WorkPuzzle

Career Security: The Recruiting Card You Should Learn to Play

On occasion, I highlight an article written by Peter Weddle.  Peter is a nationally known author and consultant who specializes in dispensing career advice and explaining recruiting trends.  He has published a number of helpful books over the years and currently writes in his blog as well as other venues.

Recently, Peter published an article in his bi-weekly newsletter that opened my eyes to a trend that I believe could significantly aid those who have the responsibility of recruiting real estate agents.  The trend is a desire that many talented individuals have for some much needed “career security.”

Notice that I didn’t say job security.  Most people have come to the realization that job security is not something that a company can truly offer.  Why?  Because in an era of global competition, employer needs and circumstances change much more frequently and unpredictably than ever before.  Individual employers are not in a position to offer anyone security.

So, what’s “career security?”  According to Peter, career security is the ability of a person always to be employed, and always by an employer of their choice.  In essence, it is reinforcing a person’s ability and propensity to be gainfully employed in the future by helping him/her acquire the knowledge and skills needed to continuously succeed.

How can a real estate company do this? ...By teaching each and every employee how to practice effective career self-management.  This is not far removed from the mentality needed to start and manage a real estate career.  I know this may sound crazy, but the rest of the employment world may be coming around to using the language that the real estate industry has been using for years!

It used to be that people went to school and then found jobs.  Now, there is a need to start a career that must be notoriously self-directed.  Peter points out that traditional companies are not very good at providing this insight and assistance to talented individuals:

"[Higher education and university] faculties work in ivory towers that were erected long before the advent of global competition and talent.  They simply don't realize that employers can no longer afford to provide career-long guidance and development for their employees.  Those workers must now do it for themselves.

The tragedy, of course, is that almost none of them know how.  Talented people are defined by their quest to excel - to be the best they can be in their profession, craft or trade - so they are acutely aware of this shortcoming.  Indeed, they more than any others in the workforce recognize the importance of this knowledge.  They want to know what they must do and how they must do it in order to build up the strength, reach and endurance of their career.

Any employer which fills that vacuum will send a powerful and differentiating message to top talent.  They are saying:  We care about you and want you to succeed, in our organization and successively wherever else you might be.  Yes, of course, we want you to work for us, but we also want you to work where you can grow and excel.  That may cause you to leave us at some point, but if you succeed successively, there's a good probability that you'll also come back.

Admittedly, it takes a brave organization to embark on such a strategy.  Because it teaches employees to take care of their own careers, it is, in some respects, their emancipation proclamation.  However, it is also a unique show of respect for the ultimate goal of those individuals.  And for the best talent, there's simply no more powerful and compelling reason to hire on.”

Is your organization willing to develop programs to meet this need?  For many in the real estate industry, it would not be a significant jump from what is already offered in terms of training, mentoring, and coaching programs.

The tricky part is crafting a recruiting marketing message that “connects the dots” for those who are seeking career security, but would not naturally see a real estate career as a destination for meeting that need.

---

Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

What's An Elevator Pitch and Why Do My Agents Need One?

In the WorkPuzzle post I wrote last week, I suggested you develop a short elevator pitch, explaining why agents have the highest chance of attaining "happiness at work" if they work on your team.

How did you do on this assignment?  Hopefully you've been able to quantify this illusive yet important set of qualities.

After suggesting this, it occurred to me that some of you may not have much experience with elevator pitches.  If you've never started a business from scratch or had to raise money to fund a new venture, it may be a new concept.

So why circle back on this topic?  In addition to helping you retain your best agents, an elevator pitch can also be a very powerful tool for those you coach.  Agents need to be able to quickly articulate "what they offer" to perspective clients. 

I'd like to reference an outstanding article written by Michael Hyatt a few months ago.  Here is an abbreviated and slightly modified version of what Michael wrote regarding elevator pitches:

"What's an elevator pitch?  The name comes from the idea that you should be able to deliver a succinct, compelling description of what you offer in the time it takes to ride an elevator up a few floors—approximately 30 seconds to two minutes.

The idea originated with entrepreneurs who needed to pitch their business proposals quickly to potential investors in order to secure funding.  This enabled those same investors to quickly eliminate ideas that were ill-conceived or simply didn’t fit their investment profile.  The elevator pitch has become so effective that it is used in other fields as well." 

Why do you need an elevator pitch as a real estate professional?  It forces you to achieve clarity yourself and understand your prospect's perspective.

"An elevator pitch should consist of four components:

Component 1:  Your product name and category.

Component 2:  The problem you are attempting to solve.

Component 3:  Your proposed solution.

Component 4:  The key benefit of your solution.

Here’s an example from a person who is writing a book:

'I am writing a new business book called Platform [Component 1].  It is designed for anyone who is trying to get attention for their product, service, or cause [Component 2].  I teach my readers how to build a tribe of loyal followers, using social media and other new technologies [Component 3].  I explain that it has never been easier, less expensive, or more possible than right now [Component 4].'

Obviously, pitches can vary widely, depending on your offering.  Regardless, you want to create an elevator pitch that is clear and compelling.  This is a prerequisite for attracting the partners and prospects you need to succeed.

Once you get your elevator pitch fine-tuned, don’t deliver it like a mechanical parrot.  Instead, use it as the foundation of a meaningful sales conversation."

Do you have any thoughts on constructing a good elevator pitch for a real estate agent in your office?  Start noodling on this and write down the thoughts that come to your mind.

Of course, an agent would need to conceptualize their own elevator pitch if it is going to come across as authentic, but being able to provide examples is a great place to initiate the conversation.

Here is an elevator pitch that I came up with, pretending I’m an agent in my hometown of Woodinville, WA (a suburb of Seattle).  It is partially based on a discussion I had with one of the top performing real estate owners in the Seattle market.

“I am a real estate financial advisor who focuses on real estate investments in the community of Woodinville [Component 1].  Because the process of making real estate investment decisions is so heavily influenced by emotion and personal preference [Component 2], I’m the neutral third party who understands the psychology of making an important financial decision [Component 3].  By personally coaching those involved in the decision, I help each individual gain clarity at a point when their emotions and feelings often point them in the wrong direction [Component 4].”

You’re welcome to use this as an example with your agents or make up one on your own.  If you make your own, you’ll have the added benefit of experiencing how it feels to put one of these pitches together.  It is not as easy as it looks.

Once you come up with a few of these (collected from multiple agents going through this process) send me one or two of your team's best elevator pitches.  We’ll publish a few examples in an upcoming WorkPuzzle.  

---

Editor's Note:  This article was written by Ben Hess.  Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.  Comments or questions are welcome.  If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email.  If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

Retaining Your Agents: Make Sure You Understand Happiness

Yesterday, I was waiting for a printing job to be quoted at Kinkos and started to browse the paperback books in the display near the counter.  I expected to see the usual self-help books regarding how to construct a resume, handle interviews, and ask intelligent questions at your next interview.  What I didn't expect to see was a nearly equal number of books about how to attain happiness.

Over the last few years, it seems the "happiness industry" has exploded.  It is tough for me to go even a couple of days without reading something about how to attain happiness--particularly in the realm of business and work.  Maybe this is a sign that we're all miserable and having a hard time coping! 

Whatever the reason, you can bet that those whom you manage are reading some (or a lot) of this material as well.  If you're responsible for retaining and coaching a team, you may want to spend some time becoming proficient on this topic.  

If someone on your team asks you the question..."How do you find happiness and fulfillment in your work?"  How would you answer that question?

I know that if I was one of your competitors and I was "having coffee" with one of your agents, it would be one of the first questions I would ask.  Why?  Because I would try to tap into the negative emotion the person is potentially feeling.  Giving someone hope they will be happier somewhere else is a powerful motivator and can help open an individual's mind to considering change.    

So, do you have an answer to this question that you can proactively offer to your agents?  If not, I'd like to share some commentary that I recently read in the Wall Street Journal on the topic.  The article highlights research conducted by the iOpener Institute for People and Performance on how people find happiness and engagement at work. 

Jessica Pryce-Jones oversaw the research that began in 2006 and had more than 9,000 participants from around the world.  The data suggests that most people feel less confidence, motivation, loyalty, resilience, commitment and engagement in their jobs in recent years.

But, there is a smaller group of people who counteract this trend and report feeling a sense of well-being and "happiness."  If an individual happens to be in this group, he/she will display behaviors that employers find very beneficial, such as:

• Staying twice as long in their jobs as their least happy colleagues
• Spending double the time at work focused on what they are paid to do
• Taking ten times less sick leave
• Believing, at twice the rate of their peers, that they are achieving their potential

Jones also notes that the science of happiness at work has big benefits for individuals too.  If you’re really happy at work, you’ll solve problems faster, be more creative, adapt fastest to change, receive better feedback, get promoted quicker, and earn more over the long-term.

The research goes on to suggest that there is a strong correlation between a person's happiness at work and the characteristics of the work environment.

This is where things get interesting... The research unveils clear characteristics (what Jones calls the underlying drivers) that need to be present in your organization if those on your team are going to feel engaged and happy at work.  So, according to Jones, here are the "underlying drivers" that you should strive towards in your organization: (Editorial Note: These are written in the first person, as if Jones is giving advice on what type of organization to pursue as an individual, in order to find happiness at work.)

1. A Sense of Contribution.  This is about what you do, so it’s made up of some of the core activities which happen at work...like having clear goals, moving positively towards them, talking about issues that might prevent you from meeting your objectives and feeling heard when you do so.  You’ll do all this best when you feel appreciated and valued by your boss and your colleagues.  So it’s not just about delivering; it’s about doing so within collaborative working relationships too.
2. A Sense of Culture.  Performance and happiness at work are really high when employees feel they fit within their organizational culture.  Not fitting in a job is like wearing the wrong clothes to a party—all the time.  It’s hugely draining and de-energizing.  If you’re in the wrong job, you’ll find that the values mean little to you, the ethos feels unfair or political, and you don’t have much in common with your colleagues. 
3. A Sense of Commitment.  Commitment matters because it taps into the macro reasons of why you do the work you do.  Some of the underlying elements of commitment are perceiving you’re doing something worthwhile, having strong intrinsic interest in your job, and feeling that the vision of your organization resonates with your purpose.  We’ve seen commitment decline for the majority of employees, post-recession, as leaders and organizations think that tuning into this soft stuff is a waste of time.  It isn’t.  It’s how you enable your employees to understand why they should make a greater discretionary effort for you. 
4. A Sense of Confidence.  Confidence is the gateway to the other three drivers.  Too little confidence and nothing happens; too much leads to arrogance and particularly poor decisions.  Without greater levels of self-belief, the backbone of confidence, there will be few people who’ll take a risk or try anything new.  And you can’t have confident organizations without confident individuals inside them.

Here's your homework:  Develop an elevator speech on why agents would have the highest chance of being happy and finding engagement in your organization.  Your speech should contain all the components listed above.

Next, work the thoughts from this speech into both your coaching sessions and your interviews.  By doing so, you'll tap the emotion that not only has the power to retain, but also has the power to attract competitive agents to your team.

---

Editor's Note:  This article was written by Ben Hess.  Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.  Comments or questions are welcome.  If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email.  If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

Breathing Life into a Tired Business-Part 2

Have you figured out what "dying city" I was referring to in my blog earlier this week?  If you guessed Grand Rapids, Michigan, you're right!  Newsweek (later republished in The Daily Beast) chose Grand Rapids (often referred to as "Bland Rapids") for this dubious honor among other cities such as Detroit, New Orleans, and Cleveland.

While such negative reporting is often brushed off as insignificant or unimportant, a 22-year old in Grand Rapids took it very personally.  Was his hometown really as bad as the media was reporting?  He didn't think so...  

Free-lance author, Stephen Kloosterman tells the story of Rob Bliss, an Internet Coordinator for a local TV station, who decided to pull together over 4,000 individuals from the community to paint a different picture of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Their picture of Grand Rapids is one where a diverse group of indivuduals, while appearing to be quite ordinary, prove to be very interesting.  Each of these individuals make an important contribution to the community.  These contributions add up to something that the third party observer might call odd or eclectic, but definetly not "dead."  There is energy and life in Grand Rapids--outsiders are just not aware of it.

To communicate this story to these disbelieving outsiders, Rob decided to develop a lip-dub video.  A lib-dub video is a low-budget production where a  stream of indivuduals are shot in one continuous take as they are lip-synching a song.  For his video, he decided to use Don McLean's 1971 song "American Pie."

The result..a viral internet success receiving over 4 million views on YouTube.  After the video started to gain traction, it got another siginificant boost when film critic, Roger Ebert, called it "the greatest music ever made."  This is amazing commentary for a place that was supposed to be dead!  Take a look for yourself and see what you think:

While the video was a huge success, Rob didn't stop there.  He went on to help Grand Rapids organize the world's largest pillow fight and construct the world's longest water slide.  The common thread...he has as knack for helping a bunch of "ordinary people" realize that they have something special and significant when they work together.

What is the lesson for your company or team in all of this?  I believe there are several:

1. Don't listen to the national critics.  If Rob would have just focused on what the national media told him, his creativity would have never taken root.  Yes, the real estate industry market is depressed in many areas, but what is the reality on your team?  Make the good things that are happening right in front of you your focus.
2. People love to see others working together.  This is the genius of what Rob discovered.  Are there opportunities in your community where your company (or just your team) can be seen working together?  Last summer in the Seattle market, Starbucks coordinated an event where their employees all pitched in and cleaned up the morning after the 4th of July celebration at Gasworks Park in downtown Seattle.  The local media noticed and highlighted their efforts in various news venues.  This is exactly the type of press you want to receive.
3. Don't think you need a big budget.  None of the ideas presented in this discussion required a large budget.  How much money does it take to pick up trash or start a pillow fight?  Not much.  There are lots of low-budget ideas out there--you just need to find them.

You can't run a business or a team unless you have a sense of purpose, excitment and energy.  People will not be drawn to or stay with an organization that does not have this critical component. 

---

Editor's Note:  This article was written by Ben Hess.  Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.  Comments or questions are welcome.  If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email.  If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

Breathing Life Into a Tired Business

As I talk with owners and managers in different parts of the country, I’ve noticed a sense of fatigue among those who are continuing to work hard to make their organizations and teams successful.  This is especially true for those who spend a lot of their time recruiting.

As the housing market continues to be in turmoil in many parts of the country, it is becoming increasingly difficult to convince people that working in the real estate industry is full of hope and promise.  A recruiting manager’s will to persevere can start to wear thin and before you know it, a sense of malaise can even begin to infiltrate your team.

This type of despair is deadly.  If the leader of a team is not legitimately excited about the prospects for the future, it is nearly impossible to keep this attitude from poisoning the recruiting process.   

In consulting with owners, often we see wide differences between the recruiting results of the various offices within a given company.  I recently reviewed the results of one company where an individual office converted nearly 40% of their interviews into hires, while a second office in the same group only converted 3% (in this case, 2 hires out of 70 interviews) of their interviews into hires!  I believe it is safe to say that the second hiring manager is not painting a picture of the future that his/her candidates are buying.

Can this be fixed?  It can, but it has to be addressed from the inside out.  In essence, leaders need to instigate actions that will legitimately increase the excitement, energy, and hope for the future within their own teams.  Once you’re truly enthusiastic about what is going on in your environment, the energy and excitement will then naturally flow into the recruiting process.

While this sounds overwhelming, it may not be a hard as you think.  In our next discussion, I’ll share a case study about a city in the Midwest that was experiencing the same sense of despair that many of you are feeling.  This city was recently (January 2011) named one of the ten “dying cities” in America, yet over the last nine months, their prospects have significantly changed.  

How?  Through the efforts of two young professionals (one 22 years old, and one 29 years old) who recognized that some creativity and the coordinated efforts of many “ordinary” people can truly breathe life into almost any tired organization...     

---

Editor's Note:  This article was written by Ben Hess.  Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.  Comments or questions are welcome.  If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email.  If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

The Progress Principle: How Small Successes Can Make a Big Difference

I’m picking up a new book this week—it is called The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work.  I learned about the book from an interview I read recently by Daniel Pink.  In the book, Pink interviews the book’s authors, Harvard Business School Professor, Teresa Amabile, and Developmental Psychologist, Steven Kramer.

You may recall that Daniel Pink is the author of Drive, a best-selling book that I reviewed last year in WorkPuzzle, and he is an expert on the topic of motivation.  He called The Progress Principle the best business book he has read in many years.  Because there are more than 11,000 business books published each year, that got my attention!

The basic premise of the book explores the questions:  

How and when are people most engaged and motivated at work?

To research this important topic, the authors recruited 238 people across seven companies and had each of them complete questionnaires and diary entries over a period of time.  In total, they amassed over 12,000 days worth of data.  In addition, they connected with more than 700 business managers to get their perspectives as well.

What were their findings?  

What motivates people the most, day-to-day, is making progress on meaningful work. 

I’ll share parts of the interview below.  Hopefully, it will spur you on to learn more about this important topic as well.

1.  Focus on small wins and incremental steps.  

Q:  Lots of business books talk about the need for bold, audacious goals — and deride those who “think small.”  But your book, which is based on research far more rigorous than its counterparts, takes a different stance.  You emphasize the power of “small wins.”  Why are those so important in the performance of individuals and organizations?

A:  Try to remember the last time you – or anyone you know – had a truly enormous breakthrough in solving a problem or achieving one of those audacious goals.  It’s pretty hard, because breakthroughs are very rare events. 

On the other hand, small wins can happen all the time.  Those are the incremental steps toward meaningful (even big) goals.  Our research showed that, of all the events that have the power to excite people and engage them in their work, the single most important is making progress – even if that progress is a small win.  That’s the progress principle.  And, because people are more creatively productive when they are excited and engaged, small wins are a very big deal for organizations.

2.  95% of managers igore the most potent motivators. 

Q: In addition to examining 12,000 daily diary entries from workers, you also surveyed a few hundred leaders — from CEOs to project managers — about what they think really motivates employees.  What did you find out?

A: Our survey showed that most leaders don’t understand the power of progress.  When we asked nearly 700 managers from companies around the world to rank five employee motivators (incentives, recognition, clear goals, interpersonal support, and support for making progress in the work), progress came in at the very bottom. 

In fact, only 5% of these leaders ranked progress first – a much lower percent than if they had been choosing randomly!  Don’t get me wrong; those other four motivators do drive people.  But we found that they aren’t nearly as potent as making meaningful progress.

3.  Negative events significantly outweigh positive events. 

Q: Negative events have a more powerful impact than positive ones.  Why?

A:  We were pretty shocked to discover the dominant effect of negative events on inner work life – people’s mostly-hidden emotions, perceptions, and motivations at work.  Setbacks have a negative effect on inner work life that’s 2-3 times stronger than the positive effect of progress. 

When we checked into whether other researchers had found something similar, we learned that it’s a general psychological effect; “bad is stronger than good.”  The reason could be evolutionary.  Maybe we pay more attention to negatives, and are more affected by them, out of self-preservation.  So – because positive inner work life is so important for top performance, leaders should do whatever they can to root out negative forces.

4.  Time pressure only helps those who are working on legitimate, mission-critical deadlines.

Q:  I was especially intrigued by your findings about time pressure.  Sometimes it helps; other times it hurts.  Tell us what you found.

A:  The typical form of time pressure in organizations today is what we call “being on a treadmill” – running all day to keep up with many different (often unrelated) demands, but getting nowhere on your most important work.  That’s an absolute killer for creativity.  Generally, low-to-moderate time pressure is optimal for creativity.

But we did find some instances in which people were terrifically creative under high time pressure.  Almost invariably, it was quite different from being on a treadmill.  Rather, people felt like they were “on a mission”— working hard to meet a truly urgent deadline on an important project, and protected from all other demands.

These are all important topics that I can apply to my personal performance as well as working with those on my team.  I’ll provide an update to what I’ve learned...after I finish the book.

---

Editor's Note:  This article was written by Ben Hess.  Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.  Comments or questions are welcome.  If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email.  If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

What is the Economy Doing To Your Candidate’s Brain?

Last week, we spent some time with the leadership team of a client who wants to retool their interviewing approach.  They were excited about opening their sourcing aperture to include younger candidates, but worried they may not be able to successfully connect with these candidates during the interview process.

As we worked through these topics and provided some insight, another theme resurfaced—candidates have significant financial obstacles that appear to be keeping them from considering the real estate industry as a career option.

I want to address both of these topics today.  It may surprise you that this is not a problem that is limited to the real estate industry.  In a recent article in Business Insider, journalists Vivian Giang and Aimee Groth, document 13 ways that the recession has changed the way that young people view work.

There are a lot of companies trying to make sense of, what seems to be, odd behavior.  I’ll list seven of the most relevant issues (in my opinion) below, but you may want to take some extra time and see what I’ve left out.

1. They're more risk averse.  In one sense, a job is like a financial investment.  You invest time hoping to get a return.  So, how do young people look at investing right now? “Because they have a limited history, they are much more likely to change their behavior due to a single year’s performance in the markets than an older person, who might have several decades of experience,” says Stefan Nagel, an associate professor of finance at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business.  Because of this, they won't invest as much -- into the stock market, or any one job.
2. They question traditional hierarchies.  When making a business deal with a member from this generation, it's essential that all parties involved act as if they are of similar ranking.  In other words, if you expect to be treated differently because you are of a higher rank, think again.  Younger workers are more willing to challenge managers and traditional hierarchies, so communicating on a more casual tone between equal ranks will make the meeting run smoother.
3. They believe luck plays a big role in success.  People who started working during a recession "tend to believe that success in life depends more on luck than on effort, support more government redistribution, but are less confident in public institutions," according to economists Paola Giuliano of UCLA's School of Management and Antonio Spilimbergo of the International Monetary Fund.
4. They're more willing to settle.  Those who graduate during a recession are more likely to compromise and start at lower-paying, lower-level positions -- sometimes completely unrelated to their original career plans.  But Kahn from the Yale School of Management advises Gen Y not to accept the status quo: "Be mindful that you might not be reaching your full potential right now ... recessions make people fearful, so they tend to settle for jobs that don't stretch them; to overcome that pitfall, you need the right mindset."
5. They want answers immediately.  According to CareerBuilder's Rosemary Haefner, Vice President of Human Resources, the one thing that Gen Y can't tolerate is uncertainty.  The savvy-tech generation expects immediate answers and instant access.  "Ambiguity drives them crazy. They want an answer."
6. Reliance on technology also makes this generation more socially awkward.  According to Mary Crane, a business consultant, Gen Y doesn't know how to dress or act appropriately in professional settings:  "Over 80 percent of them own a cell phone, yet none of them use their cell phones to call people.  They use them to text message.  Employers are finding that when they suddenly put these people in an interview, they're not used to normal discourse.  They're used to seeing questions pop up on their cell phone."
7. And like the generations before them, they still value hard work.  Rachel Olding of the Sydney Morning Herald writes:  "Young people have simply never known what proper job security is.  We are so acutely aware of how difficult it is to find a job that when we eventually get one, we work incredibly hard to protect it and remain wary of how fleeting it may be.  We entered the workforce when a job was a rare privilege.  Some of us work with the fear of being fired and accept that as legitimate because, well, that's just the way things are these days.  If you're not the best at your job then employers are entitled to get someone who is."

There is value in becoming a student of your candidates.  While some of these ideas are a good place to start, do your own research.  Ask questions during interviews that help you understand how a candidate thinks.  Document the responses and look for patterns.  

As you develop your own knowledge base, I think you'll find your interviews improve and you'll do a better job of engaging the most talented individuals.

---

Editor's Note:  This article was written by Ben Hess.  Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.  Comments or questions are welcome.  If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email.  If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

Retooling Your Business to Connect With a Younger Demographic

Last week, I was able to spend some time with the leadership team of one our clients in the Midwest.  These types of consulting trips always energize me because I’m able to engage those who are “slugging it out” on the front lines.  The resilience, perseverance, and tenacity displayed by real estate leaders in today’s market (those still in business) is quite inspiring.

One goal of this consulting visit was to attempt to quantify what the future holds regarding the hiring of new agents.  While there is an initial tendency to look to the past to try to predict what will work in the future, the future seems to have a way of moving on before the benefits of that exercise can be realized.

This leaves us with trying to envision the future and then matching the actions of today to what we believe will be tomorrow’s reality.  This is what business leaders call "vision."  The question I’d like to explore today is:

How do you cultivate vision in your organization or team?

The quick answer to this question is…understand your customers.  

I know this sounds simple, but understanding your customers is a profound struggle for anyone who conducts business within a mature industry.  There are so many paradigms, business frameworks, and even regulatory restrictions that keep a leader from seeing and connecting with what the customer wants.  It is often difficult, frustrating and quite expensive to make changes.

As a point of encouragement, there are other mature industries that are also struggling with this issue.  I thought it might be helpful to share an example from a recent article published in Businessweek on this topic.  When I picked-up this article, I was surprised to learn that the casual-dining industry is experiencing much of the same pain that the real estate industry has been experiencing over the last few years:

“American twentysomethings are snubbing the restaurant chains their parents took them to as kids.  Chili’s, Applebee’s, Ruby Tuesday, and other so-called casual-dining chains are already struggling to revive sales in the wake of an epic recession. 

Now they risk losing an important consumer demographic group unless they remake themselves.  ‘If you have a little bit of money and you’re educated, you want a boutique feel, less chain,’ says Brad Swanson, who runs the restaurant group at KeyBanc Capital Markets, an investment banking and equity research firm.

The casual-dining chains, which serve reasonably priced sit-down meals, are losing customers to ‘fast-casual’ upstarts such as Five Guys, Chipotle Mexican Grill, and Panera Bread, which offer counter service, trendy menus, and not much else.”

So, the recession has knocked these restaurant companies down, but what may keep them from getting up is a generational issue.  I suspect that people will continue to eat out, but they’re probably not going to eat at the restaurants that were so prominent just a few years ago.

Some of these companies are experiencing a sense of paralysis as these changes approach:

“Revenue at Chili’s parent, Brinker International, has declined for four straight years.  Sales at DineEquity (DIN), which owns Applebee’s and IHOP, have slid in nine of the last ten quarters (in part because the company has sold about half its Applebee’s locations to various franchisees).”

While some companies remained paralyzed as their potential declined, others saw that changes were necessary and moved quickly to make adjustments.  These changes took a little while to incubate, but they are now starting to pay off.

“Ruby Tuesday, which grew revenue in its fiscal 2011 for the first time in four years, is licensing and opening stores from Lime Fresh Mexican Grill, a Florida chain that looks a lot like a certain fast-casual competitor.

Lime Fresh restaurants feature hammered copper countertops and earth-toned walls and sell the usual Mexican fare—guacamole, quesadillas, burritos—made from ‘humanely raised’ food.  The chain ‘plays on sustainably raised, better quality, more natural ingredients—not too dissimilar to what Chipotle has done,’ says Robert Derrington, a restaurant analyst at investment firm Morgan Keegan.  ‘It’s clearly positioned towards a younger demographic.’ ”

While some of the changes necessary to stay competitive require significant capital (Applebee’s is currently rehabbing many of their restaurants at $200,000 per location), some of the less expensive changes can have a large impact—if they’re focued on the what the end customer wants:

“Millennials like to hit the bar after work.  Hence Applebee’s “Girls’ Night Out” parties, which are advertised heavily on Facebook.  Ruby Tuesday is pushing $5 cocktails made with açai berries, as well as craft beers. 

The fast-casual restaurants are doing the same.  Chipotle serves beer and margaritas at most locations, while beer and wine is on the menu at select Five Guys stores.”

Here is the bottom line:  Since the beginning of time, businesses have had to adapt to the changes in their marketplace, finances, technologies, and hundreds of other challenges.  The companies that continually recreate themselves to meet the needs of their customers will be the ones to survive.  They'll earn the privilege of competing with the new start-ups that will inevitably replace the mature companies that were not able to change.  

---

Editor's Note:  This article was written by Ben Hess.  Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.  Comments or questions are welcome.  If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email.  If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

The Rise of the Free Agent: Good News for Real Estate Recruiting

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a blog that boldly stated that the publication of some recent articles (one most notably in USA Today) about an increased number of people becoming entrepreneurs, was probably a false trend.

Well, I might have been wrong... As I researched this topic some more, I found some additional data that may be very good news for the real estate industry.  Kelly Services, an internal staffing and Human Resources consulting company, recently published research that documents a significant trend toward employees becoming “free agents” in today’s job market.

This topic was highlighted in a recent ERE article written by John Zappe.  Here’s how John summazied the research:

“The number of 'free agent' workers has nearly exploded in the last three years, and now 44 percent of working Americans describe themselves that way.  A Kelly Services survey says economic necessity, the desire for more freedom and flexibility, and age have driven up the number of workers not tied to a single company for their livelihood.  It’s a dramatic change from 2008, when Kelly’s survey found 26 percent of workers describing themselves as free agents.”

That’s a trend worth noticing.  When an employment statistic goes from 26 percent to 44 percent in just three years, something is changing.  So, what’s changing?  The research addresses some causes:

“A significant driver is the economy.  Respondents to the 2011 survey were twice as likely as their counterparts in 2008 to say they became free agents because they were laid off or couldn’t find another job. …Also fueling the rise is the increasing reliance of American business on contingent and contract labor, say the authors of a whitepaper detailing the results.  Companies, note Jocelyn Lincoln and Megan M. Raftery, 'can scale up and down faster and easier by adopting more flexible workforce strategies.'”

So, lots of workers have been laid off in the last three years, and many companies are hesitant to commit to a typical employee relationship as they rehire to meet their needs.  So, how does that help the real estate industry?

What used to be strange (working as an independent contractor) is now becoming much more normal.

The research goes on to highlight one other issue that I thought was worth noting—the “quality” of the typical independent contractor.  Are these folks all the corporate losers who can’t keep a job?  Not according to the research:

“More than one-third of all free agents have earned a master’s degree or higher, and compared with traditional employees, more free agents (77% compared to 62% for traditional employees) possess technical or professional skill set.  What does this trend mean for American business?  It means there’s a huge pool of available talent in nearly every discipline and industry for employers to tap.”

So how do you go about tapping this great pool of talent?  The Kelly Services researchers found three trends:

1. Money.  You need to offer opportunities that reliably produce cash for the independent contractor.  Remember that you’re competing for the attention of the best candidates with other companies that do compensate for verifiable skills and results.
2. Type of Work/ Quality of the Project.  We talk frequently in WorkPuzzle about the tendency of individuals to languish in their jobs.  Be ready to address this issue.  Will the individual find the work you’re asking them to do interesting and engaging?  This needs to be a major theme of the interview.
3. Reputation of the Company.  This one surprised me.  I suspect that talented people who operate as free agents want to be associated with organizations who (in their own mind) match their level business acumen.  The more prominent and trusted your company’s brand, the higher the level of talent you’ll be able to attract and engage.

The final thing worth noting is that many talented free agents have multiple jobs.  While it is the desire of many real estate companies to hire full-time agents, it may be difficult to get someone to a full-time status without first taking some babysteps.  The facts are that kids have to be fed, mortgages have to be paid, and most talented free agents want a “project” to grow into a fulltime obligation—not be deemed one from the start.  That’s too risky and doesn’t fit the free agent’s mindset.

Your homework…study the free agent trend and be able to speak about it during interviews and other recruiting conversations.  It is one of the few truly positive trends that could directly help the real estate industry.

---

Editor's Note:  This article was written by Ben Hess.  Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.  Comments or questions are welcome.  If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email.  If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

Blazing A Trail For New Agents To Follow - Part 2

Last week, I shared a hiking experience I had with two of my teenage sons.  Toward the end of the discussion, I mentioned that I gained some unexpected recruiting insight from the experience.
 
The insight came on the heels of an article I read the week prior in CNBC.  The article discusses the fact that many employees are starting to give up on corporate America, and are making the decision to strike out on their own.  Here is a short excerpt:

“With the U.S. unemployment rate at 9.1 percent as of July 31 and a fragile economic recovery underway, many workers feel they are left with no choice but to take their careers into their own hands.
 
Employees are bidding farewell to corporate America in the hope of finding a more secure, or at least fulfilling, future.  They are reinventing themselves by starting their own companies or by pursuing long-put-off dreams that include creative or charitable endeavors.
 
While it might seem like a bold move, countless workers believe the abundance of uncertainty in today’s job market mitigates the fear factor.”

I’ve read 10 to 15 articles like this in the last couple of years.  Most of them (this one included) contain a few anecdotal stories about frustrated individuals who have a passion to strike out on their own. 
 
Does this mean there is some significant new trend toward corporate employees starting their own businesses?  I don’t think so... This is a frequent topic in business publications, which tells me there is always a group of individuals in our society who feel a strong desire to own a business.  From various sources I’ve read, there are usually about six million people per year who start small businesses.  I would bet that many of the individuals who have this desire would be great candidates for the real estate industry. 

So, back to last week's hike...  As we were hiking the last mile toward the lake that was going to be our final destination, we came across a number of obstacles along the trail.  The previous winter, there was apparently a severe windstorm that blew down a number of trees.  Over this part of the trail, there were about a dozen “blow-downs” that obstructed the path.  Hiking into one of these lakes is hard enough, but climbing over large tree trunks, crawling on your hands and knees through brush, and even holding some of your gear in your teeth so that your hands are free to grab branches (all with a 30 pound pack on your back), makes it all the more difficult.  
 
As we crossed over the fifth or sixth obstruction on the trail, my son Camden said, “I’m sure glad I was not the guy who explored this area for the first time.  Can you imagine how hard it would be if there was no trail to follow?  It would be like constantly going over these blow-downs!”
 
If you think about it, this is exactly how most people feel when they start a business.  It’s like forging a trail though a forest for the first time.  It takes lots of energy, perseverance, and luck to be successful.  This is why more than 50% of new businesses fail in the first year.
 
So, what do you have to offer the six million people who want to venture out each year and start a small business?  
 
Quite simply—a trail.
 
Your company has explored an area of business, found some great destinations, and built a trail for others to follow.  If a person is willing to make a commitment to follow the trail, they have a much higher chance at success than venturing out on their own.
 
Keep in mind, embarking on a 13-mile hike and climbing 2,000 feet in elevation is not for everyone.  In fact, there is a large portion of the population who would fail to accomplish this, whether they follow a  trail or not.  But, there are some individuals who are physically fit, motivated, and willing to make the necessary sacrifices to reach the destination.  For those people, the trail is often what makes the difference between success and failure.
 
Finally, as you’re talking to candidates, let them know there are more obstacles on the trail in recent years than there used to be.  It’s nobody's fault—sometimes trees blow down and make things more difficult.  Eventually, the park rangers will come and clear the trail with chainsaws and the path will once again be clear.  

The real estate industry has faced some difficult circumstances in recent years that have made everyone’s job more difficult.  It won't always be that way, but acknowledging the current realities is important.
 
While my sons and I were on the trail to the lake, we met a group of hikers who were on their way back.  They warned us about the blow-downs and told us it would be slow-going for the last mile.  Then they said something really important…"It is tough to get into the lake, but the fishing is incredible."  At that point, you couldn’t have kept us out.
 
Hope of success, plus a trail, are the best things you can offer to someone facing the prospects of blazing their own trail.... 

---

Editor's Note:  This article was written by Ben Hess.  Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.  Comments or questions are welcome.  If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email.  If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.