Will Moxley is SVP, Product at AppFolio Inc.
Business leaders continue to face operational efficiency and staffing challenges. The job market remains favorable for workers despite economic headwinds, making hiring and retention a priority for many organizations. Meanwhile, some organizations lose up to $1.3 million a year due to inefficient processes.
These broader business challenges are magnified in the affordable housing management space. This space faces unique compliance hurdles, reporting requirements and high turnover, which makes it a great case study for how the right technology can support both operational efficiency and staffing priorities.
What many business leaders might not realize is that these two challenges are linked: Operational inefficiency has ripple effects that can disrupt multiple areas of the business, including key staffing and HR priorities. Here is how this plays out in the affordable housing space, and what other business leaders can learn about using technology to address these challenges.
Boosting Employee Satisfaction And Retention
In any industry, operational inefficiencies can create an abundance of “busy work,” or manual, repetitive tasks that keep people from focusing on the more rewarding parts of their job. This could include manual database entry and upkeep across multiple platforms, which is not only tedious but leaves a lot of room for human error.
Within affordable housing, property managers spend a staggering 39% of a typical 40-hour week on busy work, according to my company’s survey of affordable housing property managers. This is due to the complex reporting processes required to stay in compliance with the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) and HUD Section 8 (PBS8).
Busy work can negatively impact employee satisfaction: Instead of using their hard-earned skills or collaborating with others, people are stuck completing labor-intensive tasks that could be done more efficiently. Our report suggests that an average of 16.5 hours per week could be optimized through the use of technology in the affordable housing space.
Companies should, therefore, be looking to streamline labor-intensive processes with technology that standardizes work processes like accounting, database management and monthly reporting.
More Resources For Compensation And Benefits
Inefficient processes are costly because they create redundancies and errors that require more labor hours to address, which can leave businesses with fewer resources to devote to compensation and benefits. This can be hugely impactful at a time when compensation conversations are front-and-center in the news, driven by widely publicized strikes in the entertainment industry and recent salary transparency laws.
In fact, 70% of U.S. employers spent more than they expected to adjust employees’ pay levels last year. This is felt acutely in the affordable housing space, where margins are tight so that property managers can keep housing as affordable as possible for residents. In my company’s report, 47% of property managers cited the demand for higher compensation as the most challenging activity within HR, staffing and recruitment.
Affordable housing firms are at a disadvantage when it comes to hiring and compensation: The space requires highly trained specialists with years of compliance experience, yet often pays less compared to the conventional property management sector that has higher margins. To attract the talent they need, affordable housing managers must pay competitively.
Optimizing operational efficiency can leave more resources available for compensation. For example, combining disjointed systems under a single platform can decrease task redundancies. Organizations might also benefit from digitized and mobile-first communication among staff and vendors.
Improved Training And Onboarding
In sectors like affordable housing that navigate complex and ever-changing compliance requirements, onboarding is a crucial HR function. Inefficient or outdated training processes can be a major detriment, making it difficult to bring new employees up to speed and provide existing employees with support.
Even in less compliance-focused industries, high-quality training processes can not only make the business more efficient but also drive employee retention. Better learning and development opportunities are the top reasons people consider changing jobs, according to a LinkedIn report. And when senior employees don’t have to spend as much time training new employees one on one, they have more time to keep the business running smoothly. Employees who are better trained and have easy access to the information they need can start contributing more quickly.
Because of this, companies should explore whether learning and development tools can provide engaging, industry-specific and automated experiences as well as up-to-date information on regulations.
Deploying New Technology: Dos and Don’ts
Implementing the right technology can help boost operational efficiency, which has ripple effects across these wider staffing and HR priorities. However, these tools must be deployed intentionally to avoid creating new inefficiencies and staffing challenges due to poor tech adoption.
For example, difficulties can arise when integrating these tech solutions into core business operations systems. Poor integration can create inefficiencies like double data entry, extra workflow steps and data inaccuracies, especially in complex industries like affordable housing.
The best way to avoid this is by building an ecosystem of tech partners whose tools integrate with one another’s, or by choosing a partner that offers an integration marketplace. This can enable seamless adoption that won’t disrupt day-to-day business operations.
Training is another important aspect to ensure staff have the right skills to utilize new technology and gain the full efficiency benefits. Instead of a one-size-fits-all approach to training, it’s best to tailor training as needed based on a specific department, geography or workflow.
Be aware of the differing needs of remote and in-office employees, and even employees of various ages. For training support, companies should ask potential technology vendors about customer support offerings and see whether they have an online community that can help with adoption.
The key is understanding the inefficiencies in your organization and then solving them to create more satisfied teams that have the tools and skills they need to succeed.
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