It Was the Best of Times, It Was the Worst of Times

I think we’re all in agreement that 2020 was the worst. In spite of all that this terrible, no good, very bad year served up, there were some bright spots. Ever the optimists, at Swift Bunny we’re sending the worst year in history off by taking a look back at some of our best moments in multifamily. Tiffany Tamminen Joins Our Team A wonderful thing happened at Swift Bunny in early 2020: Tiffany Tamminen joined our crew as our Director of Sales. Adding Tiffany to our team means we’re able to spread our passion for creating high performing, highly satisfying multifamily workplaces far and wide. Tiffany also amps up the fun factor around here and is responsible for more than one episode of spit-laughing during a company Zoom meeting. Check out her turn in our holiday greeting video (at about the 2:15 mark) to see her great sense of humor in action. We’re so lucky you’re here, Tiffany! Multifamily COVID-19 Employee Impact Study Published As the pandemic unfolded, disrupting everything about our workplaces, we hopped into action to offer a free COVID-19 Employee Check-In Survey. Our goal was to help leaders understand how their teams were feeling and faring as their world turned upside down. We analyzed the responses from thousands of multifamily employees and published the Multifamily COVID-19 Employee Impact Study, offering insights, guidance, and resources to help leaders support their frontline teams. More than 30 Webinars Delivered Management companies and apartment associations around the country were eager to learn from the results of our Multifamily COVID-19 Employee Impact Study and discover how to best support their teams during these unusual times. The Swift Bunny education team of Jen Piccotti and Kara Rice offered more than 30 webinars this year to help meet that need. The most popular topics included “Leading with Compassion: Property Management Under Stress”, and “Housing Heroes: Recognizing and Rewarding Your Hardworking Community Teams.” Watch the recorded webinars here. Inspiring Book Club Reads We continued to nurture our passion for reading and lifelong learning through our Swift Bunny Book Club and welcomed more participants. We had great turnout for our Book Club meetings to discuss Give and Take by Adam Grant and Radical Candor by Kim Scott. You’re invited to join us in reading along for our next Book Club selection, Drive by Daniel Pink; our discussion will take place in early 2021. Consider inviting your whole work team to read along with us and join our Swift Bunny Book Club Facebook group for inspiring book-related conversation all year through. First Annual APTeams Day The National Apartment Association declared August 12, 2020 as the first-ever Apartment Onsite Teams Day to recognize and honor the dedication, skill, passion, and enthusiasm of the multifamily industry’s community teams. We had an absolute blast teaming up with Multifamily Insiders to reward some deserving apartment teams with custom #APTeamsDay t-shirts. We loved celebrating with you and we’re already scheming our 2021 #APTeamsDay plans. Mark your calendars! Industry-First Multifamily Diversity and Inclusion Study We wrapped up this busy year by conducting the industry’s first Diversity and Inclusion Study to help owners and managers improve understanding and open up the lines of communication surrounding these very important issues. More than 2,100 apartment industry associates shared their candid thoughts to help shape our study. You can discover the current perceptions of diversity and inclusion in the multifamily industry, most common areas of greatest strength, and immediate opportunities for improvement by downloading our white paper. As this unprecedented year winds down, we’re reminded of how adept our apartment industry leaders and teams have been in adapting to change all around us. We are genuinely inspired by each and every one of you who continue to deliver for your residents and team members. Here’s to the revised-for-the-twentieth-time policies and procedures, the emergency planning sessions, the non-stop Zoom calls, the tossing and turning and worrying and stressing, the leaning on your peers to find out how they’re doing it, and the lifting up of your co-workers to make sure they don’t drown. Here’s to our multifamily family–and a better and brighter New Year for us all. Cheers!