I’ve just returned from a fact-finding mission to the Phillipines where I’ve been researching the phenomenal growth of the outsourcing industry, and looking at case studies of really successful Australian real estate businesses who are embracing the efficiencies and opportunities of working with a highly skilled remote workforce.
For some business owners I’ve been chatting with, the concept of offshoring raises a range of interesting ethical, cultural, management, and even security challenges.
In fact, prior to heading away on this study tour, a client expressed to me that he’d never ever use an offshore provider because of data security and safety issues. A fair concern to hold if you knew no different. However what I witnessed first hand at the BPO (Business Processing organisation) that I studied was simply incredible security measures. Entry to the data centre is after screening by an armed guard, then through a biometric scan. A check is even done to ensure no phones, pens, or pieces of paper, are allowed. Entrants cannot even have pockets in their clothing.
In contrast, back here in Oz, I, or a departing staff member could walk up to any of my clients servers or PCs, insert a USB stick, and download as many files as I/they can fit on and walk out the door undetected. I sense that the Phillipines security beats the Aussie security hands down in this case.
Offshoring elements of your business is a very real challenge and requires a significant shift in traditional mindsets for many of us.
Anyway, I digress.
I caught up with a few mates on the weekend and decided to stir the pot with them over a beer or 4 to explore some of the ethical, cultural, and, more particularly, the mental and management challenges.
The first question I posed to the ‘Mates’ was pretty simple.
What do you think a fair hourly rate is for your time? Meaning; ‘When you’re at your best, what are you worth?‘
That immediately accelerated the conversation like throwing petrol on a fire. The numbers exploded, and a few chests got puffed out, with each claiming their respective brilliance was cheap at anywhere from $100.00 an hour to one who pumped his own tyres up and claimed he was worth $3,000.000 an hour. Now, this ‘chest beater’ wasn’t actually able to back his $3,000.00 an hour claim up with a payslip, and to the joy of all present, his Wife smilingly shared that she’d only ever calculated his performances in seconds. 😉
But of the assembled cast, not one of the gang put claim to being worth $20.00 an hour, the average wage for general Administration staff, but many accepted that they do lots of $20.00 per hour work in their businesses.
I continued my innocuous quizzing with the next conundrum.
“Do you mow your own grass?”
A resounding majority answered that they don’t mow their own grass.
Next question was a little more probing.
“Why don’t you mow your own grass?”
That brought a few more varying responses that went from:
“I don’t have a mower” through to 4 who noted:
“I know it has to be done, but I hate doing it.”
But the overwhelming response, from the assembled brains trust, was:
“I have better things to do with my time.”
The next follow-up question dug a bit deeper:
“What are the ‘better things’ you do with that freed up time not spent behind a mower or whipper-snipper?”
Some said they focussed that free time on their hobbies, one on his golf swing, some spent more time with family, while others spent that time growing their businesses or their brains.
I decided to amp the honesty test up a little bit more to those who’d said they hated mowing and gardening and wished they had more time, by asking them:
“How many of you have duties in your own businesses being carried out either by you, or by your people, that would not be considered the best or the most efficient use of their skills or time?”
(ie: Are you flipping the burgers in your own business, or are you planning where the next store is opening?)
Examples of poor use of time and skills in my industry I shared in the debate included:
1. Why would we have a highly skilled real estate salesperson sitting at a computer desk for hours at night typing client names into a spreadsheet, or typing up a CMA or a Listing Authority; and
2. Why do we ask a well paid property manager to spend their day playing telephone tag for hours with a tenant trying to make a time for a plumber to fix a leaky toilet, or having them at a computer processing repetitive lease renewals, and base level admin functions, when their real value and skills are their intimate knowledge of the business of real estate, and building and maintaining relationships with clients that pay us money.?
The resounding response was that they each had people in the companies doing tasks way below their pay and skill grade.
That almost concluded the weekend’s interrogation. I just had one more grilling to pose to these assembled bright business minds.
Isn’t it our jobs as business leaders to make ourselves and our people significantly more productive in their roles?
Shouldn’t we be making the required management decisions that ditches the basic admin duties and allows that Salesperson to be significantly more productive by spending more quality time in more lounge rooms selling our services and generating more commissions?
Shouldn’t we be the ones looking for new efficiencies and additional profits in our businesses, by freeing up that Property Manager up to spend that time wasted on telephone-tag and typing lease renewals so they can be carrying out the human side of the business, to bring in more new business to bolster the balance sheet, and to surprise and to delight our existing clients to ensure they’re rusted onto us for life?
A quick search of seek.com.au done this morning at 8.00 am revealed a whopping 74 positions available for Property Manager type roles in Brisbane alone.
There’s a reason why there is such great turnover of Property Managers, why their salaries are climbing, and why they’re damn near impossible to recruit.
Hint: It’s because, without the right support, it’s a really tough gig!
Yet the bulk of the industry does little to resolve the issues that make it such a tough gig. With annual property manager salary offerings in the Brisbane market ranging from $55,000 to $90,000, (plus probably a further 35,000 in ‘on-costs’) , it means those vacant positions, if ever filled, will be costing those business owners between $90,000 and $125,000 per annum, only to see that person spending potentially 70% of their time begrudgingly doing repetitive basic administrative functions that could be carried out by someone more attuned to that work for a third of the cost, or less.
Now I’m not talking about sacking your property managers. I’m talking about how much more attractive that role might be if it meant that the Property Manager was focussed on growing new business, and retaining existing business, and delivering a premium service level…
Imagine if you could decrease your costs by 20% and increase your fees by 30%. Does that sound attractive?
Based on the skinny margins I’ve been witnessing in many offices that I visit, I’d be thinking any opportunity that offers genuine efficiencies, and an opportunity to grow the businesses value, and to increase profits deserves to be deeply explored.
Offshoring, when managed correctly through a well chosen BPO can be an amazingly effective solution for the challenges faced by every business today.
It’s not about engaging slave or cheap labour. It’s about engaging people who are meticulous at completing repetitive tasks.
It’s not about taking Australian jobs away or threatening the livelihoods of hardworking people in your business. The number of vacancies for PM shows’s there are more local jobs than there are people to fill them in that area.
It’s about ensuring the right people are doing the tasks most suited to their skillset at a premium level, at an affordable rate, while strengthening your business.
We live and work in an international economy that has a an international workforce. We drive Toyotas, Mercedes, BMW, Hyundai, Porsches, Kia’s and Renault’s. We holiday in the USA, in Europe, and in Asia. We are much sought after educational hub for much of South East Asia, and most of us are pretty keen on a Number 32 with rice at the local Chinese restaurant on a Friday night.
So, before you next ask your team, or you yourself to ‘metaphorically’ head out to ‘mow your own grass’, give some serious consideration to whether engaging someone who knows how to ‘mow grass’ at 30% less cost and can do it 50% more efficiently than you do might be a more cost effective, and might free them (or you) up to do the ‘face to face’ stuff that brings more business in the door. .
Trust me. It’s highly likely that your accountant, lawyer, trust account and rental management software provider, HR supplier, and even the training company you subscribe to such as Lee Woodward or Michael Sheargold are using a Phillipines based BPO (Business Process Organisation).
Having just spent the best part of a week in one of the most impressive BPO’s in the Phillipines, I can confidently say that they aren’t the future. They are, in fact, the ‘today’ for the smart business operator.
In several cases I witnessed during my time in the Phillipines, I saw highly educated, systems driven, Filipino business processing specialists educating Australian property management and admin teams on how they can be more effective back here. Imagine that.
The effective BPO centres of today are not sweat shops or noisy call centres with rows of robotic people with headsets strapped to their heads infuriating your clients as they struggle to speak English.
What I witnessed in the Phillipines was teams of professionally led, well educated property managers and admin teams. They’re attending and appreciating weekly industry training. They’re totally focussed on unwaveringly following a company process with no distractions and no excuses.
That in itself was refreshing…
What I’ve witnessed back home with the businesses that are using well structured and professionally managed BPOs are happier property managers who are now totally focused on increasing income streams, growing existing customer satisfaction, and driving business growth.
If this post has prompted you to think a little more about how using professional offshoring will help your business, your productivity, your growth, staff and client satisfaction, then flick me a note. I’m looking at taking a tour of Aussies and Kiwis businesspeople up to the Phillipines for a 2 day facilities tour in January of 2020.
It’ll only be 3-4 days. If you don’t like it, we’ll make sure you’re home in time to mow your own grass. 😉
