As property management businesses start to reopen offices, owners are looking for more efficient and effective ways to support their teams to deliver exceptional customer experiences in this new world.

The new tools and software programs rolling out in the industry are promoting more business-focused frameworks to measure and drive performance. Managing change is hard, though. It's not always welcome and some team members can be resistant. That’s why it’s critical to involve team members in the change, monitor how they are coping, and offer support to ensure they adapt as quickly as possible.

Change management is a concept that has been around since the early 1950s, however, didn’t take hold until the 1990s. It is, though, reasonably new to the property management space. Over the past decade, I’ve helped many property management businesses through large-scale change management programs – particularly programs that involve new technology roll-outs. While every plan is unique, I always start with these three steps as my foundations:

Your plan should include a team ‘Buy-in’ session to give them a clear understanding of the benefits that will come from the change - Communicating the ‘Why’ is just as important as the change itself. It should also include an assessment of each team member which will drive a unique training plan for each.

Each team member now has a plan for their adoption journey, so implement resources to support them. These could be as simple as peer to peer training or more formal performance management program to ensure each has the right tools to move forward.

Each team member will undertake a unique journey in this program, and it is up to business leaders to identify this and allocate resources to reduce any anxiety. In my experience, team members usually fall into three buckets when faced with change: early adopters who embrace the change, those who are uncertain or hesitant, and laggards who are resistant to any change. Build advocates of the program to help promote and train other team members that may not be as comfortable with the change.

Conduct a weekly review during your change management program. Use 1-on-1 feedback from the team to see how they are adapting to the change. If they are advancing better than expected, that is a win. If they are lagging, consider reviewing your plan, allocating further one-on-one training or dig deeper into why they are lagging.

Change is inevitable, and it is prudent to push the boundaries on this to remain relevant. Using a structured change management process will ensure the successful implementation of your change program.