Retaining Employees and Clients in a Way that’s Purposeful and Profitable



Retaining Employees and Clients in a Way that’s Purposeful and Profitable:

A Chat with Jan Leasure from Monterey Bay Property Management

Wouldn’t it be nice if you had a team who was in it for the long haul?

How do you define the long haul in property management? Is it 10 years or maybe 20 years?

What about 30 years? Is it possible?

It is. We’re talking to Jan Leasure, the owner of Monterey Bay Property Management. Her company has a great track record for employee retention, and they also do well with client retention and profitability.

Employee Retention – Why Do They Refuse to Leave?

Jan has employees who have been with her for decades. Thirty years, even.

What’s the secret?

There are a couple of things that impact this type of retention rate:

* Choosing the right person the first time. When you hire right at the beginning of your work relationship, you can count on longevity. This does not necessarily happen on sites like Indeed and ZipRecruiter. You’ll find great people there, but Jan has noticed that she has better luck hiring people that she knows in other ways. She looks for qualities and personality traits that she believes will match her company culture.

Jan has turned a golf pro into a property manager. She’s also hired a former nail salon owner, a former restaurateur, and a former physical therapist. This doesn’t always make sense, but their professional backgrounds aren’t as important as their fit with the company. It’s been highly successful. Choosing the right person at the beginning is a good way to start.

* Another tip to success is creating the right job for the right person. Over the years, Jan has created positions whether there’s an opening or not. It’s expensive to do that, but it means that when growth came quickly, there was a deep pool of talent to choose from in the company already.

Jan has never had a job opening at Monterey Bay Property Management.

She invests in her team before she has the work, creating opportunities and trusting that the work will show up eventually.

Identifying the Right Employee and Position

For Jan, there is always wisdom in starting new people at the front desk.

Everyone coming into the company starts there. It works well because they are on the firing line from the very beginning. They’re taught to answer the phone, find out what the person needs, and then ask that caller to hold while the right answer is sought. That shows a new employee how the wheels of the company will turn.

People learn by doing. You can give them a procedure manual or a checklist, but just by listening to the questions and finding the answers, a lot is learned. That’s training.

When Jan meets someone out in the world, what is it about that person that makes her want to hire them?

She hired the woman she saw in the restaurant time and time again because of the person’s sparkling personality. She was always on an even keel no matter what was happening. The temperament was always the same. That’s the attitude that’s so desperately needed in property management. We have to be unflappable. Customer service skills are much the same.

How do you approach someone not even looking to work for a property management company?

One day when Jan was being waited on by this woman, she engaged her in a conversation about how long she had worked there. Jan asked if she had ever thought about doing anything else. She pitched property management and they kept talking about it.

The interview process is different from any other typical job interview. Jan wants to know how they will fit into the company culture. They discuss problem-solving skills and talk about challenges.