While a great culture and the right systems can create a dream team, you can’t get there until you’ve hired the right people. Many real estate team leaders struggle to find people who are both qualified and a great fit.
Tammie Slay and Anne Coke joined a WizeHire and Workman Success Systems webinar to discuss how they’ve built their successful teams through a highly effective hiring process. Here’s what they had to say:
Getting Applicants in the Door
Tammie and Anne use similar strategies for finding qualified applicants. They both utilize the hiring software provided by WizeHire, which allows them to run multiple ads at a time without adding cost. Because of this, they post the same job with different titles to test out which job titles draw the most interest. Sometimes just changing the title of the posting will attract more candidates.
Both Tammie and Anne also post their job openings on Facebook and LinkedIn and ask their team members to share the posts. This helps get the word out within their own spheres of influence. Tammie and Anne believe you have to go out there and hunt for the right candidates. You won’t find the perfect fit by sitting back and relaxing. If you really want to draw interest in joining your team, you have to do the work.
Make Every Applicant Feel Significant
Tammie’s team believes that every person they interact with during the hiring process should be left feeling valued. Just because an applicant doesn’t end up with the team, doesn’t mean she wants them to feel like they don’t matter.
To ensure each applicant feels valued, Tammie has all applicants go through the same process. Seasoned agents go through the same hiring process as agents who’ve never closed a deal. Every person is given a chance to find out if they’ll be a good fit with her team.
Tammie also believes it’s important to create equal footing between herself and the candidates. She doesn’t believe it should feel like the candidates have to prove themselves, but instead, she and the candidates are getting to know each other to find out if they’ll work well. If she thinks someone is not a fit for her team, she’ll often refer them to a team where they would be a good fit.
Determining Cultural Fit
One of the most important parts of the hiring process is also the most complex. To find candidates who will work well with your team, you have to determine if they’re a cultural fit. To do this, Anne asks questions that help her determine personality. She asks candidates about their values and what drives them.
One of the key questions Anne likes to ask candidates is how they prepared for the interview. She loves it when a candidate says they looked at the bios of the team members because it shows that the candidate values the work environment and getting along with the team.
When Tammie looks for a cultural fit, she asks questions to determine whether the candidate is a pessimist or an optimist. Her team has an attitude of optimism, so she likes to find people who share a similar attitude. She’s looking for people who believe there are bright possibilities in the future.
Be Thorough
It’s easier to spend a lot of time finding the perfect candidate than it is to hire the wrong person and have to correct the mistake. While hiring, Anne likes to see how candidates speak on the phone, communicate over email, and workout problems that arise during video calls. All of these skills are important for members of her team to have, so she checks each of them.
Tammie’s hiring process is a total of eight steps. While it takes a lot of energy, she’s able to feel totally confident at the end of the process when she’s found the right person. She knows that that person will connect with her team and help drive their goals forward.
Workman Success has teamed up with WizeHire to help you find and hire the best real estate talent in your market. Click here to learn more! To discuss team-building strategy with a Workman Success business analyst, schedule an appointment for a free business consultation.
