You’re Talking, But What Are Your Candidates Hearing?-Part 2

Wednesday, December 04, 2013

As we discussed earlier in the week, there is no such thing as an “active candidate” (someone that needs a job from your company) in the world of real estate.  By default, all prospective agents are “passive candidates.” 

Since passive candidates don’t need a job at your company, they are evaluating if working with your organization is better than what they are currently doing.  Often, their easiest option is to do nothing.

To treat passive candidates (especially new-to real estate prospects) as if they are active candidates is a mistake.  It destroys your chances of convincing high-quality individuals to join your organization.

With this foundation in place, Peter Weddle addresses one more issue during telephone screening that commonly derails the passive candidate recruiting process. 

The issue is inconsistent messaging. 

Peter puts it this way in his recent newsletter:

“In order to engage and effectively influence passive prospects…the recruiter begins the call and continues the selling effort for an opening that was begun in the recruitment ad to which the applicant replied.

This short but carefully orchestrated period should not be used simply to restate the information in the ad, but rather to highlight the key elements of its value proposition. In other words, what makes this opening a special opportunity and what makes the employer a special place to work?

The purpose of this initial interaction is "re-recruitment." It's done to remind the passive prospect why they applied for the job and to reinforce the position's potential advantages for them.”

Notice how the telephone screening builds upon the message the candidate “heard” when they responded to the initial sourcing event.    Typically, a sourcing event would be a job advertisement, but it could also be something like an agent referral or a visit to the career page of your company’s website.

If the initial sourcing message and the next contact (the telephone screening) do not complement and support each other, the candidate will typically sense the disequilibrium.  When this happens, the red flags go up in a prospect’s mind. 

Researchers have frequently demonstrated that the human mind doesn’t like disequilibrium when it is trying to assimilate new information.  If candidates can’t quickly find equilibrium during the telephone screening (“This makes sense based on what I initially heard…”), they’ll eject themselves from the recruiting process to find that equilibrium (“Changing careers was probably not going to work for me anyway.  What was I thinking?…").

By the way, the same principle applies to the interview stage of the recruiting process. 

If the messages at these three recruiting junctures (initial sourcing event, telephone screening, and interview) do not match and support each other, your recurring success with passive candidates will be greatly diminished. 

If you remember the take-away from part one of this discussion—all prospective agents, new or experienced, are passive candidates—you can see why it’s so important to master this technique.

Here is some final advice from Peter:

“The telephone pre-screen is often implemented as a mechanical element of the recruitment process – a pass-fail test that is all about what the employer wants to know. By [being consistent in your messaging] you can both assess applicants more effectively and get more of them – especially those elusive passive prospects – to accept any offer that is made.

Consciously or unconsciously, passive prospects believe that the way they are treated in the recruiting process mimics the way they will be treated as employees, so it's essential to optimize their experience from the beginning to the end.”

Exactly.  

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BenHessPic2011Editor'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. 

You’re Talking, But What are Your Candidates Hearing?

Monday, December 02, 2013

One of the purposes of WorkPuzzle is to aggregate recruiting information and best practices from traditional recruiting industry sources.  While many of the topics that corporate recruiters and staffing companies discuss do not apply to the real estate industry, there are occasional parallels that are instructive.

Peter Weddle, an author and popular recruiting columnist, recently addressed such an issue in his bi- Listening to Candidates Dec 3weekly newsletter.   The topic was telephone screening, but the application for the real estate industry has broader implications.   

We’ll discuss not only the nature of the candidate (who are you talking to?), but also the message your candidates are hearing as they progress through the recruiting process in your organization.

Nature of the Candidate.  For traditional recruiters, candidates come in two flavors—active candidates (those who need a job) and passive candidates (those who are already employed and would consider changing jobs if a better deal came along).

Depending on the nature of the candidate, the initial phone contact (often called a telephone pre-screen) is handled differently.  Peter makes the following distinction:

“Traditionally, the telephone pre-screen has primarily been used to verify the qualifications of candidates and determine if they should be invited for an on-site interview. The assumption behind this approach is that every applicant has already been sold on working for an employer.

While that may be true for active job seekers, it's not true for most passive prospects.  This difference occurs because passive prospects have a choice, and active job seekers don't.

Active job seekers are almost always unemployed, so their application for a position signals their genuine interest in it and, more often than not, their intent to accept an offer made for it. They have applied because they need the job.

Passive prospects, in contrast, are almost always employed, so they can choose to stay with their current employer or to accept any of the offers they have likely received from other employers. They have applied because they are interested, but not yet sold on the job.”

In the real estate recruiting world, there is no such thing as an active candidate. 

Whether you’re recruiting new or experienced agent candidates, they are all, by default passive candidates. 

Why?  Due to the independent contractor nature of the agent/broker relationship and the fact that your competitors are always hiring, no one “needs” a real estate agent job.  Any candidate can easily find a broker at any time with which to hang his or her license.

While this concept probably seems simple and self-evident, it’s amazing how many real estate recruiters treat prospective agents (especially new-to-real-estate candidates) as active candidates.

In the initial telephone pre-screen, they make the assumption that most candidates are unqualified and need to prove themselves worthy of evaluation by the company. There is also a secondary (more subtle) belief that most candidates don’t have other compelling employment options, so they’re considering real estate.

Peter points out that this attitude greatly hinders the recruiting process if the objective is to hire talented individuals:

“Why worry about the different responses active job seekers and passive prospects have to a telephone pre-screen? As the Golden Rule of Recruiting acknowledges: what you do to recruit passive talent will also recruit active talent, but the converse is not true.

In other words, if you configure your telephone pre-screen for active job seekers, it will work just fine for them, but will turn away many if not most passive prospects. On the other hand, if you design the pre-screen for passive prospects, it will have a positive impact on them and on active job seekers as well.”

From this discussion, there are two questions worth considering:

How does your organization treat candidates during their initial phone contact with the organization? 

If you don't know the answer to this question, find out by asking some questions of those making the calls and listening to some of those calls as a third party observer. 

Does the messaging in the telephone pre-screen (positive, passive-candidate messaging) carry over into the other part of the recruiting process (interview, post-interview, etc.)?

We’ll cover this question in Part 2 of this discussion.  As you probably guessed, starting off on the right foot is an important part of connecting with talented individuals, but communicating consistently also plays an important part in shaping the candidate’s perspective. 

 

BenHessPic2011Editor'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. 

I Dare You…..

Monday, November 25, 2013

In past blogs I have focused on the relational aspect of recruiting.  There is another aspect just as
important, but perhaps not as intuitive, and that is the habitual side of a recruiting strategy.  It is one Rinserepeat thing to identify a strategy or process, but another to commit to the execution of said strategy.

The single most important aspect of any recruiting strategy is engagement, be it prospecting, interviewing or following-up.  It is the foundation of any recruiting process, without it you cannot build and sustain a recruiting pipeline that will convert to hiring talent.    Paul Castain, Vice President of Castain Training Systems, wrote a blog extolling the pitfalls of inconsistent prospecting relative to sales, but I usually see parallels in the wonderful world of recruiting in general.

To summarize, Paul pointed out three problems with inconsistent prospecting, two of which stood out to me:

  1. You’re visibility is severely diminished.  Without consistent contact your prospects won’t really know who you are or feel connected to you in any meaningful way.   People want to work with people they know, like and trust. If you are not engaging with them they won’t engage with you.
  2. You’re giving your competition the advantage. You could have the best brand in the world, but if you aren’t talking with a prospect, you know your competitors are.

I would say the number one complaint I hear repeatedly from managers regarding the task of recruiting, is that they just don’t have the time.  There are meetings to be had, fires to be extinguished, agents/staff knocking on doors… This is where the habitual side of recruiting comes into play. 

Schedule your “engagement time” (yes, another feeble attempt at re-framing the term recruiting).  I mean, literally put it on your calendar like any other appointment.  Put on the proverbial “do not disturb” sign and shut your door.   Make this a recurring “appointment” as many times per week as you can to:

  1. Make calls
  2. Send emails
  3. Document your action for the day, including a date for follow-up contact or scheduled meetings
  4. Rinse and repeat

I don’t know if I have any “dare devils” out there, but like Paul did for those in sales, I challenge you to open up your calendar and schedule your “engagement time(s)” and kick-start your recruiting habits.

 

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

The Perfect Conference

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Earlier this week, Dave wrote an insightful blog on how to improve your presentation skills.   There were several great tips that would help even the most experienced presenter to make improvements. 

But, what if you do find yourself attending more presentations than you do actually giving them? It may surprise you, but there are best practices for getting the most out of situations where you’re on the receiving end of presentations.

ConferenceYawn
For an owner or hiring manager, many of these receiving opportunities come at conferences.  The real estate industry is not alone in its affinity from getting together under the auspices of the professional conference.  

Besides being fun to attend, the sharing of information and the face-to-face networking has numerous benefits.   There is no doubt conferences will continue to be an important business tool in years to come.

The downside of professional conferences is they often cost thousands of dollars to attend, and they are not of equal benefit to everyone attending.  This is why a recent article by Siraj Datoo and Gideon Lichfield caught my eye.  The article titled The Complete Guide to Getting Your Money’s Worth Out of Conferences, was originally published on QZ.com and list 13 insights on the topic.   Here are the five I found most helpful:

 "Arrive a day early so you’re not groggy.

An extra night in a hotel might seem indulgent, but it can pay for itself in the value you get out of the event. Arrive the day before a conference starts and work from the hotel that day. When everyone else at the opening reception is haggard from their flights, you’ll be fairly relaxed and in a better state to network.

Be careful where you put your nametag.

If you hang your name badge around your neck it can be hard for people, especially casual passers-by, to see. Instead, put it as high as you can on your chest and next to the shoulder of the arm you shake hands with—so for most people, on the right lapel. That puts it directly in people’s line of sight when you greet them.

Don’t go to many talks—talk to people instead.

There’s a reason why an increasing number of conferences are happy to live-stream their talks and panels: They know that’s not what people pay for. Big-name speakers may draw the crowds, but going to talks is like visiting an aquarium. You look at the fish and they are doing their shtick and you cannot interact with them.

Instead, spend time in the hallways. It’s the chance to meet lots of people with similar interests, and that’s the only thing that makes a conference an irreplaceable experience.

Don’t be shy, and don’t hover

If someone you want to talk to is standing alone, just walk up and say hello. The nametags at conferences ‘imply a social contract’ that people are open to discussion.

If your target is talking to someone else, get into his field of vision from some distance away and walk up to him calmly but confidently, looking straight at him. He will usually become aware of your approach before you get there. You then have a window to interrupt politely, introduce yourself, and either join in or agree to talk later. There’s nothing more irritating than having a conversation with someone else hovering on the edge.

Be helpful to organizers—you never know when it’ll come in handy.

Get to know the organizers and try to help them out, says Vardi. If you’re a constructive member of the community, you may be able to suggest other people to invite—and nothing builds capital with contacts like getting them invited to a conference they want to go to."

Hopefully, these ideas will help you make the most of your next conference.  For more ideas, read the rest of the article on this topic.  If you’re becoming proficient in the use of social media, there are some new aspects to attending conferences that may prove helpful as well.

Bottom line…a little planning, purposeful effort, and attention to detail will insure you’re getting a return on your conference investment.

BenHessPic2011Editor'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. 

The Perfect Presentation

Monday, November 18, 2013

Really? I don’t know that there is a “perfect presentation” but there are certainly some very successful ones. Think of Steve Jobs or Tony Robbins; different personalities and different topics, but both extremely engaging.

Nov 19thI selected this topic for a rather selfish reason. Most of the time I get a favorable response to my seminars, but there have been a few times when I have been left with the feeling that the audience was not fully engrossed with what I had to say. The dazed looks or multiple yawns are usually the first signs!

There are a few scientific facts that are helpful:

“Think of your short term memory as your brain’s Post-It-Note. Like a Post-It- Note it doesn’t have huge capacity. On average our brain can hold onto fewer than 7 items for no more than 10-15 seconds.” (March 18, 2013 Hubspot, Marta Kagan).

There is also a theory called the Picture Superiority Effect that says that concepts are much more readily remembered if they are presented in picture form.

Although studies and theories are always important, perhaps the most relevant proof is how you react to different presentation styles. I like to feel that the presenter is comfortable with the material and that his/her manner genuinely reflects how they feel about the topic. The best presentations have knowledge, passion and emotion.

There are many differing guidelines as to how a speaker might achieve these goals, but here are a few that seem to appear on everyone’s “tips” page.

1. Simplicity:  “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” (Leonardo DaVinci). In all of the presentations I have given or attended, the most memorable and effective are those that don’t overwhelm us with too much information. Keep your delivery to two or three key points. This lets the audience absorb and retain what you really want them to know. By using this method you inevitably repeat; which is great, as that also aids in retention. And be sure to use simple English – don’t be too technical.

2. Be Comfortable: There are lots of ways to achieve this. Some speakers are just “naturals” but that’s rare. The best way to feel comfortable and be relaxed and effective is to know your material. This means practice and rehearse. How much practice depends on you, but you should never rely on your wits or the Power Point to direct the presentation.

3. To Power Point or Not: Although educational presentations may benefit from long winded text or bullet points, most slides are best restricted to powerful images or carefully selected words or phrases. Remember the Picture Superiority Effect.

4. Show Your Passion: If you aren’t passionate about your topic you won’t be able to ignite your audience. Demonstrate your emotion through voice and motion. Get your audience excited about what you have to say. Even if they don’t agree they’ll remember what you had to say. Make sure you have a clear and compelling beginning, middle and end. It’s a bit like a three act play.

5. Control the Environment: Make sure you are focused on your audience as much as you want them to be focused on you. If you notice they are distracted move the presentation along. Remember you are in control!

I am going to take these points to heart and hope they are helpful to you as well. And I hope you will be able to attend my next seminar – it should be close to a “perfect presentation.”

DMPhotoWorkPuzzleEditor'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. 

Lessons from Harvard Graduates

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Earlier today, I found myself mesmerized by an online book named If I knew then: Advice on careers, finance, and life from Harvard Business School's Class of 1963.

As the name describes, a list of Harvard Graduates from the class of 1963, on their 50th anniversary of Harvardgraduation, offer advice on a number of topics ranging from careers, business, marriage, leadership, happiness, wealth and several others. I thought this might come in useful as a resource in leading and inspiring others. 

Business

Ralph Linsalata

"Never use the pronoun “I” except when taking responsibility for a problem or mistake. When success occurs, it should always be “we” or “they.”

Communication with all employees is critical. Strategies must be explained repeatedly — as many as 20 times — before most people really understand them.

The right culture is also critical. It takes a long time and an exceptional amount of effort to change a bad culture. Most companies fail because they do not have the right culture. 

All competitive advantages last for a very short time. You have to be paranoid to stay as the leader of a successful company."

Judy Ley Allen

"Surround yourself with the smartest, most ethical people you can find. Set clear goals, communicate them clearly, and delegate."

Happiness & Success

Artie Buerk

"When I entered Harvard Business School, I was staggered by the ability of classmates (especially Ivy-Leaguers) to talk. Everyone seemed trained to be very articulate. In my mind, people were given two ears and one mouth for a reason: one should listen many more times than one should talk.

Active listening requires understanding what you are hearing, asking follow-up questions, and watching body language. The better one listens, the better one learns.

As one ages, it seems that people tend to talk more about themselves and less about the people they are talking to. Listen more and talk less for success."

John A. Fabian

"The most successful lives are those people who have had a very positive impact on a great many other people."

Marriage & Family

Ralph Linsalata

"Tell your spouse and children that you love them every day, no matter how you feel.

 Do not bring your problems home with you.

Realize the joy that comes from helping your spouse and children excel in their fields of interest and enjoy themselves.

Develop within your family a sense of obligation to help others.

Spending quality time with your family — not just time — is critical.

Choose a spouse who will understand and support you, and one for whom you will  do the same. Life is much better if you can help each other grow and expand your  knowledge, experiences, friends, and capabilities."

Gerald (Jerry) Wolin

"When raising children, make sure they grow up to be independent. Too many of us want to make life easy on our kids and save them from anguish. That is not always the best course of action."

Donald P. Nielsen

"Marriage is an 80–20 partnership, on both sides. If you each understand that, you always go out of your way to please your spouse. When both partners do that, you have a happy marriage.

The greatest gift you can give your children is to love one another."

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It's hard for any of us to imagine 50-years into the future–especially when we're young and inexperienced. This is one of the reasons it's so important to learn the lessons of those who have more experience.  As you lead and coach the young agents under your care, share these insights and the insights of others who have gone before us.  It will not only enrich your coaching experience, but it may also make you a better person in the process.

 

DMPhotoWorkPuzzleEditor'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.