Estate & Letting Agent?
Star Neg just left?
Are you finding it tough to recruit decent talent to your Agency?
This article won't help you with this predicament, yet it will help stop it from happening again.
IMHO, Estate & Letting Agents need to change how they think about hiring Negs, Listers, and Branch Managers or risk being left behind.
98% of Estate Agents (and come for it, Self Employed Estate Agency models) are in the staff (employee/colleague/talent) acquisition game, whilst the clever agents are in the staff/employee/colleague/talent attraction game.
Distilling that down, 99% of agents are reactive to their recruitment, whilst just 1% are proactive.
The drawback with reactive Estate Agency recruitment is starting your search for a replacement by advertising for a vacancy. When someone hands in their notice, you start on the back foot.
You see, back in the late '90s, all you had to do was put an ad with one of the recruiters, reasonable basic, and OTE that big that it would make Elon Musk sit up (never obtainable, but everyone knew that) and shiny car – and bobs your uncle – you would be beating them off like flies around $h*t
Yet this is 2022, not 1997
1. Transformations to candidate behaviour
People looking for a new job are acting more like consumers these days. Research tells us that the average takes months and months perusing careers, just as consumers are continuously perusing Rightmove to look for houses or WhatCar for a car – even though they might not buy for months (even years). They are not planning to buy it tomorrow, yet they are exploring it and researching it, and they are open to something it catches their eye
2. A rising skills gap in Estate Agency
Good Negs & Listers know they are in demand, so the strategies for attracting them must be different. These Negs and hot Branch Managers aren’t going to recruitment companies. They need to be tempted & woo’d seduced because if you aren’t, other employers are
3. The ‘Estate Agency brand.'
Thanks to Facebook & Linkedin, your Estate Agency culture can enormously influence the quality of candidates you attract.
In an Estate Agency, people want to work.
The important to thing to making your recruitment proactive is having an Estate Agency somewhere Negs and Listers want to work, which requires you to have somewhere people love to work.
A testimonial from someone who works at your Estate Agency is one of the most powerful ways to attract good people is a good start.
Nonetheless, any pledge to revitalising your Estate Agency culture has to run deeper than putting beanbags in the staff room, free Avocado on Toast on Friday or bowls of M and Ms in the staff room.
Nobody stays for the perks – people stay in roles where they are treated justly, communicated with, listened to, managed and led, paid a decent wage and where they can grow in their career and learn whilst doing it.
What are the benefits to Estate Agents?
Estate Agents that change to a proactive hiring tactic, over the usual reactive hiring tactics will secure the rewards of attracting and enticing the best Negs & Listers and, more significantly, keeping them for longer.
Everyone says estate Agency is a people business – yet our actions regarding the retention and attraction of Negs & Listers don't match that
The Estate Agents who master their talent acquisition will have the biggest competitive advantage. If you can't attract the best Negs and Valuers, you will become a D minus grade Estate Agency.
How do you be proactive in Estate Agency Recruitment?
Fruitful proactive recruitment necessitates a concoction of strategies.
Initially, it’s fundamental to pinpoint who your targets are. I would use LinkedIn to search for people with the title negotiator, utilising the postcode area search simultaneously. Then connect with them. As a backup, find them on Facebook and connect with them
Once you have identified the ‘who’ of your proactive employment plan, the next steps are creating and maintaining a constant relationship.
For example, if I were a large firm like Connells or LSL, I would be investing in an online training, development, attraction & retention marketing programme of other agents' talent through an online training portal. (yep, if I were David Plumtree , boss of Connells, I would be training and developing my competitors' colleagues).
I teach several agents and people in the industry (in the background) to build their personal branding on social media, and whilst the results are slow to start with. Eventually, the rewards are tsunami-like.
I would then seriously consider getting the senior team to start building their personal brands on social media. If I were Guy Gittins, new boss of Foxtons, I would post a weekly video to all the agents in London, being a thought leader in the estate Agency space.. being an attraction agent (for staff – not necessarily vendors and landlords)
Many of you will think I am weird, yet just reflect on that; these strategies are all about attraction strategy, aren't they?
If I were a one-person band operator, I would pick the phone up for comparable evidence to these people, praise them on a good listings month, pick their brains, and comment on all their posts (in a thoughtful manner). If somebody comments on your posts, the smart thing is that you respond, and by doing so, you build up a conversation.
I would then start a personal brand, creating compelling and exciting content for agents to consume, getting them to know, like and trust you.
Don't get me wrong; this is bloody hard work to do. To build up a strong off and online community, but it’s incredibly empowering, and it can be enormously influential down the line for the success of your Estate Agency.
Final Thoughts to win at Attraction Recruitment in Estate Agency:
- Improving your Estate Agency culture and creating a strong employer brand.
- It is identifying your ideal Negs and Valuers and how to find them.
- Then, its engagement with your target candidates over the long game and building up a good relationship.
I hope you enjoyed this and if you would like to pick my brain on anything, do not hesitate to call me on 07950147572 or email me on christopher@christopherwatkin.co.uk
Kind regards
Christopher Watkin