Beyond finding great talent, one of the biggest problems that real estate brokerages face is agent retention. In fact, it can be argued that it’s more challenging to retain good employees than to hire them. What’s worse is that when an agent leaves (voluntarily or involuntarily), the brokerage’s productivity can suffer as a whole and affect overall profits.
This is why you need to step up not just your recruitment efforts but also retention programs. This way, you can minimize agent turnover and thus keep your brokerage growing continuously, consistently. Here are some straightforward tips to keep in mind:
Hire the Right People Right From the Beginning
Many cases of agent turnover stem from bad hires. As such, the logical solution is to prevent or at least reduce these incidents. Some of the things you can do include the following:
- Be clear about the brokerage’s culture
- Make sure that the job descriptions on your ads reflect actual job responsibilities
- Involve peers in the selection process
- Maintain a high-quality talent pool
- Don’t get stuck on the “ideal candidate” and pass up on high-potential candidates
- Diversify your sources of hire
Finally, don’t rush the process. There are times when you urgently need a new person to fill a vacancy, but snap decisions tend to be good for the moment instead of the long haul. Be conscientious in recruiting people, even if it’s for an urgent position.
Use Data to Bolster Your Recruitment Efforts
In relation to the previous point, avoiding bad hires can become an easier task if you employ data and analytics. Doing so can help you understand the talent market, pinpoint the best agents in the area, and interpret current market trends. Ultimately, you can use the information to finetune your recruitment efforts and maximize your budget.
A good source of data would be broker metrics. This is a tool from Terradatum that transforms MLS market data into easy-to-understand market statistics, providing you with a clear view of the industry and how your brokerage stacks up. BrokerMetrics can also help you analyze agent performance and market dynamics so you can choose the right person to meet the demands of the market.
Help Foster Strong Bonds
No one wants to work in a company where they can’t get along with their colleagues. This is true in any industry, be it real estate or other fields. Thus, if you want your employees to stay and stay loyal, you need to make an effort to encourage employee engagement and strengthen interpersonal relationships within the brokerage. With a cohesive team that likes working with each other (instead of feeling that they’re only supposed to), your brokerage will be more productive. Individual employees will also experience less stress.
If you have a large brokerage, a buddy system can be an effective way to help new employees integrate better. You can also conduct regular team-building activities, informal meetings to check in on your people, and even monthly “just because” gatherings over lunch.
Provide Training
Your brokerage is only as good as your real estate agents. Therefore, if you want to be a great brokerage, you need to invest in making your employees great. Besides, many employees stay with employers who can help them achieve personal and professional growth. If you provide an agent with the tools and training to achieve their career goals, you can bet they’re going to help you achieve your own goals as well.
What’s great about providing training is that you’re not limited to the real estate industry. For example, you can enroll your agents in social media courses so that they can be more efficient in using these platforms when engaging with clients or posting content. Evaluate the skills your people have and then talk to them about what they want to learn.
Offer Competitive Compensation Packages
At the end of the day, being a real estate agent is a job. If your people aren’t being compensated for what they bring to the table, then you can bet that they’re going to leave. Indeed, poor compensation and lack of benefits are the number one reasons why even long-time employees leave their place of work.
For your brokerage, an attractive commission structure is a good way to encourage agents to stay. Depending on the person’s seniority and skill level, consider offering cash bonuses and other benefits such as paid time off or increased insurance coverage. It’s also important to keep in mind gender and racial pay issues when creating your compensation and benefits packages.
Last but certainly not least, recognizing your employees’ hard work is a simple and straightforward turnover reduction strategy. You don’t even need to prepare extravagant gifts (though you can certainly use those as a reward); even a simple “thank you” can go a long way to make someone feel appreciated for their hard work. You can also offer bigger roles and responsibilities to top performers so that they can put their skills to more effective use.
The most important thing to remember is that no employee would leave without a reason. If you have a high turnover rate, get to the root of the problem and solve the issue. Hopefully, these tips have also helped you figure out your real estate agent retention strategy.
