- Feb 26, 2020
- Paul Nathan, CPM, CSM, FRICS, ACIArb
-
Comments (3)
The Importance of Policies and Procedures in Property Management
Successful management of an organization comprised of people with diverse qualifications and backgrounds requires standardized communication channels and effective leadership. The benefits of communication and leadership, however, often break down with time and neglect. Introducing effective standard operating procedures can improve employee confidence, in the firm and in themselves, and result in an outstanding corporate culture, firm-wide adoption of core values, and maintenance of your firm’s standards.
What do policies and procedures hope to achieve?
- Risk protection by way of compliance
- Reduced redundancies through job standardization
- Adherence to best practices that maintain the highest ethical standards
- Improved operational excellence leading to the company’s recognition in the market
- Enhanced performance leading to client and key stakeholder confidence
How can your business benefit from standardized policies and procedures?
What are the challenges of implementing policies and procedures?
- The real challenge is the day-to-day application amid pressurized deadlines
- Poor maintenance and administration from a lack of commitment, time, and resources
- Legal jargon in the policy and procedures documents, without a focus on the end user
- Fostering an environment of encouragement and communication to incentivize staff adoption and adherence to policies and procedures
How can policies and procedures be effectively implemented?
Implementation is as simple as following an ongoing four-step process of research, review, train, and updat
- Research: Appoint subject matter experts to evaluate the existing system and document requirements
- Review: Verify research and review whatever is necessary for specific cases
- Train: Create procedures to increase and monitor participation
- Update: Utilize agile methods and software to update and communicate improvements
How can you launch policies and procedures successfully?
- Maintain control mechanisms at every level of company hierarchy
- Provide continuous support, periodical training, and have your subject matter experts make regular improvements
- Ensure your subject matter experts collaborate with legal on law and compliance updates
- Measure improved efficiency through periodic reviews
- Integrate policies and procedures with both property management software and property accounting software
- Recognize policy and procedure adoption in performance reviews, and with an annual award program
Once streamlined, policies and procedures should be on par with ethics and organization codes of conduct.
Conclusion:
While launching standardized policies and procedures is time-consuming, future rewards are guaranteed if effectively implemented, monitored, and managed.