Wellbeing Survey
First launched in 2021, ARMA and IRPM (Now part of The Property Institute) have been providing a ‘mental health check’ of residential property management professionals annually, by identifying the key pressure points to inform and help shape the future of mental health and wellbeing support for the sector. Now in its third year, they will be continuing to revisit the survey on an annual basis to track the progress the sector has made.
You can read the full survey here arma-and-irpm-industry-wellbeing-survey-report-2023.pdf
Sector Wellbeing Broadly
The Wellbeing and Resilience survey shows a workforce that is still feeling the strain, although the previous worries over cladding remediation have lessened. The most significant pressure is now from workloads. We at EVC also feel the changes to legislation for fire doors is also having a significant impact on workload, as leaseholders often misunderstand their responsibilities in ensuring fire safety within a block of flats.
Property Management Professionals
Property management professionals continue to score significantly lower than Office of National Statistic (ONS) averages when asked about how satisfied they were with their lives nowadays and how worthwhile their life is. When asked about how happy they were yesterday, respondents posted a score that was 18% below the national average. There is a decline in the sector’s scores since 2022 except for the ‘life is worthwhile’ score which marginally improved. For the first time, we also questioned respondents on anxiety levels. They reported 16% higher anxiety scores compared to the national average. So, whilst the general population has fared marginally better since the end of COVID restrictions, the wellbeing of staff within the sector is lagging.
Support from Leaseholders
In the 2022 survey we reported on the damaged relationships between property management staff and those they work with. Our 2023 survey again demonstrated that property management staff continued to expect and receive little support from leaseholders, employers and wider sector groups. Furthermore, staff are still likely to face aggressive and unreasonable behaviour, and more feel they are at risk physically and mentally in their roles.
What does this mean?
The residential property management sector continues to change at great pace. Workers must grapple with a new building safety regime, understand additional and changing legislation and meet the continually rising expectations of consumers. Even the most experienced of workers are now faced with new challenges and asked to navigate complicated guidance, or work without any at all. This has created more work for staff, and our survey provides clear evidence that many employees are feeling the strain. Workloads are proving the largest source of pressure for many employees. The typical full-time respondent faces nearly 9 extra work hours per week compared to the national average and is working within teams that are 20% understaffed.
The consequences are that people want to leave the sector and we at EVC Property Management Ltd really fear this scenario as we strongly believe that properties need managing by professional, regulated company’s otherwise they will fall into decline. The main reason this could happen is that residents will want to take on the management themselves and they simply won’t know about the excess of legislation that they need to.
We truly understand that getting the information you want can at times be frustrating. It is also frustrating for us too as we have to wait on third parties such as contractors, surveyors, solicitors, accountants etc with no timelines. Understanding from leaseholders of the above, would really help.
www.evcpropertymanagement.co.uk
