Rockville, MD – Donaldson celebrated Employee Appreciation Day and held its highly anticipated annual awards ceremony during a virtual All Hands meeting on Friday, March 4th. The awards ceremony included the 2021 Property Awards, the Nubon Ealey H.E.R.O. Award, and the Employee of the Year Award. Prizes and wellness packages were also given to employees as tokens of appreciation for all their hard work and for their continued commitment to Donaldson’s mission of delivering peace of mind and creating successful partnerships.
The meeting kicked off with an executive Q&A with CEO Carl Einsel and President Scott Altman. Then Amy Earp from Beyond the Balloons led, “A Very Honest Discussion About Self-Care,” and Donaldson VP of Marketing, Michelle Heim, discussed employee wellness resources as well as Donaldson’s “branded look” attire option for on-site team members.
The star of the show, however, was the presentation of the highly coveted annual awards. Property awards are based on objective resident surveys and continuous monitoring of properties and customer service throughout the year.
Misti Mitchell, Regional VP of Property Management, presented the awards for Resident Satisfaction. The Best Resident Satisfaction award for 2021 measured residents’ sense of community, maintenance, customer service, and value. Nominees for Best Resident Satisfaction were Stevens Walk, Cross Creek, and Harbour Manor, with Cross Creek winning the award. The Most Improved Resident Satisfaction award went to Allentown Apartments.
Jeanette Stahli, Senior VP of Human Resources, presented the 2021 award for Best Sales Experience. Several communities performed exceptionally well on their surveys, including nominees Cross Creek, Aspen Hill, and Vista at White Oak. Aspen Hill took home the win for Best Sales Experience, with the award for Most Improved Sales Experience going to Regency Club.
Sylviane Nguyen, CFO of Donaldson, presented two awards- Top Performer -Collection and Top Performer – Rental Assistance Program. The Collection Award goes to the community that has shown consistent excellence in achieving low delinquency, high collections, and continuous improvement. The winner was Stevens Walk Apartments, with runners up Rivermont Station and PeachTree of McLean.
The nominees for the Top Performer – Rental Assistance Program award showed unwavering perseverance through the many ups-and-downs of the COVID-19 crisis, which brought with it various rental assistance programs and countless challenges. The nominees for 2021 were Fairmont Gardens, Villas at Langley, and Cityside at Huntington Metro, with the winner being Cityside.
Donaldson is also proud to announce that two of its communities were ranked in the Top 1% Nationwide for Online Reputation Management based on The J. Turner Online Reputation Assessment score. During the meeting, SVP of Acquisitions John Majeski congratulated the teams at Villas at Langley and Stevens Walk for their extraordinary accomplishment in 2021.
Angelique Wheelock, Senior VP of Operations presented two new property awards for 2021 – the Maintenance Rapid Response Award and the Maintenance Professionalism Award. A key factor in ensuring resident satisfaction with their maintenance experience is the speed at which the team addresses the resident service requests. The nominees for the 2021 Maintenance Rapid Response Award were PeachTree of McLean, Stevens Walk, and Regency Club. These teams all had lightning-quick response times to maintenance requests and were clear in communicating timelines and expectations with their residents. The winner of this award was PeachTree. The nominees for the 2021 Maintenance Professionalism Award were Stevens Walk, Kentlands Manor, and Harbour Manor, with Kentlands Manor taking the win.
Scott Altman spoke about the Nubon Ealey H.E.R.O. award, which stands for “Helping Everyone Reach Objectives,” and presented the 2021 nominees: Quay Belle (Fairmont Gardens), Fred Serunkuma (Aspen Hill), Oscar Joseph Richardson (Aspen Hill), Tammie Egbeju (Kentlands Manor), Beatriz Bonilla (Cross Creek and Laurel Manor), Kevin Leftwood (Cross Creek and Laurel Manor), Damaris Guiterrez (Heather Hill), Ronald Robinson (Aspen Hill), Carlton Mason (Montgomery White Oak), Nicole Avera (Stevens Walk), Michael Mathis (Kentlands Manor), and Angie Ramos (Cityside at Huntington Metro).
With so many phenomenal team members deserving of this award, only one could win, and Donaldson would like to congratulate Quay Belle as 2021 Nubon Ealey H.E.R.O. of the year! Quay is a newly promoted District Manager with Donaldson.
Finally, Carl Einsel introduced the Employee of the Year award and nominees. A big congratulations to Bernie Sloman from Montgomery White Oak, Donaldson’s 2021 Employee of the Year! Einsel said that Bernie has consistently “demonstrated the Donaldson values of integrity, excellence, commitment, adaptability, innovation, ownership, passion, and unity.”
The following nominees were employees of the month and consistently go above and beyond. Their dedication is what makes Donaldson a success: Arvis Murillo Hernandez (Stevens Walk), Mohammed Jimoh (Villas at Langley), Angie Ramos (Cityside at Huntington Metro), Eric Darrington (Harbour Manor), Jeanie Smith (Aspen Hill), Gregory Lowery (Cityside at Huntington Metro), Cheresa Jones (Harbour Manor), Eva Garcia (Fairmont Gardens), Bernie Sloman (Montgomery White Oak, The Warwick and other communities), Senait Ghirmai (Harbour Manor), and Brenda Menendez (Montgomery White Oak).
Donaldson is thankful for all its team members who show up each day dedicated to the shared goal of excellence in property management. Congratulations to all 2021 award winners, and here’s to a successful 2022!