Last week, we started a discussion about the role of a talent pipeline for recruiting experienced agents. I referenced Peter Weddle's recent article on this topic to illustrate how most hiring managers misuse talent pipelines. By focusing on the wrong tactics, (hard-sell promotions and relentless invitations to join your "great organization") most talent pipelines produce poor results.
Weddle goes on to suggest that to make a talent pipeline effective, you must change the focus of the pipeline to so that it answers the question that most competitive experienced agents want to know:
"The best talent wants to know what it's like to work in your organization. Before they will even consider a job, they need to have a sense of what their employment experience will be like. To put it more bluntly, they must be assured that their personality and principles are aligned with the organization's culture and values so they will be comfortable in its work environment and able to continue their career success by performing at their peak.”
Let's assume that this is the new and improved goal of your talent pipeline. Now here's an important question:
How do you make this a reality in your real estate office?
One answer to this question (and there may be many more) is social networking. In fact, online social networking may be the highest and best use of the medium for the purpose of recruiting.
Think of it this way--if a competitive agent wants the information outlined above, how could they possibly gain this experience?
One way would be to sneak up to the window of your office and watch you do your work during the day. If candidates were able to see how you manage your office, observe how you interact with those you coach, and see how conflicts were resolved among those on your team, they might get a better idea if they would be a fit in your office.
Obviously, that is not going to happen literally. But, what if it could "virtually" happen through the creation of an online social network? I'm not talking about Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, or any of the other public social networks, but instead a private social network that is a virtual representation of your physical office.
If you (the hiring manager of your office) were the online community manager of your virtual office and all your agents were the members of your social network, it wouldn't be much of a stretch to invite those in your extended network (including competitive agents) to also become members of your social network.
From this perspective, it wouldn't be hard for a competitive agent to get to know you, the support staff, and the agents who are in your office. And from this safe location, they can start to evaluate if "their personality and principles are aligned with the organization's culture and values..."
Next time, I'll finish us this discussion by outlining some of the important components of a private online social network.
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.
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