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Sheila Manchester Editor


Your key challenges: finding good staff – and keeping them!


W


hat exactly makes your agency tick? Is it the location? Is it the design and image of your company and


its premises? Is it your promotion of the services on offer? Your answer is probably that it is all


of the above and of course you are right, but the most vital element of your business is, surely, the people within it. Planning, recruiting, training, managing,


promoting and, dare I say it, just occasionally ‘releasing’ members of your team, is the absolute key to business success in any field.


In the business of


estate agency, which is all about bringing two parties together, to their mutual benefit (and yours of course) building the right team and leading it well is vital. This is no easy task, as we found when


preparing this month’s feature on recruitment and looked at how agents find staff these days. Whether directly, through word of mouth, in newspaper adverts, online, or through recruitment agencies, most agencies seem to find it quite a challenge to find the best people. Once you have them, you have to nurture them and make sure they are


up – yet are we saying too much? Are we saying the right things? Can you rely on members of your team to refrain from flippant or even rude comments in the mêlée of the online platforms? In his article, Richard Rawlings says


we’re not yet all that good at it. Legal eagle Chris Hutchins goes even further, quoting a recent High Court Libel case which stemmed from comments on Twitter. Read all their views in this issue – and


maybe think about how you communicate – and let me know what you think! sheila@thenegotiator.co.uk


Circulation


12,000 copies per issue has been published


continuously for over 27 years, read by property professionals in sales, lettings, commercial and auctions. It is distributed to 12,000 office addresses each month.


For verification of this, please log on to: www.propertydrum/categories/ circulation A digital edition is also emailed to 26,000 property professionals, each month.


portraying the right message, as Julian O’Dell writes, you need to give your business a regular M.O.T. to ensure that the experience your clients have with your firm, through their interaction with your staff, is as good as you thought it was. Julian calls it the ‘moments of truth’ and they can be painful! How do you and your staff communicate


with clients in this global chattering world? We’re all at it these days, on Facebook, Twitter, email, newsletters, we never shut


“Will your staff refrain from making flippant comments in the mêlée of Twitter?”


The Negotiator Magazine PO Box 624, Epsom, Surrey KT17 9JX tel: 0844 745 3001 email: mail@thenegotiator.co.uk


Editorial Director Sheila Manchester email: sheila@thenegotiator.co.uk tel: 0844 745 3101


Art Director Karen Bates


Editorial Assistant Becky Griggs


Publisher Grant Leonard email: grant@thenegotiator.co.uk tel: 0844 745 3100


Advertising Manager Rich Storrs email: rich@thenegotiator.co.uk tel: 0844 745 3102


Information Subscription rates UK – £55; Europe – £75; Rest of world – £95


Independent of any association or trade body.


© Propertydrum Ltd 2012


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