Aaron Mcwilliam, founder and CEO of out-of-hours property management business PropCall, discusses the challenges facing the property sector that is leading to a loss of talent.
Those of us in the property sector have seen an increasing number of professionals leaving the industry. First brought to my attention in tmgroup’s ‘Back to the Future’ report, we can see there are a number of contributing factors. Whatever they may be, we know there is a link with the wellbeing of professionals working within the industry taking a hit.
As these challenges show no sign of going anywhere anytime soon, we need to look at the root causes, how we can avoid them and how we can recover.
Keeping in touch with your workforce
As a CEO I am always aware how staff satisfaction can impact workforce morale, our clients, staff retention and overall quality of output we strive to deliver.
One of the actions we have taken at PropCall is to appoint Kevin Carlton-Jones as head of people. In his role Kevin puts people at the heart of everything the business does. Since taking the position, Kevin has implemented a number of employee-driven changes including promotions, development opportunities, and a transparent company structure with clear salary banding.
As a business we don’t want to be ignorant to the needs and wants of our staff – they are the people on the frontline and our main representatives. So, to ensure we stay on top of this we have implemented an internal survey for employees to complete allowing us to know exactly how the workforce is feeling.
It was fantastic when we found that since appointing a dedicated head of people, our overall workforce satisfaction increased by 6 per cent and we’re proud to have an impressive staff retention rate of 90 per cent.
These activities largely don’t require huge financial investment, some of the most impactful initiatives are low-cost, easy to implement, and yield substantial returns in terms of employee morale, loyalty, and productivity.
Managing expectations of your workforce
It’s no secret that there is a direct correlation between a happy workforce and a happy business, but what is a secret is how we recognise and achieve it.
In the property sector, especially in residential, individuals are often inundated with out-of-hours calls and requests ranging from maintenance to urgent tasks that often aren’t that urgent.
The average time spent on the phone dealing with out-of-hours issues is 39 mins per 100 units, with many property managers having 200 units in their portfolio, potentially adding a couple of hours per month of stress and hassle outside of working time, alongside the anxiety of being on-call. This can easily influence an employee’s work-life balance and will inevitably diminish productivity and negatively impact their wellbeing.
Our clients have reported that since working with PropCall and having an out-of-hours call service operated by property managers who understand their challenges, it has allowed them to fully switch off after hours. This in turn has improved their work-life balance, wellbeing, resident’s satisfaction and enhanced business reputation.
I truly believe that we won’t solve retention in the property sector with flashy expensive perks – our staff simply want thoughtful, consistent attention to employee wellbeing that improves their day-to-day lives.