Editor's Note: This article was written by Mark Johnson, a guest contributor to WorkPuzzle. Mark is a coach, speaker, and trainer who works with the Tom Ferry Companies.
Naturally, your best agents and staff have the most alternatives in the marketplace. Highly talented people are the most likely to be recruited away and the best equipped to leave on their own initiative.
If you wait until your agents (or staff) go public with their plans to leave --before you re-recruit them--you've obviously waited too long. The heart leaves before the body.
Forbes recently published an article 10 Reasons Your
Top Talent Will Leave You and it triggered me to think about how our
broker owners, managers and leaders execute the retention effort across their
companies.
Few things in business are as costly and disruptive as unexpected agent or staff departures. And despite what you feel or think, when Forbes interviewed employees here’s what they said:
- More than 30% believe they’ll be working someplace else inside of 12 months.
- More than 40% don’t respect the person they report to.
- More than 50% say they have different values than their employer.
- More than 60% don’t feel their career goals are aligned with the plans their employers have for them.
- More than 70% don’t feel appreciated or valued by their employer.
The facts are that agents and staff who are challenged, engaged, valued, and rewarded (emotionally, intellectually & financially) don't leave. However if you miss any of these critical areas, it’s only a matter of time until they head for the door.
Forbes went on to identify these 10 reasons your talent will leave you:
1. You Failed To Unleash Their Passions
2. You Failed To Challenge Their Intellect
3. You Failed To Engage Their Creativity
4. You Failed To Develop Their Skills
5. You Failed To Give Them A Voice
6. You Failed To Care
7. You Failed To Lead
8. You Failed To Recognize Their Contributions
9. You Failed To Increase Their Responsibility
10. You Failed To Keep Your Commitments
Smart leaders don’t allow these mistakes to happen. Start re-recruiting your key agents and staff today. Take a look at the 10 reasons and create a strategy in your company to address the biggest issues.
Start by spending less time trying to retain people, and more time understanding them, caring for them, investing in them, and leading them. When you do, the retention you desire will naturally happen.
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Editor's Note: This article was written by Mark Johnson. Mark
is a coach, speaker, and trainer who works with high-performing real estate
agents, teams, managers and leaders in the highly competitive Southern
California marketplace and across the United States.
A US Army veteran, Mark
has since led multi-million dollar strategic operations initiatives, major
sales and recruiting promotions, sales force automation ventures, and help desk support projects. He currently works with the Tom Ferry
Companies.
