Google Maps Provides Direct Link To “Find Yourself”

Google Maps Provides Direct Link To “Find Yourself”

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6 Ways To Create Opportunities on LinkedIn

6 Ways To Create Opportunities on LinkedIn

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What goes around, Comes around

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post on how corporate can really do a number on those who are just trying to be creative and innovative.  This is kind of a follow up and a brief reminder that corporate decisions should really come as no surprise.  In other words, remember to never get too comfortable.  What may appear as peachy keen and hunky dory in one moment, can change in an instant after they review their quarterly P&L.  Then all of a sudden, its the "Oh No", and "We spent that much", and "Now things got to change" speeches.  Their typical solution is not using the resources they have in their people, but letting those resources pack their bags and head out the door.

This is a reminder that our multifamily career path should never be fixated on a single course.  If you are fortunate enough to have had only one job your entire life, then I tip my hat to you.  For most of us that does not happen.  The only thing you need to be focused on is to not treat individuals the way you were treated by your corporate heads.  Those who squashed your creativity look exactly like our CEO in the video below.  In your comments below you can call him what you want.  Thanks for stopping by and remember what comes around is not vengeance but your opportunity to rise, shine, and fulfill your goals no matter what.

Written by Jonathan Saar--The Training Factor

An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure Series: Fair Housing Education

Fair housing laws are not something to be treated lightly.  The law was enacted in order to protect the civil rights of all human beings living here in the United States.  Just because the law was enacted over 40 years ago, does not mean that we have breached the discrimination here in this country.  As last year’s CNN report so eloquently reports for us below. 

So this is just my personal reminder to not take proper training for granted.  Not only do you not want to face criminal proceedings and unwanted publicity if you and your staff are caught breaking the law, but you need to remind yourself and your team the depth of your belief in this important law that was enacted to give freedom and equality to all people.  The Fair housing act is constantly being reviewed and updated which continues to put great responsibility on the multifamily industry.

Take a minute and run through these memory tests

http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/puzmatch.html

http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/stm0.html

Here are a couple of others that you can just think about.

Name 10 people that you met for the first time at your last conference without looking at their business cards.

Recall the scores out loud of the 3 football games you were following last weekend.

Now you may or may not have done so well on these little tests.  Here is the point though; our memories are always being challenged.  Do you think it makes sense to take a fair housing course just once and feel that is all that is needed?  Do you think that this is all your team needs?  Please make good decisions.  Our memories are fickle and our able to retain and apply information is based on the repetition we give to any given subject.  Brent Williams from Multifamily Insiders made an important point yesterday with me.  It seems that there is much fear with multifamily professionals about committing a violation of the Fair housing act, which I agree with him 100 %.  It can be very scary to fulfill your work responsibilities and have the law hanging over your head.  Here is my little analogy.  I always had two types of emotions when I was about to complete my course exams at the end of my semester.  If I studied and worked hard, I walked into that room with a sense of confidence.  If I did not, then fear was the emotion of the moment.  

So that leaves us with this question.  If our team members are fearful over possible Fair housing violations, what are we doing to alleviate that?

Written by Jonathan Saar-- The Training Factor

The Social Media Marketing Blog: Fear and Loathing in Social Media

The Social Media Marketing Blog: Fear and Loathing in Social Media

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An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure Series: Sexual Harassment Math Quiz

Let’s take a quick crack at some math.  We are going to take a look at a figurative multifamily situation involving a community with 20 employees.  The property management company does not believe that training is necessary in order to help prevent sexual harassment claims.

As a result of that line of thinking someone makes what they think is an innocent statement towards another employee and then BOOM!!!!!!! A claim is filed with the property manager.  Are your pencils sharpened?  Good!  Let’s see how much this is going to cost our figurative multifamily company.

The first step they have to take is to hire a professional to investigate the situation.  Usually this is an entire business week that is charged back to the property management company. The typical cost is 40 hours X $100.00 per hour.  That’s $4000.00. After that the investigative company mandates that the entire staff take a day of offsite sexual harassment prevention training.  Pencil’s ready?  Let’s say the average pay per hour is $15.00 per hour.  So we need to calculate $15.00 X 8 hours X 20 employees.  Total cost to the company for that training day.  $2400.00

Now you need to factor in travel expenses, meals, textbook and materials, and of course the person you are paying to train your 20 team members.  That will add approximately another $1500.00.  The grand total for this sexual harassment claim----$7900.00.  Let’s not even go down the road if the alleged victim decides to take their claim to court and wins.

Now let’s theorize how much it would cost this company if they had instituted a preventive training program that had a sexual harassment prevention course that could be tracked and analyzed where the team members needed help on this subject.  For an LMS with a Sexual Harassment prevention course, it would cost a company as little as $35.00 per year per employee to take the course twice.  That’s approximately $700.00 a year to train the whole company. 

I’ll let you do the math.

Written by Jonathan Saar. Average statistics provided by The Training Factor

Corporate Cut the Tabs! -My Take on the Interview with Captain Sullenberger

If any of you missed out on The Daily Show with John Stewart the other day, the interview with Captain Chesley Sullenberger is below.  First of all, our hats go off to this amazing person who showed such poise and saved so many lives.  There were two particular points from his interview that struck home with me.  Much thanks to my wife Renee, who totally rocks, for pointing them out to me.

For my multifamily colleagues and really for all of us in business, here they are. 

1.       Corporations need to invest in training and

2.       Put the Tabs Back!!!!!!!

The interview is only about 7 minutes long, so please watch and then see my comments below.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Chesley Sullenberger
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Ron Paul Interview

How many of you thought how completely lame and ridiculous it was for an airline to mess with an emergency handbook!!  As the Captain stated, “I think it would make the system better if we put the tabs back.”  Corporate somehow came to a conclusion that to cut costs, it would be a good idea to take the tabs out!!

This is just an amazing example of where some corporate officials have their heads.  Unfortunately this line of thinking continues across the corporate world and seems to have leaked into the multifamily industry.  It continues to sadden me to hear of major layoffs as a result of the perception that this is the only way to cut costs.   These employees are the ones who have been trying to get their voices heard and who have consistently tried to present to their corporate heads cost saving solutions in order to help their company succeed.  But they feel like my illustration up at the top-gagged and tied up.  And the corporate solution- “Let’s cut back on the tabs.”

This post may be of little consolation to those who are stunned and hurt over what has happened to you.  You are thinking to yourself—“After all the years I have devoted myself to my job and I just got treated like a Tab!!!”  I was a victim of that once as well and I am sorry for what you are going through.

Thank goodness for the Captain’s training.  It saved lives that day.  In the multifamily industry, you cannot go without a training program.  When it counts the most, the training you provide for your staff may save you from a Fair Housing or Sexual Harassment disaster.  Do you keep wondering why your marketing dollars are not bringing the return you hoped for?  The training you provide for your leasing, maintenance and management team will change that.

This message may never reach the people who really need to hear it, but you are reading this now and remember to take this with you as you progress in your multifamily professional career.

P.S. please take a moment and comment.  Thank you.

Written by Jonathan Saar who was inspired by his wonderful wife for this post.

The Training Factor