Rapleys has launched a new People Plan which it says will make the property consultancy "employer of choice".
Rolled out to all employees in May 2023, Rapleys says the plans includes pioneering "investment in people" for the industry that was foreshadowed in its business rebrand in September 2022.
Rapleys has seven UK offices in London’s West End, Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Huntingdon and Manchester, and is just opening an eighth in Birmingham. It recently reported record turnover for the year ending April 2023, following 12 months of acquisitions and organic growth.
Turnover came in at £16.02 million, compared to £12.8 million last year, a rise of 25%. There was a pretax profit ratio of over 30%.
Initiatives in its People Plan include what Rapleys describes as "truly flexible working" where employees can choose what hours they work with the agreement of their manager, and an increased learning and development strategy that includes wellness, equality, diversity and inclusion and "emotional intelligence" modules. There is also a new streamlined "incentivisation and reward" process which links behaviours and recognises teamwork.
It will invest in supportive technology, continuing professional development, rewards and training and development – the latter focusing on coaching and mentoring and understanding emotional intelligence. The plan also sees a wellbeing hub launched, upgraded people policies including on menopause and adoption, and refreshes the job titles and levels to recognise the importance of operational and support services.
Holidays are increased for all levels with a minimum six weeks off with incentives to take annual leave in full. Other additional leave includes birthdays and wellbeing days. A new junior board has been launched that is chaired by the managing partner while employee recognition has changed to recognise company values and behaviours.
Equality, inclusivity and diversity initiatives include a focus on reaching schools to educate about property as a career, an increased EDI group and awareness and training.
Justin Tuckwell, managing partner at Rapleys, said that the company wants to promote a "fun and positive working environment and be the industry’s employer of choice".
"As a partnership we were united in our decision to invest significantly in initiatives that will support and empower every person at Rapleys from learning and development to health and wellbeing, diversity and inclusion to reward and recognition and everything in between. It’s crucial we get our people framework right – with the business looking to continue to grow significantly over the coming months and years, we need to ensure that our existing talent is happy and well looked after while hiring similar best-in-class teams attracted to our culture and offer. We firmly believe that in prioritising our people, everything else will follow – client service, performance, success. Given the proportion of our lifetimes we spend working, it needs to be a positive and happy experience.”
Rapleys offered staff a four-day working week and a nine-day fortnight back in 2019 before the COVID-19 panic started.
Tuckwell moved in November of last year from being head of building consultancy to being managing partner, and he says he has been taking successful initiatives pioneered in the building consultation division to the wider business.
"In some ways the positivity around what we doing in business consultancy was creating an imbalance with the rest of the business, the multidisciplinary side of the business in particular.
"We want to be the employer of choice and we have worked up a substantial document for staff to see that covers everything from management training and development to HR, improvements in IT, holiday entitlement and awards recognition, but does not mention salary."
Tuckwell says the plans stipulate for the lowest grade of staff to have six weeks of holidays right away while on the partner side there are unlimited holidays. Truckwell says another decision is that artners and senior staff lose part of their bonus if they don't take their allotted holiday.
"We want people to be shoulder to the wheel when they work and then we will give back in spades."
"The business is really performing because of it," Tuckwell adds. "Surveys in the past of staff have seen complaints about a lack of communication, a too-stuffy, top-down management. We have created a flatter structure and more inclusivity. That includes a Junior Board launched in November with real say. We have now drafted our three-year business plan and everyone will help inform that."
Tuckwell says the plan will include an aggressive growth strategy. "We want to effectively double in size over three years, from the 170 staff at the moment."
This will be via acquisitions as well as organic growth, with a number of senior recruits in the pipeline.
"In some ways Rapleys has sailed under the radar and we are trying to focus on changing that, letting the industry know about us and what we are doing."
Tuckwell says growth will "buck the trend" by focusing on the regional presence. "A real focus is Birmingham, and we are looking at Leeds now, for the right opportunity at the right time."
Growth had been led by its building consultancy team, which has seen a 300% increase in turnover over the last three years and it has now launched new services, such as housing consultancy led by Martin Gladwin, cost consultancy, with the appointment of Jack Cawthra as head of the team based in Manchester, and sustainability and building services, led by Lee Fraine who joined in June 2022.
Most recently the team appointed ex-Colliers head of building consultancy Paul Dunne as partner in the London office.
The other three core divisions of commercial, planning and residential were boosted with the acquisition of three businesses in the last 12 months. They were planning consultancy CSJ in Bristol, residential consultancy s106 Affordable Housing on the South Coast and the biggest acquisition in the partnership’s history with the purchase of Aston Rose in London. It also launched a new team ‘Rapleys Living’ last month.