| Part
1 of this article was published previously on the site
HERE
Part
2 of this article was published previously on the site
HERE
Part
3 of this article was published previously on the site
HERE
Staffing
Issues
One
of the most difficult aspects of running a business
is employing people. I have learnt some valuable lessons
over the last few years, unfortunately, some of them
the hard way. You can have all the procedures, policies
and systems in the world but once you introduce people
into it, there’s always a chance things could
go wrong. Getting the right staff at the right time
in your business cycle is hugely important. Employing
the wrong person and you could find yourself in tribunals
or the courtroom.
What
Sort of Person Should I Employ
When we advertise for staff we never say that experience
is essential. Reason being, we have the systems to train
the staff the way we want. You could also get a great
candidate form another industry, so we don’t limit
ourselves. Experience can also be a hindrance as we
found out in the early days. Once example was when we
took on a portfolio manager who could do nothing else
other than talk about her previous employer and how
great she was, despite her previous employer going bust!!
She just criticised everything we did, and how perfect
her old boss was. It alienated the staff, reduced morale
and we had to let her go pretty quickly. We have found
that employees with previous experience have pre conceived
ideas about how the business should run and are not
as susceptible to change as total “newbie’s”.
Sometimes you need people so you can mould them the
way you want. You need them to have all the qualities
you would expect them to have, such as motivated, professional,
ambitious etc that goes without saying, but you don’t
want staff too head strong and stuck in a certain way
Don’t
pay too much attention to the CV either. We all know
that a CV is just to get your foot in the door and most,
if not all people, exaggerate what they have done, I’ve
done before. People phrase things in such a way as to
make it sound impressive but in reality it was a simple
task.
What
I do look for in a CV is professionalism and good use
of English, this can also be found in the covering letter
which I always look for. Its a personal choice and by
no means secures a great candidate but from past experience
a well worded CV with a covering letter says more about
a person.
What
Wages Should I Pay
We always pay better than most of our competitors, providing
they are worth it. Let’s be honest people go to
work for money. Don’t kid yourselves and say you
do it for the love of the job, or satisfaction on a
tenants face when they get a house. People are money
orientated and need money to live, so that’s what
drags them out of bed every day. We make every effort
to make sure they enjoy their jobs, we have corporate
days where all the staff are invited, we also let them
to pick their own uniforms and involve them in similar
smaller aspects running of the company, things that
empower the employees and make them feel part of the
company but at the end of the day nothing motivates
people like money.
Introducing bonus
schemes is a great way of getting more from your staff.
Make it so that if they do well the company does well.
If they let out 5 properties in month or bring in more
landlords, reward them.
We
have it so each portfolio manager is their own cost
centre. They bring in an amount of revenue each per
month per portfolio that they manage. If they bring
in additional amounts we give them a percentage of that.
We saw an immediate increase in overall management commissions
when we introduced the bonus scheme despite being told
they are working as hard as they possibly can before
we introduced the scheme. Funny that when money is a
motivator, people work harder.
|
