Login
iscover
Principals have been urged to let employees appraise their managers and organisations, in an effort to improve culture and performance.
Earlier this month, recruitment company Hays released a report that said 76 per cent of employees want the opportunity to provide feedback to employers on cultural and performance factors.
The Staff Engagement: Ideas for Action report also noted that 92 per cent of employees think seeing action taken on their feedback is important. If not given the opportunity to offer feedback, 17 per cent said they would look for another job.
Hermione Gardiner from Real+ said business owners should be regularly gathering feedback from staff, because their staff’s perspectives could vary greatly from their own.
“Some principals just do it because they’ve heard that it’s a good thing to do, and sometimes they get the results and don’t like what they hear, so they don’t actually do anything about it,” she told RPM.
“In order to keep getting staff to provide you with feedback, you’ve got to show that you’re taking their ideas on board.”
According to Ms Gardiner, staff want to feel that their ideas, concerns and achievements are all being recognised.
“You’ll get more productivity and efficiency out of your team if you do listen and make some change to keep them happy, because a lot of them have some really great ideas on how the business can be run.”
Ms Gardiner said agencies can gather employee feedback through regular performance reviews, anonymous surveys, or third-party providers who gather feedback, analyse it and make key suggestions for improvement.
Simone Curley, director of Love Real Estate Thornbury, said she holds weekly meetings at which she encourages her property managers to share any ideas, suggestions or issues they may have.
“If nobody wants to discuss anything, often I’ll bring something up and I’ll talk about the portfolio that I’m managing or any issue I’ve got.”
Ms Curley even challenged her property management team to come up with suggestions for how they could improve the business.
“I told them, ‘From an emotional point of view, what’s going to make people feel really good about dealing with us?’.”
According to Ms Curley, her agency implemented an idea suggested by one her staff members whereby a mobile phone in the office is called if any staff member is on the road and feels unsafe.
“If I’m going to implement something, I won’t do it without all the staff being on board; for example, I had a look at Maintenance Manager and loved it, but I wanted everyone to be happy with it before introducing it,” she said.
“I want staff to be included, because if they’re not, they’re not going fully use the system.”
[Related: Do you really value your property management team?]
Newsletter
