By Beth Gilbert
Is hiring and staffing a challenge for your association management company at the moment? You’re not alone. According to a report from the Foundation for Community Association Research, 97% of association management executives and hiring staff believe there is a shortage of community managers. With more open positions than available candidates, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find and retain great employees.
To find out what drives job satisfaction for community association management teams and what employers can do to attract and retain top-tier talent, AppFolio surveyed over 400 community association management employees. Below I’ll provide a preview of some of the findings.
The majority of employees are satisfied with their jobs — but there’s a caveat
Despite the labor shortage and changing employee expectations, 68% of the association management professionals surveyed said they were satisfied with their current role. While it is promising to see that the majority are content with their jobs, there’s still room for improvement. Diving deeper into the data we found that employees over 40 years reported much lower satisfaction levels (47%) compared to employees 40 and under (71%).
Almost half of association management professionals are considering leaving their company or the industry
While employees reported being satisfied with their jobs, it doesn’t mean they will stay — as 43% of respondents stated they were thinking about leaving their company and/or industry in the next 12 months. When we separated those who were considering leaving and those who weren’t, a desire for better bonuses, better salary, better hours, and a more fulfilling role were the top reasons why respondents wanted to leave their company or the industry.
Employees are spending almost half of their time on busywork
Based on the survey, nearly half (47%) of employees’ time is spent doing busywork. Additionally, an average of 19 hours are spent each week on tasks that could be optimized or streamlined through the use of technology. When we asked employees to rank the tasks that could benefit most from being automated or streamlined, the majority fell into the reporting category, with creating work orders (34%), analyzing reports (34%), and tracking dues and assessment payments (33%) being listed as the top three tasks.
With so much time spent on manual, repetitive tasks instead of meaningful work, it’s clear employees need (and want) more technology to do their jobs efficiently. In fact, 63% agreed with the statement, “Technology makes my job easier.”
Top changes employers are making to improve job satisfaction
When respondents were asked “What, if any, changes has your employer made in the last 12 months that have improved your overall job satisfaction?”, the top changes reported were adopting new technology (32%) and improving benefits (32%). Improved processes and workflows, more paid time off, and more scheduling flexibility were also in the top five changes that improved employee satisfaction.
Based on these findings, it’s critical you reevaluate your hiring and retention strategy to ensure it appeals to the modern workforce. Today’s employees value a positive work-life balance, competitive compensation packages, and opportunities to grow their careers. They also want to spend more time on meaningful work instead of manual work, all of which can be made possible with automated and self-service technologies.
To find out the rest of the results and how your management company can leverage the data to build a workplace culture that is empowering, motivating, and rewarding, visit AppFolio’s Industry Insights hub. We will be releasing the full report in the coming weeks.
Beth Gilbert is the Sr. Director of the Community Association market at AppFolio. Beth brings over 15 years of product experience to AppFolio and is currently responsible for developing the vision and strategy for the community association market. She is passionate about building relationships with customers to learn about new ways to partner in the success of their businesses.
