When a disaster strikes any apartment community (such as a hurricane, fire, or other natural or human-caused disasters), there’s a necessary balance between delivering effective management and demonstrating compassion. The ability of property managers to manage a disaster while being empathic to staff and tenants can certainly be a challenge. However, with the right planning and approach, you can take the appropriate action to address a disaster while keeping your community safe. Here are three steps to achieving crisis management with compassion:
Adhere to a plan while being adaptable.
While it’s impossible to plan for every potential disaster, adhering to a pre-established crisis management plan can help your leadership team make decisions in a timely and efficient manner. Developing a plan ahead of time will ensure your team has a solid blueprint for what steps to take in the event of a disaster. Designating individuals to handle different functions ahead of time creates a clear plan of action. With that being said, approaching your plan with adaptability is essential for the best crisis management plan as events unfold.
Be prepared to communicate with transparency.
In the wake of a disaster, your staff and residents deserve to know what is being done to address the situation. Being transparent and honest about your management team’s efforts is the first step to managing the crisis and assuring your stakeholders that it’s being handled in a way that’s in the best interest of everyone affected. Tapping into various channels to communicate updates, such as social media platforms, email, or text alerts, is key to keeping staff and residents fully informed about the steps being taken to protect them and keep them safe.
Evaluate crisis management outcomes.
After a crisis, it’s critical to conduct a close evaluation of how it was handled. Any crisis presents learning lessons, and being mindful of changes that can be made moving forward will help your team improve crisis management planning in the future. Also, garnering feedback from your staff and tenants about how safe and informed they felt during the crisis can be insightful. As you learn what aspects of your management were well received and what may have been handled poorly, you can make changes to your crisis management plan to be better prepared in the future.
When executed properly, you can take charge in managing a disaster affecting your property while still exemplifying strong leadership and compassion for your staff and residents. Implementing the practices above will get your crisis management plan on the right track in facilitating the best course of action for everyone at your apartment community.
When a crisis hits, it’s imperative to have the right team in place. If you’re planning to grow your team in 2021, get in touch with the talent acquisition specialists at The Liberty Group, with locations in major cities throughout the United States – including offices in Florida, Arizona, California, Georgia, Ohio, and the Carolinas.