ARL_event_FullEnhanceSpatial_Orange

Tom Lord, Tina, and Robertson share their experiences in the Build to Rent (BTR) industry. Tom transitioned from a chaotic startup to Grace Star following a friend's recommendation. Tina switched from banking to multi-family portfolio management at Grace Bar. Robertson, previously on-site, became an Onboarding Manager at Green Jam. They discuss standing out in the industry by showcasing reliability, adaptability, and problem-solving skills. They emphasize the importance of going above and beyond for residents to provide exceptional service. They also touch on the value of broadening skills before specializing in a specific area within BTR operations. So I'm Tom Lord, Senior Director of Operations at Grace Arthur. From the fizzy properties all the way through to here at Copenhagen Square. So really pleased to come over and see this place today. How did I end up in BTR? Somebody phoned me up and said there's a job doing at Grace Star. You might like it. I went shit yes I would because where I am is chaotic nuts and was a short-term rental startup with a 32 year old CEO and it was driving me nuts. So one of my friends who worked for Grace in the US that I knew from hotel days called me up and said you should apply and the rest is history. Hi, I'm Tina, Senior HR Assistant Partner at Grace Bar. I look after predominantly at the minute the multi-family portfolio and some of the parts of the operations. And how did I get into BTR? Well I've had to do change of industry so my background is predominantly banking and I've never heard of Grace Star or Bill Trent before and I was approached for the role and then like I said here I am three years later. I didn't think I'd be here this long but keeping me hanging on. Thank you Robertson. I'm currently the Onboarding Manager at Green Jam. I've only been there for eight months having previously been on site. And how I ended up in Bill Trent it was very accidental. I wanted to escape the student world and the chaos of dealing with people moaning about their flatmates not taking their dinners out and it kind of wears you down. And again similar to what I'm telling you I didn't know what Bill Trent was. I just knew that there were buildings, someone managed them and I thought I can do that. I actually applied for Assistant Manager role because I just wanted to get my foot in the door and luckily when I took that application forward the currency I was leaving so they said apply for this you've got the experience you can do it. Amazing so we're gonna get straight into it. So first section is going to be around getting noted, breaking in, you know establishing yourself in those first couple of years. So we're going to kick off with my opening question which is what actually helps someone stand out in their first couple of years? This could be people you manage, it could be from your own experience but I'm going to start with something else. We're going to have a question on this and actually first I'm just thinking about my recent mentorship that I've had over the past year and a lot of the advice I was given which I found quite helpful. I think one of the things is showing your credibility and reliability that I don't think people understand how important that is to being that solid foundation. I've also found people who put their hand up to help outside their lane so to me that's like kind of how you've got to get noticed, people feel reliable, you're more adaptable, more agile, trying to get involved in different things without letting the quality of your actual role drop. So that's how you, again, protect your name, know who you are, kind of starting to build that experience. Me? I think the people that get noticed are the ones that everybody trusts, right? So if you do what you say you do, if you look for issues, come with solutions and start proposing them to your manager, to the community manager, the GM and then follow through on that and you're somebody that takes ownership and just gets stuff done. Now that can be a CSA who's just joined, it could be a community manager, an assistant manager, but the people that end up being the ones that your boss goes to when they want something to get done are the people that stand out and come up in the conversations that we have about, right, where's the talent? Our dream and mine is that we find people that join the CSAs and end up as community managers and beyond, right? And so it's those people that kind of go out of their way to spot patterns, deliver great service, solve problems. I mean, it comes down to the relationships and the fact that you're trusted just to get shit done, right? And those are the people that will stand out right from the early days, but all the way through and even now, at my level, still there, wanting to be the one that will take stuff on, deliver it because there's always somebody up there that's looking for who the talent is and that goes through every level. So I think it's not just about the first two to three years, but it keeps going all the way through. Great. And Angie, what's your experience being there? I think going above and beyond, really, for the residents. It's all based on time. It's about making their experience. I think people don't move in to build for rent because they've got all the little things that are being done for them. It may be a resident that's unwell, someone's called down and said, can you bring a delivery up for me? And you pick it up for them. It may be someone that needs a door opener because they've got a really big parcel. It's just doing those really little extra things that I think make a real difference. So people might not move in to build for rent because of those assets, but they'll want to stay because they know that they're going to get that level of service from the people on site. So I think that's something that's really underrated, in my opinion. I think you can see the reach out to the rest of your ability. We've got a few of those little extra things for the residents. So I think the general liability is just something that is sometimes really difficult to combine, I think, today. And I think it's huge. I'll add something in this as well. I mean, this is partly what tonight is about as well. I think it's getting outside of your own day-to-day and working with people. So I think the pending event, whether it be sort of people of the law or individuals of the law, it's absolutely crucial for those in the range that are there now and among them. I've been on quite a journey myself in terms of recruiting and expecting. I mean, I never recruited to the USA before, so I've been trying to direct people out of the industry and find out at all what that's all about and the challenges. And that's the kind of people we are. So I mean, sometimes you've got to kind of see what else is kind of out there that you can take a bit more perspective in all the little bit of the network of people that you can get up to and see if there's more levels, more mentors, anything like that. And the webinars you attend, the follow-up generally, you know, if you're a person that appreciates it, I really like your perspective. Just last week, speaking to the CEO of a cloud-based company yesterday, they saw a mentor, a general manager, that literally just kind of like reached out to one of those. It was something they fed on, on sort of LinkedIn or something. They still keep in touch today. They've got advice here and there, so don't be afraid to kind of push yourself out there in that respect as well. So we'll come on to our next question, so thanks for that, guys. Speaking around like whether you should specialize or be just kind of generous, we're going to talk about whether you guys think early on, is it smarter to maybe pick a certain lane and become very strong on that, or is it better to kind of expose yourself to lots of different things early on in your career or the nature of those, so what do you think on that one? I hear a lot of people on property, and bearing in mind that my career journey was starting as a barman in a hotel wanting to be a GM one day, yes, but as an option, always going to get it in, got to tell the journey. But assistant manager, general manager, that kind of stuff, right? And I think... That's a great film. That should be watching it. In fact, let's can this and just watch cocktail. Anyway, where was I? But I think to a lot of people on property, and they're like, oh, I want to go into asset management, or, oh, I want to be an investor, or I should go into development, and it's like, but you're an operator, and operations is a super commercial part of this business and is the engine of what drives the whole thing, right? And I think the mistake people can make is actually going, that sounds like it's really good, and choosing what sounds great over what they're brilliant at. And some of those are just brilliant operators, right? And you can sit in a room with development people and with asset managers, and none of them have got a clue about how to actually run these, how to maximize rate, how to minimize cost. And if you're good at that, you're going to go a long way, and there's always value in you. Operators need to be the last to get cut when restructures happen as well, right? And definitely property people, because there's always got to be someone doing that. But in development, they can go quite easily. Don't tell development I said that. So I think the advice is that stay broad for a while whilst you learn everything. Learn how it all works. Get to know your financials, your P&Ls, how to add value, what value means to investors. You can do all of that when you're in a property, right? Listen to stuff, learn from other people, listen to your asset managers and all of that. And then once you realize what you're really good at, you might get an opportunity to open a property one day, and you realize, I'm really good at this, but actually I was really good at the organization, the processes, ta-da-da-da-da-da, ta-da, actually I'm going to be a great mobilization manager, new openings manager. There's people that I've come across over my career that are great at opening stuff, rubbish at running it for the long term because they get bought. There's other people that are terrible at opening it because they're not organized enough, but love running it for the long term because they like coming up with ideas of how to engage people and do stuff differently. So find out what your specialism is, what are you excellent at, what are you going to excel at, and then go down that track. It might just be that operations is the lane to stay in, and that's okay, because you can get a long way and have a lot of fun along the way. So my background is of being on-site, so I started off as accommodation manager at GSA, then went over to Silver Rent as a general manager, and I personally, because I come from being on-site, just believe that it's the best, that you guys right now, if you're on-site, you are in the best position possible to be able to succeed, because you're on-site is absorbing so much. You're not just dealing with blessings, you're not just dealing with the day-to-day operations. I mean, how many of us have now thought about adding to our CVs, thin men, post-men, cleaners, maintenance, doctors, because it's just something that you ultimately just get involved with. So I believe that if you're on-site, that's the best place to really figure out what you enjoy, and it might take 10 years to get there. I'm eight years in the industry now, and do believe that I'm in the right place with my role as an onboarding manager, and I'm very pleased to be there, but also because I've now joined a new company, I'm part of the development team, where because I've been on-site dealing with fire issues and FM problems, I don't sit there and not know what everyone's talking about. I know what people are discussing when they're on-site, because I've dealt with it when I've mobilised sites. So I think, personally, it's really benefitted me going into a new company and having an idea what every department is talking about. I think different companies tend to have different roles and responsibilities within their GMs, but my last company is just a little bit better than on-site in terms of marketing. And I think when it gets to a point when you do want to go down and try and explore a different part of, say, your company, you can say, well, I've got experience in this, and hopefully I'll give you an opening to be able to go down that. So yeah, I think it's, for me personally, as much as I couldn't wait to get on-site, I am really thankful for the experience that it's given me and the knowledge. From a HR business perspective, do you see, or have you got an example of a successful kind of internal move? Do people tend to make their own strategy? No, we've had a few people, well, who've progressed. We've had people who have moved from on-site into data and analytics teams, so they've gone into corporate functions. We've had somebody in operations and sales who's gone into development. So the opportunity is there. I am a big fan of early on in your career if you can get breadth, why wouldn't you get breadth and generalise? It gives you that USP when you become a specialist as well, because you know more than just a specialist, and that kind of really helps you for in-person interactions when you're discussing various topics. I think that's really beneficial. I just love being a generalist. When I started out in HR, I really wanted to be a specialist, and I had the opportunity to raise a generalist. To me, I just don't know how much people wouldn't hate that opportunity to get it if it's there. I think it really depends on how a business works. There are all the different elements of it to help them to function. But I think people underestimate, and that's what we're trying to do at the minute, is highlight the internal moves and what's possible. So whether it is just staying in operations or going into corporate, there is a way. Well, there is a world of ways, but it's how you get there, and it's kind of defining those two components, and that's what you need to do in that situation to really grow to become a specialist. I think also it's worth noting that when you're wanting to progress and move forward, I think people have this idea and impression that you just need to go for the position up and up and up, whereas I actually technically took a step back to be able to now be in the position that I'm in. I think it's always worth noting that just because you made a step back, you'll then hopefully be able to progress further. I started off as an assistant onboarding manager eight months ago, and they've already promoted me to onboarding manager. So I think that's probably the most important thing as well. Yeah, I think that's sort of like either doing a lateral move for people who've had to take a step back, see that as a donation, but actually if they're doing it to pivot to go elsewhere in their career, like actually in Stevens, for example, we've just had a regional operations manager who stepped in to us at Manifrent, not the same level he was, but he wanted to take a sprint move, to say back to the direction he's taken. So I think it's like, don't be afraid to do that. Your career's for the long term, it's not a short term, and you need to do it to make it your life's sake. Take the measure efficiently. Comes a point when it gets more short term. Banging. Thank you guys for that. We'll move to our next option, which is around commercial awareness. Just to give you a bit of context, from my perspective, having recruited residents, I hope, the general manager, the regional head of ops, operator, MD, investment, as well, often client-based, commercial actions, commercial awareness, things. But it's clearly an important part of this progressive career to understand how important it is, early on in your career, that you get exposure to hear how it's going to be. That's something that's very critical. It's very important to understand how you get that exposure early on to have that skill set. This is the question I said that's the only better answer. Rude. Am I the only one? I think. Go on. I think anybody in operations can put a commercial head on, right? But most people are a little bit scared of it. Oh my God, that's numbers and that's commercial. That's not me. Where's the finance people? But it's really boils down to some really simple things. Does it drive revenue? Does it save cost? Or does it impact risk? If you think about those three things as the real simple bits when anyone says commercial acumen, we can all do it, right? So if I didn't say, oh talk to me about your commercial acumen but said, have you done one initiative that made you more money at your property? We could probably answer that question, right? If I said, have you ever done anything that saves cost? Yeah. So then you just put an NOI hat on that goes right, there's two drivers to this. One is more money. The other is less spent. If you start thinking about initiatives and go is this going to drive my revenue top line? Or is this going to save us? Either of those things are going to make you more profit at the bottom. And it really is that simple, right? So then when you take that approach and you move into a point where you're kind of an assistant manager and you're sat in a financial call with your CM or your GM and they're going oh what are we going to do about this? Well it'll just tell you how much you spent on marketing, how much you had in a budget and whether you're up or down against that spend. So then you can go oh are we over or under? That means it's impacting positive, negative on NOI. So I think my point is don't be scared by it because it is pretty much as simple as your budget is 10, you've spent 12 you're over budget. Right? Or your revenue budget is a million, you've made a million and a half, go celebrate. Right? But when it suddenly says 12 million, 122,343 and you're 3% under and somebody's going what are we doing about that? How are we going to do it? Everyone goes oh my god that's just numbers and that scares me and I'm going to go and speak to a guest because that's better. Right? Just keep it simple in your head and all sorts of people can sit there, look at a spreadsheet on a computer and pick holes in your performance. I get it almost every day, right? Somebody in asset management well what are we going to do? Surely we can reduce costs and then that'll all be good and it's like yeah and if you do that you're going to reduce revenue because everybody's going to leave and they'll go oh right. But if you just keep that, we've got to keep the revenue there what does it take to keep revenue up? Make guests happy. I often boil it down to this really simple thing happy teams make happy residents make happy investors because you're making money, right? So if your team are loving what they do they will make sure that the place is buzzing and everybody loves living where they are right? If everybody loves living where they are then they either stay longer, well usually they stay more, pay more and tell more people about it. That drives your revenue. You then look around and go where are we wasting money? If it was my money and I was paying for that am I getting good value? And then you usually go no the cleaning company is ripping us off again so let's go and renegotiate it. That saves us money profit's made everybody leaves you alone. Yeah? So it's like it's just put that really simple hat on when you look at a P&L, what's all my revenue, where am I? And if you look at the big line first and then go oh my god I'm behind, why? Go back up, have a look at the little lines. Same on the costs. And the other side of commerciality is risk, right? Because if you're not managing the risk and something, God forbid, happens and the building closes down then that's the other side of it. And operators are great at managing risk. We know that it's there, we see it every day. And again, it's easy for a health and safety person to sit in the background and go oh I'm looking through your compliance and you're missing this. And you're like I know I'm managing my risk it's fine, we've done the walks we've checked everything, the team's all aware. But put that risk hat on with all of the decisions you make because if you decide to cut a load of cost out of spending on fire safety and one day something happens it wasn't a good save as it were along the way. Does that help? How would you encourage people who are either starting off on their career or feel commercially fluent what kind of questions should they be asking? It's starting with the simple stuff right? Ask your community manager simple questions because they're pretty simple and will give you a simple answer. That's what operators are. But if you're really interested you want to learn and there's a morning meeting, there's a monthly team meeting where whenever we say to anybody what questions have you got everyone stays quiet everyone in every session stays quiet right? If you're that person that's there going well I've got a question can you tell us how we're doing against our budget on revenue and on cost and they'll go I'd love to. I didn't know you were interested right? And that'll open up the conversation and then you can say I've got an idea of how to save cost will this work? Will this be helpful? And then they'll explain why it is and then you do that initiative and that gets you noticed again because you're helping the CME to drive revenue or save on cost and it all comes through right? And they go well not only are they smart and can solve problems but they can also think commercially and they've come to me and told me they want to do this because it's going to increase revenue and that gets you noticed. So the questions are really keep them simple probe and over time if you're getting to the system manager level ask to be on those meetings where your CMs have a talking about them with their regional ops managers and their accountants and all of that kind of stuff because people don't say no but everybody's busy so they don't always say oh do you want to come along right? So ask don't be afraid. So I had no experience in my first three years at CVSA and when I went for an accommodation manager role in London I openly said I had no experience in there. But I clearly thought we should go in all of the other areas or just do the training and that's exactly what happened. So don't let it put you off going for a certain position because you don't feel like you've got the experience. You probably understand more than what you think you're doing. If the person in C102 doesn't move out that means we don't have to pay for cleaning costs that means we don't have to get someone in to do their indenture. That means we've got no void days. You can all probably start to work out in your head how the company saves money. If that apartment is void for two weeks then we shouldn't have put their rent up by a certain percentage and actually we wouldn't have lost money. So you probably know more than what you realise but don't be afraid to ask and if you've got people above you that really see something special they'll just sit and make sure that they go through it with you. But personally I've just had people above me that have spent time with me and I've kind of worked things out as I've gone on. I would answer that and say as much as I hate to give him compliments Miss Claude, when he was there I think we were in a culture at Graysdale where it was what if not for the alternative experience so therefore it's a no-go but actually you've been very good at helping change the dial and all that doesn't matter. It's like what's your behaviour what else have you done, what could you bring to the table you don't need to have specific experience to know how to get you to that place or strength and not focusing on just your gaps. So to be fair you've been very good at that. 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