Planning is Preparing: Budget Season is Here
September in the multifamily industry means that budget prep season has begun. We love seeing the pictures starting to emerge from everyone in budget camps, and team huddles as progress is underway—brainstorming and collaboration at its finest! As we talked about last week in our email blast, preparation is key.
Staffing numbers are most often some of the highest budget line items each year. When it comes to creating room to get to your target expense goal, salaries can make the biggest impact. Having the data to support your salary line item will go a long way. Let’s say you have a position come available with a current base salary of $100k; a lot more strategy goes into filling that role than just finding a replacement. Beyond sifting through the candidate pool and fitting the role with the right person, you have to think about not only the salary but also the benefit matches. What about your company would entice someone to leave their current one? What if you find the perfect fit but haven't left room in your budget for negotiations? Good planning will be key in retaining top-tier talent.
The published industry staffing surveys are a great resource built on data to utilize, but they cannot begin to capture all of the unique scenarios that come with your staffing needs. The surveys offer a great guideline and should definitely be used in your planning as a starting point. Did you know that peoplezest can talk through the different markets with you and provide information about real salaries within those regions based on your product type and other distinguishing variables that are needed for the most up-to-date salary information?
Budget season is also a great time to revisit the cost of turnover and what your company is doing to increase your employee retention rate. Turnover costs include your time spent on search, onboarding, training, and set up, in addition to a new salary package. When you do need to fill an open position, seeking professional guidance in order to bring in the best pool of talent might be the optimal way to go. Sorting through hundreds of applicants or seeking out passive candidates takes time and expertise. Our people are our best asset—be sure to budget and prepare to take care of protecting that.
As always, PeopleZest looks forward to continuing to help you through this budget season and working with you through executive placements, strategizing services, career counseling, and resume needs.