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 Passions2. You Failed To
Challenge Their Intellect3. You Failed To
Engage Their Creativity4. You Failed To
Develop Their Skills5. You Failed To Give
Them A Voice6. You Failed To Care
7. You Failed To Lead
8. You Failed To
Recognize Their Contributions9. You Failed To
Increase Their Responsibility10. 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.
