Real estate businesses that want to attract the best talent in the industry, and on great terms, will strive to establish themselves as the employer of choice.
Once you dominate this position in the minds of industry workers, you can slash recruiting and HR costs, have top talent eagerly knocking on your door to impress you, and take your pick of the best. Once you’ve achieved this status and command the top players and workers in your niche, you’ll have an incredible advantage over your competitors. Look at Google and Apple: they may buy some strong startups, but they have such an advantage in the talent arena that they can hire just about anyone they want.
Here are six ways you can become the Google of the real estate business when it comes to recruiting and building the best real estate team:
1. Become An Authority: Become an authority in the real estate industry, or at least your niche. Be someone that competitors try to copy, strive to be like, and refer to. In the industry you’ll often hear “we’re going to be like the Google of…” ,or “we are going to be the next Facebook.” However, if that’s the recruiting pitch, why wouldn’t those recruits just go work for Google or Facebook instead of risking their reputations and careers on a startup. Become the equivalent in your niche. Give people a reason to want to work with you.
2. PR, PR, PR: How are people going to know how great your real estate company is to work for unless you tell them? A proactive, consistent PR campaign is a great way to maintain high level visibility and increase the prestige of working for your firm. If you can’t wow them with glitz and glamour, you can still blow them away with your story and mission. Impress them with what being a part of your firm can do for their career, or at least what it can do for their life.
3. Executive Awards: Everyone wants to work for a great leader. Even great generals want to work under great commanders. If your executive team can be nominated for awards, and even get named as mentors to other leaders, it can put you in a position for attracting recruits.
4. Provide Opportunity: If you really want to become a magnet for the highest caliber real estate professionals, provide an opportunity that allows them to reach their full potential. For some, this will be income. They may appreciate some form of base income or bonus as they come on board to offset the dip as they make the transition, but icing that with unlimited earning potential based on performance is what real sales people are looking for. Others may not be driven by more money, but by reaching their full potential in making things happen, welding change, and making a difference.
5. Deliver Better Experiences: For great real estate industry pros, choosing where to work is more than just about the money, and the mission. It’s also about the experience on the journey. There are too many options today. The best have a choice, and they aren’t going to endure the junk that boiler room style operators employ or minimum wage fast food workers endure. Look at the major PR hit that Amazon just took for its grueling workplace culture. Having a team that hustles and works hard is one thing, making it hell every day is another thing altogether. Those that are good enough to have a choice of real estate companies to work for aren’t going to keep choosing that gig forever. You’ve got to not only be attractive to apply to work for, and deliver on needs, but provide an experience they’ll never want to leave either.
6. Gather Good Employer Reviews: Expect any pro working in the real estate industry that is worth hiring to vet your company as much as you are vetting them. That at least means Googling you and checking out reviews of what others say about working with you. Glassdoor is one of the best ranking employer review sites, and reveals some very harsh reviews of some firms out there. If ex-employees hated it, you can also bet that consumers will see this as a red flag too. Each gig, and even transaction with outside vendors, has the potential to improve your feedback and standing as an employer of choice, or the opposite.
