Covid conclusions

It perhaps should come as no surprise that in carrying out this survey we’ve found that managers have a very strong desire to share their experiences, perhaps because we all realise that there are no simple solutions right now and the only way forward is to listen and learn from one another. For this reason, Adelphi Recruitment has spoken to the chief executive officers, HR directors and department heads of real estate developers, construction firms, funds and consultancies to find out how they have coped in terms of one of the biggest challenges all businesses face today: with some or even all of our staff working on a remote basis, how is it possible to keep staff motivated and productive, to train new and junior team members, and to manage recruitment processes?

Workflow changes

Firstly, we looked at company policies in terms of the percentage of staff who have been working at home against those who have remained in the office throughout the course of the year. In early spring, many private companies actually pre-empted the subsequent government advice to switch their personnel to entirely remote working. In May, when the regulations were relaxed, such companies reacted in every possible way – some brought most of their people back to the office, while others maintained the same regime as in the spring.

Over the March to September period, roughly 45–50 pct of office staff in commercial real estate were working remotely. As for the period between October and November, up to 80–90 pct were working this way, due to more recently imposed restrictions. The only thing that has been consistently the case is that nothing is as it was before the start of the pandemic.

Secondly, the majority of real estate companies have this year decided to divide their teams into two smaller groups and rotate them on the basis of one group per week working from home and then one week at the office. Before each turnaround the office space is sanitised during the weekend, so that the next group can return to the office on Monday in a safe environment. After following this model for several weeks, the majority of companies we spoke to found this to be the best solution, both in terms of safety and work efficiency.

There are also other, but less common, methods of dividing staff into groups. One example is the approach adopted by Sławek Muturi, the founder of Mzuri Investments. In this case, the team has been divided according to days of the working week: group A attends the office on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, while group B comes in on Tuesdays and Thursdays. After two weeks of this, the teams then swap round to keep the number of working days the same.

Thirdly, companies have had to decide for themselves who should work remotely, and the general consensus is that certain jobs are more naturally suited for this style of work. Krzysztof Misiak, the head of Cushman & Wakefield in Poland, voiced a common sentiment that back office functions such as finance and administration are better suited to working from home, whereas client-contact roles such as sales and leasing are better done from the office. Successful negotiations require trust, and trust requires human contact.

And finally, we also asked about what personnel were telling management in terms of their experience of remote working and whether they wanted to switch back to working in the office or keep working from home after the pandemic. Bożena Gierszewska, Neinver’s country head for Poland, believes that home-working should be retained after the pandemic, but not on the same scale. She feels that it would actually be an advantage to give her team the flexibility and opportunity to work eight days per month remotely (apart from property managers).

Construction sites and PM

Some teams in the sector – especially those on construction sites – can’t work remotely due to the nature of their work. For them, very strict rules have been put in place, such as limiting the number of physical meetings, disinfection, compulsory facemask wearing, the regular taking of temperatures, and so on. Large teams on construction sites (engineers, project managers, site managers) have also been divided into two – working either from the home-site or from two separate areas on the sites (in separate containers or offices situated at a distance from each other).

For example, on March 26th Immofinanz opened a retail development in the town of Siedlce in eastern Poland. In spite of the outbreak of the pandemic, construction work had managed to continue and so, against the odds, the project was eventually successfully completed. “We carried out the work in our usual manner, but in line with the restrictions that had been imposed. Maybe it was done more slowly, for obvious reasons, but progress was still steadily made,” reveals Immofinanz’s operations country manager, Magdalena Kowalewska.

An insight into how property management has been affected was provided by Ewa Parys, the head of asset management Europe at AEW: “The retail business is different from other sectors. One property manager is assigned for one building. You can’t monitor the technical work remotely, so the technical managers need to be present on site,” she explains. Indeed, such companies have had no other option but to keep their technical directors and asset managers present at each property throughout the year.

When it comes to office property asset management, as Magdalena Kowalewska points out: “In setting up the teams for our rotation-based work system, we have divided our employees according to their role. So if there are four asset managers: two are in group A and two in group B. Thanks to the adoption of this approach there’s always an asset manager in the office.”

The changing role of the HR manager

The pandemic has also given employees new reasons to be fearful. Many – and not just those in the real estate sector, but also across the entire economy – are worried about their own employment futures. A number of the HR managers we surveyed revealed that they have had to put greater effort into encouraging people in these difficult times, not just to do their best but also to feel secure, while also assuring them that their salaries will be paid and that their companies remain on a sound footing.

Thus the role of HR managers has grown in terms of managing the concerns and well-being of employees. As Magdalena Zagrodnik, the HR business partner of Walter Herz explains: “New safety rules, such as social distancing, and limiting the number of people in common areas and within rooms, have been introduced. Bringing guests into the office has now also been forbidden. But in addition to this, the company has also given employees the option of travelling into work in company cars. We have also paid for parking spaces, so that employees can drive to work in their own cars and thus avoid using public transport. Additionally, we have bought in professional masks with filters to protect our team during meetings with clients outside the office and in private situations.”

Recruitment and training junior staff

In terms of recruitment, almost all work interviews are currently being done online, at least until the final stages of the recruitment process. However, only a tiny minority of the people we spoke with said that they would consider moving the entire recruitment process online, and would mainly only do so for more junior support or back office roles. As in negotiations with another party over a transaction, the feeling of trust we obtain through face-to-face interactions seems to be irreplaceable, no matter how high quality the video technology is.

Perhaps the biggest challenge for any company, though, is how to train junior staff without them being able to pick up experience from through normal daily interaction with senior management. Several people we spoke to felt that technical skills can still be taught almost as effectively online as they can offline, but certain experience can only be gained from working in the presence of more experienced people. A number of the larger organisations we spoke to now have online training centres or software platforms in place that provide courses on best practice for anyone in their global workforce; but in terms of on how such experience can best be gained while remote working, none of the companies we spoke to had a ready-made solution – the best that any of them could come up with was trying to compensate for this by prioritising the presence of junior staff in the office. Of all the professional levels in real estate and the wider economy, it is probably the most junior employees who will be held back the most professionally by remote working schemes. The challenges are similar to those faced by companies hiring and integrating new staff, where the best solution once again seems to be to give them extra attention in online sessions and, as far as possible, giving them priority when it comes to spending time in the office so they can pick up some of the culture of the business. However, it seems that integration and learning are simply processes that cannot – at least, so far – be adequately replicated online, no matter how smart or advanced the technology is.

IT solutions and IT infrastructure changes

On a more positive note, the lockdown has allowed some companies to use the additional time they have to become more innovative, both internally and externally.

The external innovations, for example, include systems for liaising with the buyers of their residential properties. Echo Investment has introduced a number of tools to allow staff to cooperate with customers without any physical contact. Today, almost the entire home purchasing process can be done remotely. Potential buyers can “visit” the property while sitting in front of their computer, by taking VR or camera tours. They can sign preliminary agreements remotely, and can view the progress of the construction process online.

When it comes to internal innovations, a few companies have set up integrated communication systems to avoid the risk of their employees potentially feeling alone and forgotten without a team around them. Platforms such as Zoom, Teams, Telegram and WhatsApp were all available before the pandemic, but are now being put to maximum use to keep employees talking to each other as well as for conferences between companies. However, some companies have not only switched to the ‘online video aggregators’ mentioned above, but have also completely changed their IT infrastructure. Cloud and share point systems have been embraced, such as Teams, which allows them to share the documents and materials that they are working on. Companies have also improved their databases and their models for reporting and tracking operations performed during the day, so that managers can now monitor these activities in real time.

There are also such companies as SpaceFactory, a design, construction and real estate advisory, which even before the pandemic was used to carrying out remote projects. As such, the company has not needed to change much of its internal systems, according to Piotr Was, the managing director of SpaceFactory.

Steep learning curve

In general, the companies we surveyed provided us with a full spectrum of views about the overall effectiveness of operating their businesses remotely, from it being far better for productivity, to far worse – or just the same. Ultimately, this range reflects the abilities of the individuals in their teams, but it’s also hard to separate out an analysis of its efficacy from the impact of the economic downturn due to the pandemic. Accurate assessments of this topic will probably not be available for until at least a year or so down the line, after businesses have moved from firefighting during the present crisis to finding the time to do more self-analysis.

It’s even very hard to predict how the situation will unfold this December. All top-level managers are wary about the potential for more restrictions and a full second lockdown being imposed in Poland. As we have seen around the world, each government has responded to the crisis in its own way, which has sometimes been confused and reactive rather than taking the form of a coherent, strategic plan – so perhaps we can forgive the fact that our own business community has not yet reached a consensus over the best approach for the situation we have found ourselves in this year.

This article may, for some, be something of a prologue, while for others it might be more of an epilogue; but perhaps the most honest conclusion we can take away is that no one really knows for sure what to do, how to do it, and what the future will bring. All we can confidently say for now is that we are all in the process of learning more about our society and businesses than we ever could have if the pandemic had never happened, while having yet to fully appreciate what lessons we are learning ourselves.