Retaining good people is essential in business. No matter how good you are or your product or service may be, without key personnel, they are worth nada.
Which brings us to the topic of staff retention.
Your first thoughts on staff retention strategies may drift initially to your key sales staff. Those who bring in the bread and butter to the agency. Those who make the big sales and bring home the bacon. Yes, these people are 100% important to the success of your agency. But so too are the people who work behind the scenes to ensure agency funds are distributed correctly and accounted for. These are the people who work day in and day out often without recognition and fanfare.
They are your trust accountants.
Now don’t get us wrong, we are a little biased towards the love and respect paid to trust accountants. Because to us, they are an integral component of your agency. Without them you wouldn’t get paid and you wouldn’t operate. And we think that’s pretty important.
We have previously mentioned the reasons you need to find and marry your trust accountant. It will ensure the future success and longevity of your business and minimise your trust accounting stress. Unfortunately, trust accountants, like any other staff, do leave their jobs. They may seek fulfillment if they are not receiving it where they are. However, the reality is that what they are seeking is pretty easy to fulfill as a business owner.
Here are the main reasons why trust accountants leave their jobs – see for yourself!
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Not feeling the love
As we mentioned earlier, as trust accountants aren’t the ones pounding the pavement, meeting with clients and bringing in the big bucks – they are the ones working in the (more than likely, back and smallest) office, crunching numbers all day long. Unfortunately, in this office they can tend to be forgotten and left to their own devices for the majority of the day which can lead to isolation, boredom and a sense of ill-worth and being generally unappreciated.
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Often overlooked for a pay rise
Unlike the salespeople in an agency where their success is directly related to a tangible sales figure, management can overlook trust accountants for a pay rise. This may be due to the fact that their role does no directly affect the income of the business. Yet they serve the most important role as without them, the income generated would go nowhere.
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Feeling on the outer
Due to the nature of the role, trust accountants are generally left to deal with the numbers and are often left out of the agency-wide business development discussions and decisions that take place. Even though trust accountants aren’t in the field scoping and selling or renting property, they are equally as important to the decision-making process and will have valuable opinions and ideas to share.
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Lack of training
Trust accountants benefit from professional development just as much as any other role in your agency. Everybody can learn how to do their job more efficiently and effectively. Professional development enriches employee’s lives by exposing them to new ideas, technologies and networking opportunities.
Trust accounting software undergoes continual upgrades and improvement, which requires training and familiarisation. Sign your trust accountant up to regular professional development software training. It will not only increase their knowledge and skills, but increase your business productivity.
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Lack of incentives
Generally employees in sales are driven by sales incentives and bonuses. Without relevant KPIs, a sense of ‘going through the motions’ can very easily develop. Avoid staff getting stale by setting individual, achievable KPIs giving something tangible to work towards. It instills a feeling of worth and drive to achieve.
So there you have it, the top 5 reasons trust accountants leave their jobs. Address these top 5 causes and you are on the road to a happy and successful trust accountant marriage.
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~ Jane Morgan is the Director of End of Month Angels, a consultancy firm specialising in Trust Accounting. Jane knows the legislative requirements of running a successful Real Estate office through her 19 years industry experience. Don’t trust just anyone with your trust accounting, trust End of Month Angels and get back to what you do best – growing your business.