Student Housing Business - Best In-house Management Innovation

SHB INNOVATOR AWARDS 2018 Best In-House Management Innovation CARDINAL GROUP MANAGEMENT

CARDINAL GROUP DASHBOARD

BACKGROUND Cardinal Group has experienced significant growth since launching in 2008 and felt the typical growing pains while transitioning from a small company where everyone knows each other to a midsize company with team members across the nation. As the company grew, the volume of requests for reset passwords, links to training resources, and other one-off requests also grew. CEO, Del de Windt, wanted to find a tool that could both help manage these requests and connect the team from across the country. When he couldn’t find it, he created it.

BACKGROUND Cardinal Group launched Dashboard in late 2014. This version, “Dashboard 1.0”, provided a web based platform to house a password vault and provide easy access for team members to access shortcuts. Over the next few years the platform developed into what it is now - a home base for all things Cardinal.

Dashboard now functions not only as a home for resources but also an internal social media network. If team members are going to be checking their social media feeds at work anyway, why not create your own network that allows them to digitally connect with each other from anywhere?

DEL DE WINDT Cardinal Group CEO

“THIS IS HOW [MILLENNIALS] INTERACT. YES, THEY’RE ON EMAIL, BUT THEY’D RATHER BE ON INSTAGRAM, TWITTER & FACEBOOK. WHY SHOULDN’T COMPANIES WITH YOUNG WORKFORCES PROVIDE AN OUTLET OR MEDIUM IN WHICH THEIR EMPLOYEES ARE MOST COMFORTABLE INTERACTING?”

TEAM MEMBER PROFILES

Each team member now gets a profile, where they can upload a photo and a list of hobbies. They also have a personal feed that shows if somebody sent them a message or commented on one of their posts. This has proven to be a great way to encourage connectedness among the 600+ team members working at Cardinal Group Companies. It can be used to familiarize yourself with a colleague and build a personal relationship. It’s the small things, like knowing which sports team someone follows, that make a difference.

OUR FEED

There’s also a running feed where team members can post globally to all of Cardinal Companies. This serves as a place to share recognitions, stories, and even intercompany competitions.

HIGH FIVES

High-fives were created on the Dashboard as an opportunity to recognize a colleague for a job well done, tied to one of the company’s 10 Core Values. Fellow team members are recognized when they do something that demonstrates one of the 10 Core Values. This has allowed both the culture and Core Values to remain a pertinent part of the company’s trajectory.

WIDGETS

Widgets are displayed on the home page of Dashboard and provide information on key pieces of information at a company level. Widgets include video announcements from the leadership team, a training calendar, pre-lease percentages for every property, and much more. This allows anyone in the company to get a pulse on how the company is performing in key areas.

GAMEOLOGY

High-fives are a great tool for team member to team member recognition, while badges are a tool for the company to reward team members for large accomplishments. Team members can receive over 100 badges for things like years of service at CGM or receiving 100% on their Cardinal Way of Leasing shop. These badges are shared with the entire company providing recognition in a unique and transparent way.

TEAM GROUPS

Teams are groups of team members with similar business interests. Team members can subscribe to these groups and post information pertaining to them. For example, the "Marketing" group includes team members from both on-site and HQ levels whose roles involve marketing.

These team members can share ideas on marketing initiatives, post articles on the latest marketing trends, and other marketing related activities. The main purpose of teams is to spread ideas and information throughout the company in an easy and transparent way.

HELP DESK

Help Desk is a one stop shop for any help a team member may need. Team members can submit help tickets for anything from a property management software issue to email issues. Tickets are then filtered to the appropriate team at HQ to troubleshoot and solve these problems. Team members can also subscribe to the progress of any ticket that they may also be having similar issues with. This ticketing system streamlines the company's support platform and provides efficiencies in all departments.

PASSWORD VAULT

Passwords are a key component for any team member to do their job. Unfortunately, passwords are easily lost if not kept in a safe place. The Password Vault in Dashboard allows team members to store all passwords in a secure and central place for their daily work lives. Password Vault also helps get new team members up to speed quickly. Passwords for all of their systems are automatically uploaded for them before their first day of work.

SHORTCUTS

Shortcuts allow Dashboard to truly be the hub of our company.

It has links to every tool Cardinal Group uses. If a team member can't remember the specific URL for a tool, they can head to the shortcuts section and find links to nearly 100 tools, systems, and resources that Cardinal Group uses.

SEARCHABILITY

Cardinal Group's dashboard provides a large breadth and depth of tools for everyone at the company. Because of the scale of this tool, a unified search tool was implemented to allow users to search for anything across the Dashboard environment. The search will pull anything from Help Desk tickets to badges.

THE NUMBERS

CONCLUSION Overall, the creation of an internal hub has allowed Cardinal Group to not only provide a resource center for employees but to also remain culturally dynamic. It has helped strengthen the relationship between employees, connect communities from around the nation, and allow for the company to collectively celebrate accomplishments. Ultimately, this has helped Cardinal Group earn the honors of five national culture awards, including Best Places to Work in Multifamily and in Denver.

ABOUT US

MANAGEMENT Cardinal Group Management (“CGM”) is a full service real estate management firm. CGM has a specialized platform that allows them to handle all facets of real estate management throughout the United States.

CGM leverages their culture, unique company structure, accountability, focus on top-line revenue and high regard of technology to deliver superior results and reporting to its clients.

PORTFOLIO Cardinal Group Management oversees a portfolio of 25,000+ beds around the country. In addition, Cardinal Group advises on a $3 billion mixed-use urban redevelopment in Denver, CO.

C O N TAC T U S

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:

RYAN SUNDLING, Marketing Manager Cardinal Group Management Ryan.Sundling@CardinalGroup.com