Bentall Kennedy

Investing in Employees

By Erica Rascón on Feb 11, 2014 in People

Bentall Kennedy will soon celebrate 110 years in real estate.  The organization is distinguished by a century of achievement and uninterrupted financial performance. Building on a solid foundation of integrity and professionalism, the organization has emerged as one of North America’s leading providers of integrated real estate services.

Charles Bentall joined Dominion Construction in 1911, and grew the Vancouver-based construction company, which has since evolved to become the largest Canadian-based real estate advisory and services organization. In 2010, Bentall successfully partnered with Kennedy Associates in the US and integrated the two firms to become North America’s largest private real estate investment advisor offering an array of real estate development and management services to clients throughout North America.  Bentall Kennedy is among the most sustainable real estate companies in North America, and has been ranked among the top three in the Americas and global leaders by GRESB, the Global Real Estate and Sustainability Benchmark. It is also the recipient of the Energy Star Partner of the Year for the fifth year in a row.

For Bentall Kennedy, success is the result of nurturing the company’s most valuable assets: employees. 93% of employees confirm that Bentall Kennedy is a socially and environmentally responsible company. The company has taken great lengths to assess employee engagement and satisfaction.

Bentall Kennedy used a third-party human resources consultant to create a custom employee engagement survey. Survey results were used to spearhead employee-based initiatives focusing on improved communication between senior management and their teams, and growth opportunities for junior employees. The survey also revealed one of the company’s greatest strengths, a unified approach to company culture.

Communication

To improve communication, Bentall Kennedy added quarterly conference calls and focus groups led by senior management to its repertoire of communication and engagement tools.    Employees are asked for feedback to improve daily operations, innovation, work-life balance, and programming. These conference calls are in addition to annual regional town hall meetings led by senior representatives of HR, Strategic Resources, Finance and IT.

An Ask Senior Management feature was added to Bentall Kennedy’s employee portal. With the click of a button, employees can submit anonymous questions and feedback to a managing official. The question or comment receives a reply before being posted to a public forum.

“These forums allow senior management to be more proactive,” says Nada Sutic, Director of Sustainability and Strategic Resources . “They are able to start the conversation, to open the lines of communication. It’s a nice, easy way to communicate. It gives everyone a voice. The Ask Management feature also gives senior management a pulse, telling them what’s on people’s minds.”

Growth Opportunities

Employees are encouraged to grow, developing new skill sets and talents that will propel their careers. To promote growth, Bentall Kennedy offers an education and training reimbursement program. At year end, the company invested $391,000 in corporate employee education and $237,000 on conferences for continuing education. Together, corporate employees served approximately 60,000 hours in training and education programs; that’s roughly 54 hours per employee.

Growth is also fostered through the mentoring program. Jonas Bordo, Senior Vice President, Corporate Resources explains the goal of the program, “We want to ensure that we can develop relationship between senior and junior level staff, and share knowledge throughout junior and up and coming level staff.”

Company Culture

The employee survey also helped Bentall Kennedy determine its strengths. Employees demonstrated pride in the company’s culture: longstanding quality services, high ethical standards, and the quality of leadership and peers. The company continues that legacy by hiring talent whose personal goals align with the existing structure.

“Bentall Kennedy is committed to clients and tenants,” says Bordo. “When I talk about the culture here, I think first that we are fiduciaries to our clients. We’re aware of the trust that our clients put in us. Remembering that helps us to deliver on our commitment to our clients. If we don’t do our jobs properly then our clients aren’t able to meet their commitments.”

As a fiduciaries, new hires must possesses a client-centric outlook, integrity, and creativity.  “We seek employees with a client service orientation, the desire to do a great job not because someone told them to but because it’s the right thing to do. Integrity is also a critical component of every hire. We’re entrusted with a large amount of capital on behalf of our clients and with that comes with a lot of trust. We have to live up to that trust.” Lastly, a degree of creativity and flexibility is required. “We value those who are creative and able to solve problems independently. That’s a characteristic that’s value regardless of the profession at Bentall Kennedy.”

Bentall Kennedy has not rested on the laurels of its past successes. Rather, the industry behemoth aims to strengthen its stance by reinforcing the foundation upon which it rests: quality employees that are worth the investment of time and resources.