The world of recruitment at MIH

The world of recruitment. When we first considered writing this blog, we wanted to make sure that we weren’t rehashing some of our back catalog, particularly as this blog is so important to us.

As regular readers of our blogs, and the various situations that we find ourselves in, we think it is obvious that MIH is growing apace and in the words of Voltaire, (although we believe this was paraphrased by Uncle Ben when speaking to Peter Parker about his “spidey sense”) “With great power comes great responsibility”.

Recruiting isn’t an easy task

Without sounding like complete megalomaniacs, as a team we are having to adjust to the need to recruit new staff who not only share our values but who will also fit in and become cheerleaders or half-time mascots for MIH, depending on your sporting preference.

As you can imagine, this is no easy task and despite some of our previous blogs that have referred to interview techniques or the debate of experience vs qualification, we are finding it quite difficult which has led us to this blog, which has a dual purpose.

Getting to know you

From the start, we knew that MIH was going to about getting to know your client (and not just about checking their passport and address details), understanding their requirements, and working with them to achieve short, medium- and long-term objectives in respect of their properties.

MIH is about treating our client’s properties, be they homes, rental properties, or commercial units as if they were their own, even if it means that we go the extra mile and occasionally meet a client at 7 am as is their preference, or end up phoning around local bouncy castles companies to ensure that children are entertained at a summer party.

Although this does not and is unlikely to form part of a Statement of Duties as per the ARMA Management Agreement, it does help us with one of the most important facets of our management, building a community which in turn leads to greater unity when having to deal with important decisions. After all, once you start thinking about others you are less inclined to drop that litter, thinking others will pick this up or make noise in your flat that others can hear.

We’re looking for different qualities

With this in mind and bearing in mind our previous blog about how nothing beats experience, you would think that our first port of call would be to go for a seasoned property manager who can handle anything. Not so for MIH, as we are keen to find team members, who haven’t had anything thrown at them but can be quick thinking in the event of a crisis.

Thinking outside the box

An example is a request to install a ladder in common parts to read high-level meters. After careful consideration, we refused this on the basis of the Health and Safety obligations which our client would become subject to.

Our response which we thought would be met with derision by the owner’s agent who requested this on their behalf was to suggest that the tenant purchase a “Selfie Stick”. To our amazement, the client who had been copied on the email was in complete agreement and went so far as to advise the agent that they would be happy to pay for the said stick.

What started out as something as something said slightly tongue in cheek was actually a workable solution and when our founder told her sister about this, she actually said it was genius Obviously, and without any pun attended, any person interviewing will be measured against that “yardstick” and we appreciate that this means that working for MIH is no mean feat.

Great service is key

However, aside from being good at thinking on your feet, MIH are also keen to find staff who are like-minded in that they truly want great to give great service and to be the ones chasing the client rather than the other way around. We are very lucky in that the only real criticism we have received as a team has been in respect of over-communicating and “clogging up inboxes” and this is something that we aren’t too concerned about.

To us being told that we are too responsive can’t be a bad thing and from our collective experience, we would rather have this said about us than we have failed to respond to an email or telephone call in a timeous manner.

The likeability factor and recruitment

Aside from being quick thinking, responsive and dare I say it, the most overused word in property management – proactive, the most important thing we are looking for in any new joiner, is likeability and more importantly their ability to fit into what is an already tightly-knit team.

As a company, we all have our individual properties and responsibilities but where help is needed we all pitch in and it is very important that we have open communication at all times. It was a founding principle of the company that any client who phones should be able to get help or an answer from anyone on the team if not immediately then within 24 working hours of this being raised.

Although we don’t believe that anyone can be 24/7 we do believe that if our management ethic and our internal communications and systems are strong enough then we can look to help anyone. As per the Hardrock Cafe motto, “Love all, serve all” although we probably would suggest that this is paraphrased to something more akin to “Like all, serve all”

So having reached our year-end and grown the team from 1 to 6 with our newest recruit Imman coming on board at the end of April, and now looking for our seventh person, we are throwing out the gauntlet in this blog- we did say it was written with a two-fold purpose, the first being to explain how we work, and the second to act as a job advert for a Property Manager- to see if any property managers are interested in joining our team and becoming part of a company that truly does what it says on the tin- Make It Happen.

If you are interested in applying for a role or are interested in any aspect of how we manage your property as if it were our own please do not hesitate to contact us.

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