We asked Ray White Frankston Principal Ashley Weston how he was helping his office through lockdown in Melbourne.
What kinds of things are you doing to keep your agents engaged?
We originally thought we were going into lockdown for six months so I asked myself how do we keep everyone active and looking after themselves? That’s how we came up with our Wellness Project 2.0.
It started with PT classes and then it flowed through to a focus on mental fitness as well. I recruited someone to help with everyone’s mindset then threw in some nutrition classes and yoga to end the week right.
The team has been getting some really good results and we thought considering it’s online and paid for, why not extend it to the people in our local community who might want to get involved, and it’s just gone from strength to strength.
The best thing is it’s given the team a purpose and that purpose is to reach out to the community. It’s also given them something to do and is a nice way to speak to people in the community about something other than real estate. So far, the classes have been really popular and we’ve extended it for a further six weeks.
Added to this, we have been doing community call sessions every day. As we’re phoning through and doing community calls we note anyone we think might need some flowers to brighten their day or just a bit of extra support. We’re also running virtual lunches every day so people can catch up.
On a Friday afternoon we give out awards for the most community calls, property management referrals, team player of the week and most new businesses signed up. Then some funny ones to keep it light like Genius of the Week (something stupid), Stitch up of the Week (prank) and Zoom Blopper of the Week. Anyone who wins gets an UberEats voucher.
Why do you think this is important?
Everyone reacts differently to what's going on at the moment and it has been an emotional rollercoaster for us all. We’re trying not to put too much pressure on everyone and giving them freedom while also making sure they have things to look forward to and be social with the team.
An idle mind is very destructive during lockdown. If you have too much time in your head, you will start to scroll or get lost in the news cycle and that doesn’t take you to a good place.
Our goal is to remove the idle mind and work with each person on what they want to do through lockdown and this helps to provide some motivation.
Having a purpose during lockdown is what helps you get through the dark days. That’s why our Wellness Project is so important and it’s how you start the day that determines it from there on out. With this in mind, we’re making sure we start the day the best we can by being active and collaborative.
How have your agents been spending their time e.g. securing listings, setting up auctions for post-lockdown, or getting on top of the little things?
We’ve set up an Auction Spectacular from November 15 to 30. Our goal in six weeks is to rally the team and give us something to work towards. I sat down with each agent to see how many auctions they want to book and a lot of agents have set a goal to beat their personal best in settled commission.
We all want to look back during Christmas and be proud of what we’ve done and hopefully hold another Auction Spectacular in the second week of January. We’ve been trying to book in as many auctions as we can and create competition for a record-breaking November.
