Proving Your Value to Your Manager, Owner or Client...and Yourself

Does running your building ever feel like juggling multiple balls, while they are on fire, all while balancing on a tight wire? On any given day, operations and management professionals may be asked to serve as business executive, decorator, salesperson, parking lot attendant, safety chief, accountant, information center, and maintenance expert…all in one.

With a stagnant economy slowing the pace of property appreciation and of volume of sales, tremendous emphasis is placed on maximizing both asset value and net operating income through effective day-to-day management of buildings. Property teams are not only feeling the pressure to run an efficient building and reduce expenses, but also prove that they are doing both successfully.

So, how do you keep all your balls in the air AND prove your value to the owner, interested in the highest return from the property, and the tenants, interested in the best service and value for their money?

Famed management expert Peter Drucker once said, “What gets measured, gets managed.”  The problem with many businesses, employees and managers is that they don’t actually know whether they’re truly “successful,” doing their jobs well, or simply lucky to be surviving.

The Proof is in the Pudding…er…Performance Numbers

When it comes down to it, the top of the food chain only cares about the numbers. So, “Proof of Value” should ultimately be quantifiable in all cases and any discussion of value must be distilled down to the inflow and outflow of cash to the organization.

Instead of, “We implemented and deployed a new Work Order system and 9 out of 10 employees have learned the system ahead of schedule and reported that it is easy to use.” Go with, “We deployed 30 days ahead of schedule, reduced the service request response time by 6 hours, and required two less employees to complete each request, thus freeing them up to complete 6 hours of deferred maintenance.”

If You’re Not Benchmarking, You’re Not Improving

The only way to prove your value is to measure and document everything.  Don’t panic! A majority of the time, a quick search will produce a comparable metric or existing standard that you can measure yourself against without a lot of extra work.

In property management, there are many examples of benchmarks you can measure performance against:

• The BOMA EER report for operating expenses is an excellent resource
• Energy Star ratings are another
• Your organization (or clients) may create and set their own standards of performance. These may occur as part of an upcoming year’s operating objectives and goals.  How did you perform against those?

Finally, there are basic property management metrics that you should be tracking if you’re not already:

• Tenant occupancy
• Tenant retention
• Tenant satisfaction survey scores
• Scheduled Maintenance Tasks Completed vs. Overdue
• Equipment & Maintenance Spend
• Completed customer/client meetings
• Incidents resulting in a financial loss
• Expired or Overdue Certificates of Insurance
• Service response time standards

A Centralized System for Tracking

Once benchmarks are in place, a system (or possibly several) is required to document daily property management tasks and their respective measurable goals. Such systems are the “data collection” front end of your process and allow you to document your performance, lay the foundation for measurement and, most importantly, take corrective action where necessary.

Web-based systems are preferred as they allow you to access information and tasks on-the-go, integrate with other systems easily, and share information quickly through an online, centralized database. Whatever system you choose, it must be able to able to produce appropriate reports and analytics that not only show performance, but also measure performance against set targets.

Finally, don’t forget to establish a formal review process where performance is measured against targets and expectations. This is where you get to show off your success, backed by the cold, hard stats that will have your “boss” drooling! And remember, your manager/ owner/ client wants to understand the details only to the extent that they make the product or service believable and relevant, but in the end, there is no value without documented proof that it exists.