A job fair and career summit are just two ways in which NAA affiliates and corporate supporters highlighted apartment industry career opportunities as part of February’s National Apartment Careers Month.
Now is a crucial time to promote apartment industry careers. Soon-to-be high school and college graduates are looking for their first jobs and the slumping economy is starting to recover. This leads to greater demand for rental housing and a likely increase in employee turnover. Recruiting a pool of well-qualified job candidates is more important than ever.
Fifteen affiliates and eight companies took part in this year’s career month. Some used our Participant Toolkit to organize their own events and community outreach activities while others leveraged their websites and social media to educate people about the wide variety of career paths available in our industry.
Texas Apartment Association
Several of our Texas affiliates participated in Apartment Careers Month: Apartment Association of Greater Dallas, Austin Apartment Association, Lubbock Apartment Association and the Houston Apartment Association. The Texas Apartment Association (TAA), which won the Apartment Careers Promotion award, was instrumental in promoting the month to its 10,500 members and encouraging them to organize their own outreach activities. TAA ran banner ads on its website, highlighted links to industry career information on the NAAEI website and included stories in its publications on apartment industry career opportunities.
Rose Property Group
Rose Property Group staff participated in or presented at many apartment industry career outreach activities leading up to and during February. These activities included career fairs, informational sessions, real estate roundtable discussions, advanced career training for Rose Property Group employees, training sessions for staff on conducting outreach to college students and asking office staff to promote National Apartment Careers Month in their e-mail signatures with a link to ApartmentCareerHQ.org. Rose Property Group staff also hosted informational interviews and job shadowing opportunities for college students expressing interest in the industry.
Georgia Apartment Industry Education Foundation
A career summit to spotlight maintenance career opportunities was just one of the events in which the Georgia Apartment Industry Education Foundation (GAIEF) participated.
The event was organized in partnership with the Georgia Lieutenant Governor’s Office, DeKalb Technical College, Atlanta Regional Commission and DeKalb Workforce Development. It attracted more than 115 people who had the chance to learn about the industry and network with apartment industry professionals. Property owners and managers discussed maintenance career opportunities available within their own companies.
Throughout February, GAIEF executive director Debbie Phillips attended open houses for the Georgia Career Academy Project, an education program supported by the lieutenant governor that links high schools with technical colleges, universities and local businesses. The open houses provided her with the opportunity to talk with high school students—and their parents—about how the apartment industry has opportunities for people with a wide variety of backgrounds, such as graphic design, accounting, management, marketing and maintenance.
Home Properties
Miki Wilson, Home Properties Vice President for the Baltimore region, organized a Career Month Awareness Campaign and Job Fair based on tools available from NAAEI. The job fair helped her to raise awareness about apartment industry careers, promote the benefits of working for Home Properties and fill job openings at HP communities.
The event drew more than 90 job seekers, from which Wilson filled 12 positions and identified a pool of candidates for future openings. Wilson says the job fair gave her employees the chance to talk about what they do and promote the industry and their company. Wilson is planning another job fair next year and will add a job shadowing component for high school students.
Thank you to everyone who took part in the 2011 National Apartment Careers Month, including the Triad Apartment Association, Tulsa Apartment Association, Austin Apartment Association and Apartment Association of New Mexico.
Don’t wait for next February to roll around to promote careers in our industry. Visit www.apartmentcareerhq.org or www.naahq.org/education.
Maureen Lambe, CAE, is Executive Vice President of NAAEI. She can be reached at 703/797-0601 or Maureen@naahq.org.