Eight Ways to Improve Staff Efficiency

In an ever-changing sea of resident service, owner communication, government compliance, maintenance and trade contracting, legal response, and insurance management, property management teams are being asked to do more than ever, and with fewer resources.

To circumvent these issues, property management firms are focusing their staff efficiency efforts in these 8 areas:

1. Automating processes
2. Providing training on new technologies
3. Optimizing Rent Manager and leveraging third-party integrations
4. Setting clear expectations
5. Gathering all your data in one place (aka creating a “Single Source of Truth”)
6. Automating tenant communication
7. Fostering open collaboration
8. Monitoring performance

What did the Staff Efficiency Experts at Rent Manager TechConnect have to say?

Earlier this year, Rent Manager hosted a virtual roundtable with industry experts. There, the conversation revolved mainly around staff efficiency. The panel of experts tackled the following trends in the property management industry:

• Maintenance and business development roles are a challenge to fill with committed people.
• Firms are being more strategic to ensure all the work can be completed by in-house employees.
• Employee turnover is higher than ever. There are more short-term employees that move from firm to firm than longer-term employees (those that stay 10 years or more).
• Bosses need to be more strategic, creative, and inspiring.
• After COVID, working from home has become far more normalized. Getting people back in the office is tough, so your workflows need to accommodate remote employees.
• Companies must evolve, and technology needs to scale.
• When staff retire or leave the company, they take knowledge out the door with them; companies need to centralize their data to expedite the transition for the next employee.
• When tackling change and efficiency, take a step back and talk to your team about what the real pain points are, then work together to find solutions.
• Everyone still uses Outlook and Gmail, but the key to efficiency is “getting emails out of your inbox and into Rent Manager as service tickets or History/Notes.” 
• Solve communication gaps.
• Double down on using technology that makes tasks easier for staff.
• Outline the steps required to move forward in an efficient way.

Eight Ways to Improve Staff Efficiency in Your Property Management Firm

Now that we have a firm understanding of current trends in the industry and the roadblocks property managers are encountering, let’s dive into some ways you can help your staff complete their daily tasks more efficiently.

1. Automate processes: Evaluate existing processes and identify areas that can be automated using technology. This can help reduce manual efforts and minimize errors. For example, Aargh Software’s Email2CRM software lets staff turn the emails in their inbox into service tickets and History/Notes for tenants, owners, units, properties, and more.
2. Provide training on new technologies: Regularly provide training on new property management software, tools, and applications to enhance staff proficiency.
3. Optimize Rent Manager: Take advantage of all the timesaving Rent Manager features and optimize your workflows to reduce manual efforts and minimize errors. Use third-party integrations and built-in solutions within Rent Manager to further streamline your workflows.
4. Set clear expectations: Clearly define expectations and key performance indicators (KPIs) for each staff member’s role in managing properties using the latest technological tools. This can help keep everyone focused and working toward a common goal.
5. Centralize your data: This is known as “Single Source of Truth.”
6. Automate tenant communication. For example, Aargh’s Notify!!! software is like a communications assistant that emails residents every step of the way when managing service issues in Rent Manager. If you haven’t already rolled it out to your residents, Rent Manager’s TWA Portal is also a great way to automate communication.
7. Foster open collaboration: Use technology to improve communication and collaboration among team members. This can include using project management software, chat applications, and video conferencing tools to ensure seamless communication. In most cases, your data and collaboration touchpoints will be inside Rent Manager.
8. Monitor performance: Regularly monitor KPIs using Rent Manager’s reporting and analytics capabilities. This can help you identify areas where staff efficiency can be improved.

Conclusion

In a fast-paced industry, adapting to the times is key to long-term success. Although property management companies are being asked to do more than ever, their employee headcount may remain the same. To alleviate some of the stress of taking on more work, leaders of these companies must put an increased focus on creating efficient processes for their staff. Implementing optimized processes, automating routine tasks, and centralizing critical company data are some of the main ways to increase efficiency. Further, utilizing the software at your disposal—like Rent Manager and their growing network of integrated providers—is a surefire way to lessen employee workload.