Purplebricks reveals areas where external appointments needed

Purplebricks says it’s beginning interviewing this week for roles at three key levels where there were not enough ‘switchers’ willing to move from self-employed to employed status. 

On Tuesday Estate Agent Today revealed that the hybrid agency had succeeded in getting 95 per cent of its field staff to switch from self-employed to employed - a strategy first announced by the company early last month.

However, the five per cent deficit is in three areas: Area Directors, Local Property Partners and Local Property Assistants.

In total there are some 35 positions to be filled, and interviews for these roles are taking place this week. 

The agency says it is no longer taking applications from potential recruits and is confident of filling the roles from the current interested applicants.

All of the Purplebricks reps who have switched to employed worked on the sales side - currently the lettings team remains self-employed, and agency chief executive Vic Darvey states there is “nothing to be said at this time” about future proposals.

Analysts say the change in the employment business model on the sales side is expected to incur exceptional non-recurring costs of up to £4m in the 2021-2022 financial year.

Chief executive Vic Darvey says that over the longer term the shift from self-employment to staff is likely to be financially beneficial to the company because of improved performance as a result of Local Property Experts’ incentivised packages.

Here is the EAT exclusive from earlier this week on the results of the switch from self-employed to staff.