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Home Insider Blogs Brent Williams's Blog Should Our On-Site Employees Really Be “Jack of all Trades”?
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Dec 13
2011

Should Our On-Site Employees Really Be “Jack of all Trades”?

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Posted by: Brent Williams on Dec 13, 2011 15:07

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I hear the “Jack of all Trades” job description a lot regarding our on-site teams, that everybody chips in and works to get the job done.  For many, it is almost a badge of honor to be a Jack of all Trades, as it implies that you can handle anything they throw at you.  And in that respect, I totally agree!  But I also believe it is the model of inefficiency.

First of all, I want to be clear that this isn’t a discussion on whether people should step up when the job needs to be done.  For example, if all the leasing consultants are out of the office or otherwise busy, I firmly believe that the community manager has to be ready to take that next prospect on a property tour.  Every person needs to be able to rise to the occasion in order to get the job done.  However, there is a difference between every person doing every job, and every person having a specific job but able to lend a hand when it is needed.

Let’s look at leasing consultants specifically.  A leasing consultant has a wide variety of job functions, from leasing, to customer service, to administrative duties, such as preparing a lease.  Sales, customer service, and administrative work are all very different, and often one personality type is rarely fantastic at all three.  Years ago when I called the community office home, I can say that I was great at customer service and administrative work, but only average at leasing apartments.  But even though I was only average at sales, and my co-leasing consultant was much better than I was, we traded off handling prospects.  This clearly was not the best use of our resources!

Ideally, I would have taken over more of the lease paperwork duties, and she would have handled more of the prospects.  Our closing rate would have gone up and our paperwork would have been cleaner.  Like I said before, this does not mean that if two prospects showed up, I would just sit there and make them wait – I would jump up and get the job done!  But my primary job responsibility would be handled differently on a day to day basis.

Even today, MFI is a small team, and we are not nearly as efficient as we could be because we are scattered in so many different directions.  If we could be more specialized, we would be much more effective and productive! 

What are your thoughts?  Do you think that having everybody as a “Jack of all Trades” hurts or helps efficiency? 


Comments (5)Add Comment
3031
written by Debbie Mauro, December 20, 2011
Brent,

I agree. My thoughts go to an assembly line. Could you imagine trying to get a car built with people going back and forth, starting and stopping? Leasing is sales, hire a salesperson. Find an admin that enjoys having the docments accurate and complete.
8727
written by Michelle Finney, December 20, 2011
I agree. I am an Assistant Community Manager and all of us in the office take turns leasing, even the Community Manager, because we are all good at it. Conversly, I am really good with paperwork and they aren't. I love doing it, so I'm happy to do it all!smilies/grin.gif
62
written by Brent Williams, December 20, 2011
Thanks Debbie and Michelle!
0
written by Jessica Tinker, December 30, 2011
Can I agree AND disagree? If you don't know, my last name essentially means "a Jack of All Trades", however, the rest of, which most people forget, is "but Master of None." It can be inefficient for larger properties of 125+ units to have one person doing more than 2 jobs...but I've seen what happens when the left hand (Manager) doesn't know How to do what the right hand (leasing agent) is doing. I've also seen when a great sales person can only go so far in the leasing process, and then hands it off to another person - this can make the prospective tenant uneasy, uncomfortable or devalued. You want to ensure that your Leasing Staff can go the distance with each prospect, from greeting them, to showing the unit, filling out the application, processing, and then actually sitting down and Signing the Contract. When you do that, you increase not only your Customer Service, you also add value to the relationship. And, it can help cut costs. Think about how much simpler it would be to have one person dedicated to all those "jobs"; yes, some things would still have to go through a higher authority, however, by reducing the amount of "jobs" the person above the Leasing agent has, they can focus on immediate tasks, when needed, get them done efficiently, then return to their main focus. That may be Inventory Control, Resident Management & Relations, Marketing, Accounting, etc. Point is, for certain things, it is vital that a person be capable of doing more than one "job". But you wouldn't want your Make Ready tech answering your phones & selling apartments. That's not their job, nor what they are trained for. It's not a property manager's job to clean and paint an apartment.
I began in this industry as a Housekeeper/Make Ready tech. I paid attention, listened, learned, and used my personal experiences, to move up. I was promoted in March of 2007 to Assistant Property Manager, then in November of 2007 to General Property Manager. I know a lot, and I continually learn from my experiences, and from my Maintenance tech, who, aside from my-self, is the only other employee on the property. Yes, it can get complicated when 3 people are all trying to do the SAME job, which is where Goos supervision and time management comes in. So, I agree to disagree, and vice a versa.
62
written by Brent Williams, December 30, 2011
What a great comment, Jessica. I agree completely that being more focused on one job doesn't mean that we should be clueless about the other jobs. I guess a way to say that is, "Jack of all Trades, but only by necessity". In other words, it is good that our employees are cross trained so if someone leaves, then everything doesn't go into chaos. But that doesn't mean, in my opinion, that on a day to day basis we can't be more focused.

But you also bring up a great point about the efficiency of one person handling a new lease all the way through the process, rather than handling a prospects file to someone else to write the lease, and then to someone else to get them moved in, etc. I can see how that could be the case, so I think it really comes down to experimenting to find out which seems to work the best!

Thanks for the comment!
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