“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results” – Albert Einstein

22 April 2015 24676 Views

The UK property industry has spent 4 years in an economic maelstrom. We came to this before anyone else in the Country, while bankers, lawyers, accountants and UK PLC executives were still popping Cristal and tugging on Cohibas, the Property Guys were heading for the storm shelter and shouting ‘Twister’. No one listened.

 

 

So that means that 50,000 hard working staff have been facing this onslaught for longer than any combat soldier would be expected to take. Strange analogy maybe but stress comes in many different guises and short term we can all tolerate being on “red alert”, in fact it’s healthy to feel that way, but extend that period and the nasties set in. Whether its combat or Clapham, trawler men or Tewkesbury we need time to rest and reset, or positive pressure becomes stress and that leads to irrational behaviour, depression and even worse. This year my friend who drives tube trains in London tells me they have experienced twice as many suicides than in 2014 and it’s not even March.

In your business, look how staff are behaving after 4 years of intense pressure. For example – a window card has a mis-spelling. Is the reaction, measured and normal? A contractor fails to deliver a new board, is he treated as if he had murdered a puppy?

Even worse, are staff now super diligent and efficient, always going that extra mile to ensure continued employment? I don’t think so. Your business, so staff dependant, is dying from the inside. This may be over-dramatic but have you assessed this?

What can you do?

The answer is actually relatively simple. You need to change the way you work, to empower your staff, to make them feel and see, that they personally, can make a difference. That what they do is leading them out of the abyss and into the light.

Making a difference is about face time, which may seem odd coming from the UK’s largest independent solution provider to agency. Not on the iPad or Skype or PC, but in person, talking, marketing, impressing and networking with all of the stakeholders in your business and its just what your staff need.

What they don’t need and what is driving them into the ground, is tiresome, repetitive compliance and administration. Where the only reward is a “well done for doing your job” and if something is missed you have the prospect of the firing squad.
With this state of mind, your business continuity is often hanging by a thread.

This is where Google, Redbull, Apple, John Lewis and the other companies described as “great to work for”, have implemented systems, to take away all of the soul sapping drudgery. They have replaced it with business process automation and crucially management by exception not by micro analysis.

If only this existed for Property practices in the UK? Of course it does and it’s going to save you a small fortune, give your businesses a steroid injection of morale boosting goodness and give yourself lifestyle choices. After all if your business works without you in it it’s worth 10 times as much!

Even the process of considering implementing management by exception will give your business a lift and give you invaluable insight and the best thing, it’s free, aside from your time, which we will use not just enhance your business but to create a detailed overview of the issues facing the industry as we come out of this recession.

Give us a call FREEPHONE 0800 328 0460 or visit https://www.vtuk.com/ to find out how we can assist your business.