We insist that every single member of staff is qualified (NFoPP technical award, more on that later). But other agencies comply with nothing, belong to nothing, undercut fees and overprice properties to get the instruction. We have had people pulling down our boards and burning them for years… and worse, but still I feel that I have to do the Right Thing.”
Business models and mantras For good or bad, doing the Right Thing has been Ivor’s mantra since he started as a negotiator in D & G’s Balham branch in 1989, subsisting on £7000 a year, driving clients around in “an embarrassingly clapped out Lancia with mould on the back seat.”
Even in these difficult times, it is incredibly difficult to find the right staff; although we are very fussy!’ 20 years on, the Lancia has gone, Ivor
has made it to MD and D & G now has 14 offices (with another opening in January); all staffed by “the very finest people, we look after them – we are a family!” Ivor knows every member of staff, he
knows when their birthdays are, who is getting married, when they have babies, when they have problems and need help, when they want to progress through the ranks. He sees every member of staff for a one hour personal ‘chat’ twice a year; that’s 400 hours, or ten working weeks each year, an unusual commitment to pastoral care. “We take our staff responsibilities very
seriously. Even in these days of graduates unable to get jobs, estate agencies closing and shedding staff, it is incredibly difficult
to find the right staff; although we are very, very fussy!” The fussiness is well founded, it is
expensive to take on staff and find they aren’t right for the task, but that doesn’t often happen, due to another little obsession, the use of psychometric testing. After 5000 tests Ivor seems to have the process set in stone. “The graphs that we get from the testing show precisely which roles the applicant is suited to.” If the test doesn’t show the right
aptitude, the person doesn’t get the job. “But is it always right? Does it give the whole picture?” I ask. Presumably, he will never know if the rejected candidate could have done a good job, but what of those who ‘get in’, don’t some of them leave? “Nobody leaves, we are a family! Seriously, though, our retention is very good, aside from the occasional change in circumstance and career choices, nobody leaves to go to another agency, because we try hard to look after them and give them the opportunities they need.”
PROPERTYdrum NOVEMBER 2010 43
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66