At WPD, our dedication to excellence extends beyond delivering exceptional housing experiences for our residents. We recognize that nurturing the growth and development of our employees is pivotal in fostering a positive and efficient workplace culture.
That’s why we place a strong emphasis on providing continued education opportunities for all members of our team. This takes on many forms, and over the years we have witnessed the positive impact of these efforts, with recent performance reviews being some of our best on record.
Continued education is an essential part of the property management process. Recognizing this, WPD proactively facilitates access to these educational resources, including providing funding for courses and examinations required for licensure. Whether it’s covering continuing education hours for leasing or broker licenses or providing support for staff pursuing licensure from scratch, we make it easy for our staff to enter the real estate industry in stride. In fact, we’ve been providing this funding to nearly 20 of our staff members, and see great results every time.
We see this investment as a way to improve outcomes for both our staff and residents alike. When property managers and other real estate professionals continue their learning, we bolster their credibility and adaptability to market dynamics, ultimately setting them up for long-term career success. And by financially supporting our staff in achieving these goals, we’re effectively dismantling the barriers to entering the real estate industry.
The benefits of WPD’s continued education extend beyond our internal operations to create better experiences for our residents, who can feel confident in their property manager’s knowledge, expertise and efficiency when it comes to solving housing issues. This dynamic fosters trust and loyalty among tenants, who re-sign leases knowing they’ll receive satisfactory performances from their property managers. It also cultivates deeper loyalty among employees, who find comfort in knowing that their workplace supports their professional growth.
We also encourage continued education through some company-specific events with a series we began more than a year ago — WPD Learns. This program brings our staff together every few weeks to engage with a new topic or tool that can benefit them in their professional lives — and those benefits extend to WPD residents, too. Earlier this year, we hosted a WPD Learns event focusing on HVAC systems, which gave our property managers critical knowledge that will be helpful throughout their entire career. As a result of these sessions, residents can count on having a reliable, well-versed property manager who can efficiently identify and correct issues. This results in a smoother process for everyone involved.
WPD Learns events have also focused on financial planning, in-depth tutorials on management software, time management and goal setting, Microsoft Excel and other necessary workplace products. Plus, we’ve been able to have some fun together as well — one of our sessions was a holiday baking lesson! These events not only build up our staff’s skills, but also develop stronger relationships, bringing our team closer to foster the positive work environment we prioritize at WPD. Over the coming months, we plan to bring WPD Learns sessions focusing on health and wellness, additional financial planning and more.
Our WPD team is smart, talented and passionate, and we’re grateful to help them expand their knowledge to help them grow as people and as real estate professionals. We see a great future with these continuing education strategies, and are excited to bring new benefits to our staff and residents.