Pub. 4 2019 Issue 3

9 ISSUE 3 2019 These infrastructure investments only pay off if they are followed by significant projects that build on top of that infrastructure. Short-Term Priorities and Tech Hype Not Yet Aligned The key topics presented at NMHC’s OpTech Conference in November included AI, smart- home platforms and STR tech- nologies. Yet none of the COOs or CIOs interviewed listed any of those among their “top three” priorities for 2019. That doesn’t mean they have no interest or activity (intentional double negative), but it does mean the rental housing industry is a bit early in the hype cycle for each of the three. There is the first-mover advantage in AI and STR because efforts from those movers learn and mature sooner than others and can maintain that cultural advantage for years. Conversely, the smart-home tech may have a first-mover disadvan- tage if it ends up investing in the Betamax version in a VHS world. Recruiting and Retaining Talent Everyone said that recruiting and retaining quality talent was increasingly difficult. As challeng- ing as they said it was in 2018, all stated they expect it to be equally difficult (or more difficult) in 2019. Most are focusing on culture (creating a sense of belonging to something with a greater purpose), policies (e.g., loosening tattoo and piercing standards to attract a wider talent pool) and investing in career development and training as key strategies for dealing with this challenge. On the development side, the clear No. 1 priority is investing in sales (leasing) perfor- mance improvement. That is not glimpse into where the industry is headed with technology during the next couple of years became apparent. The white paper “20 for 20: Where Multi-Family Housing Operations is Heading by 2020” addresses the situation. The Top 5 Observations One Big Project Half of those interviewed for this paper had a technology project in 2018 that basically dominated resources to the exclusion of any other major project; and 70 percent of those were either a transition to a new PMS or a major upgrade to their existing PMS. 1 2 3 Continued on page 10