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New Recruits Bring Transferable Skills

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Some highly skilled potential employees are nowavailable with talents the apartment industry wants.

As many apartment industry firms decry the dearthof good job candidates, several have turned their eyes

to other industries that recently incurred layoffs. The retail, foodservice, hospitality and mortgage industries offer prime recruitswho are driven to close sales, trained in customer service andhave an eye for detail.

Searching for a SellerUDR has turned to the mortgage industry, especially in Cali-

fornia, because mortgage sellers arehighly motivated by compensation, dri-ven to close deals and have a good han-dle on sales strategies, says Jerry Davis,Senior Vice President of Property Opera-tions for the Colorado-based REIT.

For example, if a leasing professionalwants to sell extras such as an apartmentwith a top-floor view premium or onethat comes with the use of a free large-screen HDTV, the commission becomeshigher, Davis says. Some might say thoseupgrades are too difficult to sell because,for example, the resident might alreadyown a TV, “but good sales people find away to sell them,” Davis says, “and sothey earn more compensation.” Andcompensation is what motivated salesemployees are after.

At Mercy Housing in Atlanta, retail,food service and hospitality employeeshave brought skills applicable to theapartment industry. Susan Sherfield,CPM, Regional Education Director forMercy Housing, which develops and man-ages affordable housing, explains thatapartment communities need people who

can bill an order and make customers feel welcome, so arestaurant hostess or hotel front desk clerk who specializes incustomer service would be an asset.

The hospitality and retail industries have proven to be riperesources for high-quality employees at UDR as well, becausethose employees bring with them the right set of customerservice and sales skills. “The hospitality industry has toreload their vacancies every couple of days,” Davis notes,“constantly having to sell and gain repeat business.” Forthat reason, hospitality and retail employees practice andhone their selling techniques day in and day out.

“Desk clerks, group sales people orconcierges figure out how to make peo-ple happy and go that extra mile to doso,” Davis says, and those are skills thatonsite community staff need.

Employees from the hospitalityindustry also have an eye for “the littlethings that make the difference,” a traitthat can well-serve an apartment com-munity, Davis says. For example, UDRhas started offering towels in its fitnesscenters. The company used to believethat residents would steal the towels,but under the influence of hospitalityindustry employees, the company hasfound that towels that boast the proper-ty’s monogram are generally not stolenand come at minimal cost, he says.

Southern Management, a Vienna,Va.-based property manager with 25,000apartments in the Mid-Atlantic, has notfound “any one niche that is perfect”for apartment candidates, says OliviaHunter, Recruitment Manager. Some-one in hospitality or retail who maywant a change in hours could be agood addition to site staff, but so could

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Some apartment companies look to other industries for prime employees who are driven to close

sales, trained on how to provide excellent customer service and have a sharp eye for detail.

BY RACHEL F. GOLDBERG

“You never knowwhere you will run intosomeone who willbe accommodating,efficient and effectivein their work, whichis more significantthan the kind of workthey are beingeffective in.”

Susan Sherfield, CPMRegional Education Director, Mercy Housing,Atlanta, Ga.

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I mplementing behavioral interviewing techniques during

the hiring process can greatlyincrease the chances of asuccessful hire, whether or notthe candidate has previousrelated experience.

Behavioral interviewing’spremise is that a person’s behav-ior does not fundamentallychange over time. How they haveresponded in certain situations inthe past is a good indicator forhow they will perform in similarsituations in the future.

The first step in developingbehavioral interviewing questionsis to determine core competen-cies needed to perform the posi-tion the manager is recruiting for.Competencies include a combi-nation of behaviors, knowledge,skills and abilities and job-relatedexperiences.

While a job descriptionincludes specific skills that arerequired to accomplish certaintasks, such competenciesdescribe how the individual goesabout performing the work.

For example, a core competen-cy for a property manager positionmay be “consistent leadership,”whereas that competency wouldnot be necessary or as importantfor a leasing consultant position. Acompetency for a leasing consul-tant position might be “action ori-entation.” Each competency

should be clearly defined andinclude observable behaviors that,when performed effectively, mayindicate acceptable performance.

Next, the manager should deter-mine which competencies are mostimportant and develop questionsthat will draw detailed responsesfrom the candidate to determine ifthe candidate has the desiredcharacteristics. Questions shouldbe open ended, and typically startwith a phrase such as, “Give me anexample of…” or “Tell me about atime…”, and usually have severalfollow-up questions to elicit moreresponse from the candidate.

A follow-up question could beas simple as, “What happened?”or “Tell me more about that.” Theinterviewer wants to understandthe impact or end result of the situ-ation the candidate is describing.

The S-B-I ModelOne way to prepare for and

conduct the interview is to use athree-step process sometimescalled the S-B-I Model, whichstands for Situation-Behavior-Impact. The Center for CreativeLeadership created the S-B-Imodel, which is used as a tool forgiving and receiving feedback,but is also an effective frameworkfor behavioral interviewing ques-tions. For example, if persever-ance is a key competency for aleasing consultant position, the

manager may want to determinehow effective the candidates areat overcoming objections andclosing the sale.

Even if candidates don’t haveprevious leasing or sales experi-ence, they may have relatedwork and life experiences wherethey have had to exhibit perse-verance. An example of a behav-ioral interviewing question for thiscompetency using S-B-I may be:“Tell me about a time when youpersuaded someone to seeanother point of view. What wasthe situation? How did yourespond (behavior) and what wasthe outcome (impact)?”

To fairly and accurately assesscandidates’ interview perfor-mances, organizations shouldestablish an interview rating sys-tem and each interviewer shouldrate the candidate’s capability forthe core competencies based onthe interview. Next, interviewersshould discuss their findings andcompare their ratings.

The process of preparing forthis discussion will help the inter-viewers to be more disciplinedand objective in their assess-ments, as they will have to explainthe reasons for their ratings.

Behavior-Based InterviewingCompetency-based questions can help managers decide whether candidates

from outside the apartment industry will thrive.

BY JULIE BLAIKIE

Julie Blaikie is EquityResidential’s Organization& Talent DevelopmentDirector.

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anyone ready fora sales position,she says.

For mainte-nance or custodialpositions, Huntersays she looks attrade schools,auto mechanics,the Job Corps,hotel mainte-nance and self-employedtechnicians.

Hunter addsthat SouthernManagement hasa strong trainingprogram, “sowherever we findpeople with theright motivation,

outlook and attitude, we can train them to work for ourcompany.”

Training for Old and NewThe strengths of mortgage, retail, food service and hospitality

employees come to the fore when the economy is down, compe-tition is fierce and rents stagnate. Waiting lists for availableapartments have disappeared, Davis says, and the competitionto hold the price and gain market share is intense.

As competition has increased, closing leases has becomemore important, especially in California, the UDR executivesays. Apartment companies are clearly focusing on employeeswho can make a sale and on creating commission or compen-sation packages that motivate them. But because companiesare looking outside the apartment industry, training new hiresis key.

UDR is tweaking its training program to focus on sales andservice techniques, Davis says. This modification should helpsales employees at UDR catch up to any newer employees whobring stronger sales backgrounds.

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FYISee the April 2009 issue of units magazine for

“Corps Competency,” which details how NAA

Education Institute partnered with a technical

school in South Carolina to help develop trained

maintenance technicians. Contact NAA’s

Jeffrey Lee at jeffreylee@naahq.org for details.

“Desk clerks, groupsales people orconcierges are usedto finding ways tomake people happyand going that extramile to do so.”

Jerry DavisSenior Vice President ofProperty Operations UDRHighlands Ranch, Colo.

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Mercy Housing’straining programhas to take a differ-ent approach. As anon-profit company,staff knowledge ofcompliance withdifferent govern-ment programs is amust. “Some peoplewho may have abackground inconventional prop-erty managementmay have a hardtime learning thenuances of afford-able housing,”

Sherfield says. To address this, the company supports longer train-ing periods for new hires.

Training is particularly important for onsite staff, Sherfieldsays. Even if they come with customer service skills, employeesfrom other industries still need to learn about apartments. Sup-port roles such as accounting and IT, on the other hand, “canbe filled from any industry because the skills are more consis-tent from field to field,” she says.

A good training program can prepare an employee for his orher apartment career if the employee has a healthy attitude, will-ingness to learn, flexibility and an openness to try new things.The “attitude factors” are most important, Sherfield explains.

Whether employees previously sold mortgages, cars, food orhotel services, “the biggest thing for me has always been toalways be looking,” Sherfield says. “You never know where youwill run into someone who will be accommodating, efficientand effective in their work, which is more significant than thekind of work they are being effective in.”

Rachel F. Goldberg is a freelance writer in Alexandria, Va.

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“Wherever we findpeople with the rightmotivation, outlookand attitude, we cantrain them for ourcompany.”

Olivia HunterRecruitment ManagerSouthern Management,Vienna, Va.

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