Senior Staff “Shadow” Employees on the Job for Firsthand View
Have you ever wondered if anyone in NYCHA’s leadership team knows what your job is really like?
Almost 20 caretakers, maintenance workers, housing assistants and others had a chance to show 15 senior staff the lowdown during Customer Service Week.
“We want our senior team to know firsthand what it’s like for property management staff, and Customer Service Week seemed like the perfect opportunity,” said General Manager Michael Kelly, whose office organized the visits.
Observing staff in the field isn’t something new for most top administrators, but shadowing staff for a half-day as they perform their normal tasks provides a close-up view and more time to talk.
“I was very impressed with the professionalism and dedication to do a good job” said Executive Vice President (EVP) for Leased Housing Cathy Pennington, who visited Maintenance Worker Kevin Keenan at Wise Houses. “I also noted the difficulties of accessing needed supplies, especially at a development that is so spread out.”
Mr. Keenan thought it was a good idea for senior staff to see ”what we go through every day” and felt that Ms. Pennington really cared about the problems he encountered.
EVP and Chief Information Officer Robert Marano visited several employees at Astoria Houses. “It was good to see people using the technology we put out there, even in ways we didn’t expect,” he said.
Mr. Marano was surprised to see a maintenance worker Maintenance Worker Kevin Keenan with EVP Cathy Pennington. use the “speech to text“ functionality in the recently rolledout handhelds to verbally enter notes on a work ticket. “I was impressed with how quickly he learned to navigate the app,” he added.
