Do you have a position description?

It doesn't matter if you are part of a team of two or twenty two, everyone needs to know how they contribute to the agency and, just as important, what everyone else's role is in the agency.

If you are a member of the property management team, you need to know, what your role involves and how you contribute to the team. To do this, each member of the agency should have a position description. The role of the position description is to give a detailed view of what the role is today, not yesterday, which is why it is important that it is continually updated. I have included again, a copy of our Building Blocks property management org chart.

The position description is made up of six key areas:

The Summary:

This is a brief one to two paragraph summary on what the role entails and who they report to. This should be kept relatively broad with the details left for the body of the position description.

The Environment:

This may include the geographical location of the role, the specific division or team, the individual would be working with and any specific equipment they may need to do their role.

Duties and Responsibilities:

This is the body of the position description and should provide a high level description of each task required to do the role. It is often useful to document this into a table so each task and its capability can be clearly documented.

Lines of Report:

It is important for the individual to know who they should be reporting to or who should be reporting to them. I would also document any cross functional teams that the role may either contribute to or seek advice from. E.g. they work closely with the business development team to secure tenants for new managements.

KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators):

Each role will need to be measured to know how the individual is contributing to the team. In this section, outline the major KPI’s that are required of the role. This helps to set expectations between both the team member and the rest of them team

Minimum Requirements:

This is where you would document any specific qualifications or educational requirements for the role. E.g. if it was a property manager position description, it may require the team member to have a fair trading certificate of registration.

There is no right or wrong format for a position description. The real objective is that any new or existing team member can pick up the document and quickly have an appreciation for the role and what the requirements are to perform it. Roles are continually changing so it is important to keep updating the document to ensure its currency to the role. No two position descriptions will be the same. You may have two property managers however their roles and responsibilities maybe slightly different. Ensure a new one is prepared for each role within the agency.