If you’re going to build something of high quality, you must start the process with high-quality raw materials.  While this only makes sense when cooking a gourmet meal or building a piece of fine furniture, have you ever considered that the recruiting process works on the same principle?

It does.   You’ll never consistently hire high performing agents unless you find a way to feed your recruiting pipeline with talented candidates.

How do you find and engage such candidates?  According to a recent report published by the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), it’s not easy.  In fact, most small businesses cite this issue as the major obstacle to sustained growth.

NFIB owners increased employment by an average of 0.01 workers per firm in July…. Seasonally adjusted, 13 percent of the owners (up 1 point) reported adding an average of 2.9 workers per firm over the past few months.

Fifty-three percent of the owners hired or tried to hire in the last three months and 42 percent (81 percent of those trying to hire or hiring) reported few or no qualified applicants for open positions.

Twenty-four percent of all owners reported job openings they could not fill in the current period…. 

Let’s do some math on this issue.   According to the Washington Post, the current unemployment rate (July 2014) is 6.2%.  This adds up to 9.6 million people who are unemployed in the United States.  In addition, there are another 7.5 million people who work part-time jobs who report they want more hours.

That’s 17.1 million people who could potentially fill an open position.  However, the NFIB reported “81 percent of those trying to hire or hiring reported few or no qualified applicants for open positions.”

Based on this data, the general quality of the job candidates (skills, competencies, capacity to work, etc.) seems to be declining.

So, where are all the talented individuals?  They already have jobs.

As a real estate hiring manager, there are a couple of take-a-ways you can draw from this data.

Focus sourcing efforts on candidates who are already employed.   Many real estate companies are used to recruiting experienced agents who work for a competitor (ie. they are already employed).  However, recruiting  “employees” away from traditional jobs is new territory.  Strategies must be developed and executed to go after these individuals or you’ll be left to pick through a large group of mediocre candidates.

Develop strategies to help “employed workers” transition into the real estate industry.  Just because someone has a job does not mean they are passionate about their current employment situation.   It’s well-documented that many very talented people are languishing in their jobs.  Developing effective transition strategies (from the candidates’ perspective) is one of the best things you can do to attract talented individuals to your company.  If you’re more effective than your competitors at helping individuals make this transition, you’ll consistently hire more talented individuals.

Hopefully, these metrics will help you see more clearly what is happening in the employment market and how you can gain advantages as you compete for the next generation of agents.

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.