit. I don’t wish to assume that all families communicate with each other in the same way, but I refer generally to a feel of communication that is based on openness and support. My attempt to follow these few simple strategies of inter-office communication have yielded positive results for our company over the years, and using some or all of them regularly in your office may be beneficial for your company as well.
- Say what needs to be said: This means that I try to foster an environment in our office where employers and employees both work in an environment that allows workers to communicate with each other in an honest, open manner without immediate fear of retribution or judgment. It is important for workers in a property management office to be able to say anything that is needed regarding their job duties and not feel like they need to hold things back. If an employer isn’t able to talk to an employee about something important and ends up refraining from the dialogue and holds it in, it can lead to an increase in animosity towards that person, or a desire for the employee to do things differently and will build up over time. On the other side of that, if employees feel that they can’t openly communicate with their employer, they will start to hold more things back or begin to just do things the way they see fit rather than following protocol. I find that, generally speaking, people inside a family unit are often comfortable enough with each other where they feel like they can speak openly.
- Support each other: I make the suggestion here to actively use language that isn’t based on blame or a ‘pass the buck’ mentality. Everyone is going to
- make a mistake from time to time and the communication that occurs immediately following the mistake or inconsistency is very important. Employees don’t want to hear their boss blame them for a problem when talking to a tenant or client following a mistake or inconsistency, and need to feel supported by their employer when working through a problem. Up-training can occur after the issue is resolved in an appropriate setting. That said, when an employer operates outside of established procedure, makes a judgment call or otherwise frustrates one of their employees, it is important for the employee to be supportive of their employer and communicate openly how the decision affects their job and that they have valuable input on the issue. Again, a ‘family-style’ feel for inter-office communication is extremely helpful working through problems and fosters a feeling of comfort where productive dialogue can exist.
- Stick to the plan: I think that it is safe to say that, however your property management company is structured, employees generally have an established set of tasks and job duties that they spend most of their time working through. Having well defined roles and job descriptions is very helpful in making a property management office run smoothly and efficiently. We all know that with the passage of time things change, processes are updated, employees come and go, and job descriptions change over time. In my experience, it is highly beneficial when all employees and employers inside the office pretty much stick to the plan, and mainly do what their coworkers expect them to do. When one employee (or employer) starts changing policies or procedures without making a ‘new plan’, it can lead to frustration, confusion, and a drop in efficiency. People generally don’t like it when they expect something to be done a certain way, and all of the sudden they are thrown a curve ball and normal procedures are suddenly different. It is the employers responsibility to make productive changes to processes and procedures in an organized and planned out manner that recognizes the current workflow and expectations of employees.
- Find something else to talk about: Let’s face it – we spend a lot of time during the work day interacting with our coworkers. If all we talk about is our job all day every day, it has a tendency to become stale and too repetitive. In a family setting, it is always nice when talking to your significant other, children, or extended family to find new and interesting things to talk about. Interpersonal relationships flourish when discourse is kept somewhat fresh and new. It is a significant part of the maintenance portion of having a relationship with someone you spend a good amount of time with. Even if you have a coworker that isn’t your favorite person, it is easy enough to come up with something new to talk about with them even if it is only once or twice a week. When you make an active effort to talk to someone about a topic that they might find interesting, the result is often a welcoming response and hopefully a conversation about something other than work. This also prevents employers and employees feeling like they are just a part of the property management business, and are valued as a person as well.
You might find one of these strategies more beneficial than others, but throughout my years of experience in our office I have found all of them to be beneficial based on individual contexts and situations. In today’s growing rental market, with so many changes in technology and tenant/owner expectations, we have found that maintaining a high level of efficiency in our office is an absolute requirement for us in order to provide a top level of service for our customers. All of these inter-office communication strategies are intended to foster a positive and efficient atmosphere for production in the office, and I hope that you will find them to be useful for your own relationships.
- Andrew Johnson RMP®
- Johnson Property Management, LLC