What the new Village Manager is looking for from an employment arrangement?

At the helm of every good village is a good village manager – but as operators are being forced to compete on salaries and benefits with other industries, good village managers are getting harder and harder to attract and retain.

A good village manager is vital for a village’s success, as they look after not only the physical assets of the village but the all-important DMF income.

The deferred management fee business is reliant on resident satisfaction – so there’s the assets of in some cases $20-70 million or more that they maintain, but VMs also have to maintain resident satisfaction to be able to grow and improve the DMF side.

Together, that’s a pretty important reason for having a very good village manager.

The role has changed. Today, a competent village manager is responsible for compliance, financial management, property management, mental health management, population wellness, sales, marketing and general resident well-being.

Looking forward, VMs might also be responsible for areas such as care services, food services, and retail leases, so their skill set is actually extremely broad.

It’s not something you can go to university to learn.

What managers want

Village managers are becoming more and more savvy in terms of what they want from an employer. Prospective hires nowadays would like to see:

• A solid induction program – not just a week of on-the-job training
• A commitment to ongoing professional development
• Sound support program structures
• Technological systems that support the village operations
• Project support, such around COVID planning, Accreditation or asset upgrades

And more pay to go with the increased responsibility and skills.

We will look at this in the next issue.