Loving Work. How do you motivate employees to do more than just punch in?

In my last post I recalled a recent less-than-stellar leasing experience, “the young lady and her orange slices”. While I realize that eating at your desk is a common and many times unavoidable experience, your employer and your potential client are asking more of you. But what is the culture that creates an orange slice girl? How do employees become complacent, dispassionate, lazy? Did they start out that way, or did we break them?

How do employees see the love? Action tells a team member much more than empty words. So many management companies try to push and prod their leasing teams to do more, close more, sell higher, renew constantly – but when the team does this, that and the other thing they see no reflection of that in their pay. Why? Greed? A psychological misunderstanding of people’s innate profit motive? I don’t know, but something is clearly wrong. When a property succeeds, so should the employees. When goals are met, bonuses should be paid. When new heights are reached, your on-site teams should feel that.  A simple thank you is nice, but where is the love?

When they don’t get more than a pat on the back, but still hear the same pleadings from management, they stop caring. They start thinking about “the man”. They ask, “what’s in it for me?” They stop helping you grow and succeed. And just like that, we have ruined another promising multifamily professional. They give us two weeks notice, work for two days of it and get a job working at the counter for an airline. And promptly join the union.

Ahh, unions. I have never been so proud of the state of Wisconsin. I have often scratched my head at the whole point of unions. Sure, I understand that back during the 20’s when we had shirt waist factories bursting into flames with locks on the windows that somebody had to stand up for the rights of workers. But lets be real, this is the United States, not China. We have safety everything and secure everywhere. Despite Kathie Lee Gifford’s best efforts, we have no sweat shops here. My apartments all have eye wash stations in the maintenance shops, as if that was a more reasonable solution to a potential problem than wearing goggles or, maybe, just being careful with the chlorine.

But unions do, on the rare occasion, have a point. If an employer merely looks at the bottom line, with no reflection on how or who got them there, it is easy to suppress the urge to up a salary, pay a bonus or offer some sort of financial incentive. But that is short-sighted. If you take good care of your people, they take good care of you.

Commissions and bonus’ should reflect the true worth of a talented leasing professional. The number of management companies I have consulted with or trained who did not have a commission and bonus structure in place for their leasing teams, read SALES TEAMS, is dumbfounding. These are the same companies that place ads stressing sales experience, poise, professionalism, follow-up skills, and the ability to close. All of those things indicate a sales professional. Guess what, sales professionals expect to be paid like sales professionals, not like clerks.

Financial rewards are great, but how does the professional feel they are valued at your company? Do you promote from within? Do you provide great training, fun team-building, special celebrations? While the obvious financial incentive programs are necessary and effective, it is much more than that. Retaining employees, inspiring them to reach new heights for you and for their career, and maximizing their potential in your organization require more than just good pay. You should be analyzing your culture. How do employees feel when they work at your facilities? Do they enjoy coming in, or do you have clockwatchers who find every excuse to check the time on their cell phone? Improving the work environment is necessary to motivate and appreciate your team. How can you make your company a great place to work?

Fortunes Most Admired Companies usually share a few key traits. Employees have fun. They feel valued by their employers.  They are often paid well, but rarely extravagantly. And they almost never have any union activity. The employees of a well-run, appreciative company with management that truly understands how they got there and who keeps them in business doesn’t need  a union. It’s got love.

Christopher Higgins is The Apartment Guy, an industry educator and owner of multifamily assets in 6 states and two Canadian provinces. His 20 years of industry experience is the source of numerous seminars and articles on the business of succeeding in apartment management and marketing. For more, visit www.theapartmentguy.net.