The Right Fit

When the Indian Rocks Property Owners Association recently began its search for a new community manager, the board immediately asked one of its members to prepare a detailed job description and invited volunteers from the community to serve on the search committee.

The current manager of the Greentown, PA. community is planning to retire in December, and board members see this as the right time to "tweak" their policies and procedures to help prevent future problems as their community continues to grow.

"We want to have a suer-friendly administration so we do not have a lot of confrontation from the public,our membership. We want broader participation from the community in terms of people serving on committees. That's the general goal," says association President Leonard Buxton.

Board members also have thought long and hard about the kind of relationship they want with a new manager. They don't want a manager who will dictate everything, and they don't want to micromanage.

"Some boards are hands-on and some boards are hands-off. We want to strike a happy medium," Buxton says.

The Indian Rocks Board has already taken two of the most important preliminary steps that experts recommend in choosing a manager who will best fit the community: assessing your community's needs and preparing a detailed job description. Surprisingly, many association boards don't take the time to develop their criteria before launching a search or find it difficult to assess their community objectively, several manager search firm executives say.

"For them to be able to find a manager who fits their personality and fits their community well is very challenging," says Julie Adamen, president of Adamen Inc., a recruiting firm in Poulsbo, Wash., and a member of CAl's Foundation for Community Association Research board. "The criteria should not be 'do they live nearby and do they work cheap?'"

THE RIGHT CULTURAL FIT

A successful search is not just finding candidates with the best skills, but finding candidates with the right cultura1 fit who can make a long-lasting, positive contribution to the community. Determining whether a candidate is a good fit involves how his or her style, behavior, and temperament fit with the organization, says Scott McNett, principal of Conley & Company, a national executive search firm headquartered in Boston.

Do the board members go by first names or titles? Is their attire formal or casual? Are they innovative or bound by tradition? These are probably good clues to the board's culture, says Cindy Kohlbry, managing director with Conley & Company. "It's a lot easier to hire the right people to begin with than to work on trying to fix them later."

A bad fit can cost more than 15 times his or her compensation in both real and opportunity expense, according to Brad Smart, author of Topgrading. In the case of a community association, opportunity expense might involve declining reputation, disgruntled residents or inefficient maintenance, McNett says. So, most organizations can't afford to get it wrong.

Developing a detailed job description gives board members a better grasp of their community's needs and ensures their expectations are laid out clearly to the potential new manager. It also will make it easier for board members to oversee the new hire.

"I'm amazed at how many of them really don't know what they need their manager to be doing on a daily, weekly or monthly basis," says Lisa Pinder, director of CondoJobs Recruiting Service, in Royal Palm Beach, Fla.

"They ought to have at least a rough outline of what they expect from the manager... A lot of them are just going on their gut, but it's not enough."

Board members should consider their community's specific needs. For instance, high-rise communities have unique amenities such as heat and air conditioning systems, elevators, lobbies, underground parking, security and emergency exit demands. Planned communities, on the other hand, have their own challenges such as rigorous architectural approval processes, complex landscaping needs, street maintenance, pool safety and maintenance, tennis courts, golf courses and possibly restaurants. While managers don't need to be experts in all of those areas, they should have enough knowledge to deal with the day-to-day challenges.

There are other decisions to make at the outset. Do you want an on-site manager or a portfolio manager who works for a management company and manages several associations at once?

To find candidates, ask neighboring associations for recommendations. Check CAI's Job Bank at www.caionline.org or the Institute of Real Estate Management's (IREM) Job Bank at www.iremjobs.org. If your board has the money but not the time to conduct a thorough search, hire a recruiting firm.

Finding a manager with a college degree is sound advice, but not an absolute must, industry experts say. However, on the-job-training is critical. Kohlbry says she looks at whether the candidate is keeping up with the profession. If so, the manager may have specialized training obtained from CAI, the CAI-affiliated National Board-of Certification for Community Association Managers, IREM or one of several state organizations.

The explosive growth in community associations has created intense competition for good managers, recruiters say. Without a competitive compensation package that includes health, vacation, a 401 (k) plan, moving allowances and the other perquisites that attract high-caliber people, boards face greater hurdles in finding the right person.

If you're hiring a management company, however, be aware that some low bidders could have hidden costs. Firms may try to make up the difference in overtime costs, copying charges or by managing websites, cautions Fred Mellenbruch, who is vice president of the Lake Mission Viejo Association in Mission Viejo, Calif., president of CAI's Orange County chapter and a member of CAI's Community Association Volunteers Committee.

"We review contracts every year. We make them earn their money," said Mellenbruch, who serves with Adamen on the foundation board.

INTERVIEW STRATEGY

To begin the hiring process, hold a strategy meeting to develop the hiring procedure. If your association can't afford to hire a professional search firm, ask the association's attorney to brief the board on what types of interview questions are prohibited by law. Inappropriate questions (involving marital status, for example) could result in a lawsuit by a job candidate.

Identify a list of the attributes and attitudes required for an employee in addition to the skills previously discussed. Many communities have hired managers with excellent skills only to find their attitudes and interpersonal skills get in the way of performing the job.

After reviewing the resumes, conduct telephone interviews with the top candidates to help narrow your search. While this may require additional time, telephone interviews with standardized questions can help you ensure that candidates are evaluated consistently. Interviewers can be highly subjective as they may have biases, which can dramatically affect the outcome, or they may subconsciously favor candidates who have character traits similar to their own.

Invite the best candidates to meet in-person with the board. This is the board's opportunity to get a sense of their interpersonal strengths and weaknesses. Ask open-ended questions that will help you assess how the candidate would handle difficult situations. Typical interview questions include:

• Describe a typical working day.
  
  
• Discuss ways you assist the board during a meeting.
  
  
• If a hostile homeowner stormed into your office yelling about a neighbor's dog, what would you do?
  
  
• I Discuss our community financial statement provided to you.
  
  
• I What do you suggest for developing a sense of community among our residents?

Include at least one interviewer whose job is to ask follow-up questions when responses are too vague. In addition, you might include current staff members who will report to the new manager. They may be able to assess whether the candidate has the personality traits required to perform successfully. A group interview will increase the observations during the review process, reduce biases and add more input to the final decision.

"Good managers don't necessarily have to have all the answers, but they have to know how to get them and be willing to do what it takes to get them," says Pinder.

TAKE THE TIME

Conduct thorough reference checks. Don't stop with the most recent employers. They may not be candid for fear of legal reprisal, or they may feel that the manager will perform better in a new environment.

A complete criminal background check on the chosen applicant also is essential. There are managers who have stolen funds from community associations or committed other crimes. Sometimes they re-enter the profession in different geographical locations, hoping that a background check won't detect their convictions in other states. Some are very charismatic and can sway boards into making quick employment decisions.

Drug testing also is recommended given the prevalence of substance abuse in our society. In addition, hiring firms can administer personality and aptitude tests. But a candidate's past performance is probably the best predictor of his or her future performance, and a thorough search is more likely to bring problems to light.

In searching for a community manager who fits your community, as with most things in life, you get out of it what you put into it. "The more professional a board is, the better off the community is," Adamen says.

Michael E. Packard
PCAM®, CPM®, CCAM®
Senior Vice President
Associa Regional Office
Carlsbad, CA

Dori Meinert is editor of Common Ground.

Also contributing was Ed Corless, who is regional vice president with the Wentworth Group in West Long Branch, N.J.

Resources:
Choosing a Management Company, by Michael E. Packard, PCAM, COM. Retail $25. CAI Members: $15.

On-Site Managers: How to Find the Right Community Association Professional, by Thomas Burgess, PCAM, and Pam Washburn, CMCA, AMS, PCAM. Retail: $25. CAI Members: $15.

Finding the Right Professionals: A Guide for Leaders of Community; Homeowner and Condominium Associations and Cooperatives. Free Brochure.

2007 Community Association Manager Compensation and Salary Survey, edited by David Jennings, CAE, SPHR and Jake Gold, CAE. Retail: $149. CAI Members: $89.

To Order, Visit CAI's Online Bookstore or Call CAI Direct at (888) 224-4321.

Originally published in Common Ground Magazine, September-October 2007.

Heather Graham, CMCA®, PCAM®
HOA Division Director
Community Management Corporation
Fairfax, VA