by William Taylor
I have recently been engaged both in the administration of, and speaking at, training conferences and seminars around the country. I am amazed at the poor response to the courses on offer. Quite apart from the obligation of many members to CPD we are seeing a high incidence of negligence claims against the profession. There are many reasons for the claims — but there is only one way of preventing them. That is by training, and monitoring of performance after training.
On the subject of mortgage valuations and other kinds of inspection it has proved difficult to get an audience of 1% of the members in any area to attend to learn. Yet, those who do come appreciate the courses and have expressed thanks for good value for money.
Conference organisers tell me that members in Wales and in the North of England are concerned that all the good events are held in the South East of England. Yet recently I have been engaged in trying to run such events in Northumberland, Wales and East Anglia. All have had to be cancelled for lack of sufficient attendance.
Many firms seem to be of the opinion that they have done their duty by sending one person to an event to “represent the firm”. It is then the duty of that person to bring back the message and train the rest of the staff. If that were to be done it might possibly work — but it is extremely unlikely either to take place at all, or to be satisfactory. The person sent is presumably chosen as being the person most affected by the subject. But, if he is busy, he will not have the time to carry out training of others and, moreover, he may not be good at teaching.
Instruction is an art in itself. A good speaker will have prepared a careful paper and be able to deliver it in such a way as to hold the audience’s attention. He (or she) must be capable of relating to the other speakers at the event and of dealing with questions. Taking the conference papers home and reading them can help those who have attended to reinforce their learning. Taken alone they do not form a suitable medium of instruction for those who were not present.
The question is often raised that such events are too expensive, but if more people can be guaranteed to come the cost per capita will be reduced. The average cost of running a day conference starts with an attendance fee of some £20 per delegate for the hotel costs alone. On top of that, speakers expect to be paid and have their expenses met. Publicity is a huge cost with an extremely low penetration rate (ie delegates achieved per £ spent on advertising). One would be very lucky to get an attendance return of 1% of the leaflets distributed. Participants expect to have a set of papers to take away with them. These have to be printed, collated and bound. The profit margins of running such events is not in any way excessive.
However, it seems to make no difference whether the event is run free, as a branch meeting, cheaply, as a half-day event, or dearly, as a full day meeting in a London hotel. Some of the more expensive courses actually have better attendance than the cheap ones. Do people fear that a cheap event is not worth attending, and that an expensive one is too costly? If so, what price do members expect to pay for tuition which will bring them up to date and possibly keep them out of court?
There are many aspects of the profession which are changing very rapidly. The law on mortgage valuations, rating and town planning are but three examples. Yet these subjects change so fast that it is almost impossible to keep up with them. If they represent significant parts of practice how can anybody say “I learned all about that at college” or “I went to a branch meeting on that last year” and expect to satisfy the requirements of professionalism?
Some of the major firms have taken their duties seriously and devote time, energy, staff and money to training; some spend nothing; some seem to be completely indifferent; some are positively hostile to the idea and say that it is up to their staff to keep themselves up to date. I have met staff from major organisations at some of these meetings who tell me that not only do they have to pay for themselves, but that they also have to take the time out of their leave quota.
With such attitudes one can only think that this profession wishes to associate itself with the common view of the estate agent as expressed on radio, television and the press — ignorant, greedy and non-professional.
Training alone is only the first step towards a solution. It is quite useless training staff unless management is prepared to monitor subsequent performance and ensure that the lessons have been learned and that they are put into practice. It is highly desirable for the whole section of any organisation to be trained together — the managers and the staff. I have come across cases of recently trained staff, trying to put into operation the lessons that they have just learned, being met by the response: “We don’t do it that way here.” Far from reinforcing the lessons learned, management was distanced from the staff in new techniques and resistant to change.
On occasion I have had the privilege of training a whole firm together. They brought everybody — the secretaries, the surveyors, the managers and the partners. In some aspects of business, partners tend to forget that the front office staff — the receptionists, the typists, the negotiators — are more important and need more training than do the qualified staff. Have a look at the Estate Agents Act and imagine what pitfalls are available if the receptionist and telephonist have no idea about the provisions of the legislation.
Just by way of a check list, are you aware:
- of the Bill before Parliament abolishing section 40 of the Law of Property Act;
- of the proposal to abolish the caveat emptor rule;
- of the recent decisions by the House of Lords concerning valuations for mortgage purposes;
- of the proposals for rating of mixed hereditaments after the introduction of the community charge;
- of the proposals for “flexi-mortgages”;
- of the existence of the Guidance Notes for Valuation;
- of the recent changes in the Use Classes Order;
- of the changes in procedure at planning inquiries;
- of the existence of the RICS/ISVA document, Mortgage Valuations Explained;
- of the idea of quality assurance;
- of the pamphlet Commercial Valuations — Conditions of Engagement
And you thought that you did not need training?
V William Taylor LLM FRICS ACIArb, well known as a speaker, is currently a consultant in private practice.
