COMMENT
Cost or asset? How do you value your staff? asks Philip Bowden, Bowden Training & Management Services.
I
n the past month I have undertaken two secret shopping exercises for two regional businesses, one employs estate and letting agents, whilst the other only
employs estate agents. The results of these benchmarking exercises were, to say the least, shocking to both clients. They were shocked because they now
had concrete evidence that their businesses were underperforming at different levels. The secret shopper exercises indicated problems in goal-setting, planning, management of plans and in delivery of front line service levels. These experiences made me consider
whether these organisations saw their staff – those who delivered their front line services – as costs or assets in their businesses and, even more importantly, did they see the relevance of this question to the future health of their business? In these tough times how a business
perceives its staff is fundamental to how it perceives its performance in the future. To my mind, assets are things in a business that you treasure, nurture, develop and grow to improve future business key performance indicators. Costs however, are things that businesses do their best to minimise, reduce and cut to improve their immediate key performance indicators. So what is an asset and what is a cost?
Well the answer to this question lies in the decision maker’s perception. Being realistic, recent market conditions
have tempered a lot of business owner’s views towards investing in the future. Property businesses have had to weather a turbulent economic storm; they have battened down the hatches merely to survive and keep the business afloat. However, there comes a point when this
short term view has to change as there are many reasons to suggest that this short term view can, in itself, lead to problems.
SECRET SERVICE If we go back to my secret shopping expeditions and look at the results, one has to wonder what level of service is given to these businesses’ clients and what were their clients’ expectations? Would they consider using these businesses again or recommending them to family or friends? When I addressed the issues with both companies, after their initial shock, their first reaction was to look at the positives and consider how their business would benefit if they invested in developing the knowledge and skills of their front line staff. Had they not responded in such a fashion and considered getting rid of these staff, seeing them as costs and not assets, I think they would only be compounding the issues, not moving the business forward. When I help managers to develop, I try
to keep things simple. So when managing sales staff I have five key principles that relate to seeing staff as an asset:
1. Recruit the best you can 2. Tell me what you expect from me 3. Tell me how I am doing 4. Help me if I need it 5. Pay me according to my contribution
The first principle sounds obvious but it is not always evident in the staff I see in property companies. Some companies think that the least spent on salaries is best. Is it? Salaries account for a major part of a property businesses costs but to try and cut costs here can be a false economy. The old adage is “you are only as good as your staff”. You cannot be everywhere doing everything so you have to rely on staff doing a quality job for you. The secret shopper exercises showed that very few members of staff even enquired about the business opportunities that the customer could have provided that business with and those that did pursue these opportunities did so in an unskilled way. So business
PROPERTYdrum APRIL 2011 49
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