The NAA Education Institute promotes and assists with annual event.
Job stability is one of the biggest concerns facing Americans today. What many may not know is that there is a current demand in the apartment industry for qualified professionals, including maintenance technicians, leasing consultants and professionals to move within a management career track.
With a turnover rate between 30 percent and 35 percent for maintenance technicians and leasing professionals in the apartment industry, there is a great need for people, says Maureen Lambe, CAE, Executive Vice President of the National Apartment Association Education Institute (NAAEI). The industry is constantly looking to develop new pipelines of skilled talent.
So how exactly can those in the apartment business successfully promote careers within their industry? NAAEI’s National Apartment Careers Month, which has been conducted each February since 2010, has proven to be an effective method. The organization’s aim is to get the word out about apartment careers and also to help recruit and train people for the industry.
While this campaign can attract those already in the apartment industry, it mostly seeks people without previous apartment industry experience who may already have certain core competencies to fill much-needed roles.
“We felt it was important to focus attention on the fabulous apartment careers that we have to offer,” says Lambe. “What we’ve asked is that all of our members, our member companies and our local apartment associations be active during that month in doing outreach with high school students, college students, active military, veterans, as well as military spouses to make people aware of the wonderful career tracks that we offer in apartment management, maintenance and leasing.”
Spread the Word
The NAAEI provides materials, such as brochures and informative DVDs, to those looking to participate in February’s career month. It has also made the website, www.apartmentcareerhq.org, available to member companies to help them in their apartment career outreach. Job shadowing can also be “a great way to focus on providing students and others with opportunities to spend a day in the life of an apartment employee and learn first-hand about the types of jobs we have and what they entail,” Lambe says.
Susan Sherfield, CPM, Chair of NAAEI’s Apartment Career Committee, became involved in the organization 12 years ago when she says she discovered “the tremendous opportunities in the industry that so many people didn’t know about.” Her involvement in the organization has been both for her “own development and to spread the word that there is this wonderful career opportunity [out there],” she says.
Sherfield’s committee is responsible for promoting careers and finding different ways of bringing people into the industry. Apartment Careers Month is “the one month where we really try to blitz the whole country, working through local and state affiliates and different companies that are represented throughout the country to really promote careers in our industry,” Sherfield says.
Denise Hrabosky, Education and Membership Director for North Carolina’s Piedmont Triad Apartment Association, has had huge successes in participating in high school and college career fairs during the past two years.
“It’s been a great response… very, very positive,” Hrabosky says. “People, especially at that age, don’t even know that there’s such a career field waiting for them in the apartment industry.”
Hrabosky also uses NAAEI’s marketing materials for the events, including the DVD, which is played throughout the career fairs she attends. The Piedmont Triad Apartment Association has also found that having giveaways with prizes and candy contributes to piquing interest. “We make it as fun as we can,” Hrabosky says.
Winning at the Job Fair
Wanting to promote apartment industry careers as well, Miki Wilson, Baltimore Region Vice President for Home Properties, contacted her company’s human resources department and asked if they could designate Baltimore as the first region to promote career month for the company. Last February, Wilson used the NAAEI career toolkit and hosted a job fair as the company’s first initiative.
One of Home Properties’ goals was to create awareness of the opportunities in the industry through community colleges and trade schools. It promoted the career fair through its website, resident bulletin board and Craigslist.
“We’re a growing company and I had a number of immediate positions that we wanted to fill,” Wilson says. “The job fair was extremely successful. I had over 90 attendees in one day. From that job fair we filled about 12 positions.”
When it comes to espousing the advantages of working in the apartment industry, Lambe says there are many, including the extreme flexibility that can come with it.
“Every day is different and it’s a portable career,” Lambe says. “If you have a good attitude and take advantage of training opportunities… you can take that career as a leasing consultant or a maintenance technician and you can really move up and not only take on more responsibility, but also see a wonderful progression in salary.”
Finding the right person is also key. Lambe believes that having a good attitude and being a people person are the top qualities needed, in addition to being comfortable working as a member of a team.
“If you don’t enjoy people and you don’t enjoy making people happy, it’s probably not the career for you,” Lambe says.
Technical (College) Support
In addition to spreading the word during career month, NAAEI works closely with community and technical colleges across the country to offer its Certificate for Apartment Maintenance Technicians (CAMT) program, which is an accredited certificate program from the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). The national organization has been attending two community college association meetings annually where representatives from community colleges across the country express their students’ needs.
“There’s a great need for maintenance technicians,” Lambe says. “Community colleges today are charged not only with offering for-credit education for students who want to graduate with a two-year degree, but they have a workforce education and continuing education mission that they must undertake and the CAMT course works well as part of that workforce education initiative that so many of them are involved with.”
“I’m there to let the community college know about the opportunities to partner with NAAEI and our affiliates,” Lambe says. “When I learn that the college is interested and wants to move forward, I bring in the local apartment association and get them involved because at the end of the day it’s going to be that local apartment association that needs to develop and maintain that relationship with the local community college.”
A Recession-Proof Job
The Texas Apartment Association, which also has programs in several community colleges, founded its Education Foundation nearly a decade ago to promote the Residential Property Management (RPM) industry for the state of Texas, says Jackie Rhone, Vice President at Large and Executive Committee board member.
“We’re trying to entice people to choose the apartment industry as a viable career option,” Rhone says.
Through the Texas Apartment Association’s education initiative, a degree with a concentration or minor in Residential Property Management has been created at the University of North Texas’ College of Business. The association holds student mixers and has management companies talk to the students about coming into the rental housing industry. It also offers scholarships every semester. The association has awarded $70,000 in scholarships.
The Texas Apartment Association is also reaching out to current and former military personnel and their spouses through career fairs, Rhone says. “We’ve found that it’s a really good fit.”
One of the best selling points of a career in the apartment industry is that it has proven to weather a recession better than most.
“We’ve had bad times, but at the end of the day people will always need someone to manage their real estate,” Rhone says. “It’s about as recession-proof as you can get. It’s always a long, viable career option.”
Rhone adds, “It’s an ever-growing industry. People will always need a place to live. Even in the worst of times, our business is a thriving business.”
“Apartments are not going to go away,” Home Properties’ Wilson says. “The media is telling us more and more people [are] choosing apartments out of need, but more and more it’s a lifestyle decision and a decision of choice. [Because of this], the ability to have career advancement is just much more attainable than in many, many other industries.”
Change Is Good
In addition to students and military personnel, the NAAEI is looking to recruit people who want a career change, Lambe says. One of its most successful programs has been with Maryland’s Montgomery College, which has offered the CAMT course five times during the past year.
“What we’ve found is there are a lot of people who are under-employed or who are recent immigrants who have great technical skills,” Lambe says. “It’s been a great opportunity to take those people who have those skills and bring them into the CAMT program so they will learn about the apartment industry and learn the necessary skills to be successful.”
She adds, “Once these people get jobs, what we’ve found is they have a great attitude. Hopefully they will take advantage of any education that is offered by the apartment companies they work for.”
NAAEI’s efforts are also focused toward people who may be looking for a career change either because they’re not happy in their current career path or because of changes as a result of the economy and downsizing, says Sherfield, who also is National Director of Education for Mercy Housing, based in Atlanta.
“It’s about anybody that has management skills and is looking for a way of using them,” Sherfield says. “I’ve seen a lot of people in retail or restaurant management or hotel management, but it’s the skills that they have that are very transferable to property management.”
Lambe says that even though there are a number of people who have taken advantage of apartment industry courses, there still tends to be a reluctance to hire someone who doesn’t have apartment industry experience.
“If I had a message for the owners and managers out there, [it] would be to consider transferrable skills,” she says. “Open your mind. Look for people that have skills. If you find someone who has a great attitude and has those basic skills and in some cases has even honed those skills by taking apartment industry courses, consider hiring them over someone who has been in the industry and moved around because they weren’t a great employee.”
Sherfield, who has been in the apartment business for 24 years, still loves her job. “I’m still committed to it and I had no idea 24 years ago that when I took a job it was going to turn into such a fulfilling or rewarding career path. Part of the reason I’m so committed to it is that I think of it partially as giving back to the industry that has given me so much.”
Kristin Cantu is a freelance writer. This article was originally published in the Fourth Quarter edition of Bay State Apartment Owner, published by the Warren Group in partnership with the Greater Boston Rental Housing Association.