Community Host - The Junction

Job Specification: Community Host

The Junction, Leeds is a growing community, by reclaiming the derelict arches we have reimagined this former industrial quarter as a new kind of destination, celebrating the city’s heritage, while embracing its future.

The team are at the heart of the development. You may be the first person the resident sees in the morning, the one they share life changing news with or a friendly face that they see every day after work! The Junction is all about resident experience. We want to be the best that Leeds has to offer and that will only ever be the case if the right people are recruited.

Winding canal paths, Red brick bridges and hidden passageways dating back hundreds of years. Slick steel building and glass-panelled wonders. With views like this, we have the best walk to work in the city.

About Native Residential:

Native Residential (www.native-residential.com) is the fastest growing independent Build to Rent (“BTR”) operator in the UK with over 5,000 apartments across 15 sites either operating or in our delivery pipeline. These assets are typically large-scale mixed-use schemes with up to 675 units in a single site including not just BTR but also commercial offices, retail, F&B & public realm, all of which is operated by Native Residential. Our clients include some of the biggest names in institutional investment including British Land, Landsec, Baupost, LaSalle, Ares, AIG and CDL, local authorities & Invesco to name a few.

Our team is our greatest strength. Join Native Residential, and you’ll work alongside the best and the brightest in property, hospitality, technology and marketing – in an environment where your talents are valued, nurtured and developed. Our purpose is to create sustainable communities with soul. Native Residential began life as a hospitality business, and a warm, welcoming, service-minded ethos still shines through in everything we do. It’s how we create an environment where everyone feels at home.

Sustainability is at the heart of our business. We are proud to be on our B Corp journey and are continually working on meaningful ways to reduce our carbon footprint and increase social value in the communities in which we operate. For us, conducting business responsibly and equitably is not just the right thing to do—it’s a smart business strategy.

Summary of Position:

Our Community Hosts are fundamental in creating a superb first and lasting impression of our community for all residents and visitors. You will be central to creating the “Native identity”.

The primary function of resident services is to deliver a responsive and outstanding customer service to our residents. Each day will be unique, requiring an ability to prioritise, multi-task, think creatively, take initiative and ownership, and employ a diverse set of inter personal and organisational skills. Dealing with residents can be a demanding role and does require a level of maturity, the ability to empathise and a strong sense of perspective. You will bring positive energy to each conversation, resolves issues quickly and effectively, and make everyone feel welcome and appreciated. It’s about first impressions, so you’ll take great pride in your presentation, and this will reflect in your front of house which you’ll keep clean, smart and welcoming at all times.

Your objective will be to achieve resident retention goals by performing all activities related to customer service to all residents, providing resident satisfaction throughout the term of the lease to ensure resident lease renewals and referrals. You will also be instrumental in handling enquiries, conducting leasing tours and leasing related paperwork.

You will be directly supported by a Assistant Community Manager, a team of fellow Community Hosts and an onsite facilities team.

There are four key pillars that will underpin the job holder’s success within this role includes:

Resident satisfaction: You will facilitate a facilities strategy that focusses on preventative and reactive maintenance across the business, to ensure that every customer has an exceptional experience when visiting or living at our properties across the portfolio. It is our aim that each residential property is in the top three BTR assets in its area on Homeviews.

Income and expenditure management: You will seek ways to improve our service and facilities management, to ensure that our clients see an exceptional return on investment. You will be at the forefront of the building facilities to ensure costs are controlled and maximum revenue is achieved from rental opportunities.

Operational excellence: You will spearhead operational excellence across the Community.

Team Management and Development: You will support and champion your own and your teammates development and growth of our “best in class” team who love working for Native together.

Principle Duties & Responsibilities:

We’ve summarised here some of the day to day functions of the role:

• Deliver an exceptional experience to every person, beginning with an unmatched first impression and building rapport with other team members, visitors, investor and clients, and both prospective and current residents
• Management of complaints/problems/issues arising from Residents, ensuring that all complaints are dealt with quickly and efficiently. This requires strong and efficient communication skills, maturity, an abundance of common sense and the ability to stay calm in a crisis.
• The ideal candidate will need to be highly organised, must have good written communication skills and be able to multi-task. All issues reported to us are recorded on our database. Every communication with a resident and action taken has to be logged on our database and a copy of our log is presented to our clients on a monthly basis. This affords us an opportunity to demonstrate the extent to which we keep residents regularly informed of the process of resolving their issues and the speed with which we deal with them.
• Maintain and uphold a high standard for community check appeal by conducting routine inspections of all community amenities and common areas, and working with the service team or other teams to ensure that all areas are well-maintained
• Follows-up with future, new, current and past residents by personalising thank-you notes, cards, emails or making telephone calls to ensure resident satisfaction throughout their tenancy.
• Executes and assists with activities to support the community’s leasing and lease renewal program.
• Executes and assists with activities to in relation to any community activities and events.
• Responds quickly and courteously to resident concerns and questions, and takes prompt action to solve problems and/or document and convey resident or other requests to the appropriate individual.
• Follows established policies and procedures by monitoring and ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements, organisational standards, and operational processes related to area of responsibility and reporting violations or infractions to appropriate individual.
• Follows health & safety procedures and policies in accordance with company, community, and departmental policies & procedures
• Identifies areas for improvement and offers suggestions and recommendations to optimise efficiency and productivity.
• Keeps abreast of current changes in technology, processes, and standards within the industry and area of responsibility by attending internal and external training classes, research and/or subscribing to the internet or other professional publications, or utilising other appropriate methods to obtain business and professional information, and applies knowledge and practices to area of responsibility
• Ability to keep sensitive information highly confidential at all times
• Day to Day concierge type services as required by the Development such as handling parcels, delivering post and other reasonable requests.

Experience:

• Proven experience in residential services, leasing, guest relations, hospitality, sales, or marketing that demonstrates a customer service and experience background.
• Proficiency in executing exceptional customer service within a customer facing role.
• Excellent written and spoken English.
• IT skills including MS Word, Excel & Outlook (training will be provided for our internal database system)

Personal specification:

• Excellent relationship building skills, both with entirely new and long term residents.
• Efficient and organised individual with excellent communication skills and has a sensitive, professional and well-mannered nature.
• Works exceptionally well within a team dynamic and contributes to an established open culture.
• Ability to build positive and productive working relationships with colleagues across Native.
• Ability to follow company policies and procedures
• Excellent communications skills, demonstrating the ability to liaise effectively & efficiently with people from diverse cultures, backgrounds and work levels

If you’re ready to be our next Native, you’ll probably

• Highly organised, must have good written communication skills and be able to multi-task.
• Have proven experience in residential services, leasing, guest relations, hospitality, sales, or marketing that demonstrates a customer service and experience background.
• Be proficiency in executing exceptional customer service within a customer facing role.
• Have excellent written and spoken English.
• Possess exceptional IT skills including MS Word, Excel & Outlook (training will be provided for our internal database system)
• Have excellent relationship building skills, both with entirely new and long-term residents and team members.
• Be an efficient and organised individual with excellent communication skills and has a sensitive, professional and well-mannered nature.
• Be able to work exceptionally well within a team dynamic and contributes to an established open culture.
• Have the ability to follow company policies and procedures.