The community management industry is growing according to the CAI Research Foundation’s most recent statistical review. In the last 20 years alone, the United States community association landscape has grown from 222,500 communities comprising 45.2 million residents to approximately 355,000 communities comprising more than 74 million residents. Further, the percentage of existing and new communities that are professionally managed continues to increase as well, with nearly 70% of communities employing a professional property manager or management company in 2020. This trend, coupled with employee turnover, has led to a growing challenge for management companies to recruit, train, and retain talented community managers and operational professionals to fill these roles.
The Foundation for Community for Community Association Research published a report, Attracting Talent to the Community Association Industry. This is an insightful report for leaders in the community management industry.
A key component of attracting and retaining top talent highlighted in this CAI Foundation report is Updated Technology and Systems. At Vantaca, this has been a core belief since the day the company was founded. Specifically, that a comprehensive, cloud-based community operating system is not only key to the success of community management companies’ operational efficiency, but a vital component of personnel strategy. As community management companies recruit and hire talented community managers, accounting professionals, and other roles from outside industries, these individuals not only expect, but demand technology that can allow them to work faster, smarter, and happier.
The talent management challenge facing community management companies certainly goes beyond just software. Another prime example is the value of quality onboarding and training of new hires to increase engagement and decrease time to on-the-job proficiency. At Vantaca, we have learned these lessons during our own growth journey, striving to constantly improve the new hire onboarding experience. This journey and the lessons learned along the way led us to create a learning management system for our clients, Vantaca University. We have observed adoption of this tool dramatically enhances management companies’ abilities to quickly train and deploy new hires into the field.
These observations only scratch the surface of both the challenge and opportunity for community management leaders to continue to build and develop world-class teams. Leaders positioning their teams for long-term success are keenly aware of these trends and are investing in their team by developing recruiting strategies, training plans, and putting the right technology and systems in place for tomorrow, today.
Let us show you how we have helped countless management companies address this opportunity with technology. Contact us today to learn more.