Page 10 - New England Condominiium December 2021

10 NEW ENGLAND CONDOMINIUM -DECEMBER 2021 NEWENGLANDCONDO.COM Flynn Law Group 185 Devonshire St., Suite 401 • Boston, MA 02110 617-988-0633 “Quality Representation at Reasonable Rates - $150/Hr.” Contact Attorney Frank Flynn Frank@flynnlaw-ne.com www.flynnlaw-ne.com ATTORNEYS See Our Display Ad on Page 10 See Our Display Ad on Page 9 Condominium and Real Estate Law Phone: (781) 817-4900 Direct: (781) 817-4603 Fax: (781) 817-4910 We may be dressed up, but we aren’t afraid to get our hands dirty. www.lawmtm.com Merrill & McGeary 100 State Street, Suite 200 Boston, MA 02109 617-523-1760 • Fax 617-523-4893 Contact: Mike Merrill, Esq. mmerrill@merrillmcgeary.com ACCOUNTANTS David A. Levy, CPA, P.C. Certified Public Accountants 20 Freeman Place Needham, MA 02492 Tel: (617) 566-3645 (866) 842-0108 Fax: (866) 681-2377 www.DALCPAPC.net DAL CPA Accounting • Auditing • Taxes • Consulting Worcester 67 Millbrook Street 508-797-5200 Grafton 80 Worcester Street 508-839-0020 Holden 795 Main Street 508-829-5544 M Love Associates, & LLC Certified Public Accountants Serving Condominium Associations mlove 2.25 x 2.5 condo association color 9.19.2017.indd 1 9/19/17 12:59 PM 185 Devonshire Street, Suite 401, Boston, MA 02110 Quality Representation at Reasonable Rates. (617) 988-0633 Contact Attorney Frank Flynn: FRANK@FLYNNLAW-NE.COM Flynn_E4C.qxp:Layout 1 12/8/14 2:30 PM Page 1 ddlevy@roofmaxx.com 5 0 8 -4 4-4 7 66 3 DON’T REPLACE YOUR ROOF… REJUVENATE IT WITH ROOF MAXX! “former stockbrokers” who were burned out on the Wall Street game and decided to make a career change. Scott Wolf, CEO of Brigs, a real estate man- agement firm located in Boston, echoes Woll- man, particularly when it comes to applicants with a background in hospitality. “We are looking for service-oriented people,” he says. “If someone wants to get out of the restaurant business, for instance, we are looking for them. I want a service industry background—people with customer service experience and people skills.” However, when it comes to filling roles, Wolf says, “You’re lucky if you can find a warm body. Previously you would put out an ad and get 40 responses. Now, maybe you get six. To- day’s pool is much smaller in general, even for property managers. It’s very competitive for new people, today, so a well-defined job de- scription is very important. As an employer, you must offer a balance between life and job. It’s a quality-of-life thing.” Finding & Vetting Identifying candidates for building staff po- sitions is the first step in finding the right fit. Wollman divides the work pool into three cat- egories: supers, handymen, and everyone else. “They have different pay scales,” he explains. “Handymen, in my experience, are the hardest to find, because most buildings have one and they don’t leave one building for another, be- cause union wage scales don’t have differen- tials. You can sometimes promote a porter or doorman to handyman if they have the right skills. But that depends on the building, too. If I’m in a prewar that has significant plumbing issues, I look for someone with plumbing ex- perience. That person might even be a plumber by trade. Handymen must have the necessary, specific skills. They also need leadership quali- ties, because they are in charge when the super isn’t there.” “Finding a super is a different story,” Woll- man continues. “We have a network of supers, and they know other supers. We sometimes advertise. We also work with the union, which is a little more complicated because sometimes they’re promoting someone who is unem- ployed—and there is a reason they are unem- ployed. Sometimes there’s a difference in view between a super and a board, so the board lets them go.” Wolf adds that while his company does post some job listings online on sites like Indeed and Craigslist, and occasionally in the good old-fashioned classifieds, most candidates are identified by word-of-mouth from existing staff. “We always ask for those internal refer- rals,” he says. “Leveraging who you know gets the word out and gets a personal reference. We rely heavily on that.” Vetting can be tricky, explains Wollman, because the stakes are high. “A super makes or breaks the management of the building,” he says. “If they’re ineffective, I’ll lose my man- agement job. So I check these things out very deeply. If I get a resume and the candidate says he’s working at a specific building, and he isn’t really working there, I will find out and it’s unlikely I’ll hire him. I also won’t hire some- one who has been fired. Personal references are important too. I must find someone who knows the candidate.” Wollman also says it’s crucial to keep in mind that specific buildings may require very specific skills. “Not every applicant can run a modern building with modern infrastructure,” he says. “If a guy has been the super in a pre- war for 25 years, he may not know how to use the most modern systems.” “You must define the role and the job de- scription, says Wolf. “Person X may not be for property Y. For maintenance people, I vet on skills and capabilities. What are the true needs of the property? Those are the skills you are looking for.” Accurate job descriptions are therefore very helpful. Legal Considerations Another component of vetting is a back- ground check. The type and depth of back- ground checks legally permitted to be run on potential hires varies from place to place. Ac- cording to Wollman, New York State law no longer permits them—which makes personal recommendations even more critical when hiring building employees. In Massachusetts, Wolf says he does criminal background checks on everyone, but not credit checks. Ellen Shapiro, an attorney with Braintree, Massachusetts-based law firm Marcus, Errico, Emmer, & Brooks, explains the law as it ap- plied to her state. “Condominium associations must make the same consideration as in any other employer,” she says. “The standard is neither lesser nor greater for them. They must consider all laws and regulations, including the ADA, and other non-discriminatory measures covering age, race, and other protected groups. In Massachusetts, state law tracks federal law. I do think that sometimes, in an attempt to be pleasant and to make an interviewee less intimidated, \[boards\] innocently wander into topics like marital status and children just to make small talk. Be wary of that—being pleas- ant can waltz you onto thin ice. Those topics may come out during the course of the inter- view, but if you ask an interviewee if they’re planning a family, for example, it could get you into trouble later on.” Whether a residential community’s staff is working during a pandemic or what we now think of as ‘normal times,’ hiring and retaining the right personnel is a crucial component of a building or association that functions and thrives. The last 20-plus months have demon- strated the importance not only of identifying the right people for a given role, but of treating veteran and new staff members alike with re- spect and compensation that reflects the scope of what they do. Good communities attract good employees—and that pays rewards for everybody. n A J Sidransky is a staff writer/reporter for New England Condominium, and a published novelist. He can be reached at alan@yrinc.com. HIRING STAFF continued from page 1 See Our Display Ad on Back Cover