Director of Talent

GREYSTONE PROPERTIES

Job Description

Director of Talent (Acquisition, Development & Culture)

DEPARTMENT

Talent & Culture

REPORTS TO

Chief Operating Officer

FLSA STATUS

Exempt, Full-Time

DIRECT REPORTS

TBD - none at hire; Talent and Training Coordinator support added as the portfolio grows

LOCATION

Greystone Properties corporate office (Columbus, GA metro), with regular travel across the portfolio

PORTFOLIO

Class A suburban communities across Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, and Florida; scope grows with the portfolio

Position Summary

Greystone is building an owner-operated platform, and the single hardest part of that is people: hiring the right ones, developing them faster than the market does, and building a company they want to stay at. That is this role.

The Director of Talent owns three things - talent acquisition, training and development, and culture. Core HR administration is deliberately not the center of this job. Payroll, benefits administration, and employment compliance are delivered through outsourced HR and benefits partners, and this role manages those relationships: holding partners to service standards and making sure the transactional work never lands back on property teams or on this desk.

This is a build role. Greystone is designing the hiring process, onboarding curriculum, leadership development track, and recognition program the platform will run on. In Year One this is a hands-on individual contributor building the function, not a leader managing an established one.

Why This Role Matters

Service quality at a property lives in specific people. The maintenance tech who knows which building floods, the leasing consultant residents ask for by name, the manager who has been there nine years - that knowledge is the product, and it walks out the door with every departure.

Greystone is building an operating platform designed so that the quality of a resident's experience does not depend on who happens to be on site that day. That begins with who gets hired, how quickly they become good at the job, and whether they stay. A new hire who reaches competence in weeks rather than months serves residents sooner. A team that stays intact keeps the relationships that drive renewals and referrals. A manager selected through a rigorous, consistent process is a manager other people want to work for.

This role owns all of it. Every hiring, training, and retention decision should be evaluated first against its effect on the consistency of resident-facing service, with cost and efficiency as the supporting case.

Key Responsibilities

Talent Acquisition - Build the Hiring Engine

• Own hiring end to end - a standardized, portfolio-wide process for every site and corporate role: sourcing, screening, structured skills and situational assessment, HR interview, hiring manager interview, and leadership sign-off on key positions.
• Hire with rigor - structured interviews, role-specific competency assessment, and layered leadership review, with every step Fair Housing, EEOC, and ADA compliant.
• Equip the hiring managers - train Property Managers and Assistant Managers in structured, legally compliant interviewing and selection, so hiring quality is consistent across every community.
• Build pipelines, not postings - relationships with local colleges, technical and trade schools, apartment associations, and workforce programs near each property cluster, so maintenance and leasing roles have candidates before they have vacancies.
• Own the mechanics - requisitions, offers, background and drug screening, and I-9 and E-Verify compliance across Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, and Florida, coordinated with the HR partner.

Training & Development

• Build the training function - Greystone's first, designed around hands-on mentorship, property-specific context, and accountability for whether the training actually worked. Documentation alone does not make someone good at the job.
• Structured onboarding by role - a curriculum for Leasing Consultant, Assistant Manager, Property Manager, and Maintenance Technician that pairs formal instruction with assigned mentorship and measurably shortens ramp to competency.
• A leadership development track - monthly sessions, on-demand modules, lunch and learns, and vendor-led training on the platforms the business runs on, building the internal bench the promotion pipeline depends on.
• Certifications and career paths - administer the education assistance and industry certification programsthat turn maintenance roles into careers with visible progression.
• Compliance training - Fair Housing, safety, and systems certification, tracked to completion portfolio-wide rather than assumed.
• Succession planning - with the COO and regional maintenance leadership, identify the roles that would hurt most to lose and name who is being developed for each.

Culture & Retention

• Make Greystone distinctive to work for - a deliberate employer brand built on selectivity in hiring, visible recognition, real mentorship, and the traditions that give people a reason to stay. This is a core deliverable, not a side initiative.
• Run recognition with real cadence - monthly, quarterly, and annual recognition across every role, deliberately including maintenance and grounds, which recognition programs built around leasing tend to overlook.
• Career pathing that keeps people - give high performers a defined path to grow inside Greystone rather than leaving for a larger platform's corporate track.
• Measure what is actually happening - engagement surveys, stay interviews, and exit interviews, with turnover trends and root causes reported to leadership alongside recommended action, not just numbers.
• Own the employee experience at transition - onboarding, communication, and the first ninety days for every employee joining the Greystone platform.

HR & Benefits Partner Management

• Manage the relationships, not the transactions - payroll, benefits administration, workers compensation, and employment compliance are delivered through outsourced HR and benefits partners. This role owns day-to-day management of those relationships, including escalation, performance review, and renewal.
• Hold partners to standard - define service expectations and response times, monitor delivery, and resolve issues before a site team feels them. A payroll or benefits problem that reaches a Property Manager is a failure of this function.
• Own benefits internally - serve as the internal owner for enrollment, open enrollment cycles, plan changes, and employee questions, working through the benefits partner and broker rather than administering plans directly.
• Keep the line clear - partners own transactional execution and compliance infrastructure. Greystone owns policy, judgment, employee relations, and every decision about its own people.
• Policy and documentation - maintain the employee handbook, HR policies, and job descriptions across all roles, and administer a standardized annual performance review process.
• Multi-state compliance - ensure hiring, termination, leave, and wage and hour practices meet requirements in Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, and Florida, using partner infrastructure and counsel where appropriate.

Workforce Insight

• Report what matters - time to fill, cost per hire, turnover by role and by property, training completion, certification attainment, and engagement, on the portfolio's regular reporting cadence.
• Connect people data to operations - work with the COO to translate workforce data into staffing models for the three-tier operating model: property teams, cluster and centralized functions, and corporate.

Qualifications

Required

• Seven or more years of progressive HR leadership spanning both talent acquisition and ownership of training and development. Multifamily, hospitality, or multi-site retail and service backgrounds are strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated experience building or scaling a people function from the ground up, not solely maintaining an established one.
• Experience designing structured interview and selection processes, and building training curricula for frontline, resident- or customer-facing teams.
• A track record of improving retention and engagement across a decentralized, multi-site organization.
• Experience managing an outsourced HR, PEO, or benefits partner, including service standards and escalation.
• Working knowledge of Fair Housing, EEOC, ADA, FMLA, and multi-state employment law.
• Comfort operating hands-on within a lean corporate team. This is a build-and-do role in Year One.

Preferred

• SHRM-CP/SCP or PHR/SPHR certification.
• Experience with applicant tracking systems and learning management or training platforms.
• Experience supporting a company through an operational transition or a period of rapid growth.
• Southeast market knowledge, particularly the Columbus GA, Knoxville TN, or Gulf Coast submarkets.

First-Year Success Metrics

First-Year Success Metric

Target / Milestone

Structured hiring process live portfolio-wide

All properties by Month 6

Hiring managers trained in compliant interviewing and selection

100% of PMs and APMs by Month 4

Onboarding curriculum launched for every site role

Live by Month 6

Leadership development track running

First cohort by Month 9

Average time to fill, site-level roles

Reduced against the Year 1 baseline

Frontline turnover (leasing and maintenance)

Under 25%

Recognition program active at every property

Monthly cadence by Month 3

HR and benefits partners operating to agreed service standards

Stable by Month 3

Workforce KPI reporting to leadership

Live and monthly by Month 6

About Greystone Properties

Greystone Properties owns and operates Class A suburban communities across Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, and Florida, with additional communities transferring to the platform and a growing acquisition pipeline. "Anticipating and Exceeding Your Expectations" is more than a tagline - it is the standard behind every decision, guided by five core principles: Entrepreneurial Spirit with Purpose, Values-Based Leadership, Unyielding Commitment to Service, Passion for Excellence, and Empowering Growth.

Greystone is building a differentiated, owner-operated platform designed around resident experience, operational discipline, and long-term asset performance - replacing reliance on individual heroics with systems, specialization, and structure that scale. This role builds the people side of that platform.