Enabled a Large REIT to Focus On Its Business Plan by Creating a Talent Administration Solution
•Successfully lifted and shifted independent contractors to create alignment
•Enabled the REIT to scale effectively
A large real estate investment trust (REIT) experienced explosive growth after the financial crisis as traditional lenders retreated from the market. The REIT provided mortgage loans and debt investments for a range of sectors, including hotel, multifamily, retail and office properties. To maintain flexibility in executing its business plan, the REIT turned to independent contractors to help it scale. But the model became cumbersome and difficult to manage over time, as each contractor had individualized employment agreements with unique policies, procedures and demands. The REIT needed a solution to create a uniform and consistent personnel structure, and a thoughtful change management strategy to avoid turnover among its seasoned professionals.
The REIT turned to SitusAMC, which developed a bespoke talent platform, driven by consistent policies, processes, titles and compliance guardrails. These mirrored the REIT’s guidelines for internal employees, including uniform regulatory compliance monitoring and performance reviews.
Once established, SitusAMC worked to “lift and shift” the contractors that had been supporting its business to the SitusAMC platform. SitusAMC renegotiated and restructured each covenant, highlighting the advantages of joining the platform, from health insurance to more timely expense reimbursement to the ability to jettison costly and time-consuming payroll operations required for analysts on their teams.
The platform empowered the REIT to better manage its growing business while aligning all of the policies and procedures across professionals. SitusAMC successfully transitioned nearly all of the contractors onto the platform and helped create synergies that drove more effective output.