Resident engagement and resident satisfaction have never been higher on the priority lists of property developers, operators and managers. Many teams are taking the disruption of the pandemic as an opportunity to re-evaluate their resident engagement strategies, tools and software. To be successful, theses strategies need to have your resident at their core.
Our Customer Success Team have put together 6 questions to consider when thinking about resident engagement.
Questions For Your Teams to Consider When Thinking About Resident Engagement Strategies:
Are your current tools increasing connections between staff and residents, to increase resident satisfaction?
How do your residents want to interact with your staff? Face-to-face? Instant messaging? Email? Which channel gets a better response?
Are queries being answered quickly enough? Do residents feel heard and supported by your staff? What tools and / or software could be used to support this?
Are your current tools increasing connections between residents? How can they get to know their neighbours? How do they want to get to know neighbours? What social activity are your residents looking for?
From enquiry, to move-in, to renewal, how are you adjusting your communication to make each resident feel valued? How are you delivering a premium service at each stage?
Are you able to get data and feedback about all aspects of your performance to continue to deliver exceptional service? What tools and software could help you with this?
Spike Living and Resident Engagement
Spike Global delivers industry-leading software that connects people and properties to create attractive, efficient and engaging places for living, working and playing. Spike Living has all the features and flexibility you need to delight your residents and empower your staff, with a bespoke residential app and a fully operational management dashboard.
Spike Living consistently delivers market-leading results across key metrics including resident engagement and retention. Our software allows you to streamline building management, deliver a thriving community, drive actionable insights and increase the value of your assets.
To find out more about Spike Living download our brochure below.
As Covid-19 continues to disrupt the landscape of work, business leaders are still searching for ways to adapt to the new normal. A year into the pandemic, most workforces are still separated. Businesses are struggling to keep employee engagement high and workforces happy and healthy.
There is little doubt that the pandemic will have wide reaching and long-lasting consequences on the patterns of work. Consequently, businesses have found practical solutions that keep companies running smoothly outside of the office: Zoom, /Teams, Slack. Moreover, some businesses have even seen this disruption as an opportunity to take a new innovative approach to their digital transformation strategies, and will continue to embrace remote / flexible working once restrictions lift. However, where organisations are falling short is employee engagement, employee support and company culture.
In years past, company culture was largely built in and around the office. It was obvious where and who people could reach out to for help, if employees were struggling. Many organisations took great pride in their company culture, embedding their company values and beliefs into every corner of the office. From wellness rooms, to excellent coffee. From desk drinks on a Friday to free yoga and meditation classes. Many organisations delivered a lifestyle to their employees, not just a job.
This changing landscape left many organisations scrambling to maintain a compelling company culture and positive employee engagement.
Effects of The Pandemic and Remote Work
The unexpected transition to remote work was extremely disruptive to company culture and employee engagement. A year on, theses struggles still exist. Many employees feel disconnected from the organisations they work for, as all their support systems were ingrained into the physical office space and proximity to colleagues. Lifestyle benefits get lost in the remote translation. Include also the added stress employees are under due to the pandemic, and the landscape for employee engagement is certainly a challenging one.
Why is Employee Engagement Important?
Early research into the health implications of the pandemic in relation to mental health specifically, suggest employees were reporting reduced motivation, loss of purpose and motivation, anxiety and isolation. All factors which make employee engagement ever more important, and equally challenging.
According to a study by Gallup, employees who are engaged are 21% more productive. This takes into consideration a number of factors including better employee health, happiness and satisfaction. From an organisation perspective more productivity means lower absenteeism, higher retention and better customer service.
What Should Organisations Be Prioritising?
Organisations need to focus their efforts on building a culture of resilience within their workforces. Equipping their staff with the right skills, support systems and infrastructure in order to recover and thrive.
A recent study shows that people with close work friends were 96% more likely to say they felt “extremely satisfied with life”. Marissa King, professor of organisational behaviour at Yale, tells Axios that work friends can even boost our “sense of purpose and our intrinsic sense of motivation”. In a time where face-to-face interactions with colleagues is extremely difficult organisations should focus on digital solutions that connect their workforce socially. Moving forward encouraging employee friendships will be paramount.
Research suggests that employees expect work to be a more social environment when offices do start re-opening. Social engagement will be a big reason people to start to return to the office. Therefore, organisations need to be laying down the groundwork for social connections and friends now.
Alongside Spike’s social forums and clubs, we have seen customers setup peer-to-peer support groups within their Spike Workplace portals, where employees can offer advice and support to one another. Employees have been using this area to reach out for support and engage with peers outside of work.
Another important aspect to consider is health and wellness. A recent JLL study finds employees now prioritise work-life balance over a comfortable salary, and three out of four expect their employer to support their health, wellbeing and even nutrition. Organisations should be evaluating how they create a better work-life balance and looking into tools and services which can help.
Furthermore, organisations should be using their company vision and mission as a guide to get employees through these challenging times. Employees need to be reassured that their organisations are making the right decisions at the right time. Forbes notes that employees will be more engaged and feel more connected and motivated knowing that their leaders have a proactive plan to keep the company on track. Consistent, cohesive communication is key and organisations will need to find effective communication channels.
Spike Workplace and the New Way of Working
In response to the ongoing pandemic, Spike Global has just launched its new Spike Workplace application. The software helps companies and landlords promote a connected culture while the majority of office-based employees are working from home. The software will help companies and landlords adapt to a ‘blended’ way of working moving forward. Where we see employees cycle between remote and in-office working.
Spike’s workplace portal builds and manages buzzing, supportive communities where users can form meaningful connections. Companies can nurture the office culture virtually through social clubs, forums and events, keep occupants engaged with up-to-date news and articles. Importantly, employers can ensure staff are as settled and supported as possible by offering preventative health and well-being initiatives and support forums. Spike have also partnered with well-being provider Antidote, to offer further well-being services directly from their portal.
Long-term social engagement to create a sense of wellbeing and identity is a key element of what the software provides.
To find out more about our Workplace portal, get in touch and a consultant will be touch shortly.
To engage with residents, property operators must focus on connecting their communities – connecting residents to staff, connecting residents to one another, connecting residents to the wider local community, and connecting residents to their buildings. However, the key to successful, long-term resident engagement is understanding your residents’ needs, and pain-points and acting proactively.
Pro-Active Resident Engagement
To optimise your resident engagement success you’ll need to find ways for your teams to listen to residents. With this information, you’ll want to personalise your approach by predicting initiatives that will be most effective, for example: events, additional services, promotions etc.
Feedback is part of our everyday lives. Reviews will have influenced your residents’ decision in where to live. They influence your resident’s decision on whether to renew. So to build a compelling resident engagement strategy, it’s fundamental to understand where you stand with your residents at all times. Once you have the data you can identify areas that need improvement, or areas that are working well. Once these areas are identified you can act before they become problematic. This will boost your resident loyalty and improve your relationship with residents.
Transparency
In our opinion all feedback, is good feedback. In order to keep on top of resident satisfaction you’ll need to hear the negative feedback too. Some of our customers have chosen to host ‘I’m happy’ and ‘I’m not happy’ forums on their Spike resident portals. This gives residents a clearly defined forum to voice their opinion, and gives property operators an area to reply and demonstrate changes they are making.
Even the most proactive operator will have problems and complaints, however it is vital residents have an area to voice concerns and feel they are heard and are being listened to. By asking for honest feedback, your residents will feel they have a voice within your community. An engaged, loyal group of residents are likely to be more forgiving and understanding if mistakes do happen, and decreases the likelihood of these mistakes affecting retention levels.
Increase the Success of Your Marketing
The benefits of listening to your residents go beyond resident satisfaction and retention. Once you truly understand what’s important to residents you can use these insights in future marketing campaigns to attract new residents, increasing revenue and maximising marketing budget. For example, if you know that the dog walking club within your development is extremely popular, you’d be sure to include this perk in your monthly marketing newsletter or run a marketing campaign focussing on the best dog friendly developments. Research by McKinsey has found that personalising your marketing can deliver 5 – 8 x more ROI on marketing spend.
Spike Living and Resident Engagement
Spike Global delivers industry-leading software that connects people and properties to create attractive, efficient and engaging places for living, working and playing. Spike Living has all the features and flexibility you need to delight your residents and empower your staff, with a bespoke residential app and a fully operational management dashboard.
Spike Living consistently delivers market-leading results across key metrics including resident engagement and retention. Our software allows you to streamline building management, deliver a thriving community, drive actionable insights and increase the value of your assets.
To find out more about how Spike could help your business, get in touch and a member of the team will be in touch shortly.E
