No. 1 Midsize Company
4-Time Winner
The folks at Valiant Residential had to rethink just about everything this year. Not that the rapidly growing Dallas-based property management company had anything to fix.
In just six years, Valiant has grown from 20 employees to 435 workers nationwide — 342 of them in D-FW — who tend to 18,000 apartment units.
But COVID-19 turned its business inside out.
“What didn’t we innovate? Ha!” said Craig Lashley, president and CEO, about the privately owned company founded in 1987. “Every procedure and policy was changed in the first week of the pandemic — from the way we conducted repairs, collected rent, communicated with residents and leased units to new tenants. The list goes on.”
Such esprit de corps was pivotal as Valiant became a four-time winner this year, climbing to the No. 1 spot among our midsize companies after placing second in 2019.
“What I like most about my job is that every day is a challenge — the ability to project daily tasks with my work team,” one employee said.
“I enjoy the environment and the ability to interact and meet new people,” another said. “I also enjoy the fact that I take multiple roles because it keeps me occupied during my time here.”
“I am just thankful that I have a job,” said yet another, expressing what many of the still-employed must be feeling. “Other than that, I like my staff.”
The 37-year-old president says his troops took charge and stayed the course in serving residents. “During the stay-at-home order, the increased demand on building systems and residents' needs could have easily overwhelmed a lesser team,” he said. “Our team excelled, and I could not be prouder.”
The pandemic proved to be a balancing act between serving Valiant’s fiduciary responsibility to property owners and meeting the human needs of its residents threatened by financial setbacks.
His team came up with innovations that will live on beyond the pandemic.
“The most significant is a rental credit program that allows a resident to break their payments into smaller and more manageable payments without penalty,” he said. “Additionally, we focused much of the early days of the pandemic preparing the properties for virtual leasing and continue to spend considerable resources refining the online experience as well as the ability for a prospective resident to view the property remotely.”
Lashley believes in hiring strong individuals who know how to play nice in the sandbox. “That creates the best environment to win.”
Despite the hardships, Valiant remained true to its “work hard, play hard” motto, Lashley said. “Each day, we outworked others in our industry, but we laughed and enjoyed it all at the same time.”
Valiant offers paid insurance for its employees and provides HSA reimbursement of $1,000 per year along with optional vision, dental, short-term disability and life insurance.
Paid time off, which begins after two months, is 118 hours during the first five years and goes up after that. Workers get two additional paid sick days each year.
Valiant also won our special award for Best Direction by getting the highest score among all of our winners for the statement: I believe this company is going in the right direction.
The statement that received the highest score among Valiant employees was: This company operates by strong values.
This year more than ever, Valiant depended on social media to stay in constant communication with its team across D-FW.
Valiant’s “Theory Thursday,” a weekly confab where the norm is challenged and no idea is too off the wall to bring up, evolved into an everyday thing, both virtually and in person.
“Our group, like many, didn’t have the luxury of waiting until a specific time to act,” Lashley said.
These anything-goes sessions deal with culture, growth, operations or color schemes and are part of a Lashley-led philosophy that doesn’t penalize for missteps that come from innovations that don’t work out.
“Nothing great happens without failure,” he said. “For us to be the best, our team must have moments of making mistakes to figure out the best new practice.”
Even in challenging times like these?
“COVID has certainly been more than enough on many fronts,” he said. “There is a particular grace that comes from an unprecedented event. However, no matter what the circumstances, you always need to embrace the mistakes in business and life.”
Employees agree. “I love that there are challenges and that Valiant gives me the tools to address them.”
“I like all the knowledge they are willing to give us,” said another. “I also like the recognition the company gives to its teams.”
“I can move up in the corporation by doing a good job,” said one worker, “and they acknowledge when I do a good job.”
