What’s Really Draining Your Property Team’s Productivity?

Property teams have a lot on their plates. Leasing, resident needs, maintenance requests, vendor coordination, reporting, compliance, staffing, meetings—the list goes on.

So we asked our LinkedIn community: What’s the biggest productivity drain for your property team?

The results were surprisingly close:

While meetings took the top spot, the bigger takeaway is that there isn't just one productivity problem. Property teams are being pulled in multiple directions, often throughout the same day.

And when those small disruptions add up, productivity isn't the only thing that suffers.

1. Too Many Meetings: 41%

Meetings are supposed to create alignment. But when calendars are packed with recurring meetings, status updates, check-ins, and meetings about other meetings, they can start taking time away from the work that actually moves the property forward.

A 30-minute meeting with six team members doesn't really cost 30 minutes. It costs three collective hours of staff time. Now multiply that across multiple meetings each week.

The solution isn't necessarily to eliminate meetings. Instead, property teams can look more closely at which meetings genuinely require everyone's participation, which could be shortened, and which could be handled asynchronously.

Before putting another meeting on the calendar, ask: Does this need to be a meeting? If the answer is yes, make sure there's a clear purpose, the right people are included, and everyone knows what needs to happen next.

2. Constant Interruptions: 21%

Property management isn't exactly an interruption-free profession.

• A resident has a question.

• A vendor calls.

• A team member needs help

Individually, these interruptions may seem minor. Collectively, they can make it difficult for team members to complete focused work.

There's also a hidden cost: context switching. Every time someone moves from a budget spreadsheet to a resident concern to an email to a staffing issue, they have to mentally shift gears. Even when each interruption only takes a few minutes, getting back into the original task can take much longer.

Property teams can reduce some of this friction by establishing communication norms, protecting blocks of focused time, and creating clearer processes for determining what is truly urgent versus what can wait. Not everything needs an immediate response.

3. Too Much Administrative Work: 20%

Administrative work is a necessary part of running a property. But necessary doesn't always mean it needs to consume a significant portion of the team's day.

Data entry, reporting, scheduling, paperwork, documentation, and other repetitive tasks can quietly take hours away from higher-value responsibilities.

The key question is: What administrative work actually requires a property professional's time?

Some tasks may be automated. Others may be streamlined, delegated, or handled through technology. And some processes may simply exist because "that's the way we've always done it."

A periodic process audit can help identify where time is being spent and whether there's a more efficient way to get the same result.

4. Staffing Shortages: 19%

Staffing shortages came in fourth in our poll, but that doesn't mean they're having a small impact.

Team members may find themselves covering additional responsibilities, working longer hours, taking on tasks outside their normal roles, or constantly shifting priorities to keep operations moving.

And that can create a productivity cycle:

Open position → more work for the existing team → less time for strategic work → increased stress → greater risk of burnout → another staffing challenge.

The answer isn't always hiring another full-time employee. Depending on the situation, temporary staffing, contract-to-hire solutions, or additional support during particularly busy periods can help property teams maintain productivity while addressing their longer-term staffing needs.

The Bigger Productivity Problem: Fragmentation

Looking at the poll as a whole, there's an interesting common thread. Meetings, interruptions, administrative work, and staffing shortages all have something in common: They take people away from the work they're actually trying to accomplish.

A property manager might start the morning planning to review occupancy and leasing performance. Then a meeting runs long. A resident issue comes up. A team member calls out. An urgent email arrives. A report needs to be pulled.

By the end of the day, the important work is still sitting on the to-do list. That's not necessarily a time-management problem. It can be a workload and resource problem.

Start by Finding Your Biggest Time Thieves

Before trying to make your property team more productive, take a step back and figure out where productivity is actually being lost.

For one week, track how your team spends its time. Look for patterns:

• How much time is spent in meetings?

• How often are team members interrupted?

• Which administrative tasks consume the most time?

• Where are staffing gaps creating additional work?

• What tasks repeatedly get pushed to the end of the day?

• What work requires specialized expertise that your team doesn't currently have?

• Which responsibilities could be streamlined, automated, or outsourced?

You may find that the biggest productivity gains don't come from asking your team to work faster. They come from removing the things that are getting in their way.

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What’s draining your team's productivity?

Our poll showed that meetings were the biggest productivity drain, but every property team is different. What takes up the most time on your team, and what would you eliminate if you could?