WorkPuzzle

Turning Your Sales Expertise into Recruiting Expertise—Part 2

Editor — Wed, 22 May 2013 22:13:31 -0700

In our last discussion, I outlined two of the five steps that allow you to connect your previous sales expertise to the recruiting process.

The first two steps—developing a relationship with the candidate and identifying the candidate’s needs are critical to the process. If this important groundwork is not laid at the beginning of the recruiting sequence, the remainder of the interaction with the candidate will feel “sales-y.” Talented candidates shut down and run the other way when they detect an interview heading down this path.

Assuming you’ve laid the proper groundwork, here are the remaining components of the recruiting strategy:

Preventing/Overcoming Objections: Although objections are inevitable in any sales process, the key for successful sales professionals/recruiters is actually preventing objections. By asking the right types of questions in step 2, many objections that would have occurred in the process are addressed before the candidate has an opportunity to bring them forth. Keep in mind that some objections are inevitable, that they are often training responses, and that most are emotional and not practical.

It is not uncommon for candidates to experience “buyer's remorse” at some point during the recruiting process. After the initial attempts to build a relationship and share information, candidates often get cold feet. If this should happen after an interview (during the follow-up process), reminding your candidates of why they started down this path in the first place may help them get back on track.

Filling the Need/Providing Benefits: Identifying the need (step 2) is considered the most crucial skill in sales or recruiting; filling the need (step 4) is the second-most critical step to ensure success. Often recruiters and sales professionals alike pay little attention to step 2, and focus solely on step 4.

Like many sales professionals, recruiters often focus on what is commonly known in sales language as their “product knowledge.” They have an in-depth understanding of the organization they are recruiting for, they understand every detail of the position and its function, and they completely understand the requirements of the role.

Armed with all of this product knowledge, these untrained recruiters contact potential candidates and attempt to “tell” them about every benefit of the position and company they represent, never addressing the real needs of the candidates. This is a common mistake that is made by most sales professionals and is illustrated further in this article.

Most of our recruiting coordinators (ie. the individuals who first make contact with candidates) have been advised to not over-share information. While many of them do have the “product knowledge,” that information is best shared by the hiring manager later in the process (if it even needs to be shared at all). If a candidate is told everything about the career and company, there is little reason for the person to invest time in an interview.

When a hiring manager is face-to-face with a candidate, it’s important to only address the unique and specific needs identified in step 2 of the process. At this stage of the hiring process, the candidate’s needs are the primarily concern. Product knowledge and information overloading just muddies the water and makes it difficult for the candidate to gain clarity in an important career decision.

Advance/Close the Sale: In recruiting and sales, advancing the sale is the final objective throughout every step of the process. By filling the need in Step 4, you are in a position to advance the sale to the next step.

In recruiting, closing is most commonly compared to presenting the offer and gaining acceptance from the candidate. At this stage recruiters often focus on the practical aspects of the offer being made: compensation, benefits, perks etc.

Effective recruiters and sales professionals alike understand the importance of re-emphasizing the emotional drivers identified in Step 2 of the sales process prior to presenting the practical aspects of the solution.

In the real estate recruiting process, there is often more “advancing” and less “closing” required. After learning about the candidate’s unique situation, figure out a reasonable first step (or next step) in the hiring process and attempt to get the candidate to commit to that step. Mutually select a date when the next step will be completed and then hold the candidate accountable to the target date.

Without “closing” a candidate on the next step, the hiring process will not gain and maintain momentum. Seemingly great interviews result in disappearing candidates—i.e. individuals you never hear from again after the interview is finished.

Knowing what to ask, when to ask, what to share, and when to listen is fundamental to both the sales and recruiting process. Here’s to becoming an expert at both!

Note: Note: Quotations (italicized text) are excerpts from a great article written by Stephen Lowisz. Read more of Stephen’s article by visiting his author page on Electronic Recruiting Exchange.

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Editor's Note: Lee Gray is the Senior Account Manager at Tidemark Inc. Lee is a guest contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. .

Turning Your Sales Expertise into Recruiting Expertise--Part 1

Editor — Mon, 20 May 2013 08:46:45 -0700

I recently came across an article that reinforces many of the principles I believe to be true regarding effective recruiting. Steven Lowisz does a great job of succinctly summarizing the parallels between effective recruiting and effective sales.

Since many of the hiring managers in the real estate industy started out their careers as sales professionals (ie. agents), the connection between these two activities will feel familiar. The skills that once made you a great salesperson will now help you become a more effective recruiter.

In this two-part series, I will discuss five steps to effective recruiting that also apply to sales. Managers will get a two-for-one benefit in this discussion--insight for recruiting and insight for coaching agents on the sales process.

I believe these ideas are also helpful for the "first responders" in the recruiting process (what we call recruiting coordinators). It is important that the candidate experiences a consistent set of best practices from their first contact with your organization to the face-to-face interview.

1. Developing the Relationship: This is the time that the warming-up events occur before the serious selling begins. This includes how you introduce yourself and how you begin the conversation. Candidates have stated that it’s during the first two minutes of the call that they form crucial initial impressions that influence the rest of the recruiting process.

The recruiting coordinators are on the frontline with the HiringCenter leads. They are the first to start building the relationship between the candidate and the company. I’ve found most of the candidates who are contacted within the first 24 hours after applying are genuinely appreciative of the responsiveness and information that is shared. After the initial screening the candidate is then introduced to the manager who starts to build their own relationship with the candidate.

2. Creating/Identifying the Need: Every sale involves identifying a need that the candidate is often unaware of by asking questions. This is much more than a simple collection of data. Identifying or creating the need is the most important of all selling and recruiting skills. Recruiters who are the most effective during this investigative stage are most likely to be the highest performers. Recruiters with poor investigative skills generally create candidates who ultimately do not accept the position once offered.

Here is where a little finesse comes into play. Just asking for one’s work history is not enough. Of course it's important, but falls short of effective screening.

Take it a step further and ask what it is that they enjoy about their current career/position…listen. Then ask what it is that they don’t care for….listen. Then compare and contrast how a career in real estate would address those observations in their favor.

For example, a candidate may say “I don’t like being behind a desk all day” or “There is a lack of advancement” or “I really feel micromanaged.” All of those observations are non-issues as an agent.

As you capture the frustrating aspects of their current job and gently suggest how these issues may be solved by transitioning to a real estate career, the need for an interview with the hiring manager will be easier to sell. Remember, that is the primary function of the recruiting coordinator.

Also, when similiar questions are later asked by the hiring manager, he/she will be in a better position to build upon the groundwork that has been laid earlier in the process.

In my next installment I will discuss the last three steps critical to the recruiting process.

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Editor's Note: Lee Gray is the Senior Account Manager at Tidemark Inc. Lee is a guest contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. .

Is Requesting a Resume a Good Idea for a Real Estate Agent Interview?

Editor — Wed, 15 May 2013 21:37:03 -0700

Over the last few years, we’ve worked with several real estate hiring managers who insist on seeing a resume before meeting with a candidate. When our account managers ask for an explanation, the conversation usually goes something like this:

"My time is valuable, so I want to make sure the person is both serious and qualified to become a real estate agent.”

One manager recently said:

"If they can't send me a resume, I don't want to waste my time on them."

Is this a good policy? Let’s investigate the pros and cons of this stance.

First consider that every business practice is an expression of various underlying assumptions. From that premise, let’s try to surmise what possible assumptions are being made in the “resume first” stance and then assess their validity.

Assumption #1: Any candidate worth interviewing will have a resume handy and be eager to show it to me before a meeting.

I want you to consider the best people who have entered and thrived in your organization. How many of them would have sent a resume or even had a resume handy when they were first hired? How many of them would have come to an interview if you asked them for one?

It appears to me (for reasons I will go into below) that only the most desperate (and perhaps confused), would feel compelled to bring a resume to the first interview when considering becoming an independent contractor within the real estate industry.

Assumption #2: You interviewing them is more important than them interviewing you.

This assumption is clearly communicated in the request for a resume. In many highly competitive corporate jobs where a salary, benefits, and security are provided, this is certainly to be expected. But, in the real estate industry, there is a different set of expectations.

Most candidates know that becoming a real estate agent means signing up to invest significant resources to become an independent contractor. From this perspective, it only makes sense that the first interview would be a two-way street of reciprocal respect.

Remember, you need great candidates as much as they need you. If, after the first interview, you have doubts about the person’s potential to perform, asking for a resume would seem reasonable. At this juncture, it makes sense to test a weak candidate’s follow-through or investigate their background.

But if you ask a savvy candidate for a resume, you run the risk of alienating them because they are often employed successfully and want to assess you (and the real estate career) before you assess them.

Assumption #3 Your time is more important than their time.

Most working professionals do not have an updated resume in hand. Most people do not prepare a resume until they are unemployed, or think they will soon be unemployed. I know many people who have never needed a resume because their reputation and professional performance speaks for itself.

How do you think the most capable candidates will respond to this request? Do you believe that they will spend the time necessary to prepare a resume just for you? They will only do so if you have earned the right to make such a request. Instead, most candidates will interpret your request in one way: "My time is more important than yours."

Assumption #4: You're in the power position not them.

The very act of requesting a resume communicates a great deal about your assessment (or your insistence) of the balance of power in the relationship. You might as well be saying: "Yes... I think I'm more important than you". Even in competitive corporate America when an important executive is being courted for hiring, the resume is not requested until it makes sense to everyone involved.

In order to attract the best candidates you must not assume this power position. The relationship has to feel peer-to-peer, especially in the first meeting. In my opinion, some managers who request resumes before the first interviews have issues around fearing vulnerability. This technique may help them from exposing this apprehension.

Assumption #5 : You don't expect to interview successful candidates.

This assumption could be based on past experiences of interviewing terrible candidates. The problem with this assumption is that protecting against “wasting time” with unqualified candidates kills the chances of engaging better candidates in the future. It would be similar to a fisherman giving up casting because previous casts were unproductive. Yes, he’ll save a lot of time. But, the chances of catching fish have diminished to zero.

In our experience working with real estate hiring, about one third (33%) of interviews result in an engagement where the managers is truly excited about the candidate’s potential. Of the third who fit into this category, usually one half (50%) of those candidates end up joining their team as an agent. Working backwards on these percentages, it takes an average of six interviews to hire one high-potential “new to real estate” agent.*

If you disagree with my analysis of this problem, don't hesitate to let me know. I have been wrong before and expect I will be again. But, in my view so far, the basic rule of thumb is this:

If you want to attract the best talent to your team, you must treat everyone, initially, like he/she might be the best candidate you've ever seen.

*Note: The overall hire/interview percentage is higher than 17% (1 hire in 6 interviews) for most high- performing real estate organizations. This happens because some of the “not-so-great candidates” also become agents. Overall, high- performing real estate companies see 25% of their total interviews eventually convert to hires. This data is based on the companies who are clients of Tidemark.

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Dr. David Mashburn. Dave is a Clinical and Consulting Psychologist, a Partner at Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.

Be Happy--Become a Real Estate Agent--Part 2

Editor — Mon, 13 May 2013 22:06:52 -0700

Last week, our discussion focused on new research concerning where individuals find happiness in their careers. Surprisingly, the “real estate agent” position topped the 2013 “Happiest Jobs in America” list.

How did the real estate agent position garner such a high ranking? The position scored highly on the top ten factors that produce happiness at work:

1. Work-life balance

2. One’s relationship with his/her boss and co-workers

3. Work environment

4. Job resources

5. Compensation

6. Growth opportunities

7. Company culture

8. Company reputation

9. Daily tasks

10. Job control over work performed on a daily basis.

In part one of this blog, we talked about how to use this information during an interview. But, there is more to learn from this research; both from a retention perspective and a second recruiting angle you may have not considered.

Retention

Think about how the agents on your team would rate each of the happiness factors listed. It might be interesting to conduct your own research on this topic during upcoming coaching sessions.

To mirror a job happiness study, use a five point scale (1-Unacceptable…5-Outstanding) and ask questions in the following manner….”How would you rate your work-life balance while working in our company?”

As you might suspect, retaining agents has a lot to do with maintaining an environment where people feel they can initially obtain and then later sustain a sense of personal happiness.

Typically, agents won’t leave your organization because the company next door offers something better. They leave (initially with their emotions) because something (or multiple things) is constantly irritating them. Once this irritation sets in, it’s easy to rationalize that the grass must be greener somewhere else.

To be successful at retaining your agents, be proactive and make sure that these irritations don’t take root in your organization.

Recruiting

From a recruiting perspective, there is a second angle worth considering in the jo happiness study. It will always be difficult to lure happy individuals away from their current positions with a “life’s great over here” message.

A better strategy is to find those who are unhappy.

Almost any message of hope has a good chance of resonating with these individuals. The CareerBliss study documented the job positions where workers are most dissatisfied:

There are a few patterns worth noticing in this data.

1. Pay is not correlated to happiness. The most “unhappy job in America” pays a six-figure salary. None of the happiest jobs are particularly high-paying positions.

2. Education level is not correlated to happiness. Several of the jobs on the unhappy list require high levels of education (nurse, teacher, attorney, pharmacy technician). Many of the happiest jobs do not require highly specialized education.

3. Serving unhappy customers is taxing. Notice that many of the unhappy professions regularly deal with dissatisfied customers or unhappy clients. People typically interface with the legal, medical, and customer service professions when something has gone wrong.

Successful recruiting first involves finding people who are unhappy with their current employment and then engaging them by tapping into their feelings of dissatisfaction and frustration.

Unless a candidate first feels heard on these two topics, the positive traits of being a real estate agent will fall on deaf ears.

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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.

Be Happy: Become a Real Estate Agent

Editor — Wed, 08 May 2013 13:11:15 -0700

I had the opportunity to spend some time with the executive team and managers of Ruhl &Ruhl Realtors in Davenport, Iowa late last month. Caroline Ruhl and her team lead a highly productive company that is full of optimism and contagious energy.

Caroline’s company is very successful at attracting talented young professionals to the real estate industry. They are far ahead of most of their industry peers and have a bright future emerging.

By chance, I happened to arrive for a pre-planned speaking engagement on the day when the company surpassed a very aggressive recruiting goal they’ve been working on for several years.

The impromptu celebration (which started at 9am) included cake, sparklers, candy, champagne, and balloons. And not just any balloons, the meeting room was filled with balloons that each had the individual name of one agent in the company written on it. It was quite impactful to look around the room and recognize the lives that have been impacted by the recruiting process.

Doesn’t this sound like a fun place to work? Darcy Holle and Sally Atwell planned the surprise celebration. Both of these ladies are great recruiters and lots of fun at a 9am party too!

I relayed this experience to you as a way of introducing some new research that was recently published in Forbes Magazine. Not surprisingly, Caroline pointed me to this article during my visit. It only makes sense that a fun place like Ruhl & Ruhl would discover this research!

The research was done by an online career community called CareerBliss, and it involved collecting surveys from more than 65,000 employees. Forbes magazine reported:

“Employees all over the country were asked to evaluate ten factors that affect workplace happiness. Those include one’s relationship with the boss and co-workers, work environment, job resources, compensation, growth opportunities, company culture, company reputation, daily tasks, and control over the work one does on a daily basis.

They evaluated each factor on a five-point scale and also indicated how important it was to their overall happiness. The numbers were combined to find an average rating of overall employee happiness for each respondent, and then sorted by job title to find which occupations had the happiest workers. A minimum of 50 employee reviews was required to be considered for CareerBliss’ 10 Happiest Jobs in America, and executive level jobs, like chief executive, were excluded from the study. “

And the results…

"The happiest employees of all aren’t kindergarten teachers or veterinarians. They’re real estate agents. Professionals with this job title are typically responsible for renting, buying, or selling property for clients. According to the BLS, they study property listings, interview prospective clients, accompany clients to property site, discuss conditions of sale, and draw up real estate contracts. They make about $51,170 per year, on average—but top earning real estate agents rake in over $92,000.

With an index score of 4.26, real estate agents said they are more than satisfied with the control they have over the work they do on a daily basis. They’re also fairly content with their bosses.

Real estate agents have definitely weathered quite a financial storm over the past few years but right now [mortgage] rates are between 2% and 3% and inventory is low, making it a real estate agent’s dream as new homes hit the market and are getting multiple offers in the first week…. Happy times.”

This is great information to have in your back pocket during your next interview. If you’re interviewing a “new to real estate” candidate, a high percentage of these individuals are leaving jobs/careers that make them unhappy.

As we’ve discussed many times in the past, make sure you listen to their story first and address the unique points of pain that you uncover during the interview. As a side point, after the groundwork is laid, it may be helpful offer this independent research as a way of driving your point home.

During our next discussion, we’ll spend some time learning about the most “unhappy jobs” in America and how this information can also improve your recruiting results.

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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.

Asking and Listening: The Magic Bullet of Interviewing and Hiring

Editor — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 16:50:27 -0700

I recently had the pleasure of visiting our long time clients at Prudential Carolinas, Prudential York Simpson Underwood, and Prudential Yost-Little Realty, all under the same roof in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. I had spoken to this executive team and group of managers on at least two previous occasions and have always enjoyed our interactions.

Part of my presentation involved a refresher course on the psychology of a good interview. Most of this section emphasizes the vital importance of listening to the candidate and eliciting as much information as possible during the first interview. The process involves asking a lot of open-ended questions about who they are, what’s their story, what’s causing them to make a career change now, what they hope to gain from working, etc.

My emphasis on the power of listening comes from volumes of research on how people make decisions concerning any important topic in their lives. To emphasize this point I used several non-hiring examples such as dating or making an important purchase.

Think back to when you were dating—would you rather hear your dates drone on about themselves or ask some thoughtful questions along the way? When you buy a computer, do you want the tech-sales-geek to expound on all the details of each machine, or would you rather he ask a few questions first and then focus on your needs?

Here is a counter-intuitive principle that is true of all human interactions: As people talk about themselves, they will learn more about themselves and feel more attached to you (the listener) in the process.

No matter how many times I deliver this presentation, managers continue to report how difficult it is to put this into practice. But, the group in North Carolina is starting to crack the code and seeing some incredible results.

During the presentation, one of the managers (Player Murray) gave the group some feedback on how this technique was working during his recent interviews.

"I'm not sure that I said much of anything in my last interview, and the candidate decided to come work for us!”

He went on to say that when he finally began to trust the process of first asking questions and listening, many interviews proceed with little need to describe much of what differentiates his company from others in the first interview.

"I am convinced that this is the number one principle to practice in the first meeting, and without it, I would not have hired many of the high quality candidates who came through HiringCenter. They feel valued and connected when I listen to them first and foremost."

Player has learned the magic of asking and listening. He has seen first-hand how people become attached to those who are interested in them. He doesn't do this to be manipulative, he does it because it’s the right thing to do—that’s why it works.

This story has been repeated with other managers across the country. Savvy, early-in-the- pipeline candidates who know little about the real estate industry will ask questions when they are ready. Even if they do ask some questions intially, don't be sucked into talking about yourself and your company too much. Instead, answer briefly and get back to asking and listening.

In fact, here is a good rule of thumb: Always assume you are not listening enough. At this point, you’ll probably be at the right level, and the magic will soon start happening in your interviews.

Question: How have you learned to become a more effective listener (in interviews or other situations)? When using these techiques, how have you noticed your relationships change?

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Dr. David Mashburn. Dave is a Clinical and Consulting Psychologist, a Partner at Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.

How to Stop Wasting Time--Starting Right Now

Editor — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 13:51:20 -0700

I'm writing about this topic because I just started a new exercise designed to help me avoid wasting time. I started this exercise earlier today, so I can't tell if it works well long-term. But I can tell you that I’ve already pinpointed a couple of activities that I hope to permanently discard!

I didn't wake up this morning planning to do a time study. I simply felt frustrated when I realized that I had already wasted about two hours of my day. I didn’t mean to waste the time, but combining an unscheduled time slot with a lack of purpose and ‘time-wasting” sprouted like a weed.

I know that I must act purposefully for my time and effort to contribute to my long-term goals. It’s frustrating to realize that I’ve fallen short of this objective.

Fortunately I turned this frustration into some positive action and discovered an article that shed some light on this common struggle. The article I found was written by Bruce Kasanoff and I immediately set out to follow its contents. I think you’ll benefit from this as well.

A Highly Effective Way to Avoid Wasting Your Time

"Here's a simple way to potentially save hours of your time each week, by investing a total of about five minutes.

First thing in the morning, take a piece of paper and write a column of numbers representing each hour from the time you wake up until you go to sleep. For me, the list would start 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 1 and go all the way back to 12. (So far, you have invested about fifteen seconds.)

For this single day, at the top of every hour stop for 20 seconds and consider how happy you are with the way you spent your time. Did you invest it wisely? If the answer is yes, don't write anything.

But if you wouldn't repeat the way you spent the last hour, next to the number representing that hour write a few words that describes what you did. On one of my lists, for example, at 3 o’clock I wrote "pointless to talk with Ralph; doesn't listen," meaning that it was a waste of my time to meet with him.

Stick with this exercise all day; it takes very little time, just the discipline to stop every hour for a few seconds. But at the end of the day, you'll have a list of activities you wish you avoided. If the list has more than one or two items, you might want to continue the practice for a while.

If you make this a habit, you'll soon start to spot patterns. It will be easier to recognize ways in which you are wasting time and effort, and you'll do a better job of avoiding these.

You can also use this technique across an entire department to help all involved make better use of their time. To avoid offending people, I wouldn't suggest pooling the results. You can simply introduce the test and allow people to draw their own conclusions."

If you decide to implement this personally or within your office, be sure and let me know the results. And, I certainly hope that reading this WorkPuzzle edition won't turn up on your list of things to avoid!

Question: Have you developed any personal tactics for keeping "time-wasting" under control in your life? If so, let us know what you've learned.

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Dr. David Mashburn. Dave is a Clinical and Consulting Psychologist, a Partner at Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.

"New to Real Estate" Candidate Sourcing Reaches New Highs

Editor — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 07:06:14 -0700

As many of you know, our company’s core business is helping our clients source high-quality candidates for difficult-to-fill positions. While we assist companies in several different industries, much of our focus has been on the hiring difficulties real estate companies experienced over the last five years.

This has not been an easy task. It is difficult to get talented individuals to consider changing careers during a recession and during the subsequent recovery.

Employment Stagnation

This may seem counter-intuitive, but pervasive high unemployment and lousy job prospects in the economy create stagnation in sourcing and hiring for real estate companies.

On the surface, you might surmise that if there is a large number of people who are unemployed (some of whom are talented individuals), a fair number of them might be willing to give real estate a try. Our sourcing data doesn’t support this hypothesis.

In reality, most people who find themselves unemployed are not in a strong enough financial position to start a real estate career. Instead, they pursue the quickest path to a steady paycheck.

But, what about the people who are in low-paying, dead-end jobs? Certainly, some of those individuals would be willing to look at the real estate industry as a way of “upgrading” their career…right? Our sourcing data doesn’t support this hypothesis either.

Many people who are underemployed are thankful just to have a job. They don’t feel comfortable taking a risk that would put their current financial situation in jeopardy. The proverbial “bird in the hand” is good enough for them.

What’s Changing?

So, what’s changing? Why are candidate sourcing metrics starting to improve so dramatically in the last 3 months?

I believe there are two reasons for this change. First, the real estate market has improved in many areas of the country. The national media has picked up on these changes and started to report positive news. Candidates perceive this change and are now more open to considering real estate as a career option.

While positive reports help, most of the momentum is being created outside the real estate industry. It is related to how average employees in non-real estate companies feel about voluntarily leaving their jobs.

The data for this theory is buried in the metrics that are tracked by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It was recently highlighted in an article written by Vivian Giang at Business Insider:

“People are voluntarily quitting their jobs at the highest rate since the pre-recession era, according to the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey — known as JOLTS — published by The Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The report says that 2.16 million people quit their jobs in the latest data, which represents 53 percent of all job separations — this includes quits, layoffs and discharges — when accounting for retirees.

The graph below, published by Gluskin Sheff Research, illustrates the trend in the quitting rate and the number of people who have quit as a percentage compared to the total number of people employed in the past decade:

So what does this mean about our labor market? In short, it's an indication that people are confident that they can find other opportunities elsewhere and is a sign of sustained improvement in the labor markets…. This confidence happens when the economy grows fast enough…and people have [enough] faith in their own skills to make a living some other way rather than stay in a job they're not satisfied with.

So who are these workers? There's a good possibility that people are leaving their jobs to pursue freelancing, consulting or the entrepreneur route. This need to work for yourself is predicted to reach 40 percent of the American workforce by 2020, and is most common in sectors of the economy that are growing.”

As you can tell, much of what goes on in the labor market is out of our control. When a positive trend happens (and in this case, two positive trends), it is important to take advantage of the rising tide.

When engaging “new to real estate” candidates, now is not the time be on the sidelines. Develop and deploy strategies for engaging the millions of individuals who are finally starting to feel less risk-averse about their careers.

Question: What strategies are you deploying to engage the 40% of the American workforce who lean towards working independently?

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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.

Recruiting Performance Management ™ -- The Birth of the RPM

Editor — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 21:42:31 -0700

Can you remember the last time you experienced an”aha” moment? I'm happy to say that I've had quite a few of those lately, and I've come to learn that they seem to come in bunches. A few of my realizations would probably bore you to death, but a couple around recruiting might just be up your alley.

An individual I know, who is well-versed in the world of business consulting, was recently describing a major shift in company language around systems used to track and manage key performance indicators and metrics.

It was once in vogue to call these systems "dashboards". Dashboards included gauges, meters, interactive charts and virtually anything that needed to be monitored and improved. Six-sigma principles fit nicely into the idea of dashboards because it was much easier to design, measure, analyze, verify and improve processes.

Apparently someone, I'm not sure who, came up with the bright idea to rename these dashboards to describe what they truly aim to do. So, instead of ”dashboards” they became ...."Enterprise Performance Management" or EPM's for short. When you think about it, the idea wasn't all that novel--Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems have been named appropriately for quite some time.

So, during this conversation, an obvious close-to-home parallel came to mind. Why not re-name our HiringCenter dashboard "Recruiting Performance Management" system? Or RPM for short? After all, the whole idea of a name is to describe what it does. And, for most of you who execute the RPM as designed, it works.

Here is the interesting part. We have observed, since our inception in late 2004, an interesting “black hole” in real estate industry. Despite "recruiting" being one of the most important goals of almost every company, it seemed to be the only area where performance systems were rarely developed and practiced.

There are multiple reasons for this fact. One reason, which we learned through the early days of our development, was that it is extremely complicated and time consuming to invent a system to source, build, track and hire a pipeline of quality people. We fortunately learned that it could be done and, if executed properly, can be measured and improved.

What I love about our clients is that they are usually the companies dedicated to developing, analyzing, and improving systems and were first in line when we went through (and continue) the development of such a system for recruiting. In the words of one of our clients:

"Yes, it can be time consuming…but if we weren’t doing this, how would we have added new people consistently? And since every broker understands that recruiting is the lifeblood of a growing real estate company…it is certainly not something to be left to chance. The [Recruiting Performance Management] system" takes away most of the uncertainty."

Question: Does your company treat recruiting as a critial business system? If so, what systems have you developed to measure its performance?

The name Recruiting Performance Management™ and Recruiting Performance Management (RPM)™ are trademarks of Tidemark, Inc.

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Dr. David Mashburn. Dave is a Clinical and Consulting Psychologist, a Partner at Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.

Attracting New Agents: What do Working Parents Want in a Job?

Editor — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 11:51:21 -0700

Over the past year, I've written frequently about the need for the real estate industry to hire young, tech-savvy new agents to replace the aging workforce.

In many one-on-one discussions with owners and managers, the aging demographic of their agents is quickly becoming the “elephant in the room.” If it is not addressed within the next five years, attrition rates will rise to an unsustainable level for many companies.

There is only one way to ultimately solve this problem—recruit “new to real estate” agents from outside the industry. While it may be tempting to think hiring from competitors can solve the demographic problems, they have older agents too! In most markets, there are simply not enough experienced young agents to make that strategy viable.

The companies that become proficient in attracting a constant flow of talented “new to real estate” agents to their organizations will have a distinct competitive advantage in the years ahead.

How do you become proficient at this task? That’s a complex question we’ve sought to answer in WorkPuzzle over the past several years. If you’re a new WorkPuzzle reader, you may have some catch-up to do. Each piece to the puzzle adds new understanding to the realities of hiring.

I discovered another new piece to the puzzle last week that I thought you might find interesting. It comes from a study recently competed by the Pew Research Center on the nature of modern parenthood.

The study addressed many different aspects of parenthood, but the most relevant part was how young parents (ie. parents with children under 18 living in the household) interact with work. More specifically, what is it that working moms and dads find most important in a job:

Many of the young, talented candidates who have the capacity to become high-performing agents in your organization will be young parents. It only makes sense that you understand their priorities when considering a new job.

If you’re interviewing a candidate that’s a parent (by the way, it is technically illegal to directly ask a candidate about their family status, but most candidates will volunteer this information during the interview) be cognizant of these issues.

During the investigative part of the interview, be ready to ask open-ended questions around the topics that are most important to them, such as:

“Do you feel like you’re current job (or previous job) is secure? Does that bother you?”

“Are you currently in a job that you enjoy?” What parts of your current job do you find most irritating?”

“Is there flexibility in your current job? If you had more flexibility in your job, how would your life change?”

By asking questions about these topics, you’ll uncover the unique pain the candidate is experiencing. Until the candidate feels you understand their unique situation, he/she will not be open to listening to the possible solutions becoming a real estate agent may offer.

Also, notice that spending a lot of time on compensation issues has a low chance of impacting the candidate—especially if the candidate is female. Don't avoid compensation issues to the point of being awkward, but steer the conversation back the issues that matter.

Finally, a real estate career has the capability of answering the needs that many young parents care about most. Once you uncover the pain in a candidate’s previous job/career, be ready to articulate how working your organization can provide compelling alternatives to the status quo.

Question: Would you rather hire a "new to real estate" agent who is already a parent, or hire someone who is not yet at this stage of life?

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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.