So, you want to fire your super, handyman, or doorman? Think again. Coop and condo board members and residents often ask us about their staff. They frequently have a list of opinions ranging from laziness to mistrust, overtime and mismanagement. However, it is not often that they can pinpoint any precise examples. This leads us to ask some follow-up questions, to which most coop and condo owners and boards often do not have an answer.

To turn this around, we put together some ideas that might assist coop and condo boards help the staff, including the super, to run a better building, making them the heroes:

CHAIN OF COMMAND

Because there are so many entities involved with running a building, understanding who reports to whom is crucial. Here is an organizational chart that may help:

Read more about the responsibilities of the coop and condo board versus the property manager here

Although other non-profit organizations have a board, a coop or condo board sometimes takes their board responsibilities very personal creating additional conflicts and complications. Keeping their home safe, beautiful and affordable is near and dear to everyone, but self-dealing is never acceptable.

MANAGING THE STAFF

In managing the staff and setting up proper systems for the staff to succeed, the following needs to be addressed:

Job descriptions: A proper job description is crucial in setting up expectations and matching candidates with open positions. Blake Lezak, VP at Safety Facility Services, a premier building staffing service, told us that “Too often we find that not only are boards unaware of the actual scope of work they are paying for but even the individuals delivering the service aren’t clear on the exact tasks and responsibilities of their position.”
Manuals: Most jobs come with manuals and checklists that defines the day-to-day tasks that are required to be performed. If your building is a union building, like many New York City buildings are, the union, 32BJ, or the property management firm should be able to provide templates that can be customizable to your building’s needs.
Training: The super oversees the rest of the staff including handyman, doormen, concierges, and porters. It is the responsibility of the super to provide proper training and supervision. Although it is the super’s responsibility, he does not have to do this alone. The property management firm should provide the super with available training opportunities. There are ample training through 32BJ and NYC Accelerator.

What sets apart a great super is not being a supervisor or manager, but a leader.

One fantastic super read the manuals for each position and performed every single task himself while logging the time involved with every task. This enabled him to:

Create checklists for each staff position
Reallocate responsibilities between the staff for fairness
Follow-up where task items were not completed
Train the staff to perform tasks properly and within expected timeframe

“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way”

— John Maxwell

We have seen some crazy, and some very heartening stories; here’s a limited selection:

Hero: One super showed up at the doorstep, after hours on a Friday night to drop off a sling, icepack and pain relief cream to a resident who broke her collar bone.

Hero: One doorman called 911 after a resident collapsed in the far end of the lobby, only viewable through the building’s cameras. The resident said that the doorman saved her life.

Heroes: Majority of all buildings’ staff continued to work in the height of the COVID-19 pandemic long before the vaccines were available.

We hope the above tips will help you assist your staff to become like these heroes. They will help your community reach the success and safety that each NYC coop shareholder and condo owner deserves.

At The Folson Group, our goal is to inspire you to run your building like a business. We enable and inspire co-op or condo board engagements to be filled with a feeling of accomplishment, excitement, meaning, happiness, and increased probability of success.

For other best practices for co-op and condo boards, get our FREE Policies and Procedures Checklist emailed straight to your inbox.

Email us at info@thefolsongroup.com or call us at (917) 648-8154 to find out more.

Is your Super a Superhero?