RPM Living, founded in 2002 in Austin, Texas, is a full-service multifamily property management, investment, and development firm. The company
specializes in acquiring, building, and operating multifamily rental communities.
Over the years, RPM Living has experienced significant growth. In 2021, the company merged with CF Real Estate Services, expanding its portfolio to 84,000 units across multiple states and increasing its workforce to over 1,800 associates nationwide. RPM Living continues to expand its presence, with over 225,000 units under management in more than 45 submarkets across 30 states.
This rapid growth has forced the organization to evaluate its HR technology solutions and overall IT structure. When the company grew from 3,000 to 5,000 employees—partly through acquisition, but also organically—it became an “inflection point,” explains Ahmad Noordin, RPM Living’s Vice President of HR Technology. “It prompted a reassessment of our technology stack and a reevaluation of goals across different areas of the business. It was time to take stock of what we had, what we needed, and where we wanted to go from there.”
The Challenge: A Simpler, Unified Approach
Like many organizations, RPM Living’s early HCM investments focused on systems that made life easier for back-office teams, sometimes at the expense of the broader employee experience. Now, they realized the bigger priority was to create a better experience for employees and managers. Given their workforce—80% hourly with high attrition—they didn’t want to spend excessive time training people on overly complex systems. A simpler, unified approach was needed for their environment.
Instead of flashy features, simplicity became the consistent theme. Which system could offer a clean, intuitive interface? Which platform would minimize the time employees need to spend navigating it? Which would reduce friction and improve usability without being overly complex? “This mindset became our North Star,” says Noordin.
Another goal was to centralize all enterprise technology resources and capabilities under IT. This meant moving the HCM solutions out of HR and into the IT function, which was a big change for the HR organization.
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