The COVID-19 pandemic has changed many industries dramatically, and block management is no exception.
Suddenly, faced with the requirement for businesses to be able to continue with minimal disruption while staff work remotely, organisations have embraced a raft of technologies for work and communication, and technological adoption has accelerated.
Many block management companies will be thinking of keeping homeworking as an option and wondering how they can do it most effectively. In fact, in a Fixflo and MRI Software survey about the impact of lockdown that we conducted in December 2020, agents listed remote working as one of the biggest challenges they faced.
Even as we look towards heading back into the office to try and get ‘back to normal’, it’s become clear that, for many, both remote working and the technology that enables it are likely to stay as a vital part of block management.
The hybrid approach
Data from the Office of National Statistics indicates that a hybrid approach of spending time in the office and working from home can be highly beneficial. It found that in 2020, those who worked from home to any degree worked more hours (32.3 on average per week) than those who never worked from home (27.7) and that homeworkers were able to be more flexible with their working hours as a result of less time spent commuting.
Those who mainly worked from home also saw a lower sickness absence rate, losing just 1.5 days per year on average compared to 5.1 days for office workers. The hard work homeworkers are putting in is finally being recognised.
The survey revealed that homeworkers were less than half as likely to be promoted as all other employees between 2012 and 2017, as well as being 38% less likely to receive an annual bonus between 2013 and 2020. However, in 2020, homeworkers were paid on average 9.2% more than their office-bound peers because they were able to adapt to working during lockdown restrictions more easily.
The value of proptech
For many block managers, proptech has been a godsend during this period of remote working. Many proptech applications use cloud technology, allowing them to be accessed from any location and, in many cases, from any device. This flexibility has been vital for staff who are homeworking, and there’s no reason why it cannot continue to be utilised in other situations. From service charge management to repairs and maintenance, cloud-based tools and applications allow repetitive, day-to-day tasks to be accomplished quickly and easily, leaving more time for the other vital activities of property management.
The role of a block manager requires much travel between different sites to develop relationships and conduct site inspections. Being able to access proptech systems while on the road or away from the office allows access to vital information wherever it is needed. Imagine, for example, a resident inquiring to their block manager about repairs during a site visit.
With cloud-based repairs and maintenance management software, an agent can easily log in from where they are, check the status of the issue and provide an update. Proptech helps with reporting, too. With so much data going into and out of a business’s systems every day, it allows managers to keep an eye on important metrics and ensure everything runs smoothly. They can filter through the data and explore trends for future decision making and forecasting.
The future of block management
Remote working during the pandemic has given many businesses a taste of how technology can improve their efficiency, but its value doesn’t stop there. The next step for the industry is to continue to embrace tech to deliver even greater improvements. With increasingly sophisticated technology connecting workers regardless of their geography, productivity amongst homeworkers has seen a dramatic increase.
And where previously the productivity gained from being around other employees and being able to collaborate with and learn from them was unmatched by those working from home, the use of video conference solutions and cloud-based systems like Fixflo means this is no longer the case.
