The Fine Art of Scheduling

The business of running a co-op or condo has many moving parts, which means property managers need to help boards understand the importance of scheduling. This challenge is faced in almost every maintenance request, inspection service appointment and delivery in the building. As managers, you have to make everything cohesive. For example, if a building is having the hallway carpets cleaned, we have to take into consideration what time the company can do the work, how long it will take, how noisy and disruptive it will be, what chemicals are being used, and whether people have allergies to them. In addition, the super needs to be present to provide access. At buildings that don’t have supers, the board has to provide access, which becomes another scheduling challenge in itself. 

Then there are the variables, like the weather and people moving in or out of the building. You want to cause as little interruption as possible to residents, because ultimately what we’re there for is to preserve quality of life. To do that, there are certain strategies we follow with major projects, like reaching out to contractors and professionals in the very early planning stages to align their timetables with that of the building. 

Boards can certainly play a role in helping to keep projects running smoothly. At some of our buildings, board members will kick off the day by meeting early in the morning with the contractor onsite. Other boards are more lax and not as involved day-to-day with their professionals. Whatever their style, the most important thing to making scheduling work is making sure everyone understands his or her role in the project. It all boils down to communication.