Management of any property requires a varying degree of resources and skills.  Materials, capital, and personnel are required for everything from ordering supplies to the complete overseeing of a community association. Above all resources, human resources, are typically considered the  most important asset of any business or company, and managing those living  resources is an art, a science, and a very necessary skill set.  

 People Power

“Human resources is a department within a corporation that handles employees,  concerns, insurance and benefits,” says Martin H. Laderman, CPM candidate and president of the New Jersey-based MEM Property Management. “The term 'human resources' is not synonymous with association management —it’s synonymous with corporations or a business that has 30 or 40 employees. The  problem with management companies who have human resource departments is that  the managers, the president, the vice president are not in touch with their  employees, because that’s delegated to human resources—so they are separating themselves from the employee’s complaints or questions.”  

 “In association management , there’s an internal way of looking at human resources and an external way,” says Joseph Balzamo, president of Alliance Property Management in Morristown, New Jersey. “For a small firm, a human resources director wears many hats,” agrees Brian Weaver, vice president of Wilkin Management Group in Mahwah, New Jersey. “For a larger firm, it’s a full-time job. A lot depends on the quality of the director. Human resources  will take care of things like payroll or internal conflicts. It depends on the  size and culture of the company.”  

Value Your People

 Well-trained, motivated employees enhance the appeal and ambiance of a property,  adding to both the real and perceived value. Who does the hiring, the training,  and the evaluations may vary between properties, but generally speaking, the  board of directors and the association management company will work together to achieve the best results.  When an effective system is in place and working well, the board will  communicate their expectations for staff performance to the association manager,  and the manager will then develop and enforce the policies, and be held  accountable to the board. The manager will generally act in an advisory  capacity, before, during, and after new staff is brought on board, while the  actual hiring of new employees is usually a board function.  

 “An association’s board should have a minimal role in managing staff. Sometimes boards get  involved in managing the employees or vendors by default because the property  managers aren’t doing it,” says Laderman. “But that’s what they pay us to do. They are volunteers getting paid zero, and that is not  their job. If we are not doing it, then they’ll step in and get involved.”  

 “The role of a board or association is to provide direction to the property  managers,” adds Weaver. “I would hate to see a board or building involved in managing the staff. That’s not their job, that’s the responsibility of the association manager. I don’t want to see a board disengaged from the process but I don’t want them taking on the role of association manager.”  

 Experts agree that it is all but certain that a board or one of its members will  provide some direction to the staff. An example would be simply informing the  staff of something they see in the building that needs attention. The  management company should embrace this type of interaction between the board  and the staff. But major matters such as communicating policies and procedures,  providing feedback on job performance or discipline needs to be a joint effort  between the board and the management company.  

Keep it Simple

 Balzamo utilizes a web-based program designed to ensure consistent customer  service. His goal is to provide each company associate with the needed tools to  deliver solutions for each client property. “Our website is set up to take requests,” he says. “We also have online banking on the website that gives people the ease of setting  up their pay schedules or paying online There’s also a place on the website for the association to store their documents like  annual reports or meeting minutes. But more and more associations are becoming  wary about putting too much information online these days.”  

 “In this business, we don’t have a warehouse full of widgets. We don’t have a product. We are the product, so customer service is the most important  thing,” says Laderman. “Without customer service, the inexperienced or inattentive manager does not  listen to the resident, who is the customer. The way you speak to vendors is  not the same way you speak to unit owners.”  

Avoid Common Mistakes

Laderman, who has been actively involved in residential real estate property  management for nearly 35 years, has seen new association managers make many  mistakes. “We can speak about association managers who don’t have experience dealing with landscapers and snow removal,” says Laderman, “But the second part of that answer is the inexperienced association manager thinks  he or she should wear all the hats, when they really have to delegate and rely  on other professionals. So you get an association manager who thinks they should  know everything about everything, and it’s impossible.”  

 “I think the most common mistake new association managers make is that they don’t understand how everything is interconnected,” adds Balzamo. “For example, if you’re going to work on a sewer line, and that work involves taking out the house  trap, the upstairs residents may not be able to flush their toilets. You have  to be mindful of all the pieces, especially when it comes to facilitating work,” he says.  

 “A big mistake association managers make is not reaching out to their supervisors  when they should,” claims Weaver. “They don’t do it to prove they’ve got everything under control. In our firm the transition phase is pretty  lengthy; it could take six months, and we have a lot of backup and resources  available to that manager.”  

 Education and training for managers is available from a number of sources.  Laderman stresses the value of peer learning, mentoring and roundtable  discussions with industry experts. “You get your experience doing the actual work and a lot of it depends on who you  are working under,” he says. “It’s important for those looking to gain experience to work for the right company  and to have the attitude of a customer service-friendly person. If you have  that friendly, appealing, trying-to-want-to-help attitude, that goes a long way  and that can’t be taught.”  

 “There are different schools of thought on where managers should get their  experience,” adds Balzamo. “Some would say that classroom experiences and certifications are really what are  necessary for managing a property; I’d personally like to see some state licensing, but that hasn’t happened yet. You really need to put that book knowledge to work. There are  also internships. Practical work experience is helpful.”  

Resources Available

 For education, networking within the association management arena, and leadership  training, The Nevada Cooperator—as well as the The Cooperator Expo Las Vegas trade show—are terrific places to start. A complete, searchable archive of Cooperator articles can be accessed at www.nevadacooperator.com, and more information on the Expo can be found at www.lv-expo.com. Industry experts also recommend the Nevada chapter of Community Associations Institute (CAI) and the Institute of  Real Estate Management (IREM), which has two chapters in Las Vegas and Reno. 

 Overall managing human resources is about providing excellent service, working  as a team, sharing successes, failures, and training to continually improve  performance—and of course, having a dose of humor never hurts. Humor and recognition for a job well done are both excellent teachers and motivators, and the best managers know that. When individuals learn to work  together as a group, and/or a team, cohesiveness is often experienced as a  result of mutual positive attitudes.  

 Experts agree that in the end, the only thing that matters is what should be  done for the greater good of the property and doing whatever is necessary to  get the job done.  

Staff writer Christy Smith-Sloman contributed to this article.