Page 22
— Property Management Quarterly — July 2016
I
n order to be a great property
manager, one must learn to
wear many hats. When an
individual is placed in this
position, he often is faced
with a wide range of various tasks.
Some of these tasks include general
day-to-day operations, negotiating
leases, preparing financial state-
ments, and being responsible for
the overall communication between
your organization and your occupy-
ing tenants.
There is another crucial ongoing
responsibility of a property man-
ager that might not be documented
in your job description, yet it is
believed to be an important unwrit-
ten rule for any individual manag-
ing a building. This valuable task is
the upkeep of your tenants’ happi-
ness.
Although I do not have much
experience in the property manage-
ment field, I do know a lot about
customer satisfaction and the pro-
cess of building relationships and
keeping a customer happy. Many of
you practice the general customer
service guidelines: The customer is
always right, add incentives to get
the job done, and always say thank
you and show your appreciation.
With those best practices in mind,
how else do you maintain your ten-
ants’ happiness? In my opinion, it’s
adding another practice – the prac-
tice of good health and well-being
in your building.
According to the Center for Dis-
ease Control and Prevention, rough-
ly a quarter of Colorado workers are
obese. The issues our country faces
with increased obesity, high choles-
terol and overall
bad health is obvi-
ous and alarm-
ing. Obviously, the
importance and
emphasis of well-
being and health
in the workplace
is only growing
larger.
Employers are
starting to rec-
ognize the cor-
relation between
the lack of good
health, productiv-
ity and increased
insurance claims and how that
directly affects the bottom line.
With that, we all know that healthy
options are a growing necessity
in the workplace. My question to
you is: What are you doing for your
location(s) to support a healthier
environment?
Some of you may disregard this
article instantly for fear that I am
going to ask you to break your bank
on healthy choices for your tenant.
But the truth is, serious spending
toward making healthy choices eas-
ier is not necessary. Here are three
examples of budget-friendly ways
for you to set the tone of healthi-
ness (and happiness) for your build-
ing.
1. Start small by swapping out
the candy jar at the reception desk,
waiting room or lobby with fresh
fruit. According to Brian Wansink’s
“Slim By Design,” he conducted a
snack-food desk audit of 122 office
workers to see how well stocked the
average desk is. The result? People
who had candy in or on their desk
reported weighing 15.4 pounds
more than those who didn’t.
2. Start a community board for
your building in a central location.
The content of this board is up to
you, but it could be made up of
information regarding upcoming
healthy events in your area, such
as Yoga On The Rocks, Civic Center
workouts, upcoming 5K and mara-
thon races; a spotlight write-up or
quick facts about an organization
in your building that is going above
and beyond when it comes to well-
being in the workplace; or contact
information for local fresh fruit
and healthy snack services, nearby
gyms, fitness classes and healthy
restaurants for your tenants to
enjoy.
3. Encourage occupants of your
building to take the stairs as much
as possible. I once worked for an
organization that encouraged the
local elementary school to send
artistic drawings to be hung in
the stairwells at the local hospi-
tal. Patients and staff loved taking
the stairs and exploring all of the
young artistry and creativity. You
also could convert the steps on the
stairs to distance, calories burned
or energy saved by not using the
elevator.
Once again, I don’t believe your
responsibility as a property man-
ager is to provide employers free
food or fitness classes in your
building, but there is a connection
between having access to more
healthy options and feeling happy.
You might say that the employers
of your building are the ones that
should be responsible for keeping
their employees healthy and happy,
and that is true!
I do, however, think that it is
essential to bridge the gap between
a happy, successful and profitable
employer and a happy, productive
and profitable employee. Especially
when both can play an important
role when it comes time to make a
decision on renewing a lease.
Everyone has a role to play in
addressing the increasing health
concerns within our society, and
everyone can play a part in working
to improve our overall well-being
as a community. Property manag-
ers have a huge opportunity to dif-
ferentiate their product and service
offering by not only recognizing this
challenge, but also by helping their
tenants address it. Just remem-
ber, starting small can lead to big
results.
s
Management
Miranda
Cummings
Marketing
manager,
FruitRevival,
Denver
Many of you
practice
the general
customer service
guidelines.
