Katie Terwilliger Career Background
What is your biggest career achievement?
- My biggest career achievement has been the culmination of five years of program development with my promotion to People Ops Director in 2023.
My leadership and advocacy for the team member experience have been my driving force in my time at Cardinal. To me, this promotion is a validating achievement in the impact I have at the company. In this role, I'm excited to drive innovations and increase the production and adoption of high-impact programs across our organization.
Team member recognition and engagement are close to my heart in previous negative work experiences. I have personally experienced significant lows due to poor work environments. We spend a third of our life at work, and I want as many people as possible to be excited to work at Cardinal each day.
My goal is for each team member to feel fulfilled in their contributions, excited about the mission, recognized by their peers and leaders, and well compensated for the impact they have on our residents.
With my expanded role and scope, I'm excited to focus on efficiency, reduction of manual tasks, and time spent on upskilling our team members to better support our residents.
Given your past experiences, what event/ project or moment would you revisit and how would you go about it differently based on your current frame of mind?
- In 2021, I helped design and execute our 'Safe Space' Campaign to help queer-identifying residents and team members indicate that Cardinal communities wouldn't discriminate against sexual orientation or identities.
We sent out stickers to every Cardinal community. We received such support from executives and team members who are proud of this initiative and their contributions. This initiative also won the Anthem ‘Most Impactful Corporate Initiative’ award in 2022.
But there were improvements needed too. We received pushback from certain clients on the reasoning behind the initiative. We also received feedback from team members asking us to do more. They were proud to take the stance, but how could they support their residents better? They had questions about safety, best practices for pronouns, and questions about legalities.
In later projects, I've implemented feedback committees of onsite team members in various roles to consider functional improvements and plan for real onsite needs. I've also improved our rollout communication strategy for better adoption.
This project taught me to always consider the far-reaching funnel to provide fully integrated and potentially life-changing experiences for our residents. We can always improve, we can always lead the way.
From your perspective, what is the industry lacking to support the modern renter and how do you plan to help supply that need?
- Merriam Webster's word of the year for 2023 was authentic. As renter demographics change and become more nuanced, renters want to be seen as individuals, not just a pre-lease percentage.
To increase the resident experience, team members must be upskilled and empowered to be able to react quickly and be able to adapt to changing needs. This could include supporting different diverse identities, customized resident programming, and new technology.
As innovation and automation reduce manual tasks, we're focused on the resident experience through human touchpoints. AI may change virtual tasks, but it can't replace the human connection of a face onsite that cares about you as a person.
Apartments are 'home’ to 38 million Americans. We want to create a true community at each property, and that means focusing on our onsite team members.
Team Members will need new upskilling and support when responding to new situations and needs. How we respond to those residents affects their feelings of safety and community at a property. I would love to see residents continue to choose Cardinal properties because they know they will be seen as a person looking for a home, not just a unit filled.