WorkPuzzle

Cognitive Ease—The Secret to Great Interviewing—Part 2

Earlier this week, I suggested that most people show up to an interview experiencing “cognitive strain.”  Unless you can help a person migrate to a place of cognitive ease, they’ll have a difficult time hearing and engaging most of what you’re trying to communicate.  If you didn't read the first article in this discussion, you may want to catch up before trying to digest today’s topic.

How do you get someone from a state of cognitive strain to a place of cognitive ease?  Daniel Kahneman spends several chapters in his best-selling book, Thinking, Fast and Slow, addressing this topic.

Part of the answer to the question can be summed up in this diagram:

The items listed on the right side are the feelings we want the candidate to have when they leave the interview.  These traits are the natural results of feeling cognitive ease.

Some of the causes that produce cognitive ease are listed on the left side.  As you might suspect, if you can become proficient at influencing the items on the left (by the way, this is not a complete list—there are many more elements), candidates will start experiencing something remarkable at your interviews.

As I mentioned earlier, Kahneman spends several chapters explaining and citing research for these causes.  Not all of these would relate to interviewing (although a surprising number do apply), so we’ll just explore “related experience” today.  If you have an interest in learning more, you can delve into this topic by picking up a copy of his book.

Here is a simple question that Dr. Kahneman often asks his audiences:

“How many animals of each kind did Moses take into the ark?

The number of people who detect what was wrong with this question is so small that it has been dubbed the Moses illusion.  Moses took no animals into the ark; Noah did.

The idea of animals going into the ark sets up a biblical context, and Moses is not abnormal in that context.  You did not positively expect him, but the mention of his name is not surprising. It also helps that Moses and Noah have the same vowel sound and number of syllables.

As with triads that produce cognitive ease, you unconsciously detect associative coherence between Moses and ‘ark’ and so quickly accept the question.”

By default, the human mind wants to maintain (or get to) a state of System 1 thinking.  One of the ways it maintains this state is to look for related experiences.  When you heard just a few words (animals and ark), it quickly pulled a story from memory that allowed you to answer the question without leaving a state of cognitive ease.

The error you made (and we all make) illustrates how quickly the mind retrieves, depends upon, and desires related experiences. 

Let’s suppose I ask a different question:  How many chickens did Eric take to the marina? 

Of course, you quickly get frozen with this question.  Who’s Eric?  Why does he have chickens?  Is he taking the chickens to a boat, or is there a restaurant near the marina? And, so on.   Your mind does not even consider the first part of the question—how many chickens are there?   

In the first question, none of the background mattered because the “related experience” filled in the context.

Side note:  The relationship between related experience and cognitive ease is leveraged frequently by companies such as Geico during their marketing campaigns.  Next time you see or hear a Geico commercial, see if you can detect it.

What does this have to do with interviewing?

A “related experience” is one of the best pathways to get a candidate to a state of cognitive ease during an interview.

The point is not to deceive anyone in the interview process (we make the assumption that you’re offering the person something that will be advantageous for his or her career), but instead allow them to feel good about you and your organization and trust the things you’re communicating.

How do you find related experiences?  Here are two sources you can use immediately:

Pop culture.  How many times have you been in a meeting and someone says…"this is like the TV show Survivor.  Someone is going to get voted off the island."  This is a related experience.  Find two or three references in pop culture that would relate to the points you commonly make during and interview.

The candidate’s own experiences.  If you spend time (the first 20 to 30 minutes of the interview) drawing out and listening to the candidate’s story, you’ll have plenty of material to draw upon to find related experiences.  Restating the candidate’s own experiences and then relating it to the realities of working in your office is very powerful.

If you can master the concepts of related experience and cognitive ease, you will take your interview skills to a whole new level.   You’ll not only reap the rewards of hiring more agents, but you’ll also experience some cognitive ease for yourself!

 

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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. 

Cognitive Ease: The Secret to Great Interviewing

Think of yourself sitting in a canoe in a swift flowing river.  You’re paddling desperately with the intention of making it 100 yards upstream. 

To get there, you’ll need to focus on the task, apply some paddling skill, and consistently exert yourself.   Because you’ll be fighting against the current, you’ll experience some frustration and probably arrive out of breath and needing to rest.

In a figurative sense, this is how most people feel when they go to an interview.  The fast-flowing current is called “cognitive strain,” and it’s a silent factor that works against you in every interview.

In the next couple of WorkPuzzles, we’ll teach you how to alleviate cognitive strain and start conducting your interviews in the calm water of “cognitive ease.”

A few weeks ago, I introduced you to Daniel Kahneman, a Nobel Prize winning psychologist who recently published his best selling manifesto called Thinking, Fast and Slow.

If you didn’t catch the previous discussions on this topic, I’d recommend reading the first blog in this series.  It will give you some background for today’s WorkPuzzle.

In his book, Kahneman introduces his readers to the concept of “cognitive ease.”  In simple terms, it is the natural desire a person has to make decisions and judgments using “System 1” thinking.

As you may remember, System 1 is the fast, intuitive, and automatic way of making decisions and judgments.   System 2 is the slower way of thinking that requires more conscious judgments and critical analysis.

Dr. Kahneman defines cognitive ease in this way:

“Whenever you are conscious, and perhaps even when you are not, multiple computations are going on in your brain, which maintain and update current answers to some key questions:

Is anything new going on? Is there a threat? Are things going well? Should my attention be redirected? Is more effort needed for this task?

You can think of a cockpit, with a set of dials that indicate the current values of each of these essential variables. The assessments are carried out automatically by System 1 and one of their functions is to determine whether extra effort is required from System 2.

One of the dials measures cognitive ease, and its range is between “easy” and “strained.” 

Easy is a sign that things are going well—no threats, no major news, no need to redirect attention or mobilize effort. 

Strained indicates that a problem exists, which will require increased mobilization of System 2.

When you are in a state of cognitive ease, you are probably in a good mood, like what you see, believe what you hear, trust your intuitions, and feel that the current situation is comfortably familiar. 

When you feel cognitive strain, you are more likely to be more vigilant and suspicious, invest more effort in what you are doing, feel less comfortable, and make few errors, but you also are less intuitive and less creative than usual.”

With these definitions as a background, would you rather have someone be experiencing “cognitive ease” or “cognitive strain” during an interview?

Obviously, you’d want the person to be experiencing cognitive ease.  If candidates are suspicious, uncomfortable, and lacking the creativity to imagine themselves in a new career, your interviews are not going to come to life.  It's very difficult to build a relationship with individuals who remain in this state.

Here’s something you may not have considered:  Every candidate you interview (especially if the person is a “new to real estate” candidate) is experiencing cognitive strain when they arrive at your office.

There are very few exceptions to this rule.  Interviews are stressful.  Being in a new environment, meeting new people, receiving a bunch of new information, and having the perception you’re being evaluated puts people squarely in System 2 thinking. 

One of the secrets of successful interviewing is helping a person migrate from a state of cognitive strain to a place of cognitive ease during the 45 minutes you spend with the candidate. If the candidate remains in a state of cognitive strain (and most people do), the person will not have the ability to truly hear and engage most of what you’re trying to communicate.

How do you do this?  Daniel Kahneman has some great insight on this topic based on the research that he and others of have done.  It’s fascinating stuff, and we’ll cover it during our next WorkPuzzle discussion.  

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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. 

What You Really Need to Know About Hiring and Retaining Millennials

Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to present to a group of recruiting leaders who were gathered in Chicago for the Realty Alliance conference.  Several of the attendees oversee very high-performing recruiting organizations, so there was much to share and learn.

One of the topics we addressed was the recruitment and retention of agents from the “millennial” age group.  This group is generally considered those in the workforce who are currently 18 to 32 years old.

We are starting to hear more chatter on this topic as real estate companies strive to hire agents who, from an age perspective, are more reflective of the population at large.  I recently read that by 2014, millennials will account for 36% of the American workforce and will make up 75% of the global workplace in 2025.

So, what is the secret to hiring agents in this age group?

It’s not as complicated as some human resources pundits would have you believe.  For example, I recently read an article in the Washington Post outlining the “ten things millennials want from the workplace.”  Here are my five favorites from the list:

1.  Not money (ie. It’s not about the money)

2.  Goofy perks (like scooters to get around the halls of the office)

3.  A focus on social responsibility (apparently, older generations do not care about social causes…)

4.  A focus on social justice and community service (not sure how these are different from social responsibility)

5.  A “pass” on doing stupid things in their personal life (and then posting it on Facebook).

Maybe the authors just surveyed the Occupy WallStreet crowd to get the data for their article, but it seems surreal to me.  We have millennials working for our company, I have two kids who are millennials, Dave has three kids who are millennials, and none of them focus on these issues.

I believe it’s safe to assume that if you tried to implement such advice, you’d quickly twist your organization into a pretzel of dysfunction.  Unfortunately, greater than 90% of the articles I’ve read on millennial hiring over the last couple of years attempt to highlight the surface (and often silly) differences between younger and older generations.

Here’s a better idea.  Why not focus on what we know to be true about all human beings and draw out the similarities between generations?  Also, it is better to focus on core issues that drive human behavior and engagement.

A good place to start on collecting this information would be the Gallup Organization’s classic Q12 research.  Gallup has been working on measuring employee engagement in organizations for more than 30 years.  While they did not specifically focus on generational differences in this study, there is a surprising similarity among outcomes across age groups during this 30-year period.  You can download a meta-analysis of this research if you care to read more.

Some media outlets are finally starting to pick up on these similarities that connect back to more reliable research.  For example, FoxBusiness recently published an article citing a recent “What Millennials Want From Their Employers” survey.   This survey found that millennials want:

1.  To do meaningful work and be part of companies doing meaningful work.

2.  A career that has a believable and viable future.

3.  A mentor—someone to show them how to be productive and do their best work.

4.  Community—they want some of their coworkers to also be their friends.

Do these ideas resonate with what you want from your work environment? I bet they do.  Why?   Because they are among the basic things most humans want from their work.  

As you might suspect, all four of these themes are strongly demonstrated in Gallup’s Q12 research, which was originally collected from mostly baby-boomers and some generation X data sets.

The most important workplace engagement themes ring true across generations. 

Focus on these similarities, and you’ll be much further ahead.  Ignore the articles that highlight superficial generational differences.  They may be fun to read, but they won’t help you hire more successfully or coach more effectively. 

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Already of a member of TMOC?  If so, join the WorkPuzzle Dialog Group by clicking on the WorkPuzzle Group icon on the left side of your TMOC homepage.  Questions?   Email the WorkPuzzle editor (workpuzzle@hiringcenter.net) and we'll walk through the process.

 

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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. 

When Recruiting--Should You Trust Your Gut?

In his best selling book, Daniel Kahneman creates the framework for his insights by defining the two “systems” of human reasoning that are employed to make decisions and judgments:

System 1 is sometimes referred to as intuition.  It is fast and automatic and is usually associated with strong emotional bonds.  It is based on formed habits and is very difficult to change or manipulate.

System 2 is sometimes referred to as reasoning.  It is slower and much more volatile, being subject to conscious judgments and attitudes. 

These framework definitions are a simple way of explaining how a judgments can occur in two different ways.  In psychology, this is called a duel process theory.  Obviously, I’m grossly over-simplifying these concepts.  There is much to read on this topic if you care to learn more.

For our discussion, the following chart may be helpful in understanding the concept of System 1 and System 2:

So, here’s a question:

When it comes to making judgments in the recruiting process, is System 1 or System 2 more reliable? 

Before you put too much thought into this question, I’ll share a quick story that contributed to some of Kahneman’s research.  Early in his career, Kahneman and his research partner, Amos Tversky, discovered they both had identical silly ideas about the future professions of several toddlers they both knew.

“We could identify the argumentative three-year-old lawyer, the nerdy professor, the empathetic and mildly intrusive psychotherapist.  Or course, these predictions were absurd, but we still found them appealing. 

It was also clear that our intuitions were governed by the resemblance of each child to the cultural stereotype of a profession.  The amusing exercise helped us develop a theory that was emerging in our minds at the time, about the role of resemblance in predictions.  We went on to test and elaborate that theory in dozens of experiments.”

In simple terms, these gentlemen were employing System 1 to draw conclusions about a person’s fit for a particular profession.  If a human’s mind is susceptible to quickly draw conclusions under these ridiculous circumstances, could it also draw wrong conclusions during a more traditional recruiting encounter? 

Here is another example to consider.  Let’s assume that Steve is selected at random from a representative sample:

“An individual has been described by a neighbor as follows:  ‘Steve is very shy and withdrawn, invariably helpful but with little interest in people or in the world of reality.  A meek and tidy soul, he has a need for order and structure and a passion for detail.’

Is Steve more likely a librarian or a farmer? 

The resemblance of Steve’s personality to that of a stereotypical librarian strikes everyone immediately, but equally relevant statistical considerations are almost always ignored. 

Did it occur to you that there are more than 20 male farmers for each male librarian in the United States?   Because there are so many more farmers, it almost certain that more ‘meek and tidy’ souls will be found on tractors than at library information desks.”

During multiple research studies, Kahneman found that participants ignored the relevant statistical facts and relied exclusively on resemblance.  More specifically, the experiments demonstrated that humans tend to use resemblance to construct mental “rules of thumb.”  Once developed, they rely on these mental rules to make difficult judgments—even to the point where it defies reason and causes predictable biases (systematic errors) in their predictions.

Conclusion:  I think we'd all agree--systematic errors in hiring are a bad thing.  Relying on intuition causes us to hire people we shouldn’t and overlook potential high performers.  According to Kahneman, System 1 reigns supreme when making hiring decisions.  By the way--if you think you’re exempt from this type of reasoning, you’re mistaken.  It affects everyone who evaluates candidates and conducts interviews.*

How do you keep from getting stuck in an endless cycle of systematic errors? 

First, recognize what is happening and make a conscious attempt to resist being controlled by your mind’s System 1.  Second, learn how to employ System 2. 

In our company, we use assessment tools to help us overcome the System 1 dominance.  These tools do help, but it is also important to structure interviews so that you’re collecting data and not just allowing your System 2 to lazily disengage. 

This means asking lots of open-ended questions, formulating thoughtful follow-up questions, listening, taking notes, drawing trial conclusions from your candidate’s answers, asking the candidate to defend their positions, etc. 

We’ll cover more on this topic in future discussions, but for now, work to stay mentally sharp and engaged during your interviews.  It will take more effort, but you’ll make better hires. 

*Note:  After evaluating the financials of many real estate companies over the last seven years, I’ve noticed that most companies have 40% to 60% “D” performers in their ranks at any point in time.  Considering that many “D” performers leave the organization soon after they’re hired, most companies have a very poor track record at selecting high performers.

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Engage in the WorkPuzzle discussion by joining the TMOC private social network.  Commenting on a public blog like WorkPuzzle can be a little intimidating, so why not join the discussion inside the privacy of the TMOC discussion group?  

By joining TMOC, you'll get to see who else is in the group and your comments will only be seen by those whom you trust.   Joining TMOC is quick, easy, and free (no kidding…this takes less than 2 minutes).   To get started, click here.

Already of a member of TMOC?  If so, join the WorkPuzzle Dialog Group by clicking on the WorkPuzzle Group icon on the left side of your TMOC homepage.  Questions?   Email the WorkPuzzle editor (workpuzzle@hiringcenter.net) and we'll walk through the process.

 

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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. 

Making Decisions and Forming Judgments: An Introduction to Daniel Kahneman

A few weeks ago, I started reading a fascinating book called Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. 

I usually move through business books quickly and zero in on the few ideas that seem applicable.  I suspect most business books are intentionally designed to be consumed in this manner.  They’re “sugary” and easy to digest knowing the attention span of the readers (me included) is relatively short.

So it took some courage for Kahneman to write a 500-page book full of substantive content that is fairly difficult to understand.  I’ve been reading for a couple of weeks and I’m only 20% finished!  I recently picked up a couple other books to read in parallel because this one is going to take while, and I don’t want to rush through it.  If I did race through it, I feel like I’d miss a bunch of great insights.

To provide some background, Kahneman won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2002.  Since Kahneman is a psychologist (not an economist), it was unusual for him to win this prize.   In fact, he was the first non-economist (by profession) to win this award.  He won the prize for developing Prospect Theory-- a behavioral economic theory that describes the way people chose between alternatives that involve risk.

Studying Prospect Theory would be beneficial for anyone in the real estate profession (I can’t think of a Nobel-prize-winning topic more applicable to the day-to-day work of a real estate agent), but the topics we’ll be discussing in future WorkPuzzles will focus more on the psychology of making decisions and forming judgments.  Here is quick summary of what we’ll hope to learn:

In his best selling book, Daniel Kahneman will take us on a groundbreaking tour of the mind and explains the two systems that drive the way we think.  System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical.

The impact of overconfidence on corporate strategies, the difficulties of predicting what will make us happy in the future, the profound effect of cognitive biases on everything from recruiting your next agent to diagnosing what causes some of your agents to consistently make the wrong choices—each of these can be better understood by knowing how the two systems shape our judgments and decisions.

Kahneman reveals where we can and cannot trust our intuitions and how we can tap into the benefits of slow thinking. He offers practical and enlightening insights into how choices are made in both our business and our personal lives—and how we can use different techniques to guard against the mental glitches that often get us (and those we manage) into trouble.

Tomorrow, I’ll share some specific insights concerning some of Kahneman's ideas and how they apply to recruiting.  In the future, I'll occasionally revisit this topic with new insights and ideas that apply not only to recruiting, but also coaching and personal performance as well. 

If you want to read the book on your own, the Kindle version in a great bargain (only $4.99 on Amazon) right now.   Also, there are several summaries of this book available if you’re more of the “cliff-notes” type of person. 

Regardless, I believe there is a lot learn from Daniel Kahneman’s manifesto.  Writing from a near 80-year-old’s perspective, he has much wisdom to share.

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Engage in the WorkPuzzle discussion by joining the TMOC private social network.  Commenting on a public blog like WorkPuzzle can be a little intimidating, so why not join the discussion inside the privacy of the TMOC discussion group?  

By joining TMOC, you'll get to see who else is in the group and your comments will only be seen by those whom you trust.   Joining TMOC is quick, easy, and free (no kidding…this takes less than 2 minutes).   To get started, click here.

Already of a member of TMOC?  If so, join the WorkPuzzle Dialog Group by clicking on the WorkPuzzle Group icon on the left side of your TMOC homepage.  Questions?   Email the WorkPuzzle editor (workpuzzle@hiringcenter.net) and we'll walk through the process.

 

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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. 

Top 5 Recruiting Drip Email Questions Answered

If you’ve ever scrolled down to the bottom of a WorkPuzzle email, you’ll notice that we use a company called MadMimi to distribute our blog content.  We chose this company because they have fun way of looking at business, and they do a great job of delivering our emails to our subscribers.

MadMimi is also a thought leader in the arena of email marketing.  Over the last couple of years, I’ve learned a lot about marketing from Dean Levitt (I think he’s the guy who runs the company) and his crew.

Dean recently wrote a blog that is one of the best I’ve ever read on the best practices and metrics of sending marketing emails.  It’s a very long blog with lots of rabbit trails you can follow to learn more.  If you have the time, read the whole post.  Since many of are pressed for time, I’ve selected the top five questions/answers that most apply to recruiting.

Before revealing the top five questions, I want to offer a disclaimer.  I have not been a huge fan of using drip emails in the recruiting process.  The best way to use email in recruiting is to keep your active pipeline numbers low (25 to 50 candidates) and send personal emails to each candidate on a regular basis addressing his/her unique needs and circumstances.   This takes work, but pays the highest dividends in the long term.

So why am I addressing this issue if I believe it’s a bad idea? 

It’s because I get questions concerning this topic so often from our clients and prospects.  Many of you are trying to manage and engage larger talent communities (100+ candidates) in addition to your high-priority active pipeline.  For this purpose, drip email campaigns may be helpful.

Here’s the risk of using drip email:  There are many ways to screw it up!  So, if you’re going to use this tool, listen to Dean and become a student of effective email marketing.  Here are the top 5 questions:

How Long Should Your Drip Emails Be?

Consider this: the average reader spends less than 20 seconds reading your newsletter. Consequently, the links that are clicked most are those links that are up top, or at the very least, visible without scrolling.

With that in mind, I’d say your newsletter can be as long as you’d like but make sure your most important info goes up top. If your newsletter needs 5 minutes of uninterrupted attention by your readers, then you need to be comfortable knowing that most readers won’t make it to the bottom. Also, if your newsletter is taking you hours to compose, it’s probably too long. 

What if you have a lot to say?  Consider hosting the main content outside the inbox.  If you keep your content on your site or blog, you give yourself the luxury to send out much shorter newsletters that then drive traffic back to your site or blog. I’ve found this to be very effective. It can open up new opportunities to engage your subscribers on your site as well as presenting a lot of information in the newsletter as bite sized chunks. This way, your readers can see more within a shorter time span and if something piques their interest, they can click through to your site.

How Often Should You Send Your Drip Emails?

The ideal frequency depends on your content and what your subscribers prefer but if you’re unsure, some experimentation is needed.

Most businesses should send a monthly newsletter and then possibly increase frequency from there. If you find your content is making your newsletter longer and longer then consider increasing the frequency and splitting up the content. 

With increased frequency you’ll notice an increase in unsubscribers and lowered view rates but don’t panic. Add up your open rates over the entire month and if you’re reaching more people by increasing your frequency then that may be the right tactic for you.

When Is The Best Time To Send Your Drip Emails?

This depends on you and requires some experimentation. The studies focusing on best times to send a newsletter tend to look at averages which, when it comes to you, your list and your content, may be meaningless.

That means that while your competitors are sending on Mondays at 8am, and seeing good responses, you might too. However, you also may see better results if you send on the weekend or afternoons and stand out more.

Testing will be needed to find the right time for you, but make sure you’re not basing your email marketing strategy on one test. Test a few newsletters on weekday mornings, midweek afternoons, weekends and evenings. Watch for trends and then decide for yourself if there’s any significant gains at a specific time slot.

Experian Marketing Services found that people responded more to email marketing emails sent on the weekend. They also found that, in general, response rates were higher in the early mornings and in the evenings. That makes sense considering that people tend to check emails with less distractions before and after work.

I’ve seen data hinting that Tuesday through Thursday has higher view rates but an Experian email benchmark report found that Monday emails generated the highest revenue per email.

What Is A Good Or Average Response Rate For Drip Emails?

This is one of those questions that has no straight answer. It’s like asking what the perfect weight is. Everyone is different! 

Overall, average view rates are somewhere between 10% and 25%. If you’re consistently getting below 10%, I’d recommend making some changes. You could adjust your sender frequency, work on improving your list health by removing non-responsive email addresses, work on improving your subject lines and maybe make some changes to your content. 

It’s extremely rare to see emails with view rates above 40% but it is possible with opt-in practices that result in highly engaged subscribers. Targeted, niche market newsletters with strict double opt-in, combined with regular, consistent sends and valuable content tend to have above average results. They also tend to have smaller list sizes. 

Your view rate should be something you’re happy with as well as being realistic. Take small steps to improve constantly. 

How Do I Avoid The Junk Folder?

Avoiding the junk folder is actually quite easy, provided you stick to some best practices that are more common sense guidelines than strict rules. 

The logical starting place is the list itself. If your subscribers signed up, directly with you, and expect to receive your newsletters, you’ll be just fine. If you’d like to stay out of the junk folder, don’t purchase an email list. Nor should you add anyone to your list without their permission.

Staying out of the bulk folder also requires maintaining a view rate that shows ISP’s that people want your newsletter. Aim for a minimum of a 10% view rate. By delivering the type of content your subscribers expected and signed up for, you’ll maintain an engaged audience and keep your view rates up.

Similarly, by removing old, defunct email addresses, you’ll avoid “bounces” and that’s good. A bounce is when we try to send to an email address that’s non-existent, inactive or otherwise undeliverable. ISP’s look at bounces as an indication of a poorly managed email list.

Specific content makes a big difference too. Here are some tips:

• In general, it’s a good idea to avoid hard-sell catchphrases like: Free, Instant, Double your money, Sex, XXX, Win, Cash, Bonus, Membership, Free Offer, Call Now, Rates, $$$’s, Success, etc.
• Excessive use of CAPS LOCK can cause issues, as well.
• Avoid excessive punctuation especially in subject lines. Multiple !!!’s and ???’s can be troublesome. Keep your promotion conversational rather than hard-sell EXTRA!!!! BUY NOW!!! style.
• Keep a reasonable text to image ratio. Email marketing promotions that are all images can trigger spam filters because it looks like you’re hiding something.

 

I know this was a long WorkPuzzle (I definitely broke the first rule on the list), but hopefully you were able to quickly scroll through the issues and find the one most interesting and relevant.  If you’re able to apply even one or two of these best practices, the effectiveness of your recruiting drip emails will improve.

Question:  Do you have things you’ve noticed as you sent recruiting drip emails?  Email me with your lessons learned and I will publish them in a future WorkPuzzle.

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Join the WorkPuzzle Discussion at the Tidemark Online Community (TMOC)

Engage in the WorkPuzzle discussion by joining the TMOC private social network.  Commenting on a public blog like WorkPuzzle can be a little intimidating, so why not join the discussion inside the privacy of the TMOC discussion group?  

By joining TMOC, you'll get to see who else is in the group and your comments will only be seen by those whom you trust.   Joining TMOC is quick, easy, and free (no kidding…this takes less than 2 minutes).   To get started, click here.

Already of a member of TMOC?  If so, join the WorkPuzzle Dialog Group by clicking on the WorkPuzzle Group icon on the left side of your TMOC homepage.  Questions?   Email the WorkPuzzle editor (workpuzzle@hiringcenter.net) and we'll walk through the process.

 

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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. 

Helping People Transition from a Traditional Part-Time Job to a Full-Time Real Estate Agent—Part 3

I want to wrap up the current series of blogs we’ve been working on for the last couple of weeks. The premise of the discussion thus far is that many individuals in the workforce find themselves in part-time jobs that are not fully utilizing their skills, abilities, and talents.

Some of these people may also find the possibility of transitioning into a full-time real estate agent position as an attractive alternative to their current circumstances.

If you haven’t read the previous two blogs in this series, it may be helpful to catch-up (Part 1, Part 2) before reading today’s conclusion.

Assuming you’ve bought into the premise of our discussion, the next question you may be asking is: 

If there are talented individuals languishing in part-time jobs, how do I find them?

The quick answer is figure out where they’re working now. This may not be as hard as it sounds—searching through some of the Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) data will help us uncover some answers.

Here are two tables of data that I found particularly helpful, and I’ve also provided some commentary on each data set.

1.  People working in jobs that require less than a high-school education, who are college graduates.

If a person finds themselves in one of these professions after going through the hard work and financial sacrifice of getting a college degree, I would suspect that many of them are very frustrated.  They are even more frustrated if they can only get part-time hours.

Not all of these job categories would be a natural fit for the real estate industry, but the following professions contain a higher percentage of those who could make the transition to real estate:

 -Retail Sales Persons

-Waiters and Waitresses

-Bartenders

-Home Health Aides

-Telemarketers

Of the 2.9 million people represented in this chart, 1.6 million are employed in these five professions.

2.  People working in jobs that require a high-school education who are college graduates.

Moving up the employment food chain, the next table documents those who are closer to what they would consider a desirable job, but still not quite there.

Almost all of the categories in this group could be viable candidate pools for real estate agents with perhaps the exception of agriculture workers.

Between the two data sets, there are over six million college educated individuals (of all ages) who are working in jobs where they are overqualified. If you also consider that many of these individuals are being forced to work part-time, it’s easy to see why many of them are languishing.

How do these candidate numbers compare to the number of existing real estate agents in the United States? 

The most recent estimates I’ve found report the total number of real estate agents and brokers to be about 2.5 million (900,000 of these agents are Realtors).

If the real estate industry needs to replace 250,000 agents each year (I believe this is a conservative estimate), then a candidate pool of six million is enough to fill this need adequately. 

It is not a stretch to believe that 4% of the candidate pool is a potential fit for a real estate agent position.

Conclusion.  There are many companies in the real estate industry who focus on the conventional candidate pools of experienced agents (agents working for competitors) and new agents who have independently made the decision to pursue a real estate career (these candidates typically show up on a real estate commission’s newly licensed list).

While these candidate pools are important recruiting sources (and should continue to be pursued), many real estate companies do not pursue the “third-pool” of candidates.  The third pool of candidates are the six million individuals identified above.

Those companies who learn to recruit successfully from the third pool will face less competition in the recruiting process, will bring innovation into their companies at a higher rate, and will continue to improve their workforces. 

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Already of a member of TMOC?  If so, join the WorkPuzzle Dialog Group by clicking on the WorkPuzzle Group icon on the left side of your TMOC homepage.  Questions?   Email the WorkPuzzle editor (workpuzzle@hiringcenter.net) and we'll walk through the process.

 

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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. 

Helping People Transition from a Traditional Part-Time Job to a Full-Time Real Estate Agent—Part 2

I received some great feedback on the most recent WorkPuzzle discussion. It seems this topic has struck a cord with several of you.

First, I received confirmation the “defacto brand” of real estate being a destination for people who want to work part-time is far from dead.  In fact, in many markets across the country, this branding is alive, well, and being promoted.

As the real estate industry has started recovering, there are some companies are who are eager to get back to business as usual.  They feel comfortable and excited about the prospects of inviting any and all individuals (part-time, full-time, qualified, unqualified etc.) into their offices.  It’s back to the "in one side, and out the other” conveyor belt of agent hiring.

This reality is unfortunate for those companies who are trying to build high-quality teams.  It’s hard enough to overcome the history of the real estate industry without having to continually compete with those promoting the lowest common denominator in terms of talent, commitment, and focus.  Unfortunately, candidates will continue to be confused and high-performing hiring managers will have to work harder to get their message to the right people.

Secondly, I received some feedback that some of you may not be convinced the part-time / underemployment nature of corporate America is as dismal as I’ve described it. In turn, they don’t seem to have the confidence to sell a real estate career as a compelling full-time alternative to the languishing that underemployment produces in the traditional job market. 

I think some of the data I cited in previous discussions would support this assertion, but perhaps a real-life example would help convince the remaining skeptics.

I was discussing this issue with one of our company’s partners who also owns a large retail establishment in the Seattle area.  As an owner in that business, he makes frequent deposits to the local branch office of a large, publically traded bank. 

This activity has allowed him to strike up several conversations with the tellers and other employees in the bank.  Recently, he made a deposit a couple hours later than his normal time and noticed the bank was nearly empty of employees.  He asked the teller,

“Where is everyone?  It doesn’t seem you have many tellers working today.” 

She replied. 

“They’re off work right now, but they’ll be back right before lunch to start the next portion of their shifts.” 

More discussion ensued, and it became evident the bank had learned to track the frequency and time of day of transactions to the point where they could predict the workload of each teller at any point in the day.

Naturally, it only made sense to have their part-time employees work during times when those transactions were taking place.  A common employee schedule was working an hour, taking two hours off, working two more hours, taking two hours off, and then working two hours to finish up the day.  By the end of the week, each employee has worked 25 hours.  They are comfortably in the range where the employer can avoid paying benefits.

This may seem brilliant from the employer’s perspective, but it is abusive from the employee’s perspective. What kind of employees would accept this kind of work schedule?  It is only those who do not see themselves as having other employment options. There must be a lot of those individuals available because they have no problem keeping positions filled.

As a real estate hiring manager, you have a compelling alternative for some of these individuals.   We all know that becoming a real estate agent is not for everyone, but for some people it could be a wonderful escape from employment situations where they are languishing.

To connect with these individuals, sell the agent employment opportunity as the full-time alternative to what they have been experiencing or will be experiencing in the corporate job world.  

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Already of a member of TMOC?  If so, join the WorkPuzzle Dialog Group by clicking on the WorkPuzzle Group icon on the left side of your TMOC homepage.  Questions?   Email the WorkPuzzle editor (workpuzzle@hiringcenter.net) and we'll walk through the process.

 

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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. 

Helping People Transition from a Traditional Part-Time Job to a Full-Time Real Estate Agent

In years past, the real estate industry developed a reputation of accommodating those individuals who wanted to work part-time.  By contrast, it was common for traditional businesses to require employees to make a full-time commitment to the company.

The real estate industry also attracted many part-time agents because some individuals wanted/needed to keep their “day jobs” that provided medical benefits while working part-time as real estate agents on nights and weekends. 

Enough real estate companies allowed this behavior that the perception stuck and a defacto brand was established from the candidate perspective: The real estate industry is a viable place to work part-time.

This part-time/ full-time dynamic has long been a source of frustration for many high-performing real estate companies, because part-time agents are rarely successful.  While the part-time status is now discouraged (and sometimes even forbidden) by many real estate hiring managers, the candidates often don’t know this until they get to the interview. Their perception is based on the defacto brand.

Wouldn’t it be great if the real estate industry employment brand could be changed so that serious, professional, and full-time candidates were the norm and those wanting part-time work focused on other industries?

That’s exactly what may start happening in the next few years.

How?  This radical change in perception is being driven by some very powerful organic forces in the job market at-large, and real estate companies will have the opportunity to benefit from these changes.  

The powerful change I’m referring to is the propensity that traditional companies have towards cutting employee hours and benefits to avoid upcoming healthcare reform requirements.  A recent article in the Washington Times highlights the impact of these changes:

“Since January 2009 the country has added a net total of 270,000 full-time jobs, but it has added 1.9 million part-time jobs, according to the House Ways and Means Committee.

The numbers come as…businesses [are trying] to save money and push workers into shorter schedules to avoid the penalties that come from hiring more full-time workers, who under the law will be required to be covered with health care insurance.”

Think about what’s happening.   Our economy now has millions of people who are working part-time with no medical or other traditional employee benefits.  Most of these people would rather be working full-time, but their employers don’t offer this option.

To become more gainfully employed, some people are choosing to work two or more part-time jobs. While this may work for some individuals, it’s often difficult to coordinate work schedules and make this option a viable long-term solution.  So, many individuals hang-on to the best part-time job they can find, lower their personal expenses, and wish they had a full-time job. 

As we discussed a few weeks ago, many of these workers are languishing and would be open considering options outside the traditional job market.   To a person in this situation, a real estate agent position may look surprisingly attractive—it’s full-time and has an opportunity for growth that corporate America cannot match.

As you shape your employment brand in the future, I recommend the following:

1. Don’t hire part-time agents.  Offering full-time work is now your competitive advantage.

2. Learn to compete against those offering part-time jobs.  Craft your recruiting messaging and your interview tactics around the concept that your main competitors are non-real estate companies offering part-time jobs.  Find out these competitors’ weaknesses and exploit them during the recruiting process.

There are lots of talented people in the workforce who are not fully utilizing their talents.  For the first time ever, the real estate industry may be in the best position engage these talents and put them to work in full-time positions.

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Engage in the WorkPuzzle discussion by joining the TMOC private social network.  Commenting on a public blog like WorkPuzzle can be a little intimidating, so why not join the discussion inside the privacy of the TMOC discussion group?  

By joining TMOC, you'll get to see who else is in the group and your comments will only be seen by those whom you trust.   Joining TMOC is quick, easy, and free (no kidding…this takes less than 2 minutes).   To get started, click here.

Already of a member of TMOC?  If so, join the WorkPuzzle Dialog Group by clicking on the WorkPuzzle Group icon on the left side of your TMOC homepage.  Questions?   Email the WorkPuzzle editor (workpuzzle@hiringcenter.net) and we'll walk through the process.

 

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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. 

What Causes Some Companies to Recruit Better Than Others?

As many of you know, our company often consults with our clients on the metrics of the recruiting process.   We find that metrics are the most reliable way to diagnose problems and shine light on areas that need improvement.

In some cases, the metrics also point directly to solutions.   For example, if a company is not doing enough interviews to meet their hiring goals, there are very specific and measureable things that can be done to fix the problem.

In other cases, the solutions are less tangible and easy to quantify.  For example, some of our clients are reliably able to convert “interviews to hires” at a much higher rate than other companies.   Why?  That’s a complex question.

As we collect data and try to find an answer to this problem, the path to the solution gets cloudy.   There are many intangible factors that play into the “interview to hire” metric.  It has more to do with the “art of recruiting” than hard metrics and simple tactics.

To illustrate this point, I ran across an article earlier this week written by Tod Sacerdoti, the CEO of a BrightRoll, a video advertising company based in San Francisco.  You may have read this article already—it was widely distributed because of the great content and insight it offered.

Tod correctly identifies the importance recruiting plays in the success of all companies (his examples are from the technology world), but also documents the “secret sauce” he commonly sees high-performing recruiting companies possess.  I think you'll enjoy his insight:

“Recruiters generally get little public credit because the naive observer assumes that good companies get talent for free. That is simply not true.

If you look behind the curtain at many of Silicon Valley's greatest tech companies (Google, Facebook, DropBox, etc) you will find great recruiters. In fact, those recruiters tend to be leaders of large internal recruiting teams and many have materially changed the trajectory of their company's growth, particularly in the formative years.

Great recruiters are different in the way great engineers, great salespeople and great leaders are different -- they have a secret sauce. This secret sauce applies to all roles and levels of recruitment, whether a recruiter is attracting interns, managers or executives.

So, what is the secret sauce of a great recruiter?

Authentic Compassion. The best recruiters are often labeled as a "people person" but what that really means is that they are incredible listeners and they truly care about the people they interact with. Compassion is even more powerful in the long term as people build a relationship and interact across multiple roles and/or companies.

Agile Builders. The best recruiters are data driven and iterate with the same discipline and frequency as the best software developments teams. Understanding a problem (such as sourcing, interview process, closing a candidate), measuring performance and using a sprint process to optimize results on a regular basis are fundamentally agile development skills and requirements for top recruiters.

Positive Marketers. Every interaction an external person has with your company is a marketing impression. This includes every email, phone call or news article, and every person they talk to including a recruiter, front desk admin, interviewer or executive. The best recruiters know this and use every impression as an opportunity to have a positive impact. People often forget that 99% of the time you make an impression on an external person you will not ever hire them so the risk of that impression being negative is high. If every interaction is positive, you will impact not only those individuals but a broad network of potential future hires.

Communication Artists. In today's electronic and busy workplace, communication is an often overlooked art. The best recruiters are able to handle three widely varying communication requirements -- sourcing new candidates, rejecting existing candidates and internal process alignment -- with the same level of empathy, positivity and discipline. Each of these communications is an art in its own right and the best recruiters manage all three such that every interaction leads to positive momentum.

How would you grade yourself on Tod’s “secret sauce” metrics?  In essence, measuring yourself on these ideas is a way you can start to make the recruiting intangibles….tangible.  If you master the issues outlined above, you’re recruitng metrics will not only improve, but you’ll also hire higher-quality agents.   You too could “materially change the trajectory” of your office’s growth through recruiting.

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Join the WorkPuzzle Discussion at the Tidemark Online Community (TMOC)

Engage in the WorkPuzzle discussion by joining the TMOC private social network.  Commenting on a public blog like WorkPuzzle can be a little intimidating, so why not join the discussion inside the privacy of the TMOC discussion group?  

By joining TMOC, you'll get to see who else is in the group and your comments will only be seen by those whom you trust.   Joining TMOC is quick, easy, and free (no kidding…this takes less than 2 minutes).   To get started, click here.

Already of a member of TMOC?  If so, join the WorkPuzzle Dialog Group by clicking on the WorkPuzzle Group icon on the left side of your TMOC homepage.  Questions?   Email the WorkPuzzle editor (workpuzzle@hiringcenter.net) and we'll walk through the process.

 

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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.