RISMEDIA, December 7, 2006—Recently, I was involved in a discussion with a friend and we were talking about the Bill Gates book called, Business @ the Speed of Thought, which came out in 1999. Upon the conclusion of the conversation, I started to reflect on some of the monumental changes that have impacted the real estate industry over the course of my career. There immediately comes to mind some of the obvious changes such as the impact of the economy, the organizational changes, the technological advancements, and of course the Internet. One of the more topical changes currently underway is the way that real estate recruitment is morphing from a passive activity to a very systematic approach.

This transition is by no means complete and I would venture to say that we are still in the infancy of this revolution. The old days of waiting for agents to arrive at the doorstep of a brokerage or sending out the periodic holiday greeting is now considered obsolete. Keep these trends in mind when considering your recruiting efforts:

1. The changing world of real estate recruitment has moved closer to models that we see in other business sectors. The targeting of prospects using DRIP applications has extended the communication phrase during the passive part of the process prior to the decision making point. These applications also allow recruiters and brokers to manage and touch larger pools of prospects for longer periods of time with less resource requirements. The marketing and informational pieces incorporated into these campaigns allow for niche marketing and increase the firm’s brand awareness.

2. The use of the Internet as a source of potential recruits is relatively new to the real estate recruitment process. This change highlights the importance of creating and maintaining a specialized career section on a corporate Web site. The career section should target different segments such as experienced, newly licensed (less than two years as they have the highest mobility rates), in-school prospects and individuals with no experience. A career section could even allow for diversity initiatives and specialized recruitment targeting. To give you an idea of where the market sits today, a random review of 50 broker sites revealed that only 64% had career sections. Of the brokers with career sections, only 50% of these sites had good content and positioning.

3. The use of job boards, such as Craigslist, Monster, Hotjobs and Careerbuilder, just to name a few, for lead generation is also a relatively new phenomenon to real estate. The use of Internet job boards has resulted in increased brand recognition for the employers and generated candidates who might not have previously considered selling real estate. A debate continues over the effectiveness of job boards, but our research has shown that job boards definitely increase traffic and generate prospects if deployed with an appropriate message and if they utilize an attraction vehicle such as a job simulation.

4. Similar to Corporate America, the utilization of online assessments for recruitment, selection and development is a new trend that is quickly gaining momentum in the real estate industry. The simple personality tests of the past have given way to powerful online job simulations combined with cognitive and personality assessments which are then validated and benchmarked against top producers. Selecting the right candidates the first time can result in reduced turnover, better cultural fit and reduction in wasted overhead and support costs. When selecting an assessment, it is important to ensure that it has been validated and provides some predictive value to your selection process.

5. The term, “managing the pipeline,” used to apply only to sales organizations that procured products and services. Lately, the phrase of managing the sales pipeline has crept into the real estate industry as team leaders are being held accountable for working and managing the prospects that they have on their radar. The recent introduction of applications that facilitate real estate recruitment will further drive this trend and allow for the easy quantification and management of prospect pipelines.

6. A new breed of manager also seems to have arrived on the scene over the past few years. This is the manager who really treats the team as an ongoing concern—a true business entity. This is not to say that some of these mavericks did not exist in the past, it is just that they were in the minority in our business. The new breed of manager understands the importance of the bottom line, the cost of a bad hire, the cost of acquisition, time-value-money and their worlds revolve around the mantra, “I live and die by my P & L (Profit and Loss Statement)”. These managers embrace technology, are drawn toward innovation and strive to make a stand in the every increasing competitive environment of the new real estate economy.

While it is seven years since Bill Gates wrote his book and even though the real estate industry was a little slow off the mark, the recent changes to the way real estate recruitment is evolving is anything but slow. All of these changes have added to increased levels of respectability and credibility that the real estate industry now enjoys.

Don Kottick is the vice president of products and services for AlignMark Inc., creators of the Total Recruiting Solution. For more information, please visit AlignMark Inc.

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