There’s a lot that depends on your real estate company’s recruitment process. For one, you need good agents to achieve your goals. This means that if you hire the wrong person, your productivity will suffer. It will also cost your brokerage time and money to hire and train a replacement. If this happens often enough, it can lead to a decline in employee morale. It also gives a bad impression among your clients and even your potential future hires.
The problem is that there are a lot of steps in the recruitment process, leaving plenty of room for error. As such, it’s in your best interests to always review and streamline your hiring methods. This way, you can minimize recruiting mistakes, maximize your resources, and ensure quality hires.
To help with this aspect of running your brokerage, here are some tips on how to elevate your real estate agent recruitment process:
As mentioned, there are a lot of things involved in the recruitment process. From creating the right job ad to reviewing applications, all the way through the interview and selection, recruiting just one good agent can take weeks.
This is where a recruiting service can come in handy. One good example is Wizehire, which you can integrate with getbrokerkit.com and other helpful applications. Having a recruiting service makes it easier for you to create top-performing job postings, evaluating applicants, and assessing candidates. You can also access interview guides so that you can ask the right questions and determine if a person is a good fit for your company.
Sourcing—the proactive search for qualified candidates for current and future job posts—is a crucial part of recruitment. The problem is that not all recruiters and human resource professionals are as good at sourcing as they are in hiring. Luckily, there are plenty of ways to source candidates in a more efficient manner to find the next real estate superstar.
One such way is through social media. Study how hashtags and trending topics work, so you can perform hyper-targeted searches. Follow and participate in conversations, and don’t forget to go through the niche platforms and forums. Learning how to use Boolean search strings can also help you find social media profiles that best match your requirements.
Attending industry events and getting referrals are also good ways to source candidates. The latter is particularly useful if you develop a referral program for your own employees. Incentivizing those who bring in good hires can ensure quality referrals. You’re also almost certainly guaranteed of hiring someone who will “click” with the company culture. This can influence how long an employee stays, which can then affect productivity, growth, and company pride.
If you often have low applicant turnouts, perhaps it’s time to hire for attitude. Putting an emphasis on work ethics and other “soft” skills over technical expertise (which can be taught) can give you access to a bigger talent pool. Those with the right attitude are easier to teach and are likely to be better employees.
Besides, for real estate agents, being flexible and patient is infinitely better than having local area knowledge or perhaps certification for a piece of software. At the end of the day, the real estate industry is about selling and selling successfully requires one to have a positive attitude.
The interview phase of the recruitment process is for you to get to know the candidate better—to see if they’re really the best person for the job. However, the interview should be a two-way street. Don’t think that just because you’re the one doing the hiring means that only you get to ask the questions.
It’s important to give candidates the chance to ask their questions as well. This way, you’ll find out even more things about them. The questions they ask can reveal aspects of their personality, their communication skills, and even the things that they value the most. What’s more, as long as you answer truthfully, letting yourself be interviewed can help the candidates determine for themselves if your brokerage is “the one.”
Brand perception matters a lot, especially in the age of social media and instant gratification. That’s why you need to pay attention to what people are saying about your company. What are former employees saying about you? What about previous applicants who didn’t get a job—did they like the application experience?
Reports have shown that job seekers won’t take a job, much less apply to a company with a negative reputation. If you do, then things need to be addressed. Conduct an evaluation and address pain points before looking for new people to join your brokerage. This way, you can attract quality candidates and improve your retention rates at the same time.
Taking your brokerage’s recruitment process to the next level takes a bit of work, but it’s definitely worth the effort. Investing in this aspect can improve multiple facets of your company, from your current employees’ job satisfaction to how the public perceives your business.