Client Background
Our client is a Boston-based real estate firm, specializing in the acquisition, management, and renovation of real estate assets. The firm was looking to restructure its existing property management team by adding effective and efficient talent.
The Brief
The firm’s President approached us to source for a Head of Property Management role after he heard about us from an existing client of ours. The ideal candidate the firm was looking for would need the experience to step into this ‘one-stop-shop’ role to run smooth operations to manage and grow the firm’s existing portfolio.
Skip to our search methodology pertaining to this assignment and find out how we engaged, sourced, assessed and delivered.
The Result
The selected candidate was convinced this was the right ‘step-up’ role for him. Within just 3 months of working in the role, he demonstrated himself as a hard worker, adeptly handling multiple crises, and received a bonus, in addition to the discretionary end-of-year bonus. He has earned the trust of the President and the leadership team and is being involved in the search for the firm’s next Managing Director of Asset Management and Operations. He has been offered to also expand his role into brokerage or leasing.
This case study demonstrates Page Executive’s capability to deliver quickly through our powerful search capabilities despite a limited talent pool.
Search Methodology
Engagement
Due to an internal restructuring plan, the President had been clear with us to run this search for the Head of Property Management role confidentially. He wanted to see profiles of candidates with portfolio management experience in boutique firms. Given the firm did not outsource work to property management agencies, it was critical for us to present candidates who would be hands-on, work hard and have a positive attitude.
Apart from understanding the profile of the ideal candidate, we established a robust communications framework with the President to help drive forward the recruitment process on this role, with a minimum of one video call on a weekly basis.
Sourcing
This was a challenging search as the role was all-encompassing in overseeing the daily management of the properties in the firm’s portfolio, 90% of which were retail, without the help of an external agency partner. Moreover, they had a 5-day on-site work policy which meant we needed to find candidates who would be willing to commute.
We began mapping the market to identify senior-level candidates with retail portfolio management experience and who were already based in and around Boston. We then brought the President up-to-speed with our market insights. Given the specifications, we were looking at a limited pool of candidates matching the criteria. With the President keen to have the candidate work 100% from the office, he acted on our recommendation to cover car parking charges as an added benefit to the candidate’s overall package.
Assessment
Once we identified potential candidates, we assessed them through an initial phone conversation during which we pitched the role followed by a video interview to evaluate their experience and culture fit. Upon de-risking the hire through a reference check of the candidates, we presented our first shortlist to the President, all within 3 days of commencing the search.
Delivery
We then scheduled video and/or in-person interviews for the shortlisted candidates with the President. Eventually, the President zeroed in on one of the candidates from our shortlist who was offered the role – he ticked all the boxes, including being willing to work from the office during the week. We ensured the offer management ran smoothly on both sides.
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