If I was to personally visit and consult with your office today on this issue – this would be my advice…

First, to Principals I say “You need to quantify what is causing the stress” and to the property management team I say “You need to justify what is overwhelming you”.

It is easy to make a statement that you are stressed and overwhelmed. It is easy to continue to employ more staff for the department. The challenging aspect is to take time out to determine what it is that is stressing and overwhelming the team, and then work towards a resolution.

You might be saying “I don't have time! – Every minute of my day is consumed with something to do. I just cannot take time out, or I will fall further behind”.

To this I say “If you don't take time out… nothing will change or improve. You will continue the cycle of stress and feel out of control”.

Now, I am not saying that a stressed & overwhelmed team may not need additional team members to assist in lifting the workload burden. What I am saying… is that before you recruit more staff, take a moment to determine if you are overworked with not enough time in the day or you simply need to take control of your day and prioritise and structure your time.

The best way to evaluate the workload of you department is to document exactly what needs to be done.

Following in point form are some suggestions to assist in ‘What do I do'

• Determine how many routine inspections need to be carried out each year and break it down to weekly or monthly numbers.
• Determine on average how many properties are let each month and break it down to a weekly number.
• Determine on average how many vacates take place each month and break it down to a weekly number.
• Determine on average how many new management sign ups take place each month and break it down to a weekly number.

These four activities are what consumes the most amount of your working week as far as out of office appointments.

Then the most important action! …

You need to set up your perfect week in your calendar to include all of the activities that you need to undertake. This will include time periods for processing rent arrears, maintenance, paperwork, returning telephone calls and emails, taking telephone calls, out of office inspections (as listed above – new management presentations, property inspections, vacates and routine inspections), etc. And don't forget to factor in 1-2 hours a day for the unexpected events.

This is where 9 out of 10 offices don't excel. They take the time to set up there perfect week, however, the first sign of not being able to achieve their perfect day – they give up and revert back to being out of control, being driven by walk-ins without an appointment, a constant stream of emails and telephone call interruptions all throughout the day and jumping from one task to the next without any clear priorities. To reach the next level takes commitment, persistence and constant fine tuning.

There are a number of other factors that can contribute to a stressful day such as not having a procedural system to guide your team through the processes, computer malfunctions or inferior hardware and software, lack of training, poorly presented properties, difficult clients and customers, to name a few.

Make a decision today to work towards a solution to improve the internal operations of your department… Don't just except the way it is!

If you don't take control of your day – your day will take control of you!

In summary, if you are stressed and overwhelmed, take the time to justify what you are doing by summarising all of your activities over a 4 week period. It may be that you need to recruit more help as there is just not enough time in the day/week/month to perform all of your tasks, or it may be that you need to work smarter and establish a perfect week timetable to help prioritise your week.

If you would like a consultant from the PPM Group to assist you with setting up your perfect day/week calendar, please feel welcome to contact our office.

PPM Group
Head Office: 07 5562 0037