Management Diaries: Rebuilding the Multifamily Maintenance Workforce | Cerwin Thompson & Avery Rouse

Why It Matters

A stable, skilled maintenance team directly impacts resident satisfaction and operating margins, making talent pipelines and retention strategies critical competitive differentiators for multifamily owners.

Key Takeaways

• Maintenance workforce faces acute skilled labor shortage in multifamily
• Partnerships with trade schools and Goodwill boost recruitment pipelines
• Attitude and mentorship outweigh experience in retaining technicians
• Structured training and peer support reduce burnout and turnover
• Competitive pay and clear career paths improve employee engagement

Summary

The Management Diaries episode spotlights a growing crisis in multifamily maintenance: an aging, retiring cohort and a new generation that often lacks the technical chops or work ethic needed for today’s increasingly complex properties. Hosts Kerwin Thompson, VP of Facilities at RPM Living, and Avery Rouse, Regional Maintenance Director at Breeden, explain how the talent gap is forcing operators to rethink hiring, training, and retention strategies.

Both leaders emphasize proactive sourcing. Thompson’s team partners with trade schools, county workforce programs, and Goodwill to funnel EPA‑certified electricians and HVAC‑trained workers into the sector, while Rouse leans on high‑school job fairs and community outreach to demystify multifamily maintenance as a viable career. They stress that simply adding headcount isn’t enough; cultivating the right attitude and providing clear pathways for skill development are essential.

A recurring theme is mentorship and relatability. Rouse describes creating a regional “buddy” system, group chats, and on‑site ticket‑focused training sessions that empower technicians to ask for help without stigma. Thompson adds that competitive wages, transparent pay bands, and visible promotion routes—such as moving from technician to supervisor to VP—help curb the historically high turnover rates.

The discussion signals that property owners must invest in education pipelines, fair compensation, and a culture that values continuous learning. Failure to do so risks longer response times, resident dissatisfaction, and escalating operational costs, while firms that master these levers can secure a more resilient, high‑performing maintenance workforce.

Original Description

For this episode of Management Diaries, Denile Doyle welcomes Cerwin Thompson, vice president of facilities at RPM Living, and Avery Rouse, regional maintenance director at The Breeden Co., to discuss how they’re navigating the staffing challenges in maintenance operations and the strategies they’re implementing.

Thompson and Rouse started as a porter and a groundskeeper, respectively, and worked their way up to leadership roles. They’ve seen firsthand how the culture around maintenance team members has shifted, particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic.

The skills gap is also widening, as new workers entering the talent pipeline lack some of those basic skills that are so important for day-to-day community maintenance.

The leaders agree that training is paramount, and it’s even better when it’s hands-on. They believe focusing on the fundamentals and sequential training is what’s needed to strengthen teams from the ground up.

Here are some of the topics we cover:

(4:00) The current state of the maintenance workforce

(6:29) Recruiting strategies that work

(11:28) How to prevent burnout and create support systems

(15:52) Which factors most impact retention

(25:33) How training sessions can reveal employee mentality and build collaboration

(30:25) Why rushing promotions without basic skills can lead to failure

(48:31) What the industry needs to do differently

#multifamily #leadership #maintenance #operations