Earlier this week, I made the case that the real estate industry faces major challenges in articulating it’s recruiting message to potential candidates. I wrapped up the discussion by suggesting that your company or office find an answer to the following question:
Why would someone with good resources, education, and competencies want work in your company or office, knowing that they have limited (not necessarily poor) income potential?
If you’re willing to abandon the old paradigms of real estate recruiting (most of which either no longer work or will continue to produce a diminishing return), you may free yourself to recruit and compete in some new and more effective ways.
How do you make this happen? That’s a tough question, and there may be many great answers. I certainly don’t have a corner on all the great ideas, but here is one answer that I believe has some significant potential:
Create a unique and compelling work environment where individuals working on the team find engagement in their day-to-day tasks.
Let this statement sink in. Read it a couple of times. Now ask yourself: Why would this issue be something that could have an significant impact on recruiting in the real estate industry? I think there are two reasons:
- This is the major weakness of traditional employers.
In a previous discussion, I documented that about 78% of the global workforce is either dissatisfied or proactively disengaged in their jobs. While much of this dissatisfaction is self-imposed, most employees don’t see it that way. It’s much easier to just blame your employer than to take responsibility for yourself! People want to know… "Would I be happier if I worked somewhere else?" It only makes sense to position your company or office as the compelling answer to this question. - Most traditional employers have no way of fixing this problem.
In a well-publicized story at Wal-Mart’s corporate headquarters, company executives decided to test the concept of designating a room where employees could rest and take a short respite between meetings or project work. This practice has been shown to increase productivity and the engagement employees feel in their jobs. The room was even equipped with soft couches, dim lighting, and other features intended to make it peaceful.
As you might have guessed, no one would set foot in the room. Why? Because the setting was contradictory to the high-intensity Wal-Mart culture they were accustomed to. Within a few months, the room was converted into an office for a young executive. Try as they may, most traditional employers cannot deliver on the promise to make the workplace a more engaging place for employees. And most employees have given up on the possibility of this happening in a traditional work environment.
So, back to the original question: Can the real estate industry (or more specifically, your office or company) deliver something that traditional employers are missing or intentionally avoiding in their employment value proposition? I believe it can. Let me say that a little stronger….I believe it must.
Real estate companies must exploit the weaknesses of tradional employers if they desire to hire the next generation of talented and effective agents. If you don't acquire your share of talented individuals in the near future, you'll be stuck with the misfits and B-players. And there's a good chance that abnormal market conditions will not compensate for such missteps in the future.
To create this compelling work environment, there are two issues that need to be addressed:
- The pay and security of employing individuals in the real estate industry
- Understanding what causes people to feel engagement, both individually, and as a team.
We’ll cover both of these these issues in our next discussion.
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.
