A commercial property developer builds offices, malls and business parks, then leases them to tenants. The people issues sit with leasing executives, project teams and the front-line staff who face tenants every day.
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Share your requirementsA commercial property developer plans, builds and often leases or sells office towers, retail centres and business parks. Revenue depends on tenants and anchor customers, so the leasing team is central. Behind it sit project managers and site engineers, fit-out coordinators, a design and approvals group, and a corporate team for finance, legal coordination and HR. Deals are large and few, and a leasing executive may spend months on one tenant. When the building is occupied, tenant relations and property staff become the face of the firm. See developer types for comparisons and the sector page for what developers share.
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 leasing executive may work for months on one tenant, with no result to show, and incentive plans have to allow for it.
Each tenant brings its own design, contractors and dates, so the project team handles many small jobs inside one building.
One large tenant's needs can pull people from other projects, and staff feel their work is secondary.
When a building is delivered, project staff move on, and property and tenant staff inherit problems they did not cause.
Corporate real estate brokers know the tenants, and executives may follow a broker's lead instead of building their own contacts.
Finance, legal coordination and approvals staff are added project by project, with no common standard of grade or conduct.
Tenants are companies with their own standards, and staff are judged on manner, punctuality and response.
Start with the topics that matter most here: Compensation, Payroll and Benefits; Employee Relations; Learning and Development. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for construction and real estate, not in general.
Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.
Two routes — one for complaints, one for conduct — kept separate.
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
How many people, in which roles, by when — and what they will cost.
Structure, reporting lines and who is allowed to decide what.
Requisition to joining, the same way every time.
A first day that is the same for the fifth joiner as the first.
Records, attendance, leave and the day-to-day HR that must simply work.
Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.
Named backups for the roles that cannot be vacant.
Communication, recognition and the conditions people actually work in.
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 commercial property developers business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
Pay a base that supports months of effort, with milestones such as shortlisting and heads of terms, plus a final reward.
What this coversHidePay a base that supports months of effort, with milestones such as shortlisting and heads of terms, plus a final reward. See reward strategy.
One person per building who tracks tenant requests, dates and contractors, so the project manager is not the only contact.
What this coversHideOne person per building who tracks tenant requests, dates and contractors, so the project manager is not the only contact.
A checklist and a joint walk-through, with named people on each side, before the building passes to the property team.
What this coversHideA checklist and a joint walk-through, with named people on each side, before the building passes to the property team.
A shared tenant file so that relationships are held by the firm and not by one executive or broker.
What this coversHideA shared tenant file so that relationships are held by the firm and not by one executive or broker.
A simple grade table for finance, legal coordination, approvals and HR roles, with common titles and pay ranges.
What this coversHideA simple grade table for finance, legal coordination, approvals and HR roles, with common titles and pay ranges.
Dress, punctuality, response times and treatment of tenants, written by the owner and explained to every new joiner.
What this coversHideDress, punctuality, response times and treatment of tenants, written by the owner and explained to every new joiner.
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 route for tenant-facing staff and young engineers to learn the building, the tenant and the standard of service.
One reliable record of staff, roles, project posting and tenant contacts held by the firm.
A fair route for complaints and misconduct across leasing, site and tenant-facing teams.
Training for staff in dealing with corporate tenants, brokers and visitors with consistent manner.
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.
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How to design incentives for operators, setters and inspectors in fastener, gear, spring and valve units so that accepted lots, not piece counts, earn the bonus.
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An employee brings you a complaint about their supervisor. What happens next should not depend on who is in the room. A grievance procedure a small company can actually run.
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Plastics training dies when it waits for a free Saturday. Tie it to mould changes, purges and cold starts, use one-point lessons and a visible skill ladder, and protect it in peak months.
7 min readRead articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Use a base pay that reflects effort, add milestone rewards for steps such as shortlisting and agreement of terms and pay the final reward promptly. Explain the plan before work starts.
The firm. Give each tenant a lead and a backup, record contacts centrally and run introductions early. Executives still own the relationship day to day.
Hold a joint walk-through, list open items with owners and a date, and keep project staff reachable for a defined period after handover.
Punctuality, response time, dress, language with tenants and brokers, gifts and use of tenant information. Keep it to a page with examples.
Keep a single employee record, a common grade table and a clear way for staff to move between projects. Avoid each project inventing its own rules.
We would ask how a leasing executive is rewarded over a long negotiation, see how one handover was run and check where tenant contacts are stored. A leasing incentive plan with a handover checklist is a likely first job, with scope written for your approval.
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