General assemblies’ digitization, a solution to fight against the shortage of managers in France and Quebec?

The real estate industry is currently facing a shortage of co-ownership managers. Whether in France or in Quebec, the phenomenon is identical.

Indeed, the profession is shunned for various reasons, in particular because it is complex (it mixes legal, financial and technical aspects, all in a human context), because resources and trainings are limited, but also because the schedules are atypical and the workload heavy. To all these reasons is added a significant lack of recognition and consideration. Very often we speak of managers (or trustees in France and Belgium) in a rather unflattering way!

And yet, given the multi-skills required, the professional manager is essential to the proper functioning of co-ownerships.

We add to this observation the fact that the sector is in continuous growth, hence the importance of adopting good practices in the process of holding general meetings. Indeed, in Quebec, 27% of the real estate pool is co-owned (condominiums), and this percentage rises to 30% for new constructions, and in France, it is 28% of the total French real estate pool, i.e. 8% more than thirty years ago.

It is therefore essential to think about ways to make the profession more attractive to the younger generation!

So why can the digitization of general assemblies help to combat this phenomenon?

Future managers will be young professionals from Generation Y and Z, so they are:

• Techies
• Communicators
• Committed to environmental values
• Attached to a separation between professional and personal life

Techies

Being the facilitator of a digital assembly is a bit like taking the lead of the control room. This can dampen the enthusiasm of those less experienced in the technique, but certainly not the younger generations. Indeed, the handling of a digital GA management platform has something fun in its approach, and includes constant interactions with the remote or in-person participants: the opening of votes, the display of results, the multimedia presentation, dematerialized signatures of the attendance sheet, to name a few.

Communicators

The younger generation, being born with communication tools at their fingertips, has this ability to use them innately. Whatsapp, Facebook, Instagram and other social media platforms in particular are effortless to handle for the generation that grew up with it on a daily basis. So for them, hosting a tchat, a videoconference platform, or even sending the minutes for signature and convening an GA without having to process the registered mail manually, is not complex, on the contrary it is even fun and natural. It is therefore clearly a step forward in terms of communication fluidity, as well as a manager's tasks’ enhancement.

Committed to environmental values

The younger generation has also grown up with a sensitivity to environmental values, and they are more aware of their actions and their impact on the environment. Dematerializing a GA in order to reduce its carbon footprint is therefore a priority. Indeed, for them, having to physically travel to attend a GA and emit unnecessary greenhouse gases seems counter-intuitive, and the solution of being able to connect to it from home seems obvious.

Attached to a separation between professional and personal life

For the younger generation, it is important to maintain a work-life balance. And when we say balance, we say having a clear separation between the two. The younger generation is no longer ready to put hard work first and instead seeks to establish clear boundaries. For example, when the GA schedules are set up during evenings, it is easy to understand that this can get in the way of a couple or family life schedule. This is why tools allowing meetings to be held during the day will clearly have a competitive advantage. In addition, allowing remote participation means offering the possibility of participating with a minimum of time in a GA, just the time required. For example to go to a GA at 7:00 p.m., you have to leave at 6:00 p.m. and return at 10:00 p.m. for 2 hours of GA. With a remote GA, the duration of the GA is shorter and there is no travel time. So we are mobilized for 1h30 instead of 4h for the same GA. This time saving is the same for the manager, and in addition, with the phenomenon of working remotely, it is often possible to free up 1 hour during the day to follow the debates that interest us, to participate and vote. Therefore, this new possibility of doing remote GAs has facilitated the holdings during daytime hours: indeed, it would have been almost impossible before to hold a GA at 12:00 p.m. in-person, because it would have meant to have to find a way to be free from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. to attend.

In short, dematerializing co-ownership GAs helps in part to fight against the shortage of managers, because it will make it possible to modify the habits of the field so that they are in line with the future professionals who will take up their jobs tomorrow, namely Generation Y and Z. The digitization of the process of preparing and holding general meetings can indeed, thanks to its playful, tech-friendly and eco-friendly aspects, contribute to changing the face of the field by attracting more future managers.

agconnect, a dematerialization tool for GAs, already reports certain good practices that are already applied in the field: all these practices will be standard practices within 10 to 20 years, and it is important to start implementing them as soon as possible in the co-ownerships. Managers and co-owners have everything to gain!

To read our article on agconnect best practices in France and Quebec, click here!

And to find out more about agconnect, the offers and the digital solution, visit ag-connect.ca!

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Sources :  

https://solutioncondo.com/solutioncondo-simplique-pour-lavenir-de-la-gestion-immobiliere/  

https://solutioncondo.com/comment-mobiliser-votre-gestionnaire-de-copropriete/  

https://www.capital.fr/immobilier/penurie-de-syndics-un-danger-pour-les-coproprietes-1401982  

https://monimmeuble.com/actualite/les-chiffres-cles-de-la-copropriete