Like many companies, RMK Management has been dealing with worker retention challenges since the coronavirus pandemic began. 

“Most of those were people that had daycare issues,” said Diana Pittro, executive vice president the Chicago-based company, which operates over 6,200 apartment homes in Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Minnesota. “Whether it was a female or a male, a lot of people chose to stay home or take other jobs to work remotely because daycare was closed. They made adjustments, got used to it and didn't go back.”

Now, Pittro needs to backfill these roles to staff the company’s diverse portfolio, which includes high-rise and mid-rise buildings, two- and three-story walk-up apartments, garden apartments and affordable housing. 

But in a tight labor market, filling that many positions isn’t easy.

Here, Pittro talks with Multifamily Dive about issues filling upper-level roles, where RMK is finding these much-needed workers and her challenges with technology.

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

MULTIFAMILY DIVE: How are you dealing with labor issues?

DIANA PITTRO: Our industry is still not fully recovered from the pandemic. It still takes me months to find upper-level people — someone who has been a manager or has been in the industry and is ready to move up. 

Sometimes we’ll get lucky and get two or three people. But most of the time, it’s a dry spell, and it’s a costly dry spell. Most companies promote from within, and we do too. But in 2020 and 2021, I promoted everybody I had. I don’t have anyone left who is ready — and I can’t set someone up to fail if they’re not ready.

How are you finding new workers?

I’ve been fortunate enough to find people outside of the industry that fit nicely into this world. And they're doing phenomenal jobs. But I do have people that think this job is glamorous. You have people that come into it saying: “What, you want me to work every weekend because I'm a leasing agent? Absolutely not.” I have so much turnover in those entry-level positions.

What industries are you targeting when you’re looking for new employees?

We have been recruiting people from the hospitality industry. Workers in the hospitality industry use technology and have knowledge of how the software works. We generally take people from the retail world but that hasn't happened. It has been more hospitality, which is specifically because a lot of hotels just didn't come back. 

We have had very few hires from what I call the entertainment side. I think that's because restaurants and bars are all searching too. They lost a lot of those workers when they were closed. We have also had a few on the educational side, but not many. We have been extremely lucky with the last three or four hires. We have actually gotten a few health care workers that have said: “I'm done.” 

How important is industry experience?

I'll take a lady or a gentleman with a great attitude who wants to learn sooner than I'll take somebody who has 20 years of experience. A lot of times it's the attitude that you need.

What are your other challenges?

The other problem for me is technology. I'm not a big national company, so I don't have a whole department of people to go through all this new stuff thrown at us during COVID-19. In 2022, I made an effort to weed out stuff I’m paying for that I'm already not using and stuff where I already have another tool that's doing the same thing. For me, deciding what technology is user-friendly and what's a benefit to my site teams has been a priority because we throw so much at the site teams.

You're going to, on occasion, have some duplication of systems and reporting because I don't tell an owner they have to use my Yardi system. They may come in with something different. That means the site teams are doing less of what we hired them to do and more administrative work. 

Does in-person interaction still matter to residents?

People are looking for more and expecting more service. Face-to-face is coming back big time. People missed the camaraderie and the community feel. I can't tell you how many of our residents have said, “Oh my god, it's so great to see people.” I know how we feel when we go to meetings and see people. I think that's all coming back.

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