Over the past year, I've written frequently about the need for the real estate industry to hire young, tech-savvy new agents to replace the aging workforce.
In many one-on-one discussions with owners and managers, the aging demographic of their agents is quickly becoming the “elephant in the room.” If it is not addressed within the next five years, attrition rates will rise to an unsustainable level for many companies.
There is only one way to ultimately solve this problem—recruit “new to real estate” agents from outside the industry. While it may be tempting to think hiring from competitors can solve the demographic problems, they have older agents too! In most markets, there are simply not enough experienced young agents to make that strategy viable.
The companies that become proficient in attracting a constant flow of talented “new to real estate” agents to their organizations will have a distinct competitive advantage in the years ahead.
How do you become proficient at this task? That’s a complex question we’ve sought to answer in WorkPuzzle over the past several years. If you’re a new WorkPuzzle reader, you may have some catch-up to do. Each piece to the puzzle adds new understanding to the realities of hiring.
I discovered another new piece to the puzzle last week that I thought you might find interesting. It comes from a study recently competed by the Pew Research Center on the nature of modern parenthood.
The study addressed many different aspects of parenthood,
but the most relevant part was how young parents (ie. parents with children
under 18 living in the household) interact with work. More specifically, what is it that working
moms and dads find most important in a job:
Many of the young, talented candidates who have the capacity to become high-performing agents in your organization will be young parents. It only makes sense that you understand their priorities when considering a new job.
If you’re interviewing a candidate that’s a parent (by the way, it is technically illegal to directly ask a candidate about their family status, but most candidates will volunteer this information during the interview) be cognizant of these issues.
During the investigative part of the interview, be ready to ask open-ended questions around the topics that are most important to them, such as:
“Do you feel like you’re current job (or previous job) is secure? Does that bother you?”
“Are you currently in a job that you enjoy?” What parts of your current job do you find most irritating?”
“Is there flexibility in your current job? If you had more flexibility in your job, how would your life change?”
By asking questions about these topics, you’ll uncover the unique pain the candidate is experiencing. Until the candidate feels you understand their unique situation, he/she will not be open to listening to the possible solutions becoming a real estate agent may offer.
Also, notice that spending a lot of time on compensation issues has a low chance of impacting the candidate—especially if the candidate is female. Don't avoid compensation issues to the point of being awkward, but steer the conversation back the issues that matter.
Finally, a real estate career has the capability of answering the needs that many young parents care about most. Once you uncover the pain in a candidate’s previous job/career, be ready to articulate how working your organization can provide compelling alternatives to the status quo.
Question: Would you rather hire a "new to real estate" agent who is already a parent, or hire someone who is not yet at this stage of life?
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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.
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