In a traditional community association management (CAM) company, there’s a CAM manager (or two or five) who wears every hat in the organization. Throughout the industry, a troublesome lack of incoming new talent, and an exodus of available professionals has forced many CAM professionals to juggle dozens of roles and responsibilities.
The CAM Management “dream team” needs to include at least the following three roles: An Assistant Community Association Manager, a CAM Accountant, and an Administrative Manager. Today, most CAMs are all of those things and more–they’re their own management assistants, they handle the accounting for their entire portfolio, and they coordinate every administrative task under the sun. Instead of one CAM jugging all of those tasks, bringing on team members who can take on that workload so the CAM can focus on managing their communities is critical to the success of your community association management company. Here’s what to look for in each:
Assistant Community Association Manager
Finding an assistant to help shoulder some of the manager’s burden is a great place to start. A CAM assistant would be great at assisting the CAM manager in overseeing the day-to-day operations of both the management company and the communities throughout the management company’s portfolio.
An assistant CAM would be integral in helping to coordinate maintenance and repairs and send necessary communications to homeowners as needed. They’d also work closely with the management team to develop and oversee scheduling requirements for community activities or planned events like water shut-offs or road closures.
When hiring an Assistant CAM, look for individuals who
- Have strong organizational skills
- Are excellent communicators
- Have experience managing multiple tasks simultaneously and efficiently.
- Can work collaboratively with other members of the management team to ensure the success of the community association management company.
CAM Accounting Support
A CAM accounting support is responsible for managing the financial affairs of the community associations in the management company's portfolio. Asking a CAM manager to handle this workload is so common today, but can be incredibly time-consuming due to the specific nature of CAM accounting. Tasks like preparing monthly reports, managing accounts payable and receivable, and maintaining deferred revenue schedules are all high-level responsibilities for a CAM accounting staff member.
When hiring a CAM Accounting Staff, make sure they:
- Have a strong understanding of accounting principles and practices
- Are able to communicate financial information clearly and effectively to board members and other stakeholders
- Can work collaboratively with other members of the management team to ensure the financial health of the community association.
Administrative Manager
Managing the administrative functions of the community association and management company is arguably the largest burden that takes time away from CAM managers. The time spent coordinating meetings and events, fielding generalized emails and phone calls from homeowners, and proper documentation maintenance all draw focus from more critical management tasks like emergency requests or board advisory responsibilities.
If you’re hiring an Administrative CAM Assistant, look for a candidate who:
- Possesses strong time-management skills
- Is comfortable handling both phone and email conversations with confused or disgruntled homeowners
- Excels at collaboration.
The Right Support For the Dream Team
Finding a person to fill each of these roles is a challenge–that’s why CAM managers have been bearing the burden themselves for so long. New team members take time to interview, train, onboard, and integrate into existing company culture. Not to mention the costs associated with the hiring process!
If you’re looking to build a successful dream team of your own for your CAM management company, but aren’t sure if it’s the right move financially, or which role to onboard first, remember that each of these roles can be filled with a Community Association Management Virtual Employee.
Reduce your managers’ workloads at a fraction of the cost of a new full-time employee by working with skilled professionals equipped to work with your CAM managers on their most tiresome tasks. Click here to schedule your free 30-min consultation to see what kind of staffing support your CAM staff needs today.