Lessons for tomorrow’s leaders

Want to hold on to your talented employees?

Invest in their careers. That’s the advice that can be drawn from LinkedIn’s 2018 Workforce Learning Report, which found that a remarkable 93 percent of employees said they would stay at a company longer if the company invested in their careers. More and more, professional development is no longer an occasional perk or earmarked only for certain positions. Especially among younger professionals, it’s an employee expectation that demonstrates whether the company appreciates its people and is committed to their success.

Several of IREM’s AMO companies demonstrated commitment to their employees when they nominated members of their property management teams to take part in the initial offering of the Next-Gen CPM Leaders program. The program, available exclusively to AMO companies, is a talent management initiative that fast tracks a group of young professionals through the CPM curriculum, providing supplemental leadership training along the way, at a savings of more than 50 percent on tuitions and registrations.

The 21 students formed a cohort in which they progressed through the CPM designation program together over a period of 18 months, kicking off with an introductory webinar, traversing through the entire CPM syllabus, and culminating with their CPM installation at the IREM Global Summit last September in Florida. Over the course of the program, they spent time together virtually through online courses and in person, both when they came together to attend the 2017 and 2018 Global Summits, and when they participated in instructor-led classroom offerings at IREM’s Chicago Headquarters.

Not only did the cohort earn the CPM designation. The program also created a strong sense of community. The participants formed relationships with colleagues throughout the country, which likely will extend throughout their professional careers.

Companies that participate in this program or offer their employees similar opportunities to gain new knowledge and learn new skills also stand to gain. They benefit from increased employee loyalty, lower employee turnover and employees who have enhanced skill sets that can be immediately put to use, bringing value to the properties they manage and creating a competitive advantage for the company.