Public housing authorities (PHAs) across the U.S. are facing a major challenge: many of their employees are getting close to retirement. It’s estimated that over 50 percent of PHA and other public sector employees could retire within the next five years. This means PHAs need to have a plan in place to fill these upcoming vacancies with qualified people. However, it’s not easy — 79 percent of agencies cannot find qualified candidates for open positions, according to a survey by NeoGov, an HR solution provider for the public sector. Succession planning is crucial for PHAs. It’s not just about finding someone to fill a job — it’s about keeping a skilled workforce that can serve their communities effectively. A good succession plan can also lead to better employee retention and engagement. In fact, organizations with strong plans have retention rates 50 percent higher than those without them. To tackle these challenges, PHAs must ensure their staff possess the right skills and knowledge to step into leadership roles when needed. The Yardi Aspire Learning Management System (LMS) is a powerful tool that can help. Aspire delivers effective industry education, skill development and promotion preparation — helping PHAs build a strong pipeline of talent and ensuring smooth leadership transitions. Why succession planning matters Succession planning involves looking ahead and being prepared. According to the HUD Instructional Guide, succession planning helps PHAs in several key ways: Ensures long-term success: Confirms that PHAs maintain smooth service delivery, even during leadership changes. Reduces risks: Identifies important roles and prepares internal candidates when key positions become vacant. Promotes staff growth: Promotes staff development and prepares them for leadership roles, ensuring the right skills are in place. How Aspire supports succession planning Aspire offers several tools that are vital for effective succession planning, such as: Extensive catalog: Offers hundreds of short, interactive courses designed to fit within a busy workday from the LMS or on a mobile device with the Aspire App. The Aspire catalog covers a variety of training topics, including industry knowledge, fair housing and sexual harassment, safety, Yardi software, leadership, professional skills and more. PHAs can also create custom courses to ensure organization-specific learning needs are covered. Assess and develop internal talent: Evaluate your current workforce to identify high-potential employees who could fill key roles in the future with Aspire assessments. Then, map out the key skills needed for each role included in the strategic plan. Configure Aspire to automatically deliver or recommend development opportunities to equip these individuals with the necessary skills and knowledge. These include offering training, mentorship and leadership development assignments — all of which can be set up and tracked in Aspire. IMAGE: Skills assigned report shows a Seattle Housing Authority employee’s progress toward assigned skill proficiency. Custom Learning Plans: Aspire’s embedded authoring tools allow succession plan teams to create custom learning plans that align with their succession goals. These plans clarify the promotion path, which often includes a variety of tasks, learning assignments, forms and surveys and assessments to make sure employees are fully prepared for future roles. External Certifications: Aspire helps PHAs stay compliant with HUD requirements, which is especially important during leadership transitions. In addition to assigning hundreds of short, program-specific courses for Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC), Section 8, and Enterprise Income Verification (EIV), Aspire clients can upload 3rd party training (i.e., industry certifications) and schedule annual recertification. Comprehensive Reporting: Use the interactive dashboards and scheduled reports to ensure that the required skills and competencies are in place and necessary certifications are up to date. Implementing a succession plan with Aspire Identify Key Roles: Start by identifying the roles that are crucial for your PHA’s operations. Aspire can help document the responsibilities and skills needed for each role. Develop Potential Successors: Use Aspire to create and track personalized development plans for potential successors. These plans can include opportunities to earn badges and rewards, keeping...

Take your leasing team’s performance to the next level with Yardi Aspire — our user-friendly learning management solution built to revolutionize employee development. In the dynamic realm of property leasing, where each interaction holds significance, it’s essential to ensure your team excels in all aspects of leasing. With Aspire’s course assignment tool automatically delivering tailored content from its 10 course micro-learning series on leasing essentials, you can streamline your leasing training process with ease — propelling your team toward success. Maximize your leasing professionals’ potential Aspire helps companies seamlessly integrate third-party secret shop scores, or internally collected shop data, into their long-term training strategy. Secret shops are popular in the industry because they provide invaluable insights on employee performance, detailed scores in critical areas such as warm greetings, information gathering and timely tour invitations. By automating the assignment of micro-training courses, Aspire helps companies centralize that data and take the next step forward. Imagine a system where areas for improvement are recorded and relevant training is assigned automatically. With Aspire, this isn’t just a concept — it’s a reality. Our short, customizable leasing essentials courses focus on specific improvement areas highlighted in the shop report, ensuring targeted and effective skill enhancement. By leveraging Aspire’s automated approach to skill development, companies can maximize the value of their investment in shop services and other employee evaluation techniques. The dynamic solution helps you proactively address skill gaps with a personalized approach. Explore leasing courses in Aspire In today’s competitive leasing market, staying ahead requires continuous refinement of your team’s abilities. Aspire empowers companies to achieve precisely that — offering an innovative, efficient and automated solution to leasing agent performance development that is unique to the individual. Aspire’s leasing essentials courses include: Leasing Essentials: Phone Skills — Examine the techniques needed for successful phone conversations with prospective residents. We’ll discuss using proper phone greetings with prospects, gathering contact information and asking probing questions. Leasing Essentials: Promoting a Property by Phone — Learn the four aspects of promoting your property to prospects over the phone. We’ll discuss how to showcase property features, overcome objections, schedule a tour and close with the prospect.  Leasing Essentials: Building Rapport With Prospects by Phone — Discover the three parts of building rapport with a prospect on the phone.  Leasing Essentials: Responding to Internet Inquiries — Explore six strategies for responding to internet leasing inquiries from prospects.   Leasing Essentials: Preparing for Tours — Find out how preparation of the leasing office, property and unit impacts the success of a property tour with prospective residents. Leasing Essentials: Greeting a Prospect for Tours — See the three best practices for greeting a prospect. Following these recommendations can help you have greater success when conducting a tour.  Leasing Essentials: Gathering Prospect Information for Tours — Unlock the three parts of gathering prospect information prior to a property tour including setup, asking questions and implementing fair housing laws. We also explain the techniques associated with each part of the discussion. Leasing Essentials: Conducting a Successful Tour — Review how to conduct a successful property tour with a prospect. We recommend strategies for each part of a tour including touring the property, touring the home and addressing prospect concerns. Leasing Essentials: Closing With a Prospect — Determine the five steps for closing with a prospect during and after a property tour.   Leasing Essentials: Following Up With a Prospect — Find out when and how often to follow up with a prospect. We also explain best practices for common follow-up methods including email, phone call or text.  Start your journey with Aspire Ready to say goodbye to outdated training methods and embrace a brighter future for your leasing team? Reach out to team Yardi for a closer look at Aspire. We’re passionate about helping you unleash the full potential of your workforce — and witness your leasing success reach new...

When you offer employees continuous support, recognition and opportunities for growth, you’re creating a positive work environment. And when people are surrounded by positivity, it can massively impact their mental health for the better. So, how can you offer that support and recognition? We have a solution built for the task: Yardi Aspire, our user-friendly learning management solution. Regardless of which real estate market you serve — from multifamily to commercial to senior living — Aspire helps you deliver personalized training, connect teams and reward staff for their accomplishments. Best of all, it’s accessible from a single online platform, meaning your teams can reap the benefits anytime, from anywhere. Ready to see how it works? Meet Yardi Aspire Aspire is a comprehensive learning management solution that delivers interactive, experiential training (and much more) directly in the Yardi platform. Employees access a wide array of personalized courses, live events, company resources and reward programs, all in one intuitive place. Watch a webinar to learn more about Aspire. Support employees’ mental health using one solution Wondering exactly how Aspire helps you create a positive work environment — enhancing employees’ wellbeing as a result? With this dynamic solution, you offer your teams:  A sense of community, inclusion and belonging — Aspire enables classroom discussions, interactive group projects, live communication and instant messaging (thanks to a Microsoft Teams and Aspire chat integration). Tools for accomplishment, mastery and recognition — to help you validate and recognize staff for their achievements, Aspire includes a leaderboard, digital badges, points-based rewards, certificates of completion and customizable, level-up learning plans. Encouragement and constructive feedback — delivering personalized, thoughtful feedback is easy with Aspire’s video coaching option. Aspire’s mentorship program also helps employees receive one-on-one feedback and support. Ease and convenience — Aspire is a user-friendly, accessible platform with intuitive navigation, visibility controls and easy-to-use dashboards. With everything conveniently located on a single platform, employees can revisit and reabsorb content whenever they’d like. Flexibility — Aspire’s elective assignments and optional trainings give employees the flexibility, freedom and confidence to drive their own learning destiny. Continue learning about Aspire Have questions about Aspire’s unique features? Don’t hesitate to get in touch. In the meantime, don’t forget to register for an on-demand webinar.            If you’re searching for additional resources on mental health awareness and support, check out these digital sharables by the National Institute of Mental...

At the 2023 Yardi Advanced Solutions Conference, Director of Sales Nima Farkhak led a panel with leading multifamily figures about trends impacting the industry — and the tech they’re using to get ahead. The conversation revolved around automation, fraud prevention and training. Particularly, how can multifamily organizations receive more employee buy-in when implementing new technology, and leverage that technology to maximize support for their employees? Panelists (pictured, right) included Leslie Henry, SVP of strategic solutions and development at Towne Properties and Josh Draughn, head of marketing at Weidner Apartment Homes. Read on for key takeaways. Automating early touchpoints significantly reduces site teams’ workloads Most multifamily operators agree that strategic automation is key to efficiency, resulting in streamlined workloads, satisfied employees and happier residents. “Automation is all about how we can give back valuable time to our associates, and we’ve found Chat IQ to be extremely helpful with that,” said Draughn. “Instant gratification is now expected, so our first automated engagement starts just five minutes after an initial contact. Then Chat IQ transitions the interaction to texting, which results in a faster response time.” Since implementing automation and Chat IQ, Draughn says that Weidner experienced a 15 percent reduction in advertising costs year over year. Transparent communication is key to achieving employee buy-in But there are challenges with implementing automation, artificial intelligence and new technology in general — especially when it comes to employee buy-in. Henry noted that most of Towne’s employees have been with the company for a long time and were opposed to change — until they saw its benefits firsthand. “After we implemented Chat IQ,” Henry said, “Our site teams quickly realized how useful it was in gaining back time. They love how it filtered out less promising leads in the beginning. But we also took their feedback if they didn’t like the way the bot was responding. We let them customize some aspects of the responses so there was more of a personal human touch.” Draughn agreed. “Getting buy-in at first will always be challenging,” he said. “But it’s all about how you communicate new changes and listen to their feedback. The human element in multifamily is always going to stay.” Deterring fraud with automation Multifamily organizations are also relying on technology to vet applicants more than ever. ID Verify uses facial recognition technology to confirm applicant identities. To do this, applicants take a selfie during the screening process, which is then matched with the official documents they submit. “Accuracy is one of the biggest benefits of automating the identity and income verification process,” Henry said, adding that automated technology has acted as a fraud deterrent, saving Towne thousands of dollars in the process. “In the beginning, I thought we were losing rentals,” Henry said. “But when we looked closer, it was because some IDs were so clearly fraudulent that the system weeded them out instantly. It saved us from dealing with them, them potentially living with us and us incurring bad debt.” Draughn agreed, noting that while there may be steps like taking selfies, genuine prospects will still follow through with the application. This allows leasing teams to avoid guesswork or repetitive communications. Streamlining online training As the pandemic shifted training methods from in-person to online, Towne Properties also turned to the learning management system Aspire for online training. “We’re learning about the product faster and it’s easier for us to train new employees,” Henry said, highlighting the ease brought by Aspire’s full integration with Towne’s solutions. “It feels good knowing that anyone can learn at their own pace with Aspire.” See it in action A connected solution can help you drive efficiency at every stage of your workflow, enhancing data connectivity and eliminating gaps. Want to see what this looks like in action? Watch a webinar to see how Yardi helps you streamline workflows, reduce fraud and enhance...

Are you ready to revolutionize your company’s training and onboarding processes? Say goodbye to traditional learning plans and welcome the era of multifunctional, cutting-edge assignments that will take your employees’ learning experience to new heights. According to Sapling HR, the average new hire is expected to complete 54 activities during their onboarding process. These activities help ensure the employee is set up for success in their new role. With the latest advancements in learning management systems, it’s time to unlock the power of consolidated tasks and personalized learning paths. Gone are the days of cumbersome paperwork and disjointed training modules. Multifunctional learning plans consolidate onboarding tasks, form completions, training and email campaigns, all while seamlessly tracking progress on a single assignment. Imagine the convenience of having everything your new employees need in a centralized learning plan, where they can refresh skills or revisit resources at any time. So, what exactly can these multifunctional learning plans offer? Let’s explore the various elements that can be included in an Aspire learning plan to make it more inclusive of steps that might otherwise be completed outside of the LMS with less efficiency or consistency: Narrative instructions: Engage your employees through dynamic video and text instructions that provide clear guidance and foster a deeper understanding of the tasks at hand. Self-paced courses and live training: Combine the flexibility of self-paced online courses with interactive live training sessions. Empower your employees to learn at their own pace while still benefiting from valuable real-time interactions. Company policies and resources: Ensure that your employees have easy access to essential company policies, procedures and other valuable resources that help them navigate their roles with confidence. Graded online assignments and quizzes: Assess your employees’ progress and knowledge retention through engaging online assignments and quizzes. Provide immediate feedback and promote a continuous learning cycle. Customizable acknowledgements: Tailor tasks with customizable acknowledgments to recognize your employees’ achievements and motivate them to reach new milestones. Reference content and checklists: Equip employees with reference materials and checklists that serve as handy reminders and support their learning journey. Esign documents and forms: Simplify administrative processes by integrating electronic signatures for documents, forms and checklists, ensuring seamless completion and reducing paperwork. Pre-scheduled custom letters: Strengthen communication and engagement by automating pre-scheduled custom letters that provide personalized updates, encouragement and important information. But why settle for the basics when you can take your learning plans to the next level? Unlock even more potential with these advanced features: Elective steps with “Choose Your Path” options: Cater to diverse learning preferences by offering elective steps that allow employees to choose their own learning paths. Empower them to explore topics that resonate with their interests and goals. Pre-scheduled refresher training campaigns: Ensure long-term knowledge retention and skill enhancement by automating pre-scheduled refresher training campaigns. Keep critical concepts top of mind, solidify understanding and support long-term change. Ensure long-term knowledge retention and skill development by adding pre-scheduled refresher training courses that auto-unlock days or weeks after the learning plan is completed. Surveys, polls and chat groups: Foster a sense of community by creating learning plan task steps. Prompt employees to participate in a chat group or a class discussion thread to fulfill an assignment. Test out for advanced learners: Customize learning paths to accommodate different skill levels. Let advanced learners demonstrate their proficiency by testing out of certain modules, while beginners benefit from hands-on field trips or experiential learning opportunities. Step-specific student nudge emails: Keep your employees motivated and on track authorizing the LMS to send nudge email campaigns when unlocked steps need attention. Available nudges include deadline reminders, encouragement, and tips and tricks. Point rewards and badges: Gamify your learning plans by incorporating point rewards and badges as employees progress through key milestones. Embrace the future of employee development with consolidated learning plans that deliver highly personalized experiences while simplifying access and messaging. Ready to embark on this...

Planning to attend multifamily events this fall and winter? Chances are we’ll be there! This is a great opportunity to strengthen your industry connections and see how a connected system benefits every stage of your workflow. Explore this list to see how you can connect with us at every event. September: Multifamily Executive Conference Mark your calendars for the Multifamily Executive Conference from Sept. 26-28 in Dallas, Texas. This three-day event is a great way to get insights on how to sustain your organization’s success. Learn how to map out your next moves, collaborate with key industry players, advance business strategies and much more. Yardi is proud to be a Platinum Co-Sponsor for this event. Meet with us at booth 210 to make the most out of your time! We’re excited to show you how you can improve your workflows with connected solutions. September: NAA Cultivate Join us in an all-new event: Cultivate, Powered by NAA! Set to take place in beautiful Tucson, Arizona, Sept. 27-28, this retreat-style event is tailored to executives looking to deepen their networking and leadership skills. We are proud to be the NAA Strategic Partner and the General Session Sponsor for this event. Book a meeting with us in advance! With sessions and speakers designed to encourage, motivate and enable reflection, this event is a can’t miss for multifamily executives looking to enhance their people management and leadership strategy. October: IREM Global Summit This year’s IREM Global Summit will be held in Toronto, Canada, Oct. 9-12. As a proud IREM Industry Partner, we can’t wait to show you solutions to help you increase your NOI and drive efficiency. Join Yardi Aspire Industry Principal Patty Evans on October 12, where you can learn how to futureproof your workforce with a futuristic elearning strategy. We’re also proud to sponsor the IREM Gala and Afterparty. Join us as we celebrate IREM members and their accomplishments with a cocktail reception, dinner, drinks and awards. And don’t forget about the Afterparty, where you can wrap up a spectacular week with a fun dance floor. We’ll be happy to see you at booth 1 and 2, but feel free to book time with us in advance. October: Florida Apartment Association Conference & Tradeshow And who could forget about the Florida Apartment Association Annual Conference & Tradeshow happening Oct. 11-13? With numerous speakers and informative sessions to choose from, you can truly customize your time to your learning and networking goals. Yardi is proud to be a platinum sponsor for this event. Schedule time at booth 701 to connect with our team! October: NMHC Student Housing Conference Join us for the NMHC Student Housing Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, Oct. 17-19. Gather and get inspired with other leaders as you learn and make connections that will shape the future of the industry. Plus, don’t miss Yardi Vice President Jeff Adler on the student housing market economic outlook panel. We are happy to be the Chair Circle Sponsor for this event. See us there at kiosk 3 — or book time with us in advance! November: NMHC OPTECH Conference & Expo Who says you can’t go to Vegas twice in one year? Also in Las Vegas, Nevada: the NMHC OPTECH Conference and Expo from Nov. 1-3. Join us and other leading voices in multifamily as we touch on the most important conversations around the future of multifamily tech and operations. We are pleased to sponsor the registration for this event. We’ll have more information as the event gets closer, but you can always book a meeting with us ahead of time.   We can’t wait to see you in person! Curious to see where else we’ll be throughout the year? Check out our full list of events. If you’re interested in learning more about how our connected solutions can help your multifamily company improve NOI across your portfolio, let us know how...

In the dynamic world of property management, training and development play a pivotal role in ensuring the success of your team and the smooth operation of your business. As a leading learning management system (LMS) provider, we understand the importance of seamless integration and customization when it comes to training your valuable workforce. Our cutting-edge platform offers embedded authoring tools and customizable content, empowering your organization to shape your training programs according to your unique needs. Read on to see why incorporating your own policies into training content is key for maximizing learning outcomes, enhancing compliance and fostering a cohesive team culture. Tailored training No one knows your business better than you do. Each property management company has its own set of values, policies and processes that drive its operations. By integrating your company’s specific policies and procedures into standardized training content, you can provide your team members with relevant and practical information that directly applies to their roles. Customizable content allows you to adapt training material to reflect your unique company culture, ensuring that your employees understand the specific rules, regulations and best practices that govern your organization. Cohesive team culture Incorporating your company policies into standardized training content goes beyond compliance and procedural adherence — it fosters a sense of belonging and unity within your team. When employees receive training that aligns with the company’s values, policies and processes, you create a sense of relevance and ownership among your employees. Customized training content reflects your company’s unique identity, helps build a cohesive team culture that promotes collaboration and leads to enhanced performance and productivity in day-to-day responsibilities. Easy updates and maintenance Company policies and processes evolve over time to adapt to industry trends and regulatory changes. With Aspire’s embedded authoring tools, you can easily update and modify the content to reflect these updates. Instead of relying on external providers to make changes, you have full control over the content, ensuring that it remains current and aligned with your organization’s ever-evolving needs. Aspire provides full audit trail and revision history, plus page-level customization locks that prevent your content from being overwritten during content upgrades. This agility empowers your company to respond swiftly, update a single source and ensure your employees always have access to the most up-to-date information. Consistency and compliance Maintaining consistency and compliance with industry regulations and legal requirements is of paramount importance in property management. When you include your company policies and custom processes in standardized content, you establish a unified approach that reinforces compliance messages, making them more visible and accessible to your employees. By embedding policies into the training program, you create a seamless learning experience that ensures everyone understands the guidelines, minimizing the risk of non-compliance and potential legal ramifications. Cost and time efficiency Embedding your company policies and custom processes into standardized training content can significantly reduce training costs and time. By utilizing Yardi Aspire interactive courses and customizing them to fit your needs, you can save valuable resources that would have been spent on developing training content from scratch. This creates a harmonious blend of product, industry expertise and internal practices in a single learning experience, increasing efficiency and maximizing training outcomes. A connected and customizable solution for all your training needs Training can play a critical role in the success of property management companies. By incorporating your company policies and custom processes into Aspire’s training content, you empower your team with relevant knowledge, reinforce compliance and strengthen your organization’s unique identity. Our customizable solution, equipped with customizable content and embedded authoring tools, enables you to seamlessly integrate your policies into your training, fostering a cohesive team culture and maximizing learning outcomes. Learn more about Yardi Aspire and reach out to see how you can optimize your property management training to drive success, efficiency and compliance within your...

Staying competitive in the property management industry requires comprehensive employee training programs. However, developing and administering training can be costly. Streamline training processes and reduce expenses with an advanced learning management system (LMS) from Yardi Aspire. Read on to see how Yardi Aspire, with its customizable training content and advanced features, empowers property management organizations to save money, enhance efficiency and improve employee performance. Reducing turnover costs Comprehensive training plays a crucial role in retaining talent. Studies show that employees who receive job skills and career development training are two times more likely to stay with an organization. Without formal training, turnover rates increase. In the property management industry, where turnover rates reached 26% in 2023, replacing one employee costs approximately 1.5x their annual salary. By providing comprehensive training through Aspire, companies help employees gain new skills that are vital to operational success, increasing employee productivity, promoting innovation, creating higher morale and reducing turnover. Efficient compliance training Compliance training is essential for property management organizations to avoid fines, legal issues and reputational damage. Aspire offers unlimited access to comprehensive training modules on topics such as harassment prevention, fair housing laws and workplace safety. These modules help companies ensure their properties are safe and welcoming. By using the customizable compliance content in Aspire, companies can avoid the cost and hassle of purchasing off-the-shelf external training that could run $125 to $200 per person per year. Customizable content from Aspire allows organizations to incorporate their policies and procedures, providing targeted and cost-effective training within their centralized learning environment. Savings in training development Aspire clients can take advantage of hundreds of engaging courses for training on Yardi software, industry knowledge, regulatory compliance, safety, professional skills and more. Developing a single elearning course with moderate engagement typically takes a minimum of 74 hours. With Aspire, clients who use just 25% of the Aspire catalog save an impressive 22,200 hours in training development time over the first two years. This time savings translates to a significant reduction in costs, as it would take a full-time instructional designer over 11.5 years to produce the same content included in Aspire. Streamlining live training management Managing live training events involves various tasks such as setup, registration management, attendance tracking and reporting. Aspire integrates with leading online meeting and webinar providers, automating event setup, calendar synchronization and attendance tracking. This integration reduces administration time by 75%, saving clients approximately 9,600 hours during the first two years. Additionally, clients can leverage Yardi’s expertise by integrating over 2,400 free webinars into Aspire, expanding training options without the need for additional trainers or internal resources. Efficient training administration Manually assigning training courses to employees can be time consuming, especially when dealing with a large workforce. Efficient user data imports and automated training assignment rules from Aspire allow clients to configure the system to import user data from HRIS or payroll systems. This automation eliminates the need for administrators to manage user accounts and training assignments manually. The time saved by using Aspire’s automations allows trainers and administrators to focus on more strategic projects. Optimizing on-the-job training Relying on individualized onboarding without a dedicated training team can be costly and lead to knowledge and skill gaps. A mentorship module from Aspire helps strike the right balance between trainer involvement and learning autonomy. By providing structured, independent learning activities to deliver knowledge and basic skills, senior employees can spend more time evaluating and fine-tuning skills for better results. This approach reduces senior employees time spent with new hires by up to 50%, allowing a company that hires one to two employees per month to regain 4.5 months of productive work time from their most experienced staff. What’s next? Yardi Aspire offers a comprehensive learning management solution for leading property management companies, enabling them to optimize training development and administration. With customizable training content, advanced features and integrations, organizations can significantly reduce operational expenses,...

Our series highlighting affordable housing visionaries continues with a look at the work of Ebonye Edwards, director of learning and development for ALCO Management. ALCO is based in Memphis, Tenn. The company’s 200+ employees serve communities in eight states in the Southern United States. ALCO’s portfolio includes 59 properties with 5,497 units. How did Yardi choose Ebonye to feature in our Affordable Housing Visionary series? It’s her ability to recognize the usefulness of training and to implement technology that keeps ALCO in compliance with the ever changing standards of the affordable housing industry. She keeps ALCO’s in-office and remote workers trained using custom courses, curated learning plans, automated reminders and reporting tools. Q: Ebonye, tell us about your role at ALCO. EE: As Director of Learning and Development, my job is to make sure our team has the resources necessary to not only perform their job, but also to create career opportunities in the complex affordable housing industry. Q: What is your biggest accomplishment at ALCO to date? EE: When I was hired, our learning program used live instructional sessions held in virtual classrooms. I discovered that method to be a bit inefficient because classes would often be faced with unknown delays and absences that may have limited the potential benefits of training. Q: How did you mitigate those limitations? EE: At the time, ALCO was licensing Yardi Aspire, but with limited actual use. Our training courses at the time covered standard topics such as fair housing, sexual harassment and maintaining a drug-free workplace. All other topics, including affordable housing compliance subjects, were taught by our in-house instructors. They’d set a schedule with hopes of reaching everyone who needed training. Despite their best efforts, it was a challenge for everyone to attend. As I was considering the future of training at ALCO, I took a closer look at Aspire. I found that Aspire had affordable housing property management and compliance training content that could supplement, if not replace, much of the live training sessions we had difficulty coordinating across our regional work spaces. We considered the different roles at ALCO, such as property managers and maintenance teams and created learning plans based on those roles. Q: How does your team make sure your learning plans cover everything you need? A: Our Senior Instructional Designer is great at creating custom courses in Aspire. She uses the templates and design tools to roll out coursework to our team, and can normally complete a module in a matter of days. One of the biggest differentiators I have found with Aspire is that it’s not just a medium to get training content onto the screens of learners. Aspire is different because it also has built-in, proprietary content. That content often meets our needs, but when it doesn’t, our design team can easily tweak the classes or build new learning modules from scratch. Q: How does Aspire help ALCO with affordable housing compliance mandates? EE: Yardi helps us keep up with evolving affordable housing industry regulations. When HUD changes go into effect, Yardi Aspire immediately begins work to make sure our training content is compliant. I feel confident that our staff is learning up-to-date processes and procedures and not spending time on anything out of compliance. Q: How does automated content delivery make things easier for ALCO? EE: Centralizing training on a learning management solution, such as Aspire, replaces a lot of administrative work. Instead of keeping track of training schedules for each employee in a spreadsheet or database, we automate things on Aspire. It alerts our team members when they are required to recertify on fair housing, employment standards and on changing laws. Q: Was Aspire helpful for ALCO during the pandemic? EE: Yes. At the time, I felt like ALCO was ahead of the curve compared with what other affordable housing organizations may have been experiencing. For example, Aspire is great for...

Want to train your leasing agents to perform with fewer errors and more confidence? Research shows that learning something once isn’t enough. If you want your staff to retain long-term software skills, you need learning software that implements immersive learning and repetitive practice. But how do you implement those features without overwhelming staff? How to train staff for long-term skill retention The key lies in seamless integration. Related training is the newest feature in Yardi Aspire designed to help staff gain long-term skill retention. Available within several Yardi solutions including RentCafe CRM Flex, Yardi Procure to Pay and RentCafe Affordable Housing, related training embeds continuous learning directly into staff workflows, giving staff easy access to skill information where and when they need it most. With easy access to relevant training right before an employee performs a specific task, they can reduce potential costly errors and complete tasks with greater efficiency. Information fades over time, but with help from experiential learning, employees can actively refresh their memory, enhance their understanding and create a more meaningful learning experience — without the hassle. How does related training for Aspire work? A tab will appear on the right side of the screen when an employee uses any related training-compatible solution, like the ones previously mentioned. This tab will directly link them to Aspire training courses associated with the task they’re currently performing. Users can then choose from available training options, followed by a key concept review and short quiz. Once finished, they can continue learning in Aspire or return to their task with greater confidence. It’s that simple! Those who use the integrated Yardi Help tool can find the new related training feature in their Help window. From there, they can review course details and launch a recommended course from the Help screen. Training success starts here Educating your employees efficiently can be one of the most challenging aspects of running a real estate management company. Yardi Aspire is committed to helping you make it easy with innovative learning technology that educates and empowers. Ready to improve training efficiency? Here’s everything you need to support your developing...

The value of learning management systems as a catalyst for organizational improvement was the topic of a recent webinar hosted by Patty Evans, industry principal for Yardi Aspire, and featuring employees of the Boulder (Colo.) Housing Authority. Learning management systems can promote stability among an increasingly restive employee population. Evans noted that more than 47 million Americans voluntarily left their jobs last year. A recent study of U.S. workers by Cengage Group showed that 64% of survey respondents identified training as integral to their role, while 78% of employees who quit in the preceding six months took an online course to prepare for their next job. An Amazon-Gallup study found that 47% of employees are “extremely interested” in training that upgrades their skills and advances their careers. “It’s clear that if employers do not provide adequate training, employees will find ways to develop the needed skills and that may mean getting a job elsewhere.,” Evans said. “Employers need to have a new mantra: If we want to retain our staff, we have to focus on skills development.” These factors have prompted BHA and other agencies to adopt Aspire, an online learning management system that automates the delivery of personalized learning experiences to half a million users worldwide. Along with live event management, Aspire includes about 1,300 courses on Yardi software, HR topics, compliance and safety, professional skills development and more. Its content is routinely upgraded to reflect changes to Yardi software, industry standards, and federal and state legislation. Learners seeking to refine specific skills can use the site-wide search tool or interactive catalog to locate and sign up for training on more than 200 industry skills and review recommended training options for their current or desired role. Boon to virtual onboarding Along with offering workers immediate skills practice and real-world applications, Aspire also benefits BHA and other organizations as a virtual onboarding tool that automatically assigns relevant training and resources for success to new employees as they begin new roles. The system also automatically recalibrates training assignments as employees transfer to new roles or locations throughout their career. “We can customize the Aspire content with unique company messages such as BHA’s values and mission. This helps make a great first impression of the organization with new employees,” said Carrie Murphy, BHA’s learning management system manager. “You’ll be surprised how much you can do with Aspire’s proprietary authoring and communication tools to make your staff feel not just welcome but connected to your organization. With a little imagination, your employees can dive in and immediately interact with your organization through Aspire,” Evans added. Benefits of automation and personalized learning The webinar revealed that employee engagement and efficiency offered by Aspire holds increasing relevance in today’s work environment. “Since the start of the pandemic online learning has seen a massive increase in participation and continues to grow. Companies benefit when employees feel confident and employees thrive when they’re given opportunities to learn new skills, receive feedback on their training performance and participate in a learning community,” Evans said. Aspire helps BHA’s training administrators by automating time-consuming, repetitive processes, from training announcements, registration management and training and skills assessments to feedback collection and recommended next steps. It also delivers new organizational efficiency and direct cost savings with self-paced content that is automatically developed and maintained by Yardi and industry experts. Trainers can spend less time developing and delivering introductory information and beginning skills and focus more time training advanced topics and imparting institutional knowledge. “Automated training management saves us a lot of time,” Murphy said. Rosemary Mendenhall, a community manager for BHA, offered the user’s perspective. “I love that I can personalize my learning with Aspire. I can pick the classes that I want, with my managers assigning me additional classes that tie in with my job and experience,” she said, noting that the variety of training methods – including highly interactive content,...

An organization’s ability to remain focused and cohesive during social distancing is essential for its success. To do so, Newcastle Limited chose to harness the power of software that fills gaps created by social distancing, offering tools for collaboration, communication, and productivity.  Pre-pandemic business as usual Newcastle Limited is a Chicago-based real estate investment firm specializing in commercial and residential properties. Its localized portfolio consists of 42 residential properties totaling 2,875 units and 55 retail properties with 140 tenants. To support those clients, Newcastle Limited employs 150 staff members, 54 of which operate from the corporate office. Mike Haney, Newcastle Limited CEO, consistently prioritizes the professional development of his team. Prior to the pandemic, the organization implemented Newcastle University via Yardi eLearning for onboarding, training, continuing education and professional development. Once restructured as Yardi Aspire, the additional features within the software  gave new life to Haney’s initiative. Newcastle Limited implemented Aspire at the end of February, and timing couldn’t have been better. The organization had the opportunity to familiarize itself with the revised University before the pandemic encouraged social distancing nationwide. Through Aspire, Newcastle Limited has been able to maintain its focus on professional development in the face of unprecedented change. Aspire: working together, separately In response to social distancing, Newcastle Limited shifted most of its workforce to a remote environment. The real estate investment firm relied on Yardi Aspire to keep the team connected and in sync. Its online learning environment includes communication tools, collaboration opportunities and training event management. Aspire has proven to be a single solution for Newcastle’s remote work needs. Get 6 Pro Tips for Stellar Remote Work Aspire is the only training solution on the market that enables clients to automatically distribute role-based learning plans that cover multiple competency areas including property management software skills, mandatory compliance, company policies, safety, leasing and procedures. At Newcastle Limited, Aspire has helped management better understand the needs, strengths, and opportunities of its employees as they work and learn outside of the office. “We are using the platform for compliance-related initiatives such as policy and procedure updates. This way, we can track who has taken and acknowledged policies,” says Jennifer Smetana, director of learning and development at Newcastle Limited. Scoring measures within the software also provide managers with insights into areas that may need review and further clarification. Additional features have improved the way that Newcastle Limited stays organized and connected with remote employees. “The learning plans and our dynamic ownership for grouping and reporting purposes have had a major impact,” says Smetana. “We also started using the resource containers to house quick guides, article of the week, and the additional links to pages we use often. Everything is quickly accessible in one place so that we stay efficient and organized.” Teamwork, virtual watercoolers and camaraderie During social distancing, the communication and collaboration tools within Aspire demonstrated their value to Newcastle Limited. “We have taken an employee engagement approach to the platform,” she says.  “We launched engagement events such as virtual coffee breaks, contests, games and Wednesdays by the Watercooler to keep our team members connected.” Wednesdays by the Watercooler is a casual event where employees are encouraged to log on together and share in a virtual break. “We connect, tell jokes and do silly activities to stay united,” smiles Smetana. “I feel that Aspire has helped our organization move forward and continue growing. The platform is the foundation for staying connected and has aided in keeping our team members working while being remote,” says Smetana. Join a webinar to discover how Aspire, formerly eLearning, can support your organization during social distancing and beyond....