WorkPuzzle

3 Recruiting Habits of Successful Leaders- Part 2

In Tuesday's article, I began a discussion about what it takes to be great at recruiting.

I quoted an article in Forbes written by Meghan Biro entitled, "5 Recruiting Habits of Successful Leaders." I found all of the precepts relevant, but there were 3 habits that really seemed to define what is needed to be successful in the area of recruiting.

Habit 1 was discussed in the previous blog. Today's article will present habits 2 and 3.

To refresh your memory of the concept, here is the first paragraph of Meghan's article.

"The simple fact is that recruiting is often a company’s first impression, and a reflection of its culture and workforce brand personality. It’s a spectacular — and too underexploited — opportunity to wow, woo, seduce and excite talent. Top talent doesn’t want to work in Dullsville. They want to work in a company that understands, challenges, excites, surprises and delights them. They want to work hard, play hard, and feel appreciated.  Recruiting should be where the courtship starts. Your organization doesn’t have to be a Zappos or Google — to attract “the right fit” and talent skill set you need to soar.”

Below are excerpts from the remaining two habits that are specific for recruiting:

Make The Necessary Leadership Changes

Your weaknesses should be pretty obvious when your inventory is finished. Whatever you decide, consider hiring outside talent to help you develop a holistic, integrated recruiting process. Of every choice, ask the following two questions:

    Is this going to help us attract stellar talent?

    Is it a true reflection of our company?  Remember: Recruitment is a major branding opportunity.

Keep It Real

As I touched on above, your recruiting process must be a genuine reflection of your company’s leadership and workplace culture. Whether your organization is way zany, slightly playful, or downright dour, you want to attract talent that feels comfortable in your culture.

HR and Recruiting are an untapped gold mine for too many organizations. Work hard to make them a reflection of your mission and methods, appealing and user-friendly, and able to identify and communicate with the right talent. This is an exciting exercise in leadership excellence.

Without exceptions, those who follow the above advice not only recruit well, but they recruit the best talent.

Remember who your real recruiting competitors are. They aren’t other Real Estate companies, although they do matter. Your real competitors are other industries, also seeking the best talent in your community.   And most of them understand the above principles.

Do you?

 

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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. 

3 Recruiting Habits of Successful Leaders

Over the last 10 years, we have had the experience of partnering with companies who are dedicated and thriving at recruiting and also those who have not found the same success.

Why? I have two questions I always ask myself when considering the recruiting process of a particular client:

 

"Would talented people I know want to work here?"

"Which of these managers would be effective in inspiring talented people to work here?"

Those simple but powerful questions get at the heart of what we all must ask ourselves when it comes to examining and improving the recruiting process in our respective companies.

In my quest to gather information on how to best assess your process, I came upon a Forbes Magazine article; 5 Recruiting Habits of Successful Leaders by Meghan Biro.

Although all of them were relevant, there were three that I felt were critical to establishing a well developed recruiting process. Today I will present and examine the first critical habit and my next blog will cover the last two.

Ms. Biro begins the article with the following:

“The signs start early in the hiring process: a dry, lifeless job posting or stale employer branding that does not feel inspired….. I can remember walking out of a few select interviews earlier in my career and saying to myself, “There is no way I’m working at that mausoleum.” Or better yet – I’ve enjoyed being part of a world class organization recruiting top talent – where every day of interviewing seems to feel like a rush of adrenaline. You see – I’ve been on all sides of this equation in my own career – The best of the best, the good, the ugly.

The simple fact is that recruiting is often a company’s first impression, and a reflection of its culture and workforce brand personality. It’s a spectacular — and too underexploited — opportunity to wow, woo, seduce and excite talent. Top talent doesn’t want to work in Dullsville. They want to work in a company that understands, challenges, excites, surprises and delights them. They want to work hard, play hard, and feel appreciated.  Recruiting should be where the courtship starts. Your organization doesn’t have to be a Zappos or Google — to attract “the right fit” and talent skill set you need to soar.”

"Habit #1: Take A Workplace Culture Inventory. Take a good hard look at your current HR and recruiting practices. Put yourself in the shoes of a talented person who has never heard of your company.

• How are you trying to reach that person?
• Are you using filtering tools to target the right kind of talent you need?
• How is the language in your employer branding and follow-up information? Stodgy branding can be a real turn-off.
• What about your career site design? Is it fresh and appealing to to all generations? 
  
• How are your initial and follow-up contacts conducted? Deconstruct the whole recruiting process from initial posting to final hire.
• Where do you need to make changes to catch the eye and imagination of the talent you need?
• Do you solicit feedback from recent hires and even those who decided to take another career opportunity – yes, at another brand."

The consistent theme among the Real Estate companies best at attracting and landing top talent (who have never considered Real Estate as a career) is that they never cease tweaking the recruiting process to make their company more appealing.

Take some time to ponder how your most talented friends would experience your recruiting process. Is it designed to attract or repel them?

More next edition.

 

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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. 

Why the best Recruiting Coordinators and Managers Sell the Invisible

While driving in my car, I have been listening again to Selling the Invisible, a book by Harry Beckwith.

You might think that I picked this title as a means of improving our sales within Tidemark, but you’d be mistaken.   I did read this book a few years ago for that purpose, but this time I wanted to think through how proven marketing ideas could help you improve the recruiting process. 

It’s been my observation that most well-run real estate companies understand that they are not only in the real estate transaction business, but also in the agent recruiting business. Gaining market share means performing both functions well.

I’ve also noticed that top recruiting companies share a common defining characteristic—their management teams tend to seek out any and all information that might lead them to increased results. There is a solid correlation between openness to assessment/feedback and steady improvement.

Those who are not willing to track, examine, metric, compare, and seek improvement (including challenging long-held beliefs) will invariably underperform their competitors and peers.  

As I was listening to Selling the Invisible from this perspective, I wrote down several principles that differentiate the best recruiting companies behavior from those who struggle.  Here are some of the standout differentiators and my comments beside each one:

Assume your service is bad. It can't hurt, and it will force you to improve. It is so uncanny how the best leaders I have ever met in my entire life have always made this assumption. Conversely the worst have an arrogant stance of "we've figured it out." I have learned a great deal through the humility of these fine leaders. 

Ignore your industry's benchmarks, and copy Disney's.  The point here is to surprise the candidate. Remember the blog we did on the offices that display a welcome sign with each candidate’s name before every interview? 

Big mistakes are big opportunities. If you aren't' performing well, see it as a time to examine, learn and improve.  If you make a mistake with a candidate, follow it with an apology, a gift card, and a promise to improve.  This will typically work wonders to reversing the course of the hiring process for most people. 

Don't just think better. Think different. Be open to out of the box ways of understanding a dilemma. Don't get so locked into old belief systems that you aren't willing to entertain other ways of seeing realty. You just might discover something revolutionary. 

Don't just create what the market needs or wants. Create what it would love. For recruiting, the market is the candidates you’re interviewing. The thing that all candidates love is to be understood thoroughly before making any bold statements about how you can solve their pain.

Every act is a marketing act. Make every employee a marketing employee. From the first contact with a candidate until he hands you his license, every touch with him is a marketing message.

What does each step in your recruiting process suggest to a candidate?  The candidates who will turn into top producing agents will be intuitively sensitive to how they are being treated (this is part of what will make them great agents).

If anyone on your team is not treating them with the upmost amount of respect, they WILL go elsewhere. If you’re waiting for agents to prove themselves before treating them with this respect, you ARE losing the best candidates. 

In most professional services, you are not really selling expertise - because your expertise is assumed, and because your prospect cannot intelligently evaluate your expertise anyway. Instead you are selling a relationship. Hopefully this speaks for itself. 

Which of the above principles can you improve upon? Which are strengths? Which are weaknesses?  Know that it is easier to see the weaknesses in others rather than yourself, so you might want to re-read the list a couple of times and make it a point of discussion with some of your peers.

Make sure you don’t miss the first point as you process this information-- we all must entertain a need for improvement if we want to grow. 

 

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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. 

Best of...Advice for the 2014 Grads

There is a plethora of professional advice floating around the internet this time of year. As the celebrities and politicians are called upon to do commencement speeches, each tries to boil down the essence of their success into short 20-minute speeches.

This is a very difficult thing to do.

How can a high-performing person really summarize a complex career into a few choice nuggets that could be taken and applied by the graduates he or she is addressing?

Most can’t do it (and I believe I would probably be in that group).  Instead of offering something meaningful or profound, they fall back on platitudes or focus on issues that most normal people can’t really apply.

Each year, I try to find a couple of these commencement speeches that rise above the norm and, at least, border on being profound.  I’ll share two of my favorites from this year in the WorkPuzzles ahead.

Why should you care about graduation advice?

I would argue that much of the advice that is being offered to graduates could be applied to the new agent interviews and to new agent coaching.   Many of the new to real estate candidates and agents are dealing with the same issues as the new grads: 

How do they use their talents and training to make an impact in the professional world?

My second “favorite speech” this year was not a speech at all, but instead a Twitter rant done by Marc Andreessen.  He was responding to the widespread notion that grads should follow their passions in the pursuit of their careers (see an example here).

The Twitter dialog was captured by Rob Wile a couple of weeks ago and documented in a posting on Business Insider.  Here is Marc Andreessen’s advice for graduates this year:

Tweet #1:  Thesis: "Do what you love" / "Follow your passion" is dangerous and destructive career advice.

Tweet #2: We tend to hear it from (a) Highly successful people who (b) Have become successful doing what they love.

Tweet #3: The problem is that we do NOT hear from people who have failed to become successful by doing what they love.

Tweet  #4:  Particularly pernicious problem in tournament-style fields with a few big winners & lots of losers: media, athletics, startups.

Tweet #5:  Better career advice may be "Do what contributes" -- focus on the beneficial value created for other people vs. just one's own ego.

Tweet #6: People who contribute the most are often the most satisfied with what they do -- and in fields with high remuneration, make the most $.

Tweet#7: Perhaps difficult advice since requires focus on others vs. oneself -- perhaps bad fit with endemic narcissism in modern culture?

Tweet #8: Requires delayed gratification -- may toil for many years to get the payoff of contributing value to the world, vs short-term happiness.

I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but I think Twitter might be a good thing.  If it causes people to articulate their thoughts in such a concise and meaningful way—it would be a great thing.

This is simple and profound advice that every candidate and new agent needs to hear.  If your new agents all bought into this mentality, you’d hire many more top performers!

Later this week, I’ll share my favorite commencement speech from this year’s graduation season.  After reading the transcript, I immediately sent it to my four oldest kids with a note that said, “You've got to read/watch this…”

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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. 

Shortcuts to Recruiting?

Roger Stauback once said: 

“Nothing good comes in life or athletics unless a lot of hard work has preceded the effort. Only temporary success is achieved by taking shortcuts.”

“Recruiting people who don’t even have a real estate license is a waste of time.”

This statement is not unusual to hear from managers in the real estate industry.

These managers view the deeper pipeline approach (an approach that attracts people who have never considered real estate as a profession much less considered attending licensing school) as not worth their time or efforts.

I would guess that there are many of you reading this article who have held this belief in the past; or perhaps still do. If you can support that belief with logic and metrics, I would be more than happy to consider your points. I just haven't seen that so far.

The primary approach for Recruiting in the real estate industry has included the following 3 options:

• Recruit experienced agents;
• Contact new real estate licensees (through State listings)
• Wait for the newly licensed to come to you.

There is nothing inherently wrong with this type of recruiting. In fact most companies would miss out on good candidates if these methods were overlooked.

However, it's our belief that if a company relies solely on these procedures they are ignoring a huge market of potential candidates. This would be the pipeline group who may take 4 to 12 months (and a bit of listening, coaching and vocational counseling) to join your company. But they are definitely not a "waste of time."

It is always difficult to move forward with change. We all have our set routines and comfort zones. However, this can also cause us to be short-sighted and overlook errors in our logic.

For today's edition, let's look at what I consider one such error.

“I don’t have time to spend with someone who is undecided about whether to become a real estate agent, let alone answer so many of their questions, waiting months for them to come on board."

Using time wisely and effectively is important to all of us, especially in the real estate industry. Many of us look for the shortcuts assuming these will achieve the objective. Hiring the "easiest to hire" is an example of one of those shortcuts. While this may take less time initially, one wonders how much more time and resources these candidates, who love HGTV or visiting open houses, burn up in the future with attrition, etc?  There is a reason that the phrase “low hanging fruit” has developed some negative connotations. The best fruit takes time, effort and attention to ripen and mature.

On a personal note, my daughter works in the recruiting division of a large, well-known global company. It is the type of company that everyone wants to work for so they are bombarded by applicants. However, this company systematically pursues candidates from outside the applicant field, because they realize that it is vital to attract employees that they want, not just employees who want them.

Yes, this approach takes time and effort-but the results are that you will likely find the near-perfect match to meet your recruiting goals and objectives.

 

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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 Hiring Trends (Part 3): Top 8 Reasons People are Leaving Their Jobs in 2014 (and Why This Matters to the Real Estate Industry)

Do you worry about the retention of the agents in your company?  Of course you do.

The real estate financial model is built on the concept of an agent producing an annuity.   After making a substantial investment upfront (hiring a new agent), you hope the agent produces an ongoing return on your initial investment. If the agent leaves your organization, the annuity stops.

As a real estate owner, executive, or hiring manager, it’s only natural to focus most of your mental energy on the retention of these revenue-producing agents.  So, it’s going to be a challenge to recognize what is going on in the broader employment market regarding retention.

However, if you’re going to be successful at “new to real estate” recruiting, that’s exactly what you need to do. Someone else’s retention problem is your opportunity. 

So, why are traditional employees leaving their jobs? 

Jacquelyn Smith of Forbes magazine recently summarized a study conducted by CareerBuilder on this topic. 

[Earlier this year], CareerBuilder conducted a survey among 3,008 workers nationwide to find out who is most likely to change jobs in 2014, what employees value most in the workplace, and what ultimately entices them to stay with their employers.

For the people who were planning to leave their jobs in 2014, here are their top complaints:

Concerns over salary. (66%)

Don’t feel valued. (65%)

Dissatisfied with advancement opportunities. (45%)

Dissatisfied with work/life balance. (39%)

Feel Underemployed.  (39%)

Experiencing a high level of stress. (39%)

Poor opinion of their boss. (37%)

Overlooked for a promotion. (36%)

This is very valuable information—especially during an interview.  Each of these reasons can be easily crafted into an open-ended question and worked into the flow of the interview.

For example, you might say something like:

“So, we’ve talked a little about your work experience.  How does your current employer value the contribution you’re making to your team?”

If the person is feeling undervalued, you’re going to hear about it.   This is a probable lead-in to the issues that really matter to this person.  

As we’ve discussed many times in the past--unless you find the personal pain of each individual (and eventually answer that pain), you’ll rarely get them to make a change.

Now, let’s look at the opposite side of the argument:  What are the factors that typically cause employees to stay in their current jobs?

CareerBuilder also asked respondents who plan to stay put the top reasons for not wanting to leave their current job. Here were the top reasons:

Like the people they work with.  (54%)

Experiencing a good work/life balance. (50%)

Satisfied with their benefits. (49%)

Happy with their salary. (43%)

Of course, it would be easy to work these issues into the interview dialog as well.  In this case, you’re looking for an emotional connection to one or more of these issues.  

For example, if a candidate loves their employee benefits and can’t imagine giving up them up, he’s probably not going to leave his current job.  Go find another candidate, this one is wasting your time.

Here’s some homework for you:  Make a list of these 12 factors (8 negative and 4 positive) and bring them to your next interview.   Try to weave a few of these issues into your interview as open-ended questions and let me know how it goes.

This WorkPuzzle will wrap-up the series on employment trending.  There is lots of great news for real estate hiring:  the local talent pool is bigger than it’s ever been (Part 1), people are finally feeling confident enough in the job market to voluntarily leave their jobs (Part 2), and research on retention let’s you know where to focus your efforts during interviews (Part 3). 

In the hands of a thoughtful hiring manager, this information can be used to produce high-quality hires and profitable new agents.

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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. 

New Hiring Trends (Part 2): Lower Unemployment Causes More People to Consider Real Estate

Today, I’ll continue a short series on several of the hiring trends (in the employment market at large) that we’ve noticed over the last few months, and how these trends could impact real estate recruiting. 

If you missed last week’s post, catch up when you get some time or jump into the discussion now.  Each of these topics will make sense on its own.

As I’ve been out and about over the last six months, I’ve noticed many more “Help Wanted” signs on display in store windows and other businesses.   At least in Seattle, it seems like the job market has improved significantly.

Are you noticing the same thing in your area? 

According to recent data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, this is happening in many parts of the country.  Matt Phillips, a free lance writer and frequent contributor to the business blog Quartz recently made these observations:

Wow. The US labor market shifted into a higher gear in April, as 288,000 new jobs were created.  The unemployment rate also tumbled from 6.7% in March to 6.3% in April….   The US is just 120,000 jobs away from recovering all losses from the Great Recession.

 

In the article, Matt goes on to explain the complexities of this data and how there are some additional factors that must be considered if you want to understand the whole picture.

However, this we know to be true:  It’s becoming increasingly easier to find a job in the United States since things bottomed out four years ago.  

So, here’s an important question: If the unemployment rate is trending lower (ie. it’s easier to get a job), does that help or hurt new agent real estate hiring?

I know this will sound counterintuitive, but it actually helps.   Here is a trend that our company has noticed as we’ve sourced hundreds of thousands of real estate candidates over the last decade:

The lower the unemployment rate, the higher the number of people who will consider becoming real estate agents.

Most hiring managers and owners make the assumption that a tighter employment market would decrease the number of people considering a real estate job because there are more traditional jobs available and the competition for employees (at large) has intensified.

The opposite is true.

Why? The answer has to do with both opportunity and risk.

Understanding Opportunity.   People tend to seek out opportunity as more jobs become available.  During the recession, individuals who had jobs (especially good jobs) felt fortunate and hung on to those jobs tightly.

This doesn't mean they liked their jobs.  In fact, many of them hated their jobs.  So, when they start to see light at the end of the tunnel (more jobs becoming available) they are more likely to jump at new opportunities—including real estate opportunities.

Understanding Risk.   Becoming a real estate agent involves much more risk than most career choices.  If things don’t work out as expected, most people want to have a backup plan in place.  That backup plan usually involves returning to a job or career they previously held.

In a low unemployment/robust job market, it's safe to assume that a talented person can get their old job back or find one similar at another company. Once the job market improves to a state where this sense of abundance is widespread, the risk of stepping into a real estate career does not feel so overwhelming.

Bottom line:  That “Help Wanted” poster you’re seeing at your local mall is a positive trend for the real estate industry.  The risk of moving into real estate is lower than it’s been in years and many talented individuals are finally ready to seriously consider new opportunities.  Don’t miss your chance to recruit these individuals.

 

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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. 

New Hiring Trends (Part 1): Declining Number of People Relocate to Get a Job

We’re going to take a short break from Dave’s series on the science of sleep.  He’ll finish up this topic later this week. 

I’ve gained several important insights  from his WorkPuzzles on this topic.   If you haven’t read these posts, take some time to catch up before his final article.   But, don’t stay up late reading them—you need the sleep!

Today, I’ll start a short series on several of the hiring trends (in the employement market at large) that we’ve noticed over the last few months, and how these trends could impact real estate recruiting.

The first trend was recently documented by Richard Florida in The Atlantic Cities online magazine.  Richard points out that the number of people who are willing to relocate (ie. move their residence) to obtain a new job is at a near record low.

Americans are moving less and less these days. Last year, just 11.7 percent of us (a near record low) packed up and moved across town or the country, a huge decline from the ferment of the 1950s and 1960s.

…Most moves are local, from neighborhood to neighborhood in the same city or county, and are largely driven by seeking better housing or more proximity to family and friends.

But long-distance moves between states are different. These interstate moves are typically driven by those seeking better job opportunities.

So, if long distance moves are not happening as frequently, what does that tell us about the job market? The National Bureau of Economic Research makes this basic observation in a recent working paper:

Controlling for a wide variety of economic, social, and demographic factors, the study finds that none of the usual suspects – including a higher rate of home-ownership – can fully explain the simultaneous decline in job and residential mobility.

Instead, the evidence suggests that Americans are moving less because they're changing jobs less often, and they're changing jobs less often because the money to be gained from doing so just isn’t as good as it was in the past.

Bottom line:  Americans are moving less—and not as far—because it's not nearly as worthwhile economically.

If you dig into the numbers even further, you’ll find that the economic benefit (or lack there of) can actually be quantified.

Looking in more detail at three cohorts of workers from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth covering the late 1970s to the late 2000s, the authors find that the economic benefits of changing jobs has indeed decreased.

For the oldest workers studied, the gains from changing employers added up to about 7 percent. For the two later cohorts, the benefit to switching jobs had fallen to about half that level (about 3%).

Finally,  there is one more factor worth considering.  It may be that the nature of jobs is changing. Jobs that used to require relocation, either are going away or no longer require relocation to perform the function.

Overall, the authors conclude, our results point more towards the idea that fewer location and job changes are needed in today’s economy.  [This] does not necessarily indicate that economic activity in the U.S. has become less dynamic.

It may be due to changes in the employment practices of firms or it may be due to more efficient sorting of workers into positions. Or both.

A few take-ways from today’s discussion:

Job-related relocations will likely stagnate or continue to decline.  If your real estate company is heavily dependent on relocation business, there may not be a lot of growth ahead.   Of course, there are other types of relocation (ex. retirement migrations to warmer weather), but job-related relocation is not a growth business.

Without job-related relocations, hiring real estate agents becomes easier.   This employment trend is another nail in the traditional corporate job coffin.  If companies are no longer willing to relocate employees, this leaves many more talented employees open to considering real estate as a career option.

In essence, almost all of the individuals in the labor force are considering jobs they can do without relocating because relocating doesn’t have much of a financial upside and it’s not worth the hassle. 

While talented employees used to look regionally, nationally, and maybe even globally to find the best job, they are now more focused on finding local positions.   The local talent pool is the place real estate companies have always found agents.  Now, the pool has more fish in it.

In my next WorkPuzzle, we’ll spend some time looking at the unemployment numbers.   Again, there is good news for real estate companies coming from the broader job market.

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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. 

Another 2.8 Million Real Estate Candidate’s You’re Missing—Part 2

Earlier this week, I pointed out a new trend that has developed in the workforce.  This trend is the long-term and extensive use of temporary or contract workers.

If you need to catch-up, read the WorkPuzzle posted earlier this week.

The fact that these workers exist (and many are frustrated with their current work situation) was our previous topic, but how can a real estate hiring manager engage these workers successfully?

Finding where they work.   The first step to engaging contract workers is finding where they work.   Here are the industries where you’re most likely to find temp/contract workers:

Agricultural, Automotive Repair, Barber/Beauty/Nail Salons, Computer Programmers, Software Designers, Consultants, Insurance/Financial Services,

Long-Haul Truck Drivers, Medical Professionals, First Level Health Care /In Home Care, Office Personnel , Pharmacists, Political Campaigns / Petition Gatherers, Inside/Outside Sales, Telemarketing, Travel Agents, Information Technology, Engineering /Scientific, Accounting/Finance, Management (including executives), Legal.

It may seem a little awkward at first, but many of these workers are people that you could connect with during your normal business and personal dealings.  

For example, let’s suppose that you’re having a life insurance physical and the person sent to your office to take your blood sample shows up for her appointment.

It’s not that hard to say something like this:

“Hey, do you happen to be a contract worker?  I was reading recently that about the increase in contract positions...”

Learning about their frustration.  If individuals are doing contract work and they’re frustrated with their situation, they’ll be more than happy to tell you about it.

Ask a few questions such as:

“How did you get this job?” 

“Was this your first choice, or were you originally looking for something more permanent?”

“Do you feel like there is a future in this job, or is it a stepping stone to something else down the road?”

During the discussion, ask a few more open-ended follow-up questions based on their answers.   It won’t be long before you uncover a bunch of frustration about their employment circumstances.

Most of the frustration will center around two issues—they’ll probably dislike the work their doing, and they won’t see a viable future in staying in this role for a long period of time.

Offer a Better Alternative.  If someone is experiencing a high level of frustration, they will naturally be more open to new ideas.   It’s not hard to say something like this:

“Considering your situation, have you ever thought about working in a field that would offer more long-term potential and give you more control over your future?”

“I manage a local real estate office, and I work with many great agents who come from all different career backgrounds and now have successful careers.  Perhaps this could be a fit for you.”

As you carry on this part of the discussion, it’s helpful to also point out that transitioning to real estate from a temporary or contract position can be less risky and financially more palatable for workers in contract positions.  

Why?   Because contract workers often have some flexibility over the number of hours they work and the schedules they keep.   They may be able to slowly ramp down their contract work level as they increase their focus on real estate.

There are a lot of temps/contract employees working in today’s job market.  Try identifying them and engaging them in a discussion about their careers.  It’s not as hard as it may sound at first, and soon you’ll start to enjoy the challenge.  Let me know how it goes!

 

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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. 

Another 2.8 Million Real Estate Candidates You’re Missing

Last year, I wrote a WorkPuzzle on the large pockets of workers in the economy that would be well
positioned to transition to a real estate career.  In total, there are over 6-million workers who are “underemployed” and could potentially use their education and talent to upgrade their careers in the real estate industry.

Over the weekend, NBC News reporter Martha White uncovered another 2.8 million employees in today’s workforce who may be open to transitioning to the real estate industry.

Who are these individuals?  They’re temporary or contract workers (often called temps), and they now make up over 2% of the workforce in the United States. 

They may be more open to transitioning to industries such as real estate because the nature of the temp employment world is changing.   What used to be a pathway to fulltime employee status in many companies is now a dead-end road.   White makes these observations,

For Americans who can’t find jobs, the booming demand for temp workers has been a path out of unemployment, but now many fear it’s a dead-end route.

With full-time work hard to find, these workers have built temping into a de facto career, minus vacation, sick days or insurance. The assignments might be temporary — a few months here, a year there — but labor economists warn that companies’ growing hunger for a workforce they can switch on and off could do permanent damage to these workers’ career trajectories and retirement plans.

Like underemployed workers (those working less than 29 hours per week), these individuals are not receiving traditional employee benefits.  This “levels the playing field” for what real estate companies are able to offer new agents.

So while the frontend of the arrangement for real estate agents looks similar to the value proposition being offered to temp workers, there is much more upside potential in the real estate industry.   Agents who are successful establish independent businesses that produce higher wages and earn the capacity to purchase the traditional employee benefits. 

Most temp workers will never have this advantage.  White points out the structural changes that are happening in the workforce are probably here to stay.

Economists say it’s typical for temporary hiring to rise initially as the economy recovers, before businesses are ready to commit to hiring full-time employees. But, … the current pattern doesn’t fit historic norms.

Right now we’re seeing something interesting.  We’ve seen [temporary hiring] surpass its previous highs, so it looks like there could be a structural shift going on, too. There’s a reason to believe we might see some increase in the use of temporary help in general.

No one wants to be stuck in a temp job with little opportunity for growth and advancement, but that’s what most traditional companies are offering these workers.  To a person in this situation, transitioning to a real estate career may seem compelling.

Finally, who are the people who find themselves in this position?  In addition to being numerous, they also share a few other characteristics.  First and most importantly, they are people who want to work, and are more established in their careers.

Second, they generally have education and skills that allow them to get up and running certain jobs quickly.  For example, White demonstrates how diverse the temp worker market has now become:

More kinds of businesses seem to be drawing that conclusion, as industries not thought of as traditional temp work territory are using more contract workers. [For example, even] adjunct college professors face much of the same uncertainty and lower wages than their full-time counterparts.

Bottom line

There is a large and growing part of the workforce who are employed in temporary/contract jobs.  While many of these individuals are educated and talented, they are frustrated because they are not being offered permanent positions and see little hope for career advancement.   Transitioning to the real estate industry may be a better option for some of these individuals.

In my next WorkPuzzle, I’ll address the issue engaging these workers successfully and helping them make the transition to a career in real estate.

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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.