There’s a lot of pressure on candidate sourcing in today’s recruiting marketplace at large.

In real estate terms, it’s a buyer’s market: there are lots of traditional jobs (listings) available and few capable, qualified, and motivated employees (buyers) to take these positions.

Individuals who are willing and able to work have lots of choices when looking for new opportunities.

In turn, employers are now forced to compete more rigorously for the attention of candidates. This drives up the cost of marketing and lead generation.

For many companies, this also means fewer candidates are entering their pipelines.

On the surface, this appears to be a detriment to the hiring process (and for some companies, it is).

However, there are some hiring managers and recruiting coordinators who seem to be “making more” of fewer candidates. Take a look at the results of this quick case study.

Continue reading →

About 18 months ago, I wrote a WorkPuzzle about the best age for candidates to make a transition to real estate.

The theory applied to the Millennial generation (those currently 19 – 35 years old) and claimed the best window to start working in the real estate industry may happen in a candidate’s early thirties.

Statistically, it’s the time in life when many individuals settle down and start to look for a long-term career.

Due to changes in the economy and job market, there may be another “ideal hiring window” opening for real estate hiring.

This time, it applies to Gen X (those currently 35 – 50) and it’s happening because working as a real estate agent may be one of the best employment options available.

Continue reading →

Sometimes small changes produce big results. Active listening is one of those changes.

If you want to increase the percentage of your interviews resulting in hires, this is the most important change you can make to your personal recruiting methodology.

Perhaps you’ve started to (1) control your mental presence, (2) resist the temptation to speak, and (3) pay attention to your listening posture. If so, your interactions with others are already improving. People love to be on the receiving end of this type of attention.

Some of you sent me stories last week on what you’ve learned about listening better during interviews. Keep them coming—they’re fun and interesting to read!

Today, we’ll finish up this topic. And, I’ve saved the best techniques for last.

Continue reading →

In the last WorkPuzzle, we discovered an important principle:

The most effective hiring managers tend to be those who are the most influential during the interview.

Researchers tell us that for infrequent face-to-face meetings (like an interview or an interaction with a sales person), listening is the best way to build trust and create influence.

Being a good listener sounds easy enough. Why don’t more of us do it if it produces such great results?

It’s because active listening is not normal listening. It’s a special type of listening reserved for the most effective communicators.

Continue reading →

The initial face-to-face interview is an important factor in the hiring process. If the first interview goes well, the rest of the hiring interactions feel like they’re flowing downhill.

Do you think you’re effective at conducting interviews?

Most real estate managers believe this is one of their strengths. But, the recruiting performance metrics our company collects paints a different picture.

By isolating the interview component of the hiring process (through workflow design and software tracking), we’ve documented that successful interviewers experience much better recruiting results than those who are struggling.

How much better?  It’s often two to three times more hires.

Of course this begs the question—what are successful managers doing during their interviews that make them so effective?

Research suggests it really boils down to one thing.

Continue reading →