Let me ask you something that most people in this industry avoid. When a great candidate chooses not to join your business, what is the first thing you blame? The market, the salary, the competition?
Rarely do we look inward.
Recruiting into a Real Estate business has never been easy, but there is a difference between hard and impossible. When recruitment feels impossible, more often than not, there is a leadership problem sitting underneath it.
And leadership is not just the Principal. It is the Head of Department who dismisses new ideas, the Office Manager who guards their territory instead of building the team, and in businesses with multiple Business Partners, it can be competing opinions on leadership and authority that create uncertainty before a new person even walks through the door.
No candidate out there is expecting something for nothing. What they are expecting is honesty. They want the job ad to reflect reality, and if you advertise growth, they expect a genuine path to it. If you mention equity or progression, they expect you to mean it. The moment they discover the gap between what was promised and what exists, you have not just lost that person. You have lost every person they speak to.
Attraction is not a marketing exercise, it is a culture exercise. The businesses that consistently attract and retain good people across Property Management, Sales, Administration and Support are not always the ones with the biggest brand, the highest salary or the most competitive commission structure. They are the ones where leadership is visible, accountable and aligned on where the business is going.
What gets in the way? Unrealistic expectations on both sides that are never addressed, personality clashes that leadership ignores until someone leaves, and a revolving door that everyone in the business can see but no one talks about directly.
If your recruitment is consistently falling short, it is worth asking the harder question.
Is it the candidates? Or is it what they are walking into?
Recruit RE helps Real Estate businesses hire smarter and faster.
Find out more at www.recruitre.com.au