Real estate is employers’ market


Track2Realty Survey

The Indian real estate may not be attracting the best of talent, yet it is still not open to professional practices. Track2Realty survey finds that it is still the employers’ market and employees continue to crib a number of issues, including poorly structured compensation package.

What is it that makes these realty professionals use the harsh term like ‘Deceptive Employment’? Well, more than two third of them, as many as 68% employees, maintain that the compensation package is so structured and/or salary is so delayed that if you wish to quit you end up losing a substantial part of the hard earned money.

“My employers probably believed in the British Raaj of compensation. My cost to company was so split into 13 parts and not 12 monthly packages. One component kept with the employees is to be given on some special occasion. Now whether that special occasion was to be Diwali or some other day is to be decided by the wife of the builder,” rues an employee in Gurgaon. 

Rigid work culture is something that is hated by no less than 74% of the employees. They maintain it is ok to work till late in the night but to mandate that one has to report to office by 9.30 in the morning, irrespective of whatever time you are leaving is arbitrary.

These are the findings of pan-India survey by Track2Realty. The survey was part of our yearly study to find out Top 10 employers in the sector, and the improving or deteriorating job environment in the business of real estate. The survey finds, amidst the low morale of the employees in the business, that more and more employees are getting vocal against the sector in general and their own employers in particular.

Track2Realty conducted this survey in ten major real estate markets – Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Mumbai, Pune Kolkata, Bangalore, Chennai, Ahmedabad and Coimbatore.

A structured questionnaire that was based on the five key indicators of job satisfaction, job culture, future outlook, work-life balance and job ethics was given to respondents who were mostly between 25-45 years of age with at least 5 years of professional experience. To make the respondents representative of the sector at large, employees/ex employees of ten top real estate companies in each city were also interviewed. 

Survey Highlights

68% professionals feel compensation package is unfair and structured to harass

74% maintain work culture is too rigid

82% employees feel erratic professional behavior is employers’ strategy

Nearly all, 92%, find dignity sacrificed in real estate jobs

More than half, 58%, don’t think it is slowdown effect and exploitative mindset exists even with profits

A substantial number of these professionals, 82% to be precise, maintain such erratic behavior on part of the employers is a well thought out practice and they always look for excuses to cut the salary.

“On my joining I was told that being part of senior management working till late would be expected. That is alright but to expect that you report on time in the morning or lose half day’s salary is inhuman. Over and above that most of the late night are not due to work but because the developer is not available for meetings till late with an instruction for us to wait,” complains a Corporate Communication head of Noida-based company. 

Lack of respect and being shown inferior in front of outsiders is something that is despised by nearly all the employees, no less than 92%. They feel the vision of the management is so narrow that they take outsiders feedback more seriously than their own talented employees who might have better and meaningful information with them.

“My boss, a first generation developer, is so fascinated by outsiders that he is open to all the external agencies and channel partners. They more often than not mislead him for their own gains. We know it but our team is so looked down upon that if we try to expose it in the meeting, we will be snubbed in front of the outsiders,” shares Kanika Bansal (name changed on request) in Kolkata.  

The survey also tried to figure out whether it is so stressful for the employees because in today’s slowdown there is more pressure to perform and sell the inventory. The reality is that even among the companies where the topline has not been dented in the slowdown 58% of the employees report bad work culture.

“It is something to do with the deceptive work culture of the sector in general. My employers have reported year-on-year growth in the topline and profit margins have also marginally grown. But the growth is below their expectation and that expectation is subjective. So, we are to suffer with no salary hike in the name of slowdown,” rues an employee in Chennai.  

11 realities of real estate jobs that employees hate:

Promoter himself is micro-managing you and your decisions

You never get any credit for your work

Constant yelling instead of feedback & guidance

You are given a feeling of liability and you know nothing gesture

You are underpaid or, even worse, payment & perks are deceptive

No scope of new ideas and new leaning

Accessibility and communication with developer and top management is one-way street

Constant stress taking its toll on your health

You can never expect any recognition, appreciation and compensation for doing/ideating out of the box

Definition of dedication, loyalty & hard work is defined as per your personal loyalty and submission to boss

Lack of integrity on part of organization but you are expected to have integrity

Track2Realty is an independent media group managed by a consortium of journalists. Starting as the first e-newspaper in the Indian real estate sector in 2011, the group has today evolved as a think-tank on the sector with specialized research reports and rating & ranking. We are editorially independent and free from commercial bias and/or influenced by investors or shareholders. Our editorial team has no clash of interest in practicing high quality journalism that is free, frank & fearless.  

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