Talent needed: How to hire and retain skilled community association staff members

Recruiting and retaining skilled team members can be challenging for community associations and management companies, especially in a very competitive labor market and with communities limited by tight budgets.

In this reality, it becomes even more important for associations and management companies to highlight their strengths and address organizational shortcomings, says business consultant Bob Begley.

The founder of Golden Sands Management Consultants, LLC, a Florida-based business consulting firm, Begley has been an innovative business thinker for more than 30 years. He has advised hundreds community leaders while serving as the CEO of Golden Sands Community Management, Inc. He’s also authored 27 continuing education courses for CAM’s and board members through his sister company, Florida CAM Courses.

The issue at hand is recruiting in a very different workforce. Begley states, “I noticed that over the past few years, there was a very big disconnect between what the young people that I was hiring wanted from their experience of work and what I needed from them at work, as their employer”. We want to help company leaders understand ways to attract talented workers.

People think that the secret to attracting and retaining talent is little things like, ‘Let’s give them free lunch’ or ‘What perks can we offer?’ or ‘What are our benefits compared to the benefits down the road?’ But at the end of the day, it really comes down to the quality of the organization. Is it successful? Is it high performing? Because good, smart people want to work in those environments.

Here are a three best practices for community associations and management companies for recruiting and retaining talent:

1. Stop thinking about tactics, and start thinking about the performance of the organization. The focus should be on building an organization that is robust and resilient. Great organizations have no trouble attracting and retaining talent.
2. Build a culture that people want to work in. The perks and benefits can’t be the only lure for bringing in talented workers. I caution you that if the culture doesn’t reflect what was promised to the manager when hired, you’ll find yourself in bigger trouble.
3. Be courageous. It’s important to brave a tight labor market to find talented people. It’s also about having the courage to build a high-performing team. A team is only as strong as its weakest link, so we need to be capable of managing the performance of the underperformers or, at times, even having the courage to move people on.
4. Once you find the perfect new hire, treat them as the valuable resource that they certainly should be in your organization. Practice A.R.E. with all team members – Appreciate, Recognize and Encourage. For more on creating Wonder in Your Workplace, visit the Florida CAM Courses website to download Wonder in the Workplace.