PLK Communities, a private real estate firm focusing on multi-family properties, has found that the best way to implement mentoring is through what it likes to call “mentoring sprints.” Having a full mentorship program can burn out top performers as those are the team members who have to be relied upon to partner with new hires. Mentoring sprints allow PLK to have quick impact without the burnout and to specialize the sprints around specific training initiatives.
Program Details
PLK has implemented mentoring sprints for 52 percent of its workforce trained across two business units. In one example, PLK deployed a mentorship sprint around its telephone techniques. The company leaned into its third-party telephone performance analysis company, LeaseHawk, which scores PLK’s calls, to distinguish top performers from bottom performers.
PLK invited its top performers to be matched and become mentors to a bottom performer to coach on the categories where they were missing the telephone performance analysis benchmark.
The sprint ran for 60 days. Mentors were required to meet at least twice with their mentees to review best practices and tips and tricks, role-play, and/or review previous recorded calls for evaluation. Both reported on their meeting experience by filling out a short form and submitting it to the Training team for monitoring.
If the mentee increased their overall average performance score to 85 percent for their calls during those 60 days, they were awarded a $100 gift card of choice. The mentor also received a $100 gift card if the mentee achieved their benchmark.
PLK deployed a mini-version of the sprint if previous mentees slipped into bad behavior/habits.
Results
All three LeaseHawk mentoring sprints resulted in mentees achieving the desired results of 85 percent on their telephone calls. Typically, a scored call of 85 percent or greater will result in an appointment scheduled for an apartment tour. These mentoring sprints contributed to increasing PLK’s call-to-appointment ratios from 25 percent to 40 percent.
