The wonderful thing about being a trainer is that no day is ever the same. My clients are always looking for training and development programmes that challenge the status quo...
The Wonderful Thing About Training!
The wonderful thing about being a trainer is that no day is ever the same. My clients are always looking for training and development programmes that challenge the status quo and address the problems they face right now.
The past 10 months have created extraordinary problems that require extraordinary solutions. Let me give you an example –
Staff retention – it has been incredibly tough for everyone working in residential property during the pandemic. Dealing with demanding and difficult people day after day, handling multiple offers on almost every property, unforeseeable delays in getting sales over the line and being short-staffed has made many question their career choice. Employees are looking for employers that show they value them, recognise their contribution and that they care.
Some employees are looking for recognition in the form of promotion or higher wages and if they don’t see opportunity for career growth within the business they work for, they will be tempted to go elsewhere.
For small estate agencies, staff retention is paramount. It takes years to train a senior negotiator or instruction taker and they are obviously highly sought after right now. Many would expect the next step up to be made a branch manager but what if there are no vacancies in your business?
Of course, not everyone wants more responsibility and not everyone sees money as the ultimate reward, so finding the right way to incentivise and retain key staff is not a “one size fits all” solution.
One of my estate agency clients is keen to show their staff that they are willing to invest in them and to involve them more in the running of the business. They therefore asked me to design and deliver two tailor-made training programmes.
The first one will help their branch managers to develop greater commercial awareness. They will learn about all of the costs of running a branch, including the monthly Rightmove fees, high street rents, salaries and other overheads. This course aims to give them the knowledge to assume more autonomy for running their branch and to be able to contribute to business decisions.
The second one challenges the thinking around the roles of a Negotiator and a Valuer. Many perceive the second position as a step up the ladder, but in fact, the qualities and skillsets are very different and both are equally essential to a successful estate agency. The course will challenge this thought process, help those who aspire to be a valuer to make the right decision and to emphasise the importance of negotiators to the business.
I have to thank my clients for giving me these challenging and relevant topics. I am relishing the opportunity to deliver radical and different development programmes that will demonstrate how they value their staff, investment in their future and show a clear career path for them to follow.
What training programmes you would like to design and what are you doing to retain your staff?
