3. Training and Procedures
Adequate training needs to be given to staff when they come on board or when their role changes. Too many businesses employ new staff, or give promotions internally and just let them wing it for the next three to six months until they get accustomed to their position. The issue with this is that a lot of damage can be done during this period, and if their position is to communicate to clients, then you can really affect your client lifetime value!
Essentially, every company should have a standard set of operating procedures. The company owner or senior property manager should be in charge of keeping them up to date (so when processes change, these changes are reflected in the operating procedures).
The point in having standard operating procedures is that when new staff come on board they can read what is required of them and how certain job functions are carried out. It also means you will get a more reliable output from your staff as they will carry out jobs more consistently, rather than just ‘doing it their own way.’
I recommend that if you do a job more than two or three times, then write up a simple checklist or procedure so that it can always be followed. A good example of checklists working well is when a property falls vacant. There are a lot of stages to go through when a property is going vacant: advertising, liaising final payments with current tenants, showing prospective tenants through, signing up new tenants, collecting the bond, letting fee and rent, and so on. Checklists and procedures need to be simple, kept updated, and must be accessible to all staff.
If you do have standard operating procedures, then look to get a couple of manuals made up so you have hard copies available in the office.
4. Team meetings and training days
It’s hard to improve work processes and get the most out of your team if you don’t have team meetings or training days. Invest in making your team the best they can be.
Team meetings can be a great way for talking about what is working and what’s not. Usually it isn’t the management that comes up with the best ideas, but those who are doing the job every day: your staff! So get into a habit of holding regular meetings each week where issues can be dealt with and ideas can be shared. Regular team meetings can be very powerful if held regularly and consistently; however, don’t make them too long or staff will lose interest and dread coming to them!
As you know, property management is an industry that is getting extremely competitive and is forever changing, and therefore you need to ensure that you do invest in your staff to enable them to be the best at what they do. For example, make sure that you do send them to a conference each year where they can network, meet other property managers and glean information from those in the industry who are speaking at the event. Training like this can be invaluable for the right staff members.
You can look at holding internal training days as well. Having training with the team on a monthly basis can help increase their skillset significantly. One example could be to provide further training for the property management software that you use. To enhance their knowledge, carry out training where someone (who knows the most in the company) can share small tips and tricks for using the software to make the property managers more efficient.
Come up with a new training session each month. The benefits will well outweigh the cost of having your team off work for a couple of hours.