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The 1‑Per‑100 Staffing Model Is Showing Its Age
The 1‑Per‑100 Staffing Model Is Showing Its Age
Resident events used to be simple.
A few big sandwiches, a keg and someone's boom box and you had yourself a pool party.
A few big sandwiches, a keg and someone's boom box and a Santa suit and you had yourself a Holiday party.
No branded signage, no content calendars, no engagement metrics. Just a good time and a loud stereo.
Today's multifamily landscape looks nothing like that.
Taco Tuesday. Wine Down Wednesday. Breakfast on the Go. Yoga by the Pool. Yappy Hour. Holiday pop‑ups. Monthly mixers. Weekly engagement touchpoints. And a dozen others depending on the property's brand and retention strategy.
Resident experience has become a business strategy. Not a bonus.
And that shift has created a new operational reality: We're asking onsite teams to deliver a level of engagement the traditional staffing model wasn't built for.
The 1‑Per‑100 Ratio Was Built for a Different EraThe long‑standing 1‑employee‑per‑100‑units ratio made sense when resident events were occasional, simple and optional. But I see many communities still operate with that same ratio today, even as:
• Event frequency has increased • communication expectations have grown • online reputation is tied directly to engagement • resident experience has become a retention driver
The workload has doubled. The staffing model hasn't.
Events Aren't Tasks — They're ProjectsResident events require planning, coordination, communication, setup, breakdown, follow‑through and often after‑hours work. They're not "extra duties." They're full projects layered on top of a full day.
That's not a task. It's a full‑time job.
And the data backs it up:
📊 Residents who attend events are 2 to 3 times more likely to renew Source: SatisFacts Annual Resident Satisfaction & Retention Report
📈 Communities with strong engagement see 8 to 12 percent higher renewal rates Source: NMHC + Kingsley Resident Experience Data
✨ Consistent programming drives up to 20 percent more positive online reviews Source: J Turner Research + SatisFacts Online Reputation Studies
These aren't small numbers. They're revenue‑impacting numbers.
The ROI Case for a Resident Coordinator. A mid‑$50k Resident Coordinator with a retention‑based bonus isn't just affordable. It's often revenue‑positive. A few saved renewals can offset the entire salary.And beyond ROI, the operational benefits are clear:
• Onsite teams get time back • communication improves • events become consistent • resident experience becomes intentional • online reputation strengthens
For properties running heavy event calendars, this role is starting to look less like a luxury and more like the next evolution of onsite staffing.
The Resident experience is now a core function of operations, marketing, retention and reputation management. And when a function becomes core, staffing eventually follows.
So the question becomes:
If resident engagement is this closely tied to retention, is a full‑time Resident Coordinator simply where onsite staffing is headed?
Multifamily is evolving. The onsite team mix may be evolving with it. I
Comments 1
I think this also comes back to the Centralization and AI discussion. When companies started to talk about Centralization, they said they would take that extra capacity and dedicate it towards resident experience. But when it all came down to it, the stories I heard was that headcount was reduced instead. That may not be the same story for all companies, but it's essentially what you are advocating - time towards these functions, whether it is freed up existing labor or adding new labor.
I happen to agree with you on these, but frankly, I think a lot of companies struggle to make the math more concrete. Instinctually, we all know retention is more profitable, but we are a marketing-dominated industry, and we are not adequately thinking about retention as re-marketing like we probably should.