3 Ways Electronic Key Control Makes Condo Managers’ Jobs Easier

From celebrity encounters to bed bugs to burst pipes, the life of a condo property manager is anything but boring. In addition to developing a rapport with the board and property owners, you also have to juggle the day-to-day challenges of helping the property run smoothly.

You can’t avoid some of those responsibilities — like mediating disagreements between neighbors or persuading the board to agree to a special assessment. But you can simplify other tasks, like managing keys, employee schedules and more. Consider the following ways electronic key control makes your job easier.

Stick to Your Key Control Policy

Policies and procedures help facilitate the operations of a condo community, which is critical when there are multiple owners living in close vicinity of one another.

Keeping up with bylaws, legal guidelines and more is hard enough as it is. Setting up electronic key control system rules consistent with your condo association’s key control policy helps you ensure board members and other employees follow key-use protocol.

Some examples of how you can use a key control solution to help enforce your key management policy include:

1. Require two people (e.g., security personnel, property manager and/or board member) to log in and jointly check out a unit key for emergency, security or maintenance purposes.
2. Prevent unit owners from removing neighbors’ keys without permission and for unauthorized purposes.
3. Keep an up-to-date record of keys on file.
4. Automatically record the date and time a key is removed or returned.
5. Prompt employees to include checkout reasons when removing keys.
6. Keep track of keys without having to label them with the unit number or a code that requires a key index to decipher.

By digitizing these functions, you reduce the element of human error and manipulation when managing keys.

Manage Employee Work Schedules and Responsibilities

Overseeing human resources can easily become one of your most time-consuming duties, especially if you manage a larger property.

Giving employees a single system to clock in and perform certain responsibilities, like tracking work orders, makes it easier for you to oversee their activity on the job and makes them more efficient as well. The fewer applications employees have to learn and use, the better.

Electronic key control also allows you to grant secure access to keys to personnel handling emergency maintenance issues or porters delivering packages to residents (if you offer package delivery).

If your electronic key control provider has a training program, encouraging your employees to take advantage of that resource reduces onboarding time and helps them discover new ways to use the technology more efficiently. By spending less time on logistics, you can focus more on helping employees develop the skills they need to succeed at their jobs and represent the property well.

Give Homeowners a Sense of Security

If your association keeps a copy of owners’ keys on hand, you want to reassure them that you take their security and privacy seriously, especially if there are residents who were reluctant to hand over copies of their keys.

When the key to a homeowner’s home is checked out, an electronic key control system can automatically send a text or email to the owner to let them know. The system will create an audit trail of key use, which gives owners peace of mind. It gives you a sense of security too, since the verifiable record helps protect you from liability.

When you have as many things on your plate as you do, making small changes to the way you carry out your responsibilities can have a big impact. To learn more about how electronic key control helps you succeed at your job, check out our post “Five Benefits of Implementing Electronic Key Control.”