Mentoring for our Future
This past year I had the privilege of speaking to four different groups of Relocation Directors. The room sizes ranged from about 75 to 160+ people. I am going to safely say that at least 80%+ of each room was women (I didn’t count). The overall residential real estate industry is made up of about 66% women. If you branch out into other relocation-related fields like movers, appraisers, and corporate representatives you are going to find a much higher ratio of men. Women are nurturers and helping people find a home and adapt to a new community during a stressful time brings out that instinct that I believe draws them to our field. It doesn’t mean men aren’t suited for it, it just means that we haven’t done a good job of attracting them and informing them as to why it is a great career path.
Mentorship is our future.
Mentorship is so critical right now in residential real estate. The population is aging, and Relocation Directors and Real Estate Agents are retiring at a pretty rapid pace. The impending changes in the real estate industry may fast-forward those numbers. The challenge is that many relocation departments are run by one person and the expense of bringing another person in to mentor can be challenging for small brokers.
Not only do young people not think about getting degrees in real estate, but they certainly don’t even know that relocation is a thing. It is not on anyone’s radar as a career early on. People fall into it somehow. WERC has made some attempts to create mentoring programs but it really should rest on the local brokerages to create the mentoring programs to staff their departments. Back in the day, I regularly worked with the local universities to establish intern programs. I had great success with it.
Have the confidence to mentor.
When I was very early in my career, I worked as a relocation coordinator for a small brokerage. One of the owners acted as the Director and they made sure I got the training I needed to set me on my path. We had a pretty decent book of business. Then that small firm was sold to a bigger firm. My mentor was gone and I was thrown into a department that already had two people. I suspect I was part of the acquisition terms and they begrudgingly accepted it.
They were in the process of building a new headquarters at the time of the acquisition so they were in a temporary headquarters space. The Director and Coordinator had huge offices and the President and her assistant were sharing an office down the hall. Instead of the relocation staff making room for me to share an office temporarily with one of them, they decided my office would be in the kitchen. I had a tiny desk that sat in between the refrigerator and the counter space. I dealt with a non-stop parade of people getting coffee and heating up their lunches. It was embarrassing. I was given menial tasks and I left shortly thereafter. They had accomplished their mission of driving me out. They could have mentored me, but they were threatened by me. The way I was treated left an indelible imprint on me and I vowed to mentor whenever I could even if it meant they may take my job.
Over my career, I have been a part of many acquisitions. I made it clear to our leaders that if they didn’t believe we could keep any of the staff, we should lay them off with severance at the time of the acquisition. There was no point in dragging it out. Would it have been easier to transition and then lay them off? Of course. But it seemed selfish unless we felt we might keep some of them. I am sure we laid off many staff people who would have been a great addition to our team, but it wasn’t my decision to make. I always kept as many as I could justify. Fight for talent that you believe in. It’s no time to feel threatened.
Lay out a plan, but be open to new ideas.
Many large departments have the luxury of identifying a successor and it becomes a rather easy transition when their leader retires. But the challenge is often how long is the successor willing to wait to move into the top spot. If the timing isn’t right, they might get lured away by another company. It takes candid discussions among all of the stakeholders to set realistic expectations.
I recently helped a firm hire a new coordinator. We looked and looked in the industry and couldn’t find the right person in their marketplace. But we had alerted the entire company that we were looking for someone and the marketing department had an interesting resume that they put forward since they did not have an open position. We hired them and they soon after were able to move into the Director position after a sudden departure. Was it the ideal mentoring period, no it was not. But I helped them along and the new Director is thriving.
So how do we continue to bring new people into our industry?
We need to stop worrying about candidates having relocation (or even real estate) experience.
The key is to find people with the right emotional skill sets. Are they emotionally intelligent and self-aware? A good work ethic? Can they problem-solve? Are they business-minded?
Studies have shown that we can’t teach empathy. You either have it or you don’t. Often times something has happened in our life to give us that trait. A great loss, persecution, poverty, abuse, discrimination, trauma, and even parenthood, this list goes on and on and can vary wildly. Do they have the ability to empathize with others who are under great stress?
Look at people from related fields such as settlement services, property management, temporary housing, transaction coordinators, etc. They have the right skill sets.
Look at unrelated fields such as hospitality, marketing, health care, service industry, teachers, etc. They also have the right skill sets.
We need to be more open-minded to remote workers who are willing to periodically come to the headquarters location.
Consider sharing employees between non-competitive brokers that will allow you to have great talent at a fraction of the salary and possibly bring them on full-time when the time is right.
Work with local universities to establish intern programs.
Consider temp to perm programs that allow you to test drive the employee to see if they are a good fit.
Share an employee among various departments within your company. A transaction coordinator may have extra hours to devote to your department and they may fall in love with relocation.
Attend job fairs at local universities with your brokerage firm. Recruit agents and relocation staff at the same time.
Hire a Business Development Director who can eventually move into the Relocation Director role. They know the business and the company culture. Let’s face it, a huge part of running a relocation department includes business development.
Convince your broker of the importance of a smooth transition which may mean paying two salaries for a time while the replacement is being prepared to take over.
Mentor every chance you get. And show the younger generation what a great industry we have and the opportunity for upward mobility (particularly for women)!
Be strategic.
The key is to have a strategy laid out once you get them hired. What trainings, licenses, and certifications make sense as new hires, and which ones make sense to wait until they have a foundation? What does your network or brand offer in the way of training and mentoring opportunities? Utilize your partners to train on your CRM and referral management software. Have your marketing department train on the marketing programs, finance on how to close a file, and IT on the tech services. Don’t feel like you have to do this all yourself. I often help train new hires or people new into a role which typically involves understanding the industry at a high level.
Mentoring takes self-confidence. It means you aren’t threatened by those coming into the industry who may have better tech skills or more education. We can learn from them as much as they will learn from us if we are willing to pass on the knowledge we have spent years acquiring. Might they change the way we did things in the past? Maybe they need changing. Changes to policies and procedures don’t affect our legacy. There is no handbook on the nuances of how to help a family through a relocation or how to use our instincts to solve problems that arise along the way. It is critical to share our experiential learning through mentorship and by example, or it will die out as people leave the industry.
“I think mentors are important and I don’t think anybody makes it in the world without some form of mentorship. Nobody makes it alone. Nobody has made it alone. And we are all mentors to people even when we don’t know it.” ~Oprah Winfrey, an American talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and media proprietor.
