In this Q and A we’re going to answer :
- How long does it take to integrate an outsourced staff member in a Real Estate agency?
- What cost saving is there in getting a Real Estate outsourced staff member?
- How does my outsourced staff member access my server located in my Property Management business in Australia?
Transcript of the video:
Damien Barnett from Affordable Staff and welcome to our RAW Q&A session around outsourcing.
We’ve created these series of videos for businesses that have considered outsourcing and they have genuine questions or concerns that need answering.
The format? 3 questions and 3 answers based on over 275,000 hours of outsourcing experience.
Let’s get into it
How long does it take to integrate an outsourced staff member in a Real Estate agency?
To better understand this question we need to talk a little more about you.
So there are a number of factors that determine ‘how long’ and ‘how well’ outsourced staff can integrate into your business.
These include:
- How you recruit the right people
- Access to reliable power and/or backup generator
- Internet Quality
- Their work environment
- Their support
Let’s say you have these 5 areas covered the next step is to make sure you have a training plan and structure your training to ensure maximum engagement from both you and your outsourced staff.
When I say maximum engagement, I mean you are actively communicating with your outsourced staff the same way you would a local team member.
Ok, so if you have all of those areas covered, outsourced staff should take no longer to upskill and be ready to go than a local team member that you would employ.
Personally, I know within 2 – 3 days if they’re going to be a good fit and expect it to take 2 weeks maximum before they’re working fairly independently.
I have to say this one more time…. All of this depends on how well you as a client engage your staff member.
What cost saving is there in getting a Real Estate outsourced staff member?
So there are the obvious cost savings of a lower hourly rate but the true savings start when you consider the indirect savings associated with having outsourced staff.
Some of these include:
- Infrastructure costs for desks and computers
- Payroll tax and superannuation
- Real estate costs for leasing of office space
- Internet costs
So you’re actually saving in several ways through the actual hourly rate and the infrastructure costs of a physical office.
How does my outsourced staff member access my local server located in my office?
As you’d be aware a number of software providers the real estate industry are moving to the ‘Cloud’ and there’s a prediction that 95% of agencies will be running on the cloud by 2023.
But let’s put that aside for the moment and answer if you’re running a local server in your office.
The 2 main options our clients use are:
- Getting your IT consultant to set up a user for your outsourced staff to remote into your server using software like remote desktop
- Setting up programs like ‘Team Viewer’ on a spare computer and have your outsourced staff connect to that computer. If you use this option you can actually sit and watch that staff member as they work
There are other options and it’s best to engage your office IT person as they will know the setup you currently have and the best way to get a secure and reliable connection set up.
Ok, that’s it
If you’d like to find out more about how outsourcing can work within your business you can call us anywhere within Australia on 1300 139 482.
This is Damien Barnett from Affordable Staff showing Australian businesses how to achieve business efficiency through outsourcing.
