STAFFLINK CONFERENCE 2022 Panel Discussion Review: Is your PM business holiday-proof?
Is your PM business holiday-proof? Are your property managers able to manage their portfolio from interstate? For many the answer is a resounding ‘no’. But not for everyone.
Who was on the panel and what did they talk about?
Day one of the STAFFLINK Conference saw many amazing speakers take the stage. But for many people in the room the panel discussion featuring Troy Pullar, from Harcourts, Laura Shooter, managing director of SJ Shooter Real Estate, and Vicki Lekanis, Head of Department for Jellis Craig, provided the most practical insights.
That is because they were there to talk about their experiences as clients of STAFFLINK. All of them have totally restructured their businesses so that all their work is done through their STAFFLINK The Hub.
The discussion was frank, covering not only the successes they have experienced, but also the challenges. In an honest and open conversation with host Lee Woodward, all three spoke of the journey they have been on to transform their businesses and bring their staff along with them.
Challenges – getting everyone on board
“[We did get] some pushback from staff, as you would expect whenever you are making a seismic shift in your business” Laura Shooter warned.
“One way I sold it [The Hub] to the team was we wanted to be holiday proof” she added.
It didn’t take long for her staff to realise the wisdom of her ways, and now they have totally bought into the way of doing things, and could never accept returning to the way things were.
“At first the staff thought The Hub was going to be just another thing (piece of tech) that they have to keep updated, and now they have had a mindset shift and they realise that all the work is done within The Hub”
“You have to be a leader and [be] driving the change.”
Troy Pullar reinforced this message, and also emphasised the pain points that he wanted to solve. Namely, the headaches caused by staff leaving or going for holiday.
“When someone left there was a trail of destruction.” But rather than accept this as the normal state of affairs, Troy was determined to take responsibility for finding the solution.
“Property Management is hard, my job is to make it easier.”
The solution was to reach out to STAFFLINK and radically reorganise his workflow and systems. And in doing so Troy discovered that he could achieve a higher level of performance from his staff and that people could actually go on holiday, not worrying about the trail of destruction that they would find upon their return.
He also found that he could get a better bigger picture overview of what was happening in the business. Every staff member could see exactly what jobs they needed to do that day, any jobs that were high priority get a little red flag next to it.
If a staff member was having problems getting through their workload it was really easy for Troy, Laura, and Vicki to identify and assist them promptly.
It’s not always the PM’s fault that they are falling behind either. A great example of this was during the recent flood events in Brisbane.
The resulting surge in maintenance and insurance related jobs did not fall evenly on all PMs. Some PMs, with portfolios overlapping the most affected areas, had a far larger added burden than most.
STAFFLINK’s The Hub gave total transparency to the whole process and allowed them to give extra resources to those most under the pump.
Unexpected Successes – Interstate PM?
But there were also other unintended benefits that Troy discovered. One of his most important property managers was moving interstate and Troy really didn’t want to lose her.
Now that Troy had simplified and streamlined her workflow, and with the help of a field service team and virtual teammates, she was able to stay with the company. She now manages her large Victorian portfolio entirely remotely from her new home in Queensland.
Having an interstate property manager would not have been possible in Troy’s business prior to their partnering with STAFFLINK.
“Now The Hub is your home turf.” It doesn’t matter where you are based.
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