No one likes to pay for things they don’t use. Hundreds of cable channels never to be watched. Millions of songs you’ll never listen to yet included with a subscription. Thousands of streaming movies and TV shows you’ll never get a chance to see. Thankfully, Yardi eLearning clients have some relief. New features recently added to the learning management software platform come with options for Yardi clients to choose which feature sets best fit their organization’s needs. To be specific, Yardi eLearning clients can now choose from four package tiers: Yardi eLearning (base solution), Yardi eLearning Pro, Yardi eLearning Plus and Yardi eLearning Premium. Yardi eLearning The core of Yardi eLearning includes more than 800 online courses that cover every piece of Yardi software and service. Users have unlimited, online access to courses. Courses can be curated into learning tracks personalized for users. Users access courses anytime, even on the job as a convenient knowledge resource. Yardi eLearning interfaces with many types of software products such as human resources information systems and webinar management tools. Yardi eLearning Pro Yardi eLearning Pro adds digital signatures and surveys to the base Yardi eLearning solution. Digital signatures, called eSign, allow users to execute documents without printing, signing, scanning or emailing. Simple and discreet digital signatures instantly and securely track agreements between organizations and employees. The new surveys feature in Yardi eLearning makes it easy to ask staff anything, any time. Without the need to license or log in to a web-based survey software, administrators can quickly set up a poll to determine gaps in training, course effectiveness or even just what’s for lunch. Response data is immediately available in Yardi eLearning – no need to import data from a web-based service. Yardi eLearning Plus Yardi eLearning Plus...

Do you find that your internal staff training program lacks engagement or consistency? Yardi eLearning’s featured topic for this month focuses on creating effective and sustainable training programs for busy real estate companies. Take the pressure off of your training team with these best practices. The Balance Sheet caught up with Michael Joiner of Yardi eLearning’s client services team to get the inside scoop on what this valuable training platform has to offer. What does it mean to have an Effective and Sustainable Training Program?  Joiner: An effective training program is one that meets the training needs of a company. A sustainable training program requires a balance between the administrative tasks—like scheduling training, assigning courses, communicating between instructors and students, validating student work, running reports—and maintaining existing training with the development of new training that meets additional needs of the company and its employees.  What’s one common hurdle that keeps clients’ training programs from being effective?  Joiner: Not identifying the needs of the learners. For instance, you can assign a ton a courses, but do those courses help bridge a skills gap or correct a behavior? Ineffective training programs assign courses for the sake of assigning content that someone thinks is necessary, but it may not be relevant or applicable to an individual. What’s one common hurdle that keeps clients’ training programs from being sustainable? Joiner: Focusing too much on developing new training and letting existing training become out dated. Out-of-date training leads to a lack of engagement and trust on the part of the learner. A sustainable training program creates new training initiatives while regularly updating existing content. How can users access this information after the webinar? Joiner: We’re teaching this class at YASC Washington, D.C. May 30- June 1, 2018. We’ll also be...

In our previous article link, IT specialist Linda Greenwaldt explained how CommonBond Communities implemented Yardi RentCafe for subsidized housing to improve efficiencies. Yardi eLearning helped the organization optimize their use of RentCafe. It is also the nonprofit’s go-to tool for employee education. The eLearning Solution eLearning provides on-demand training through a convenient online platform. Administrators can choose between pre-written classes, customized classes, and any combination in between. The fully configurable courses offer quantifiable insight into employee learning and content retention. “eLearning is perfect for rolling out RentCafe,” said Greenwaldt. “For introductions, this is perfect, perfect, perfect. During training, it has been great to prepare what onsite staff need to know, when they need to know it, without making them feel overwhelmed.” “Most people only pick up 10 percent of information their first time through it,” shrugged Greenwaldt. “We structured [the courses] in a way where they can always go back and review it. The 10 percent that I tell people that they can’t forget is going to eLearning and retaking the class!” Greenwaldt using eLearning to issue high-priority courses like Fair Housing first, followed by role-based learning for RentCafe and Yardi Voyager for PHA and Affordable housing. Customized Learning eLearning offers an extensive library of courses written by Yardi industry experts. Administrators are welcomed to use the courses as-is, but they are also encouraged and empowered to customize content. “A lot of times, I’ll reach out and see what Yardi has and modify it or do something slightly different. It’s helpful because I can copy the class and add the CommonBond content,” said Greenwaldt. Learning assessments promote information retention while helping leadership identify topics that need clarification or review. Greenwald said, “I love the ability to throw in a test or quiz. I can...

A major trend in 2017 was the prevalence of discussion around sexual harassment in many workplaces. Seemingly every week heard new reports of high-profile offenders, despite decades of preventative efforts by employers and government regulators. In 2018, it’s likely that major changes are on the horizon. PBS provides an excellent overview of the history of harassment policy, and how training has evolved since being first introduced in the 1980s. The article cites a report from a task force set up by the United States Department of Equal Employment which found that training likely failed to prevent harassment because it were too focused on simply protecting employers from legal liability. One example of an evolving training policy is happening in California. State legislators passed a bill in the fall of 2016 that requires managers receive training which includes the topics of gender identity, gender expression and sexual orientation. The requirement applies to companies with more than 50 employees and went into effect on January 1, 2018. “Training is vital to prevent harassment from occurring, but it’s clear that the curriculum must evolve as the issue changes over time. That’s one of the great things about online training, it can be quickly updated and efficiently rolled out to learners at very little cost compared with producing and shooting a new video,” said Patty Evans, director of corporate training for Yardi. Yardi recently announced that its Yardi eLearning sexual harassment classes are fully compliant with the new California law. The team worked to update courses so that California-based clients could comply with new state law as it went into effect. “Gender identity and sexual orientation are long past due when it comes to inclusion in harassment training. We’re proud to make this important instructional material available not...

The user experience can make or break a piece of software, and user feedback is of key importance to the software development process. Companies strive to learn how customers respond to products wherever possible, be it through social media, focus groups, surveys or client conferences. Without input from users, software developers can miss out on opportunities to innovate new features that take into consideration the unique needs of their users’ daily workflows. Chris Ulep, Yardi vice president of multifamily product development, describes how a strong client involvement benefits his team’s development process. “Clients have a strong voice in the design of Yardi solutions. We value their input because it makes our development process faster and more responsive to their immediate needs. We embrace the opportunity to engage clients during development process, and leverage their vast experience and understand their requirements,” Ulep said. That philosophy is also evident in how Yardi develops content for its online staff training platform, Yardi eLearning. One of the main ways the Yardi eLearning team solicits input from clients is through monthly roundtable sessions, available to any client free of charge. “Our monthly client roundtables are interactive, informative and collaborative. Leading trainers and content designers from around the country gather for quick, one-hour sessions that cover a variety of topics. Our roundtables bolster creativity and foster new ideas by sharing new ideas on the screen for everyone to see. Prioritizing those ideas as we develop features and curricula is just one of the ways we ensure Yardi eLearning content stays relevant and in alignment with our clients’ needs,” said Patty Evans, director of corporate training and eLearning for Yardi. While inspiring conversation is valuable for participants, the camaraderie of the events is even more important. “The opportunity to meet regularly with a community of...

We have the perfect holiday gift for Yardi eLearning users: fewer usernames and passwords to remember. Yardi eLearning is the newest addition to the YardiOne platform, which means users can get to training resources at the click of an icon. “There are a lot of benefits that come with being part of YardiOne,” said Patty Evans, director of corporate training and Yardi eLearning. “First and foremost is easy access. Being able to get to training materials quickly, including on the job, helps prevent mistakes and boosts productivity. Our clients’ employees now have the fastest and most efficient access ever to Yardi training.” The YardiOne interface was a popular topic at both Yardi Advanced Solutions Conferences in 2017. After each demonstration at YASC, clients asked when their favorite app could be added to YardiOne. “Our eLearning clients expressed a strong demand for YardiOne support. We’re proud to accommodate that demand with this new feature,” said Yves Hajjar, director of product development for Yardi eLearning. Automated User Accounts Also new is the ability for client training administrators to use Yardi eLearning to create user accounts much more efficiently. “Users can have a Yardi eLearning account instantly and automatically set up for them the moment they log in to Voyager for the first time. That saves a lot of time and manual data entry,” said Evans. Trainers can also take advantage of a hybrid option, which automates online user account setup even for users who do not use Yardi software. “This makes it possible for organizations to deliver a consistent experience to employees across the organization, include temps, cleaning crews and other staff who may not use Yardi software,” said Evans. Integrated with Leading SSO Software All of this is made possible by single sign-on (SSO) technology,...

Five years ago this month, Yardi eLearning was officially launched to the world. Like every successful software product, there is an interesting back story to Yardi’s online staff training management solution. Did you know that Yardi eLearning was originally conceived as part of a MBA thesis by a Yardi employee? Yves Hajjar came to Yardi in 2011, and at the time was working on his MBA. Read Yves’ story here. Patty Evans, manager of training for Yardi, heard of Yves’ masters project shortly after his arrival at Yardi. The two quickly teamed up and began to design what eventually became Yardi eLearning. “I read the press release announcing a new real estate training service we were offering at Yardi. That announcement inspired me to consider how we could create an online learning platform for our clients and staff. Simultaneously, Yves was pitching his masters project to Yardi management as a potential client-facing product for learning management. We quickly connected with each other, and the rest is history,” said Evans. For months, Patty and Yves worked on creating a functional learning management system. Yves focused on redesigning the product’s framework and interface. Patty worked evenings and weekends on the first set of courses. Those courses were eventually launched in October 2012 as Simpson Housing used Yardi eLearning to train employees during their launch of Yardi Voyager. “Simpson was a great experience for us. Their employees and properties are spread across four regions. Yardi eLearning helped Simpson Housing deliver standardized training through a single online interface without the trouble and travel costs of hosting onsite classroom sessions in multiple areas,” said Evans. Over the past five years, Yardi eLearning has grown significantly in number of daily active users, markets supported and number of courses offered. Yardi...

Shortly after the passing of Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968, Congress expanded the Civil Rights Act to protect equal access to housing resources. Fair housing protection is a crowning achievement of the civil rights movement. Fair housing legislation makes it illegal to impede access to housing based on race, religion, national origin, sex, (and as later amended), handicap and family status. Nearly every state has expanded protection for residents beyond the national Civil Rights Act. State housing agencies and advocacy groups often test property managers and real estate agents for fair housing compliance. It’s unlawful for an agent steer a prospect to or away from a unit based on perception or opinion of prospective residents. Advertisements can’t target only one segment of the community or purposefully omit another community. Yardi eLearning streamlines access to role-based training resources for more than 44,000 active users. It replaces traditional classroom instruction with web-based, interactive courses and live webinar events. Users can access Yardi eLearning from any device with Internet access, including tablets and smartphones. Patty Evans, manager of the Yardi eLearning team, announced the addition of new fair housing curriculum to Yardi’s library of property management training courses. “Proper training makes leasing agents aware of fair housing concerns they may not even be conscious of – it’s not always easy for an agent to know when they may be treading into fair housing territory. That’s why fair housing training is so important for every real estate management company,” says Evans. Yardi eLearning fair housing courses and learning materials cover topics applicable to every state and residential real estate market, including the affordable housing and PHA industries. Yardi eLearning can also specialize content for states or cities. For example, the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs...

New hire onboarding is a necessary process for all growing multifamily organizations. It is also a major pain point. Dominium, a Minneapolis-based leading apartment development and management company, set goals to double in size by 2025. To reach its goals, the company needs an innovative and efficient training solution. Maya Kasangaki, Senior Service Desk Technician and Yardi Trainer, explains how Yardi eLearning has prepared her organization for growth. Onboarding Dilemmas Dominium faced challenges that are familiar to other property management firms: high turnover and costly, inefficient training processes. The organization hosted monthly weeklong trainings for new community managers at the corporate office.  In addition to regular conference calls, these nearly six-hour training sessions consumed the majority of Kasangaki’s time. Once complete, she lacked a consistent way to track students’ understanding and content retention. “If we have training with 12 people on the call, it’s hard to make sure that everyone is absorbing the information. They aren’t as comfortable bringing up questions or starting a discussion in the midst of a training,” she observes. High turnover exacerbated the already frustrating situation. “Because of the staff turnover in property management, we would train someone but they didn’t have basic knowledge of the industry. The information we provided  was maybe going over their head. Then we would hire someone to replace them and we would have to begin this process all over again,” says Kasangaki. Dominium sought a training solution that would simplify and expedite new hire onboarding. Online Solutions for Onboarding and Growth In 2016, Dominium implemented Yardi eLearning. The company customized the curricula to include soft skills courses, videos, webinars, and more. Kasangaki appreciates the ability to deliver content in different formats, allowing learners to receive the information in a way that appeals to their...

The modern workplace must accommodate different learning types and different generations of learners. Heidi Fuller, Training Consultant at Bigos Management, explains how she uses Yardi® eLearning to educate employees of all ages and learning styles. Cross-Generational Technology Millennials compose more than half of the current workforce. To these young adults, technology isn’t a luxury; they expect technology to play an integral role in job training. According to a recent article in Forbes, Millennials see technology as a necessary tool to work efficiently and intelligently. Fuller builds training courses with tech-savvy new hires in mind. “Millennials have a greater need for technology and learning. I create a lot of webinars, videos and ways that they can use mobile technology. In terms of industry training, that is where we’re going.” While preparing for the future is important, Bigos also strives to support its current staff. Bigos employs learners with less exposure to virtual and mobile technologies, many from Generation X and the Boomer populations. Learners who are accustomed to traditional, instructor-led courses face a learning curve when it comes to virtual learning formats. “Integrating technology is easy with the younger new hires,” observes Fuller. “They don’t know any different. The challenge is with the people who aren’t quite ready, getting everyone on the same page and getting them used to using new technologies.” Bigos turned to Yardi eLearning to develop a cross-generational learning management system. “We use more of a blended approach,” Fuller explains. “eLearning courses are paired up with instructor-led courses as well as on the job training with their managers.” Multi-format training is necessary to reach a cross-generational staff base. But more importantly, blended training is necessary to reach different styles of learners, as described by the Kolb LSI. One study reveals that a...

The power of online learning for real estate companies is highlighted in a new video featuring Yardi client Roscoe Properties. A multifamily firm in Austin, Texas, Roscoe has drastically reduced staff training time using Yardi’s customizable online learning platform. Mariana Estrada, Vice President of Operations at Roscoe Properties, shares in the video how the multifamily organization has been able to grow with help from Yardi eLearning. Critical trainings at Roscoe Properties would previously take up to four weeks. After implementing Yardi eLearning, staff was able to reduce critical training duration to three days. “eLearning has allowed us to take our training to the next level,” says Estrada. “It has provided us with a scalable training strategy that will take us to the next 10,000 units.” Yardi eLearning facilitates customizable online training that appeals to different learning styles. Students can access courses anywhere there is an Internet connection and review content as needed. Assessment tools empower course moderators to identify students who may need additional support. The results are flexible, effective trainings that save time and resources. “Just in travel alone, we’ve been able to save tens of thousands of dollars,” Estrada says. Roscoe Properties learns on Yardi....

A leading property management company requires a software company that is able to accommodate the management of its developments. McCormack Baron turned to Yardi property management solutions to facilitate growth and improve efficiencies across its diverse portfolio.   Yardi Voyager Project Manager Karen Pruiett has been with McCormack Baron for nearly 30 years. She ushered her company through its first Yardi Voyager® implementation in 2004. Since then, she has seen McCormack Baron flourish and adopt new Yardi software to meet its needs. “We chose Yardi Voyager because of its excellent accounting background and the property management capabilities in the software,” says Pruiett. “We looked at different companies and you guys have the best accounting background. Also, the number of property types that you all support is amazing. That was a necessity for us.” Yardi Voyager is a web-based platform that enables clients with larger portfolios to smoothly manage operations. It is ideal for clients like McCormack Baron that manage a spectrum of properties. With Voyager, McCormack Baron executes leases, runs analytics, and issues innovative resident, tenant, and investor services. The software automates workflows and permits controlled transparency that enables the firm to collaborate with greater accuracy and efficiency. “Voyager has definitely improved our efficiencies,” Pruiett says. Yardi PAYscan Pruiett recalls notable savings with Yardi PAYscan™, a Voyager ancillary product that automates invoice processing. “PAYscan has totally saved our lives. We were doing a lot of manual invoice processing. Now that we can scan our invoices into PAYscan, it’s absolutely wonderful to have the image attached to the invoice, especially for auditing purposes.” Before PAYscan, the accounting team had to dig through file cabinets to find invoices during audits. Now, auditors receive limited access to PAYscan and they are able to pull images of invoices...

Each month, Yardi hosts the critically acclaimed Yardi eLearning ® User Forum. These interactive webinars give users valuable insights into product functionality, updates, and troubleshooting. Engaging. Practical. Smart. Each webinar focuses on topics selected by Yardi users, guaranteeing insights that are relevant and practical.  Sample Webinar Topics Include: Drive Student Focus to Training that Matters How to Partner with Your Yardi Voyager Account Manager Make a Great First Impression & Keep It Fresh All Year eLearning Fair Housing Release and Focus Group Hot to Get Management in Your Training Program Facilitators model User Forums after realistic conversations with clients. Co-hosts role-play as tech support specialists and clients. This arrangement creates a fun and informative atmosphere for attendees. Amy McKelvy, Software Implementation Coordinator at Holland Partner Group, attended her first User Forum this year. “The forum I attended was at the end of the second day, so the atmosphere was upbeat and exciting,” she begins. “Forums can be hit or miss, I’ve learned, and some clients use the forum to air grievances, but this one was not that at all. I think Patty [Evans] set the right tone at the start, and led to a very successful sharing time.” Sharing is one key to eLearning User Forum success. Rather than simply lecturing on these topics, facilitators showcase examples from Yardi clients’ eLearning Universities to illustrate each idea. Attendees receive real-life strategies from peers. This client-to-client interaction fosters a sense of community and networking among the Yardi eLearning training community. “I love to provide help and ideas as well as feedback to the eLearning team and other clients. The forum is a perfect opportunity to not only give help, but get other ideas as well,” says McKelvy. Solutions for the Real World In each meeting, facilitators...

According to the Association for Talent Development, American organizations spend an estimated $164 billion on employee training on each year. This ranges from 31.5 -56 hours of training per employee. This valuable time is spent simply learning how to optimize performance rather than putting those plans into action. Yardi client Brindley & Associates has cut those costs with the use of one, simple software solution. Accountant Carol Vandenberghe has worked with Brindley and Associates for thirteen years. Overtime, she has seen the company grow its presence in the southeast. To meet it’s more sophisticated needs, the firm recently upgraded to Voyager 7S. The combination of expansion and new software required a more efficient way to pursue employee training. “That was the main reason why we got eLearning,” begins Vandenberghe. “It really helped with the transition, plus we had just hired new employees as well.” Yardi eLearning has helped Brindley and Associates significantly cut costs on employee education and get the most out of Voyager upgrade. “We have so many properties in outlying areas,” Vandenberghe says. “Some of those properties are four hours away. It would take at least eight hours for the property managers to drive back and forth for training. Then to come by the office and have to sit there for two, eight hour days, maybe more.” Those hours are just a portion of the resources wasted on onsite training. “Training event preparation requires a lot of planning. I figure 40-50 hours. That’s an entire week right there,” Vandenberghe says. “Then we have to bring in all of the property managers, pay for their food and hotel, that kind of thing. Plus, it’s inconvenient for the property managers to have to leave when they’ve got tenants coming in to make payments. The...

Technology provides many different ways to improve our lives and business processes.  Yardi recently launched an exciting new training product that offers both our clients and their employees the chance to improve new hire training and ongoing employee development. Yardi eLearning, developed internally at Yardi with the invaluable input of industry experts, is changing the way real estate professionals are educated on how to best use our market-leading software products. This intuitive learning and content management system provides easy navigation, quick access to training related information, course authorship and publicity for live training events. This flexible system allows clients to use Yardi eLearning for a wide range of training topics (e.g., leasing agent, maintenance, and soft skills training), making it the centralized training hub in your organization. Use it throughout your business to resolve training needs with just-in-time solutions. Whether your goal is to provide new employees with orientation courses or add intermediate to advanced level curriculum to your course catalog for current employees, this solution can handle it all. With multiple offices around the world, Yardi has embraced eLearning internally, as a supplement to our existing instructor-led training efforts. This option allowed us to address a broader range of training needs while directing our resources where they are needed most. While live training will always be our preference for certain topics, we are finding that our employees react well to a blended approach to learning, with some interactive live training and some engaging self-paced courses. Self-paced training offers freedom and flexibility when it comes to scheduling, allowing Yardi employees to meet their clients’ needs while investing in their own professional development. Self-paced courses can also be set up for recertification purposes. When you have a human resources course, like ergonomics, which must be...