Estate Operations is our term for the Encore teams that are based on-site taking care of some of the places we manage. These may be concierges, security, caretakers, cleaners, gardeners or building managers. Not all estates have site-based teams; they’re more common on larger developments. But where these teams are present, they are invaluable and play a key role in service delivery for residents.
Our estate operations teams are at the front line of our service, ensuring residents’ safety, and making things work and look great. And, as a resident, it’s often the work of these experts that you’ll see most frequently - with our aim being to make sure you’re proud of the place you call ‘home’. Recently, we’ve been speaking to the people who have been pivotal in making our site operations what they are today. Keep reading to hear from two of our experts in the field.
Having worked at University of Cambridge college for 18 years, Jason Allen was looking for a new challenge when he saw an advert for the position of ‘mobile caretaker’. Applying for the role, Jason was hired and worked across three developments in the Cambridge area.
Quickly setting the standard for how we take care of estates, Jason became an integral part of the Encore team. Looking back at his first visit to one estate that, prior to Encore, had received poor standards of maintenance, Jason recalls:
“A resident approached me and essentially said that he’d be keeping a close eye on what I would be doing, as they had been paying for a service they weren’t receiving. I wasn’t deterred, and instead said ‘that’s fine, no problem, you should see an improvement.”
A few visits later - and after a lot of hard work by Jason, with the neighbours keeping their promised watchful-eye, the resident came back to speak with him: “I was offered a cup of tea. And I knew at that moment the tide was turning on their perception of the service. When the tea came, I said to them ‘thank you. I can’t stop, I’ll take it with me’. Since then we get on well with the family.”
It’s this kind of dedication and commitment to delivering a quality service that has stayed with Jason throughout his career at Encore, he adds: “Those visits in the early days stood me well for always managing a site as though we live there. It’s the benchmark to hit at all estates and it felt good to deliver those standards at the sites I took care of at the very beginning.”
A few months later Jason was joined by his colleague Darek, and so began the growth of our site-based teams.
Over the past two decades the role of site operations has grown and evolved. Jason Grieve explains that what we want from our home today demands more complex residential properties and developments - for site staff in particular, this means more specialist skills are needed:
“Over the years site-based roles have evolved, commonly with the evolution of the porter and concierge roles. With ever increasing demands for safety, security and luxury these positions have continued to provide more and more services for their residents: whether that’s with leisure facilities, agile working or entertaining spaces all requiring the onsite team to be ever more present.”
The impact of the industry-wide emphasis on building safety - in particular following legislative changes in the wake of the Grenfell Tower disaster - has also put site staff on the frontline when it comes to keeping residents safe and secure in their homes, as Jason Grieve, Estate Operations Director, says:
“On-site concierge, porter and caretaking roles were often seen as a luxury in past years. Now, changes in safety regulations have seen the teams delivering statutory checks, moving them from value-added to cost-saving.”
For Jason Allen, on top of the changing needs of developments, “growth and management” have been the two core ways the profession has changed: “Over the years, we have had to adapt. We’ve changed to ensure compliance in the service we deliver, and as Encore has grown we’ve had to make sure we’re still delivering the high standard people expect. A strong company culture and good processes have been key to that.”
And he highlights that although responsibilities may have changed, expectations of clients and residents haven’t: “We’ve always worked towards meeting the highest of standards. So expectations haven’t really changed in my experience. We still need to deliver a constant, reliable and quality service - as residents expect.
“That said, though, during Covid lockdowns residents were at home much more. This put the services we deliver under more scrutiny. But we managed it appropriately, communicating with residents and ensuring services continued in a health and safety compliant manner.”
Just as the responsibilities of site-based teams have changed over time, Encore has adapted to ensure we’re still attracting and hiring the very best people to take care of the developments we manage.
When Jason Allen started, he was the mobile caretaker for Encore. Over time, and as we’ve worked with more communities of all shapes and sizes, the site operations team has changed too. We now still have mobile caretakers, alongside small site-based teams per development of two or three people - right through to developments needing 10 to 20, or even more, on-site professionals.
Today, we look at many of our site-based roles as offering the best of hospitality: direct customer engagement, solving problems and making a difference. And as we look to have the best people working in our site-based teams, we’ve worked to ensure there is great career development and progression. Today, our site-based teams can work towards professional qualifications and benefit from training and support in mapping out their goals. Jason Grieve explains:
“Within Encore we take a great deal of pride in seeing our people progress within their careers. Whether they’re obtaining vocational training or earning a promotion, supporting these aspirations is all part of our goal – and that goes for our on-site teams just as much as our estate management people.”
That career progression has been clear for Jason Allen to, who has gone from mobile caretaker to Regional Operations Manager. Today, his role is to oversee the standard of service we’re delivering - attending meetings with Estate Managers to make sure expectations are being met and exceeded, and swiftly resolving any issues. He’s central to recruiting new site team members, and reporting on site operations performance - whilst always ensuring we’re compliant in the work we do. He’s not shy of the fact that there are challenges:
“Van procurement has been an interesting learning curve, for example, and getting recruitment right has to be top of the agenda. But the reward is in seeing us deliver a service that we’re proud of.”
Just as Jason Allen became a well-respected part of the estates he first managed 20 years ago, site-based teams are still playing a key role in fostering a sense of community.
As Jason Grieve explains: “Concierge or security teams will see far more of our residents than anyone. For some, this could be their only interaction when they live alone, so developing and fostering community engagement is essential.
“On a more formal scale, and where applicable according to agreed, contracted services, managing agents will work on planned community engagement strategies. These can be quite low level where a concierge might arrange a book club, through to much larger events with summer parties, for example. This is relatively new in the industry, and all with one sole purpose: bringing the residents together and creating that real sense of community.”
Ultimately, for Jason Allen, staying with Encore has been about being with a company where there are opportunities - but it’s also always been about managing a work life balance:
“The company has always been family-friendly, and as we’ve grown it has carried on with this ethos. It’s good to know I’m with a company with strong roots, that looks out for its staff. And that - as site operations - we’re a part of the strength behind Encore.
“The easiest question for me to answer is: ‘what do you love about working in site operations and at Encore?’ Because it’s all about the people, and being part of a team.”
It’s these continuing values that both are excited for in the future of Encore - but also about the continuing evolution of the company’s direction as it continues to meet the needs of residents and clients.
As Jason Allen adds, “site operations won’t stay still and we’ll continue to adapt to what it is changing lifestyles and developments need from us. At the same time, technology is offering so much potential it’s exciting to see how that will continue to change the way we work.”
