Engaging with employment issues

All eyes have been on the Renters’ Rights Bill, inflation and the Bank of England’s base rate but there’s another cause for concern in the property industry – employment. In this blog, Viewber explores the problems facing agents and property managers 

Peaks and troughs for demand 

The property market isn’t the most consistent of sectors as it’s highly susceptible to external influences and seasonality. Low mortgage rates usually mean the sales market will fly and lettings may enter a lull. Sales market tightening due to a cost of living crisis? Home movers may be driven towards lettings, with low transaction levels. The situation can be exacerbated for single-discipline agencies, where overstaffing can become a real issue when market conditions are unfavourable.  

Then there are times of year when staff are often sitting around, but have too few and Spring and Autumn can require extra hands – it’s often those times that create the profits.  

OOO more common? 

A new Employment Rights Bill was read in the King’s speech and will be unveiled in October we’re told, and it may impact how and who agents employ. Proposals include strengthening statutory sick pay, making bereavement leave a statutory right and enhancing the parental leave provision. Labour also wants all roles to be flexible by default, with employers required to accommodate this as far as is reasonable. As such, it may become harder to achieve ‘bums on seats’ in offices when employees have strengthened rights to be away from their desks.  

In property, boots on the ground are just as important as bums on seats, with property visits taking up a fair proportion of working hours. This will become increasingly challenging for agency owners as they manage remote workforces who may not be in the right place at the right time and may be acquiring new rights. 

Less appealing to employ 

Additional proposals include removing the unfair dismissal qualifying period, so employees enjoy the right not to be let go from their first day of employment, a new right for zero hours workers to move to a regular hour’s contract, and a reform on the ‘fire and hire’ method on employment. An article in People Management suggests if the Bill becomes an Act, it may lead to the use of more self-employed contractors.  

More scope for tribunal action 

Agency owners will need to track another of Labour’s proposals – a reform of the employment tribunal processes. The Government would like an extension to the time limit for bringing tribunal claims, with this increased from 3 to 6 months. It’s also proposed that mass redundancies would trigger a collective consultation when considered across an entire business, not just at specific sites. Disgruntled staff will also be able to collectively raise grievances about workplace conduct to Acas in the primary instance, bypassing an in-house complaints procedure. 

Clampdown on out of hours engagement 

Labour would like to follow the lead of mainland Europe and introduce a right to ‘switch off’ pledge, which would empower employees to disconnect from work outside of their contracted hours. This could prove troublesome for the property industry, where an ‘open all hours’ online culture has developed, together with the expectation that agents should do ‘whatever it takes, whenever required’ to provide a service, such as conducting a late night viewing or providing a welfare check on a Sunday.  

A switch to self-employed models  

Earlier in 2024, the Property & Homemover Report produced by TwentyCi found self-employed agents were making a bigger impact on the property market. In fact, they accounted for 34% of new instructions in Q1 2024 across all hybrid agents – up from 25% in the same period in 2023. Parent companies, including eXp, Keller Williams and iAD, are actively recruiting agents.  

The carrots being dangled are becoming more attractive, with Hortons – for example – increasing the commission it offers self-employed agents from 50% to 75%. Now Labour is seeking to make self-employment more appealing by giving them the right to a written contract, take action to tackle late payments and have greater protection when it comes to health, safety and blacklisting. The net result? The pool of property talent looking for office-based, employed work is shrinking.  

Timings & solutions 

The Employment Rights Bill is scheduled to be introduced to Parliament by 12th October 2024 and agency owners should start reevaluating their recruitment processes now. The role of outsourcing is expected to increase in light of the Act, with the ‘no ties, no contract’ services offered by third-party suppliers, such as Viewber, offering simple solutions for moving forwards. 

Viewber has long pioneered the ‘on demand’ style of operation, where any agent in any UK branch can book a Viewber to conduct a property viewing, visit, welfare check or safety inspection. We become a low-risk extension of a company we work for, providing a professional service when needed most. 

Flexible support not staffing headaches 

As a ‘pay as you go’ supplier, we negate the need to employ extra staff – especially if they’re likely to be underutilised, off sick, on leave, underperforming or handing in their notice. With us, there’s no contract, no minimum use rules or notice period.  

When you open an account with Viewber, there is no obligation to use us every week, every month or even every year! We do, however, have the capacity to scale up and down according to each branch’s workflow and resourcing pressures, thanks to our nationwide network of thousands of Viewber members.  

We’d be delighted to explain the full range of our property services, so get in touch.