Your #1 investment is your people.
It’s true that people are your #1 investment. But many property managers and companies don’t realize the importance of nurturing that investment. You can continually increase your team’s value by providing an organized and consistent training program.
According to the American Society for Training and Development, 41% of employees at companies with weak or inconsistent training programs plan to leave within a year versus 12% of employees at companies who provide excellent training and professional development programs.
Your investment in the training of your team is tiny compared to the benefits. Some of those are:
- Improved competence, less hassle
- Better sales and closing ratios
- Avoiding legal troubles
- Staff that feels valued and appreciated
- Better retention
- Being able to promote from within the organization
- And more
There are a few new trends that you may want to use to complement your basic training program. Take a look at these four below.
Gamification
Gamification is using game design and principles in a non-game context. A “new” trend is using this type of training in an eLearning environment. Gamification uses:
- People’s natural desires for competition, achievement, and recognition to improve learning
- Eye-catching components to increase participation and improve productivity
- A “nicer” way to track compliance
You can still add gamification to training for your team, even if you don’t want to invest in eLearning programs. Leaderboards, progress charts, and small rewards for milestones reached are just a few ways to apply the gamification trend to your training program.
Personalized Training
Instead of shoving a manual or an online link at your staff and expecting them to slog through it, use a personal approach. If you’re a great trainer and you have time, you can provide this in-house. If not, you can hire a professional training consultant to come in and train your team. Adding that personal touch always works better.
Micro-learning
Using small bites of targeted learning, micro-learning can fit easily into a busy day. Micro-learning is especially effective for reinforcing class information from a previous course. Examples are:
- Short videos
- Quizzes
- Factoids
- Infographics
- Games
Social Activity
Don’t get excited…I’m not suggesting you have your team on Facebook and Twitter all day. Those platforms are not good places for corporate learning. But it’s a well-known fact that learning improves when it includes sharing and communication. So find a way to incorporate a sense of sharing and reinforce teamwork within your training.
An ideal training system is professional, consistent, complete, effective, and engaging. It’s a priority to leadership and they assure that no one is putting their training on a back burner to get their “real” work done. Get rid of the idea that “training” can always be done later. In the property management industry, later never comes!
Show Me the Money
What types of improvements can you expect to see? If you have the right training program, you will see an accelerated rate of apartment application, higher retention rates for your agents and overall improvement on your bottom line. Ask Deb Fox can help you achieve more with your team. With over 30 years of experience and leadership in the industry and a training background for the last 8 years, Debra Fox provides custom training, for your in-house leasing agents and team that will lower your staff turnover and help increase your occupancy rates.
Find out more about the Ask Deb Fox training programs by calling 602-570-7398 or email Dfox@askdebfox.com. I look forward to speaking with you!
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