When Hajarah Zaneer reflects on the past year, one of Neighborhoods.com’s core values comes to mind: “Kaizen. No Compromizin.’”
It’s inspired by the Japanese term meaning “change for the better,” and in non-pandemic times, it symbolized the constant improvement and growth, both personally and professionally, that’s asked of every employee at the real estate software company.
But for Zaneer, a sales coordinator at Neighborhoods.com, that value took on an even greater significance in March 2020.
She remembers the all-hands meeting at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic when the company’s executive team explained its plans for riding out the coming months. There was a lot of uncertainty, and hard decisions would need to be made to ensure future growth.
“In that moment, I fully expected to be left in the dark about how the company was really doing,” Zaneer said. “But the executive team was open, direct and compassionate. It’s been extremely rewarding to see everyone from top to bottom working as a unit to implement positive change.”
Zaneer is accustomed to the personal and professional growth that comes from change. She’s held multiple positions in almost two years at Neighborhoods.com, giving her the ability to learn on the fly.
Built In Chicago spoke with Zaneer to learn more about the growth opportunities at the company, and how Neighborhoods.com utilized its core value to change for the better in 2020.
Describe your role and responsibilities at Neighboorhoods.com?
I am one of the sales coordinators. I support our larger sales team that spans across our three products: neighborhoods.com, 55places.com and 55places Mortgage. Specifically, my role allows me to work closely with our regional sales managers, who lead and guide our national network of real estate experts that are part of our Partner Agent Program. In order to foster a mutually-beneficial working relationship with agents, my role is to make sure that we’re communicating effectively, providing assistance and training related to our customer relationship management tools, as well as recruiting, onboarding and supporting the agents in every other way.
What other roles have you held with the company?
I was initially hired as a customer service representative and was in the role for a little over a year before being promoted to customer service lead. My team members and I were often the first point of contact for many of our users, where we handled calls via our in-house call center, answered emails and interacted with conversations via our live chat function. Rising to a team lead afforded me the opportunity to handle team scheduling, manage internal reports and update appropriate databases. Having all of this experience made my transition to the sales team seamless.
My role requires me to collaborate with many teams, and I’ve learned that we can only be successful if we work as a team.’’
What have you learned from each of your roles at the company?
I’ve learned the importance of cross-team communication. Since Neighborhoods.com is a smaller company, my individual tasks can blend into an engineer’s or editor’s on any given day, so I need to make sure there is an open channel of communication that allows projects, updates and de-escalating incidents related to the websites to run smoothly. My role requires me to collaborate with many teams, and I’ve learned that we can only be successful if we work together.
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What growth opportunities exist at Neighborhoods.com?
Neighborhoods.com is still relatively small, so there has been and will continue to be opportunities to grow within the organization. We have team members who have grown or evolved their role, simply because they expressed the desire to explore positions adjacent to the responsibilities they were initially hired for.
Neighborhoods.com is still relatively small, so there has been and will continue to be opportunities to grow within the organization.’’
Prior to the novel coronavirus pandemic, we had a program called “Neighbors Who Lunch,” which is a voluntary team lunch program. The idea was simple: sign up, get randomly grouped with team members who you may not interact or work with on a daily basis, and go out to enjoy a meal together. While this wasn’t a mentorship program per se, it offered a no-fuss way to learn about other people, their roles and their overall interests outside of work.
What groups and activities exist at the company to preserve culture and well-being while remote?
There are various committees available to employees related to topics like diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), and volunteering. Aside from that, Neighborhoods.com is constantly hosting events, like lunch-and-learns, happy hours, comedy shows, guided yoga classes, game nights and more. I recently joined a virtual painting night, and another evening we learned how to visualize a forest while meditating. The company understands the importance of well-being and prioritizes that in events as of late. For example, in the coming weeks, we have a workshop dedicated to tools that can be used to reduce stress.
