In the fall of 2015, Essex associates like you helped drive change through sharing anonymous feedback on the Associate Engagement Survey. We received an incredible 88% participation rate, and over the past year we’ve been committed to thoughtfully addressing your feedback.

We’d like to look back at the strides we’ve made so far. You’ll also recall that some of these achievements were shared with you at the Annual Awards, while region-specific results were shared by management in person.

Company Vision – At the Annual Awards, you’ll recall that John Burkart shared our vision of Operational Excellence, which drives everything we do.

Essex Excellence Program – To show our appreciation of your hard work, we rolled out the Essex Excellence Program. Managers now have the ability to spot reward associates for exceptional work as it happens, which is in addition to rewarding reviews and the end of large projects. So far, we have given out 824 awards!

Additional PTO day – Beginning on April 1, all associates began accruing an additional PTO day.

Compensation and Quarterly Bonuses – To address concerns regarding associate compensation, we updated our market ranges and increased the compensation budget for onsite associates by $1.5 million. In August, associates also received Q1 and Q2 bonus payment where applicable. Recently the compensation ranges were updated once again, and these new ranges will be effective January 1.

Growth Opportunities – One of our goals has always been to foster talent from within. To achieve this, we continue to require managers to complete assessments for review by HR prior to the effective promotion. To further support this, we have established the Leadership Foundations program, which is on hold for budgeting season but will be reactivated early next year.

Adequate staffing – To address concerns regarding understaffing, we recently created a floater pool to call upon additional associate support as needed.

IT improvements – The IT department continues to make improvements in several areas, including decreasing ticket resolution times, increasing cybersecurity, and highlighting property photos on the computer login screen.

‘Speak Up’ submission – We always encourage you to share your thoughts with us, and want you to feel confident and comfortable doing so. Speak Up continues to be used frequently, and we will always directly respond to comments.

Communication – To streamline communications, the weekly newsletter is now shared via Buzz instead of email. We also added a ‘Cool Stuff’ news section in which associate achievements both inside and outside the office are highlighted.

Concerns regarding turnover and retention – In part due to our accomplishments noted above, our turnover rate is slowly improving and we encourage all associates to apply for promotional opportunities.

Coming in the near future – the next Associate Engagement Survey
We look forward to having 100% participation in the upcoming Associate Engagement Survey, where you can once again anonymously share your thoughts. Look for more information to follow. In the meanwhile, please send any questions or comments to djones@essex.com.