The strength of the Australian jobs market means the real estate industry is looking for innovative ways to attract top staff, particularly for hard-to-fill roles such as property management.

Sharon Bennie, of Specialist Property Recruitment, told WILLIAMS MEDIA some progressive companies are offering incentives for staff, from providing breakfast, subsidising gym memberships, and offering car parking where necessary, to having sleep / recharge rooms, additional leave for parents, the ability to work from home, and time with external coaches or mentoring programs.

Some sales businesses offer attractive pay and marketing incentives for new agents. 

"Some companies get really creative on the attraction of applicants – remember the million dollar intern promotion by LJ Hooker in 2017?" she said.

Leanne Pilkington, managing director of Laing+Simmons and president of the REINSW, told WILLIAMS MEDIA that property managers are the hardest roles to fill and employers are always looking for the ways to fill vacancies - and to keep existing staff.

"If you have implemented offshoring or automating technology you can offer more attractive jobs without the repetitive tasks," said Pilkington.

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Technology solutions remove repetitive tasks in property management roles

"Some businesses are getting the repetitive parts of the job done offshore and using technology for repairs," she said.

Suzannah Toop, CEO of Toop&Toop, told WILLIAMS MEDIA, "It's no secret that there's high turnover in property management right across Australia."

When Toop returned to the family business in 2012, she could see that the property managers were stressed out. She said they were great people, but their environment was broken as they dealt with as many as 3,000 emails daily which was taking 80 per cent of their day, mainly dealing with items in rented homes that needed fixing.

Toop, who has a commerce background, set about "cracking the code" and automating some of the more repetitive parts of the property manager's role. They developed a tool called Toop Fix, which has now been adapted by 15 other real estate companies all over Australia. Toop&Toop won the REIA's innovation award in 2016 for the product.

After introducing Toop Fix, email traffic fell 73 per cent, said Toop.

"The impact has been profound," she said. "The team immediately felt relieved. It meant our staff felt this could be a career, the technology made the job more sustainable."

"Those staff now have freed up time where they can add more value, and they can upskill," said Toop.

Not only are staff getting more from their property manager careers, and staying in them longer at Toop&Toop, the company now feels comfortable hiring from outside the industry, she said.

Toop also said the property manager role was once only suitable for people who knew the industry, but "now we're able to recruit from outside the industry," she said.

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Offshoring repetitive tasks for property managers

Elaine Mills, proprietor of Elaine Mills Property Management, has employed assistants in the Philippines to perform administrative duties for property managers, to help make their careers more sustainable.

Mills was the 2017 winner of the innovation award at the REINT Awards for Excellence.

A supportive office culture 

"The office environment is also very important," said Pilkington.

"People want to be part of a culture that reflects their values. The want good, progressive leadership. They want to work for an organisation where their values align," she said.

Hayden Groves, of dethridge Groves and president of the REIWA, told WILLIAMS MEDIA, it can be hard to entice successful agents to come and work for your organisation.

"We try to create a work environment that is enticing to others working with competitors so that would-be employees approach us rather than us actively seek them out.

"If you get your culture and team right then successful reps elsewhere that are not properly recognised for their success eventually seek us out.

"We 'target' them by simply building a respectful relationship with them over time and make them aware that the “door’s open” should they want to join us," he said. 

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Read more about the real estate jobs market:

Strong Aussie employment data reflected in real estate jobs

Development boom driving strong demand for property managers

Why real estate is a good industry for women