The property management industry faces significant recruitment challenges due to a general lack of skilled workforce as well as a general tendency for high staff turnover. This is particularly challenging for the SME market (which makes up a significant proportion of ARMA member firms) who don’t always have the ability to promote from within and who need to rely on bespoke recruiters and bear the associated costs.

Some jobs can be learnt very quickly. But in residential property management, that’s not always the case. Buildings (like people) have their individual differences as well as collective similarities alongside the ever-changing legal landscape. Therefore, it can take a significant amount of time to truly hone the craft of being a skilled property manager. 

A lack of suitable candidates can result in employers recruiting out of desperation which brings about significant risk. PWC estimate that the total cost of hiring the wrong person can be anything from 50% to 150% of the annual salary in question. It can also have a negative impact on staff morale causing existing staff to leave, as well as expose companies to reputational risk.

The classic recruitment cycle of CV/application form, interview and references are generally unreliable and unobjective forms of assessing people and yet this is still how many companies recruit. Whether its CV’s that are overly embellished (buying a packet of biscuits does not really equate to ‘Manage office procurement’), interviews littered with unconscious bias or obtaining references from unreliable sources, the key lies in developing an objective recruitment process.

The pitfalls of stereotyping and gender bias are well documented but what about some of the less understood aspects of unconscious bias? How many of the below examples sound familiar?

“They turned up late. Clearly they have poor time management skills. We’re not hiring them.”

First Impressions Count – But should they? What if the candidate who turned up late was the best candidate for the job and being late was very untypical behaviour?

“They seemed nice so they must be helpful, kind and supportive.”

The Halo & Horn Effect - Judging a person based on one aspect, either good (halo) or bad (horns), which overshadows their other traits, actions, behaviours or beliefs.

“What they said at the end was so on point.”

Primary / Recency Effect - What about the things the candidate discussed throughout the interview that perhaps wasn’t so ‘on point’. We have a tendency to recall the first things discussed and the last things discussed and forget about the bits in the middle.

“They remind me of myself so I’m sure they’ll fit in.”

Similar to me - We instinctively connect with people who are similar to us including religious beliefs, similar life experiences, hobbies, studying at the same place and even supporting the same sports team. But does that mean they can objectively do the job?

And it’s not just about establishing ‘good practice’. It is against the law to discriminate against candidates (and existing employees) because of a protected characteristic (The Equality Act 2010) including:

• age

• disability

• gender reassignment

• race

• religion or belief

• sex

• sexual orientation

• marriage and civil partnership

• pregnancy and maternity

A way forward for many companies is to use psychometric tests which are tools used to measure a person’s ability (skills and aptitude) and/or personality to provide an objective means of assessment as well as providing a structured approach and to offer the same experience to all candidates.

Ability tests can be used to measure a variety of factors including IQ, verbal & numerical reasoning, cognitive ability etc. Personality tests provide an overall picture of preferred styles of working.

The variety of psychometric products available to use is vast, however before considering using psychometrics, it is important to have a clearly defined job description and person specification in order to be able to accurately identify what you actually need to test for. There is no point testing for numerical reasoning if it has no relevance to the job.  

In order to administer psychometric tests, you need to be qualified but don’t let that put you off! The course takes a few days and is relatively inexpensive. You will be trained to administer ability tests as well as being trained to administer a specific personality test product. As an alternative, there are many companies that will administer the tests on your behalf but naturally there are associated costs involved.  

Personality tests can be useful for thinking about organisation fit as well as suitability to the role. Perhaps you’re recruiting for a leadership position, but the candidate prefers to work alone. Or a property manager who is not confident about decision making and may struggle with this aspect of the role. This sort of information may not be easily detected during an interview because most candidates prepare their textbook answers and are unlikely to admit something that may be perceived as negative. Personality profiles can be effectively used to explore potential challenges further with a candidate during an interview.

However, psychometric tests need to be used ethically and should only be used to aid your recruitment process and should not be used exclusively to make recruitment decisions. Candidates should not be recruited or filtered based on the results of personality or ability tests only.

A great additional benefit of psychometrics is that they can also be used to aid employee development. This can be particularly beneficial to promote greater understanding of ourselves and to develop our Emotional Intelligence. This is particularly valuable for leadership roles.  

There are other aspects to your recruitment strategy to also bear in mind. Work sample testing is another way of really identifying a candidate’s capability. Design a work-related test that can be scored and compared with other candidates. This helps to establish objective evidence that a candidate can actually do the job being applied for.

The technique of the interviewer/s should also be evaluated. Are the questions leading and/or closed? Open ended questions that get the employee talking about actual examples of past experiences are more likely to get a more honest response versus ‘what would you do if…’ questions that can lead to well-rehearsed answers. Interviews should ideally be conducted by more than one person and the same people should conduct all interviews in order to promote a consistent approach for all candidates.

Interviews are not the time to make decisions. They should be used to observe and record the process only. Interviews should be transcribed as much as possible so that the notes can be used as evidence of what was discussed and then used later to evaluate in combination with any other tests administered.

A robust and objective recruitment strategy will help to remove unconscious bias and will help you to select the most suitable candidate for the needs of the role and who will fit into your company culture, which in turn will result in a more diverse and productive workforce. Ultimately, hiring the right person is a matter of using the right tools.