Company Culture

09/092016

The Disruption of the Multifamily Workplace

There is a certain disruption occurring in the workforce today with the prevalence of social media and the ability for a single person to reach a vast audience through various platforms in a relatively short amount of time. Employees are able to post, snap, tweet and share their thoughts, opinions, and experiences regarding their employers instantly, which can have a major positive or negative impact on the reputation of their employer.

Kim Peters, CEO of Great Rated! states, “Some people think that you can create a brand in the market that is independent of what your actual employees think – but that isn’t true. Social media has made the internal workings of any company very transparent – we are in an age of “naked” corporations” (Frauenheim 2014).

This culture of information-sharing has changed the way management companies must operate, both for their residents and their employees. This vast world of instant updates has also created incredible opportunity for management companies, individual properties, and employees to share with the world what makes them stand out within the Multifamily Industry and create a powerful Employer Brand that will then attract top talent and great residents.

Employer brand is the image of an organization as a ‘great place to work’ in the mind of current employees and key stakeholders in the external market. Brands are among a firm’s most valuable assets and as a result brand management is a key activity in many organizations. (Vijayalakshmi 2016). Branding strategies, if used effectively, can dramatically increase the quality of the pool of candidates applying for positions within a firm and it can also create greater employee engagement and loyalty, thus creating higher retention rates, lower turnover and an improved resident experience.

While there are myriad ways to create a unique employer brand, the strategies employed must be executed in a manner that is consistent with the company vision, values, and mission statement. It goes far beyond having a ping pong table in the lobby or allowing employees to bring their dogs to work. Those are great perks, but do not have a lasting impact on employee engagement if the central brand of the company is not consistent with the long-term vision of the organization.

In order to create an effective and positive employer brand, there are certain factors that need to be thoughtfully considered.

Examine and determine exactly what makes your company great.
Define what characteristics are preferable in the type of employees you currently have.
Get clear on the talent you are looking to attract.

Use those qualities and characteristics to shape the reputation of the brand and get the attention of job seekers that fit the description. In some cases, upon examining the quality of the existing workforce, it becomes apparent that there are some employees who are not only not engaged, but actively disengaged and would be better suited in either a different position or with a different company. It is crucial to address these issues in order to create the best culture within your company.

We need to understand our environment and adapt and change with the abandonment of certain habits and routines. And in some cases, people. We need to be confident making personnel changes that allow the company to flourish and grow” – Patrick Antrim, CEO of Multifamily Leadership

Remember, one of the biggest indicators of a successful employer brand will come straight from the employees within the company. According to the research from Best Places to Work Multifamily program, employees at the companies bearing this prestigious designation are proud of the company they work for and state that they are willing to give extra effort to help the organization succeed. Those indicators are the most powerful employer branding tools that can be utilized through traditional advertising, social media posts, and even word of mouth referrals. If you want to know if it’s a great place to work, you ask the people that work there. These happy employees will carry your brand in a positive light to their own personal networks as well. And once you’ve created an employer brand that is unique and has high-impact within the industry, the quality of your employees and residents will dramatically increase.

Leaders looking to understand what best in class organizations are doing to inspire and engage their teams are invited to attend the Multifamily Leadership Summit.

References
Antrim, P. (2016, June 15). Cutting Back for Business Growth – TalentCulture. Retrieved September 09, 2016, from http://www.talentculture.com/cutting-back-for-business-growth/

Frauenheim, E. (2014, June 30). The Great Rated!™ Interview: Kim Peters on Employer Brand – TalentCulture. Retrieved September 09, 2016, from http://www.talentculture.com/hed-the-great-rated-interview-kim-peters-on-employer-brand/

Vijayalakshmi, V., and K. UTHAYASURIYAN. “The Impact of Employer Branding on Employee Performance.” Indian Journal of Applied Research 5.8 (2016).

07/282015

Multifamily Culture as a Competitive Advantage

Company Culture, Leadership by Multifamily Leadership

A high-performing culture starts with a culture of learning and development. I know what you are thinking: culture is complex.

I am speaking of high-performing results.

A company that sets out to entice employees with flexibility, comfort, beverage bars and all that we have seen in new culture practices will struggle for long-term success. Be prepared to feed this type of culture some cash.

I believe culture is an outcome and, by the end of this article, I will show you where to start the process. But before we get into where to start, I would like to talk to you about performance.

A great culture is an outcome of the performance you create. Some culture requires companies to change and sometimes culture means that very little changes.

Don’t get me wrong. I believe talent acquisition and rewards to be an investment in our business. I also believe that with the right environment, people will grow and reach their full potential. Employees who reach their full potential have a better chance of fulfillment.

Love So Much That You Delay Gratification

I have two boys who are a constant source of delight in my life. Their curiosity inspires me to become more every day. I love them and have a long-term view on how they develop. I can spend my time trying to please them with gifts and comforts or I can prepare them to create lasting joy. The type of joy that will allow them to get through most of the many challenges youth experience today.

Preparing them for success is most likely the best way for me to create happy children. The more I try and make them happy, the more they become dependent on external things, less prepared and frustrated.

Most people want to succeed. Help them do that and happiness will be the outcome. When people are happy, they engage.

Every Company Has a Culture

As much as we try and create culture, the bottom line comes down to how we reward people, what we allow to creep in and what we tolerate in our corporate offices and onsite properties.

I believe people want to work on winning teams. I bet you want to be on a winning team. From my perspective, the best way to create a winning culture, a culture that creates a competitive advantage, is to win. Win for your three customers. Win for your property owners, employees and residents. The path to winning is preparing and developing people to reach their full potential.

Where Do We Start?

Confidence. How do you feel when you are winning? More motivated to take on bigger challenges? More confident? More secure? The more confident we become as a result of high performance, the more innovation we bring our teams. Think about that.

Less confident people will hold back solutions, feedback and candor because they don’t want to rock the boat.

When we build confidence in others we increase our chances of success. When you have a culture of learning within your organization, you create more confident employees as a result of continual learning. People feel more prepared and therefore take on more challenges.

How Do We Create Confidence?

At our leadership summit, our keynote speaker, Patrick Morin, simplified his years of research on confidence. Morin said, “Confidence comes from one of two things. Having a plan or having results.”

If having a plan or having results creates confidence, why do so many become reckless? When people follow their plan and begin to produce results, their confidence increases. Where things get scary is when they produce a high outcome of results over a period of time and begin to neglect the plan.

You see this in companies that have long-term employees who have become overly confident because they have completed a certain level of tasks over and over. Their results are high, and their confidence is high. The trouble is they become overconfident as they neglect their plan.

Airline Pilots Stick to the Plan

They follow their plan, and the checklists keep them focused on the plan as a requirement. In this case, you have a high focus on the plan and high results, which translates into a great performance.

When organizations create a culture of learning they can create high-performing outcomes by allowing people to continue to learn. A culture of learning becomes a culture of accountability, which leads to a culture of responsibility. The outcome is a culture of performance and a culture as a competitive advantage.

I would love to hear from you. What ways are you building confidence with your teams?

About the Author: Patrick Antrim leverages a deep insight in leadership to inspire high-impact results. He is an author, speaker, entrepreneur and producer of the Multifamily Leadership Summit, and his leadership & coaching firm, Multifamily Leadership, LLC , is focused on preparing Multifamily Leaders for the FUTURE of WORK.

07/282015

Building Legendary Teams

Company Culture, Leadership, Multifamily Leadership Summit by Multifamily Leadership

Leadership. A single word that carries many different beliefs. It’s intimidating for some and a journey for others. Another word that comes to mind is success. Next time you have a meeting, ask each person what success means to them. See how many different answers you receive. It’s no wonder companies zig zag on issues. A strong leader will define success and share the vision with a common goal, define roles and responsibilities, and communicate with the teams.

In baseball it goes like this. The common goal is winning the World Series. Each player clearly understands their role on the team. Pitchers don’t practice hitting, they practice pitching. Spring training is about getting the communication and chemistry right.

When we look at companies and sports teams that are remembered as Legendary Teams, you will find one common characteristic among them, performance. The companies with the best people have the power to attract loyal customers and top employees. In some cases, people are your product. In the business of sports, people are why 50,000 people show up to watch a game of baseball. It’s the people, the players, the talent, their performance.

Results are outcomes, focus on performance

Great results are outcomes of great practice and preparation. Shareholder returns, a great customer experience, and the candidate experience are all outcomes. If you want better outcomes, focus on the internal strategies that drive results, people and performance. You’ve heard leaders say “People are our most important asset.” So why do businesses spend billions of dollars each year advertising to drive shareholder returns, customer experiences? It’s because most will focus on the results and not the internal strategies that create them.

All businesses have 3 customers – Shareholders, Teams, and Consumers

I believe the employee customer (team) is the single most important customer to understand. This is why attracting the top people is so important to your business. When companies get this right, they get it all. In other words, if you have the right employees and they are reaching their potential; the consumers are getting the experience they desire. This leads consumers to enjoy your company and tell their friends about your wonderful company.

When companies get aligned from the inside out, the owners get the best possible returns. How well do you think leaders understand their people? I bet you would agree that leaders can get caught up in chasing results, shareholder returns. If people are the company’s most important asset, this should be a focus. Results are outcomes. Just like sports teams. It’s all about the teams, that’s how they win games. The employees should be your most important customer and if you invest in them, you will improve your consumer experience and drive financial results to your shareholders. Everyone wins. The employee, shareholders and consumers.

Top talent is a result, not an acquisition

Getting top talent is not about acquisition or the pursuit of top people. It’s about becoming a great leader yourself and making your team better. Top talent is something you attract by the company you become. As a result, your company wins and people will want to be a part of that. The best people have choices. When they understand what you are about, how you lead and where you are going; you will have the best people available to you.

Get Clear

Get clear about the people you need. Think about what people like that would want in a company or leader, and become that. Simple as that. Top talent is an outcome of who you become as a business unit, team or company. When you become more, you are now attractive to the people you desire.

Focus on experience with team development

Baseball teams provide experience based learning in controlled environments. It’s okay to fail. In fact, it advances success when we do. We call it the minor leagues in pro baseball. And like the Yankees, we like 2,000 plate appearances before you reach the big leagues. If you ask Malcolm Gladwell, he says 10,000 hours. Either way, they take development very seriously. In the minor leagues, player development is important and winning comes second. Confidence comes after competence. We get competent by taking risk and learning through experience. As a result, we get confident.

Now that we understand that results are outcomes of great performance, shifting to a performance focus will allow us to create better results. As Ken Blanchard said, “You can’t hit the ball with your eye on the scoreboard.” When our teams are reaching their potential, we become a better company and more attractive to outside talent.

photo credit: Werner Kunz via photopin cc