Blog

Prepare Employees for Holiday Parties

By Nathan Jamail

It is that time year for company parties and year-end sales events, events that leaders spend lots of money and time planning and putting together to show their employees how much they appreciate their hard work and recognize their top performers.  But you can bet many of them will have the hangover of that famous question the next morning, “Hey did you see that guy or girl last night at the company event?”  That question can elicit many answers and some may sound like, “Oh yeah, everybody did when he got on the microphone and slurred profanity for everybody to hear. Or, “Did you see that girl? She was so drunk; she was saying all kinds of inappropriate things to her boss.”

I can guarantee his or her boss remembers it and their boss remembers it and they are for sure talking about it, but not as a funny story at the coffee pot. No, they are talking to HR or legal on how they are going to handle the situation.  Many great careers have been ended at company events by someone being that guy or that girl.

I have fortunately have not been that guy or girl as far as I know, but unfortunately, I have been the boss of a few in my career.

In 2000, our area had our annual planning session and awards event.  This event was hosted by my boss, the Area Vice President and all of my fellow directors and all of our managers and sales reps were in attendance with an estimated 300 employees.  It was the first night and until then we’d made it through the first day without any major incidences, but it was still early.  Later in the evening after dinner, many of the employees went to the bar in the hotel to continue celebrating and having fun with their peers from across the country.  A few of us managers were in a room with my boss having a discussion on how the event was going and reviewing the next day’s activities when another manager walked in and said, “one of the employees is throwing up in the middle of the bar.”  With confidence I said, “I know it’s not one of my people.”  I was confident because I had a talk with my team prior to this event on how everybody needs to act.  We discussed dress code, good and bad topics to discuss in public and under no circumstance do you want to be the person that sees the bartender leave to go home.  Since I just had this conversation about the do’s and don’ts, I knew it could not have been one of my people.

Well, I have been wrong a lot in my life and tonight was no different.  The manager then looked at me and said, “Actually, it is your employee.”  I instructed her immediate supervisor to have one of the other female employees to get her safely to her room immediately.  Now, this was not a terminating offense, but it was a “that girl” event.  Needless to say, she was embarrassed the remainder of the event.  I bet she remembers the advice we gave her following corporate events. Here are a few simple company or business event rules:

1. Use the 2 drink maximum rule or if you have low tolerance, then soda is probably what you should stick with.
2. Remember no matter your surroundings, you are still at work.
3. Don’t be the last one at the bar, because you probably broke the 1^st and 2^nd rules.
4. Have fun.
5. Make sure someone else is “That guy or girl!”

Take it from the boss of that guy or girl, the story never has good ending when you are that person.

What is a company to do?

Many leaders are doing fewer events and some are eliminating them all together to help avoid the human resource and legal issues that happen so often during these events.  This is a mistake that can and will cost the company good employees and good morale.  Keep doing the events, and focus on educating the teams on the appropriate behavior ahead of time.  Know at every event there will be that guy or that girl and you can deal with them, but the good news there are those remaining hundreds of great employees talking about that person and how thankful they are to be working for a company that shows how much they appreciate them.  Events can be expensive and a pain for many leaders, but they are cheap compared to unmotivated and unhappy employees and clients. Have a great end of the year and  Merry Christmas to everybody!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Nathan Jamail, president of the Jamail Development Group author of Best Selling Business Book “The Sales Leaders Playbook,” as well as radio host on CNN 1190 delivering business talk radio with an edge, is a motivational speaker, entrepreneur and corporate coach. As a former Executive for Fortune 500 companies, and business owner of several small businesses, Nathan travels the country helping individuals and organizations achieve maximum success. His clients include Radio Shack, Nationwide Insurance, Cisco, Stryker and Army National Guard. To book Nathan, visit www.NathanJamail.com or contact 972-377-0030.

We hope you’re having a great day and we’d like to make it even better! In case you haven’t heard, if you purchase your registration before December 30, you’ll pay only $225 per person! That’s even better than 2-for-1 pricing, and you don’t even have to register two people to get the price cut (but awesome group discounts are in effect on top of this; including register five and get the sixth free). Why such an outrageous deal? Because Brainstorming 2012 is all about EXPERIENCE, and we want your first experience with this particular event to be the feeling that Team Multifamilypro has your back. So register NOW at http://www.regonline.com/Register/Checkin.aspx?EventID=1020635 and experience big savings! No special offer code, no loopholes, no fine print. And if you don’t know whom you’re bringing or sending yet, just make the name on the regform “TBD” and tell us later. Just buy your seat(s) before December 30 and save!

Tami & Team Multifamilypro

P.S. This year’s accommodations are equally budget-friendly … only $119/night for a single or double occupancy SUITE at Rio, Las Vegas; so if you want, you can bring more of your team. And while we’re on the subject of bringing your team, reply here or call 727-940.5211 and ask how you can get even more out of the Brainstorming experience by making it the destination for your corporate conference or retreat!

Management

Idea/Theme: Incentivize behaviors you want to encourage. We filled a backpack with school supplies, bought a car wash gift card and held a drawing for our residents after switching utility billback companies. Anyone that signed up for e-bills or auto pay was entered in the drawing.

Contributed by: Victoria

Retention and Renewals

Idea/Theme: BARN PARTY

This fall, make the most of the changing leaves and cooling weather to throw an authentic barn dance, complete with hay, square dancing and foot-stomping music. You don¡’t have to have a barn on your property, nor does the clubhouse have to look like one for days afterward, to throw this sure-to-please party. Barn dances are fun to organize, easy to pick up after and guaranteed to bring your residents together for an evening they’ll be thanking you for all winter long.

Key Visuals: Props

The best, and simplest, way to create an instant barn is to place hay bales in strategic places around your clubhouse. Stack them solidly in corners and around low tables where residents might congregate to sit and chat. Or use them to create a festive boundary for your dance floor. Here are a few more easy props:

Make-shift scarecrows.

A wagon wheel.

A pitchfork.

Barn tools, work gloves, bandannas and baggy overalls.

Coils of rope.

Costumes

No need for fuss. A favorite pair of jeans, a comfortable shirt and square dancing shoes (boots and sneakers are both acceptable options) are all that are required for this shindig. However, don¡¦t hesitate to encourage residents to don their best cowboy/cowgirl clothes and accessories. Suggest red bandannas, cowboy boots, 10-gallon hats and wrangler jeans.

Refreshments

Order buffalo wings or a meat and cheese tray from your favorite local barbecue restaurant or grocery store, or if you would like to throw a full-blown picnic, ask residents to bring their own meat and dessert or a side dish and have your own barbecue on grills outside your clubhouse. Also, be sure to have plenty of beverages on hand for those thirsty square dancers… sodas, beer (if you are serving alcohol), lemonade and iced tea are instant thirst quenchers.

Music

Young country music has been tearing up the charts, so you should have no trouble pleasing your guests with songs from Clint Black, Reba McIntyre and Garth Brooks. But don’t forget the old favorites like Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings. Or hire a local band and enjoy an authentic square dance.

Special Activities

Invite your residents to participate in a John Wayne look-alike contest. Be sure to warn them ahead of time so they can don their best “Duke” outfit. Ask three residents to judge the contestants according to the following criteria:

Dress.

Physical features.

Impersonation of mannerisms and speech.

Prizes

Thrill your residents by awarding prizes for the best line or square dancer or John Wayne look-alike (see Special Activities). Country music CDs or tapes and posters make great gifts, but some residents may enjoy a chance to learn some new steps. Give them a gift certificate for a free dance lesson at your local country music establishment or dance studio.

Resources

If you would like to throw an authentic square dance, contact your local musicians¡¦ union to find out what bands are available that meet your time and price requirements. Also, check with Country and Western establishments in your area to see if they can recommend a local band or square dance caller.

Media Vehicles: Promoting Your Party

From brown posterboard, cut small cowboy boots and hats and decorate them with sequins or strips of fake leather. Write your party information on the back, and slip the invitations under your residents¡¦ doors.  Don’t forget to include an announcement in your newsletter. Following is just one option for promoting your party.

Newsletter Announcement  Yeee Haaa!!!

Saddle up for a rompin good time at the Willow Brooke clubhouse this October 30th as we host the best barn dance this side of the Mississippi. Pull on your cowboy boots and faded jeans and join us for spicy barbecue, square dancing, line dancing and rip roarin country and western music.

Estimated Cost: $300

Contributed by: KC Ross

“Doest thou love life?
Then do not squander time,
for that’s the stuff life is made of.”
-Benjamin Franklin

Most of us see the truth in Benjamin Franklin’s famous quote, but few of us live it. I don’t think we purposely squander time. It just happens. Many of us work so hard and so frantically that we’re too weary to do much more than collapse in front of the TV each evening. We sleepwalk through our days, failing to savor the richness and color of life. Tragically, days, weeks, months and years slip through our fingertips like sand, unnoticed and unappreciated. In short, squandered.

During my life, I have worked with everyone from no-nonsense CEOs to children awestruck by the appearance of a rabbit from a top hat. I have noticed that children have the edge on living in the moment. They don’t live one second in the future and one second in the past. They experience full, passionate hours of playing, learning and truly experiencing this wonderful world. I’ve often asked myself: why does this sense of wonder have to drop away as we grow older?

The answer is that it doesn’t. When you make the decision to live each hour to the fullest, life becomes a banquet of great splendor. No matter what dates are eventually carved on your tombstone, each hour you live can be a magnificent symphony where life is measured by moments and experiences, not clocks and calendars.

Take this message to heart and I guarantee you will reawaken to, or perhaps even discover for the first time, a life and legacy filled with purpose, passion, pleasure, and peace.

May you live a thousand years,
Giovanni Livera

Join us for Multifamilypro’s Brainstorming Sessions™ 2011: T.I.M.E. Machine, and hear Giovanni’s amazing keynote message: Live A Thousand Years on Wednesday, September 14th. We’ll see you there!

To create a sense of motivation for the apartment leasing staff, we purchased gifts to be drawn from a gift bag and set the number of net rentals they had to achieve for a chance to draw a prize from the bag. This is done in addition to the leasing commissions that are offered.

Each prize was wrapped and, in some cases, were put in larger or smaller containers so as not to expose the real prize. After the leasing consultant achieved the net rentals established in the guidelines, he or she could select a prize/gift and unwrap it. The cost varied on the type of gifts that are purchased.

This really motivated the leasing staff, as they got to unwrap a gift without knowing what is inside. It helped us get 54 rentals in one month on a new lease-up property.

Contributed by Michele Mann

This tip came to us courtesy of Terry McDurmon

Terry writes: “Moving is such an incredible hassle, so why not make it easy for new residents by helping out with their move? Instead of offering rental concessions, we arrange the transfer of all utilities AND pay the new resident’s switch charges (they are responsible for any required deposits). This has been a VERY popular program (all the needed info can be found on their rental application!) Your apartment community gains value on the Income side of the Financials, and as a side benefit, the program helps to ensure that all utilities are switched into the resident’s name (for those communities on continuous service agreements).”

Among the new media tools and topics we discussed at last year’s Multifamilypro’s Brainstorming Sessions, we talked about the new and potential opportunities in geolocation and geosocial marketing; both of which continue to get a lot of attention from forward thinking multifamily marketers. In 2012, there will be even more devices with built in GPS and  more apps than ever before with the ability to “geotag” content with the location where you created or posted it. The number of people using Location Based Services (LBS) like FourSquare, Gowalla, Facebook Places and TagWhat is increasing as are the number of “check ins” that they post to/from locations of all types, including our apartment communities.

Many people feel that geolocation has finally emerged as a real marketing opportunity. My friends and I use them regularly and I look forward to the special discounts and tips I receive almost every time I check in somewhere ( love my free chips and dip from Chili’s)! I believe that the Multifamily industry won’t be able to ignore geolocation as a marketing opportunity. Whether you have already tried some geoloaction marketing, simply “claimed your location,” or if you’re considering doing so it in the near future, it’s time now to start coming up with ideas and content to get your company or community started!

One of the concerns people have with geolocation marketing is privacy and the potential for brands to be seen as “cyber stalkers” for pushing messages that chase consumers around. The nice thing about geotagging, however, is that there are millions of pieces of content online right now that have geolocation information attached to them. Images are tagged with the exact GPS coordinates of where they were taken. Video can be linked to specific dates and events based on the metadata uploaded. This is offering a great opportunity for communities who take this content and create interesting visualizations around it.

Our residents are out there creating and sharing geotagged content already … what have tagged for your community?

See you in September!

Tami

Last year, we announced the Dorothy Gourley Shaw scholarship for attendance at Multifamilypro’s Brainstorming Sessions. This scholarship will be awarded each year to one deserving Multifamily Professional who is a first-time Brainstorming attendee, and demonstrates exceptional initiative. The Scholarship includes complete round trip-airfare to the event; a three-night stay at the event hotel; complimentary coverage of the winner’s Main Event Brainstorming registration; and one complimentary ticket to the Brainstorming Trends Lunch.

The intent of the scholarship is to provide one deserving individual with the opportunity to experience Brainstorming for the very first time, in honor of a dear friend who counted Brainstorming among her favorite events of the year. For this first opportunity, we heard from a number of outstanding candidates, making the selection extraordinarily difficult; but one candidate definitely stood out in this year’s crowd.

Emily Persinger is the Community Manager at Watermark Cambridge, a Gables Residential community. Emily shared with us several success stories that clearly conveyed her initiative, dedication, creativity, and above all her love for what she does; and it is for those many reasons that we look forward to seeing her this September in Phoenix. If she ends up at your table this year, be sure to welcome her! Until then, let us be the first to say to our very first winner … CONGRATULATIONS, EMILY! Well done!

Thanks to ALL who participated! Your professionalism and initiative do great honor to our industry, and you should all be proud!

We are all, in some way or another, creatures of habit — we wake up at the same time, brush our teeth with the same brand of toothpaste we’ve used for years, read the same sections of the newspaper, take the same route to work, drive by the same billboards… We rarely notice the usual fixtures of our surroundings unless they’ve changed in a noticeable way. This is an important point to take note of if you’re using flags. Purchase 2 or 3 set of flags in different colors and change them out every two weeks as standard operating procedure. This will draw people’s eyes to (and back to!) your community, and help them to keep you in mind when they are looking for a new apartment home, or when a friend or associate asks for a referral.

Here’s a GREAT idea that just came in from Michael Zink. Michael writes:  “Tami, I was looking through your catalog and saw the Garage/Carport hanger and it reminded me of a great idea one of my managers came up with… a magnetic sign that reads: ‘AVAILABLE: Call the Office!’ She placed them on the garage doors or the framework above the empty carport stall (most are metal these days) and it worked wonderfully.  Residents saw a garage they wanted and they called! It kept our parking income up and really shortened the period between vacancy and rental.”

This great tip comes to us courtesy of Tracey Hopkins. If it’s time to add a new dimension to your mystery-shopping program, you might consider using video. If the program is designed and implemented carefully and the information gathered is used constructively, video can make a tremendous difference in the professional growth and performance of your leasing team, especially in those instances where traditional mystery shopping methods just don’t seem to be shedding light on an underlying performance problem.

Source

http://www.shoppersview.com/video-mystery-shopping.php

This year’s Brainstorming theme is all about T.I.M.E. (Trends, Ideas, Momentum, Energy), and we know that there are a lot of you who have been waiting for a very long time to be able to attend our event and see for yourselves what thousands of MultifamilyPro’s have been raving about for all these years!

We’ve had contests before that allowed one or two lucky individuals to win free registration for Multifamilypro’s Brainstorming Sessions™, but this year feels like a good T.I.M.E. to pull out all the stops and award one WHOLE COMPANY the opportunity to send as many attendees as they wish, from 1, 10, 100 or 1,000 they will all attend  FREE!

Contest Rules

1. The goal is to present your case online via multiple social media outlets and get as many unique individuals as possible to like, comment, tweet, re-tweet, and otherwise endorse your campaign to win!  Post ,the reason why your company should win, on our wall,hash tag #mfbsconf ,blog or, You Tube channel .
2. To enter the contest, have as many members of your company Like , Post on our blog or tweet to us using hashtag #mfbsconf, then MENTIONING YOUR PARENT COMPANY BY NAME, Have each of your companies employees comment on the main post.  Communities or subsidiaries must post under the parent company name.
3. Each unique person who “LIKEs” Tweets on HashTag #mfsbconf , posts on the You Tube Channel or Blog the company’s main post or any comment on the post earns your company 1 POINT. Multiple comments by the same individual anywhere on your post will be counted only once throughout the contest.
4. Each unique person who COMMENTS on the main post earns your company 2 POINTS. Comments by the same individual anywhere/anytime on your post will be counted only once throughout the contest.
5. 5 BONUS PHOTO POINTS will be awarded for each comment  that links to a unique photograph on Facebook or any other photo hosting site (Flikr, Picassa, Photobucket, etc.) that’s tagged “Multifamilypro’s Brainstorming Sessions” and presents your company’s case visually. Each unique photograph will count only once.
6. 10 BONUS HOMEMADE VIDEO POINTS will be awarded for each comment on your  post linking to a unique homemade video hosted anywhere online that presents your company’s case and includes “Multifamilypro’s Brainstorming Sessions” in the video’s title, description, keywords, or tags. Each unique video will count only once .

About our blog

1. The goal is simple… just get as many individuals as possible post a comment that includes your company’s name somewhere on our Brainstorming Blog!  We’re counting the number of INDIVIDUALS and not the number of posts, so only one comment received from each person will count.
2. Be sure the individual includes your company name somewhere in the actual comment so we’ll know who gets the credit, and use only your parent company name and not a community or subsidiary name so there won’t be any confusion when the points are tallied.
3. Participants may comment on ANY post, anywhere on the blog, and the comment should be relevant to the post.
4. Each comment is worth ONE POINT to your company!

The contest begins NOW and will include all posts date/time stamped before midnight Eastern Time on Sunday, July 31, 2011.  The winner will be announced on our website and all Multifamilypro social media outlets on Friday, August 5, 2011

Contest Terms: Only Property Management firms are eligible to win.  Vendor/Service Provider employees may participate in comments that support the candidate company’s campaign, but are not eligible to participate as potential winners.  The winning Property Management Company will receive unlimited, complimentary Brainstorming registration for all individuals who are directly employed by the winning parent company (vendors and contractors excluded). Optional Brainstorming programs (Trends Lunch or OptSum add-ons) are not included.  Travel, lodging, and other expenses are the responsibility of the company or individual. Employees may register for either our Main Event or Executive Brainstorming Sessions, as appropriate to their position title/responsibility.

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. A PURCHASE OR PAYMENT OF ANY KIND WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING. For the full rules click here

Trends really come alive when you discuss them because that allows you to consider them from many angles, using them as shared input to invent new ideas, services and experiences for your customers. The main reason behind our original, trends-based approach to Brainstorming is that it enables you and your team to use the collective imaginations, points of view, and experiences of others to imagine new possibilities and opportunities that aren’t just fresh, but are also perfectly in line with today’s consumer attitudes and demands … something you can’t do as easily by just reading a book or a whitepaper, or even attending a seminar.

Our trends-based Brainstorming Sessions are designed to do two important things: transfer our highly-researched insights to a larger group of individuals with the goal of triggering new ideas; and get those individuals on the same page, giving them a common starting point. The latter is crucial, as most projects aimed at kick-starting innovation, new management strategies, future marketing and so on, require a truly shared understanding that’s rarely pursued in a structured way (if at all), or achieved successfully in other environments.

In other words, before business professionals can effectively engage in brainstorming and ideation sessions, they need something to work with, something to chew on. So what better input than information on what consumers really need, want, and do?

Last year at Multifamily Brainstorming Sessions we talked about the growing trend of Random Acts of Kindness. Secret deodorant  applied random acts of kindness as part of their marketing strategy to ‘Blow People Away’. When someone wrote on Secret’s Facebook wall that she couldn’t buy Secret in Spain, P&G weren’t able to just send her products from the US because of customs regulations. However, an agency executive took some to Italy on an unrelated trip and then mailed them to her from there. What are you doing to “Blow Your Residents Away?”

Why? Because we don’t have to call, text or even see people personally (oh what a hassle!), social networks’ allow us to easily broadcast information to a wide range of people without interrupting or intruding.

The 500 million active Facebook users share over 30 billion pieces of content per month. The average user has 130 friends. (Source: Facebook, February 2011.)

The explosion in both the incredible mass volume and reach of connections creates huge opportunities for our multifamily marketing efforts. We have make certain that we create interesting, meaningful, funny, uplifting moments that residents and their friends, family, followers and fans  love to share. Which means that what we do on a daily basis can now touch thousands, if not tens of thousands of people, rather than just that one  resident o prospect.

What are your thoughts?

We are moving into  interesting times when pricing and product differentiation becomes increasing difficult in certain marketplaces and advertising goes unnoticed, resident engagement becomes key in our multifamily success. We need to be creative and  turn to interactive  experiences to solidify resident relations. Since living spaces are often the result of emotions, maximizing a residents experience within  the community environment — whether at the apartment community itself or online — will increase positive feelings and loyalty at renewal time.

Do you have a strategy?

Someone asked me the other day why the Multifamily Brainstorming Sessions have a new theme each year and why we have created our own language. The answer is that because each event will bring together new people and fresh perspectives to create new possibilities for our future, it’s worthy of its own imaginative name and theme that will set it apart from other events.

The common language helps unite people who come from diverse backgrounds to Brainstorm together, many for the first time. Sure, we regularly take flak for our event names and themes and the language we use, but here’s why they work:

• Themes arouse curiosity, invoke interest, make people sit up and listen, and make them want to know more. A well-chosen name radiates the promise of a story … of something important; and if that name is unique (even if it’s unique in its silliness), who can resist the desire to find out more and not miss out?

• A specialized, common Language gives groups and teams something to rally behind more easily than everyday language. It also saves time in team interaction—members are able to instantly be on the same page. We want to make certain that The Brainstorming Sessions create a feeling of teamwork and great communication because that produces RESULTS!

• Themes and Language together allow us to Coin, Own, and Track. Combining a fresh theme and language allows us to coin something entirely new. It’s important to note that coining isn’t about ownership, or claiming you’re the first one to come up with an idea … at Brainstorming we try to look at everything as though we’re seeing it for the first time. Coining the new theme is also convenient in that it helps us track everything related to that theme including what leads up to and grows from it (for example, Googling the unique name/concept lets us see what others are communicating about about it; how they’re using the ‘theme’, language, or idea; and often allows us to watch ideas that originate at that themed event take on a life of their own).

See you in September!

Tami