It was interesting this past month to receive feedback from clients about competitors comments and how they try to undermine our remote business model. For starters, why focus on us, that energy would be better used focussed on their own business. To hear from an owner that a competitor said, “that company that works remotely they only work two days a week when their kids are in childcare.” And more recently, from the same competitor, “those Property Managers can not work as efficiently from home as they do in an office,” is factually incorrect. The attitude that men and women can’t work with children in the home, or work remotely without overbearing supervisors is draconian and I guess evidences why when the industry is experiencing a mass exodus from Property Management our team continues to grow.
But it also raises some questions. Why do we work remotely? What are the positives for our team, our clients, and the business? So lets discuss these points. Firstly – why work remotely? In this modern world we are all busy, and as working mums and dads our lives are very often chaotic. By working remotely and flexibly, we better manage this chaos, we have time to spend with children and family and we can organise our days in a way that works for us. In turn this provides a better result for our clients, because we are not rushing to complete tasks, we structure our days as we need to in order to provide the best service to our Investors and Tenants.
Foremost in our thoughts for this business model is better work life balance. A flexible working model means team members can start and finish when they choose because the outcome focuses on the client experience. Why should we penalise an efficient team member with longer time at the office when they can achieve the same outcome in half the time. By giving team members control over their working lives clients are in fact provided with better service, and team members are rewarded for efficiency.
The positives for our clients include increased productivity. For us, by removing the commute team members typically have more time and fewer distractions, which not surprisingly leads to increased productivity not reduced productivity as some would have you believe. This does not even take into account the stress of the commute, and lets face it, peak hour traffic isn’t fun. Removing the stress of the commute leads to happier team members! Studies verify that more than 30 minutes on a one way commute increase stress and anxiety levels which can lead to higher cholesterol, higher blood sugar and an increased risk of depression. By removing the commute we support our team physically and mentally which again leads to better performance, and in turn a higher level of customer service. Our team can sleep in a little longer (sleep is important), use the time saved to exercise, spend that extra time each morning and evening with family or sit and enjoy a healthy breakfast! All in all we focus on what really matters and that’s our clients. When our KPI’s are happy Property Managers, happy Owners/Landlords, and happy Tenants we are focussed on the performance that really matters.
When we speak about performance and productivity, we focus on what’s ultimately important:- a happy team and happy clients. In an office often traditional indicators may not accurately reflect performance. For instance, arriving early and leaving late may look like dedication or suggest hard work but isn’t performance a more reliable indicator of productivity? At Rental Property Network our focus is on maintaining a happy team, and increasing the number of happy clients that choose to work with us. In order to achieve this we have developed a culture of performance based analytics over and above productivity. Not surprisingly, by adopting an attitude of innovation and learning with a focus on performance our productivity has increased! The end result is a better level of service for Investors, more knowledgeable stakeholders in our Property Managers, Investors and Tenants, and improved overall customer satisfaction.
Today, employee experience is more than acknowledging a team members birthday or work anniversary, it is a strategic approach which directly effects the clients experience and the ROI to the company for each team member. Prioritising the team members experience leads to increased productivity through meaningful work, growth and development, trust, and significantly improved work life balance. When the experience of the team members is positive this leads to greater productivity because the experience is deeply aligned to their individual wellbeing. When a business fosters a workplace experience that is focussed on the wellbeing of individual team members the natural result is what all companies seek – greater productivity and performance and higher engagement. And all this leads to, retention. Retention of Property Managers benefits our clients by providing continuity in their investment journey. Retention of clients benefits the company and improves growth through referral. So the overall experience that Rental Property Network provides it’s team members directly impacts the success of our Landlords investment property journey.
On top of all this, our team save money each year by ridding themselves of an unnecessary commute. Fuel, car maintenance, wardrobe, and lunches purchased out all add up over the year and the estimate is that equates to around $4000 pa. As importantly, the benefits to our environment include less vehicles on the road daily and the reduction of greenhouse emissions and oil savings. The fastest way for us to reduce our carbon footprint is to reduce commuter travel, and this has been evidenced through the pandemic with reduced pollution. We are doing our bit for the environment by working remotely and we have sustained this business model for almost ten years.
Of course, I am passionate about the benefits of our business model and I could write an entire book on the topic. Our team members experience within Rental Property Network strongly supports the research on the benefits of a remote work opportunity and the work life balance that this provides. Our relationships are more positive with each other without any office politics. Working remotely provides more time for hobbies and other interests and improves personal relationships. Team members also have more time for physical activity, the ability to eat healthier, they can recover from illness comfortably at home, there is less exposure to illness, they can better care for any personal health issues, and they can create a comfortable, individual workspace. All in all this translates to a better experience for our investors, better service, better relationships, continuity and who wouldn’t want to work with a happy Property Manager – the outcomes are always going to be better for Investors.
