Property managers run buildings through site teams they rarely see. Here is how to staff them, record them and keep service steady when owners change.
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Share your requirementsA property management company runs buildings and communities on behalf of owners and associations: residential complexes, offices, retail centres and rental portfolios. Each building has a small on-site team of building managers, security, housekeeping, technicians and gardeners, and some are employed by the manager while others come through contractors. The company is paid a fee per property and answers to owners or committees who can change provider at the end of a contract. Day-to-day service depends on people the head office rarely meets, and a change of provider means a change of staff. See also HR for construction. What makes HR different here is that service is delivered by small teams spread across many sites, working for a client who is not the employer, so records, supervision and clear contract handovers matter more than size.
These are the places the people side of this kind of business tends to give way. The rest of this page works through them.
HR here has to work for each of these groups, not only the office. The set-up below is written with all of them in mind.
A building's team of a few people is supervised by someone who visits occasionally.
Some are employed by the manager and some by contractors, with different terms working side by side.
An owners' committee gives instructions that may conflict with the manager's, and staff are caught in between.
When a manager is replaced, the incoming company and the outgoing staff negotiate terms with little notice.
Staff presence is part of what owners pay for, and gaps become disputes.
Each site keeps its own files, and the head office cannot see the whole.
Similar roles earn different amounts depending on the building.
Start with the topics that matter most here: Organisation Design; Employee Administration; Compensation, Payroll and Benefits. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for construction and real estate, not in general.
Structure, reporting lines and who is allowed to decide what.
Records, attendance, leave and the day-to-day HR that must simply work.
Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.
How many people, in which roles, by when — and what they will cost.
Requisition to joining, the same way every time.
A first day that is the same for the fifth joiner as the first.
Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
Named backups for the roles that cannot be vacant.
Communication, recognition and the conditions people actually work in.
Two routes — one for complaints, one for conduct — kept separate.
Policies a manager can apply, and obligations with owners and dates.
Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.
Who leaves, when, why — and which of them mattered.
Resignation to relieving letter, in a defined order.
Records that survive people, and approvals that do not queue.
A short monthly pack management actually reads.
An HR function that runs the same way every month.
The pieces a property management and rental companies business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
One named person responsible for each site, with limits on what the committee can instruct and a route for conflicts.
What this coversHideOne named person responsible for each site, with limits on what the committee can instruct and a route for conflicts. The organisation design work sets the lines.
Employees and contractors' workers, with employer, role and dates, in one list.
What this coversHideEmployees and contractors' workers, with employer, role and dates, in one list. The employee information management holds it.
A record by person, post and shift that supports billing and answers a committee's question.
What this coversHideA record by person, post and shift that supports billing and answers a committee's question.
A checklist for taking on and handing over a building: staff list, terms, records and notice.
What this coversHideA checklist for taking on and handing over a building: staff list, terms, records and notice. The exit and offboarding process covers the handover steps.
Role definitions and pay bands across sites, with differences explained.
What this coversHideRole definitions and pay bands across sites, with differences explained. The compensation benchmarking work builds them.
A supervisor schedule for each building, including evenings and weekends.
What this coversHideA supervisor schedule for each building, including evenings and weekends.
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. These checks take an afternoon and tell you which of the topics above to start with.
Share your requirementsConfirm with a qualified professional. What applies to you depends on your business, your state and your arrangements, and it changes. This page describes practice. It does not state a legal position.
The services below fit this kind of business best. Each starts by recording where you stand, and every later report compares against that. We do not promise outcomes.
A clear line for each building and a rule for conflicts between the manager and the committee.
One register of everyone on every site, whoever employs them.
A handover process for taking on and giving up buildings.
Pay bands for site roles, so similar work is paid alike across buildings.
Start with a free conversation, or see the paid HR Diagnostic.
Understand the business, its workforce, current processes and HR challenges.
Find the missing, weak, inconsistent or person-dependent processes.
Create the structure, processes, policies, SOPs, dashboards and systems needed.
Help HR and department managers actually adopt the new system.
Digitise repetitive and approval-based workflows where it is worth doing.
Track hiring, attendance, employee cost, performance, training and attrition.
Strengthen the people-management system continuously, not once.
From the GullyHR blog: one on HR in construction and real estate, and one on each of the topics this page points to.
Site engineers, supervisors, crews and sales teams leave for different reasons. How to ask what shaped their decision and act on it between projects.
8 min readRead article
A flat structure works until the founder becomes the only route to a decision. How to tell when you have passed that point, and how to redesign without a reorganisation.
8 min readRead article
Payroll says one joining date, the personal file says another and the manager remembers a third. How to establish a single trustworthy employee record and keep it that way.
7 min readRead article
Most salary structures grew one negotiation at a time. How to build grades and bands from what you already pay, without repricing everybody at once.
8 min readRead articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Through a regular visiting schedule, a named contact, simple attendance records and a route for concerns that does not depend on the committee. Distance weakens loyalty.
It depends on the contracts and the rules that apply, so confirm the position with a qualified professional, and use a takeover checklist to record the list, terms and notice.
Agree in the contract who can instruct staff and on what, and have a route for escalation. Staff should not have to choose.
Yes. A single register of who works on each site helps with safety, billing and handovers.
With bands for each role, adjusted where the work genuinely differs, and differences explained.
Attendance, deployment and sometimes verification. Keep them centrally and retrievable.
We would look at who each building's staff report to, whether one register lists everyone on site whichever employer pays them, and how attendance reaches billing. A good first project is a building-by-building reporting line and a takeover checklist for when a new property comes in. Scope is then agreed in writing, so owners and committees can see what you are doing.
Who employs whom, who may instruct the staff and on what, how conflicts are resolved and what happens on handover. Confirm the wording with a qualified professional.
Keep a site sheet for each building with routines, contacts and tasks, so a new person can start from the page rather than from memory.
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