It’s been well reported in the press that conveyancers are leaving the industry because of pressure.
Well, let’s face it, it’s never been an easy job! However with recent stamp duty holidays resulting in an ever increasing workload and ever more demanding clients, you can see why some have had enough! As people leave, those left in a firm have to pick up the slack… lead times in recruitment are 4 months at best and the pressure continues to build, not to mention the cost to the firm.
As an industry we have to consider why did it get to this stage? Is it that the pressure has suddenly increased, or is it just the final straw…. We would suggest it’s the final straw! It shouldn’t be accepted that because you are in conveyancing… undue pressure is just part of the job!
So where is the increased pressure that is affecting our conveyancers coming from?? Well in recent years there has been a lot of change!
Online reviews are one, every customer now has the power to mark your conveyancers with a score on whichever platform they choose… and when received its recorded forever and reviewed by all including senior management. Harry Gordon Selfridge is claimed to be one of the first who said ‘the customer is always right’… but he didn’t have online reviews to deal with… and facts are that the customer isn’t always right! The only way to get rid of a bad review is to get more positive reviews added or get the client to remove it…. Don’t get us wrong, there is no excuse for poor client service, calls and emails should always be returned… but how we all deal with the bad reviews, we would suggest, can make a significant difference to the stress levels of our conveyancers.
Another change is case management systems… which then come with a full suite of reporting tools! What you last did, when, how long it took….. then many excel spreadsheets monitoring performance against whatever KPI’s which can be reviewed, benchmarked creating league tables of top performers which accompany the one to one. These tools are there to help the firm and are critical, but, from a conveyancers perspective, if they aren’t dealt with correctly, you can see how it can feel like Big Brother is watching!
What about the power struggle between compliance and operations… one trying to make profit while the other is trying to save profit… meanwhile the conveyancer in the middle being told to do both! Got to get all the exchanges, not making any mistakes while also keeping up with post completion work… departments in the firm with the same objective… but can we claim that they are always pulling in the same direction…?
There are no doubt many more examples of why pressure is being loaded onto conveyancers and the work will always have a degree of pressure… when working in the residential housing market you are dealing with clients who aren’t thinking on a commercial level, but on an emotional one.
So how is our industry dealing with this…. well, we have seen firms now really promote the fact that they are investing in the health and wellbeing of their staff. We have seen ‘bring your pets to work’, complete flexibility on work from home or from an office, increased private medical insurance, personal days that can be taken when needed…. the list goes on! BUT we question how is this helping the root of the problems…?? It would seem that these are just a reaction to the problems rather than solutions… the solution would be to resolve the source of the pressure, not enable conveyancers to try and deal with it better.
We suggest that senior management put themselves in the position of their conveyancers and see for themselves what a day looks like from their perspective.. then challenge conventional thoughts. This is an opportunity, as firms which enable solutions will attract more staff while others spend time and money watching retention figures continue to get worse.
You may agree or disagree with us, however, no one can deny the fact that people are voting with their feet and something has to change. It’s down to senior management to decide what those changes will be!
At Keveral we don’t claim to know all the answers, we don’t have a 10-step programme of success, we think that each firm is different and therefore the solution to any problems have to be different. What we do deliver is a different perspective with a clear commercial focus resulting in a structured plan with set measured objectives.
If you would like to know more about us and how we might be able to help, then please contact us.
T: 020921175038
E: hello@keveral-holdings.co.uk