by Ben Hess, Managing Director, ThirdPool Recruiting

For most Americans, Labor Day signals the end of summer and the restart of the school year.

But the roots of the holiday are less sentimental and whimsical.

It signifies a struggle that people have had with work since the beginning of time.

In the U.S., this struggle came to a head on the streets of New York City in 1882 when 10,000 workers chose to walk off their jobs and “celebrate” the first Labor Day.

Their point was simple and unpretentious: Work carries intrinsic value and the worker who makes an honest contribution is dignified.

This truth has resonated with every generation and fuels the desire most people have to be gainfully employed.

This Labor Day, it’s important for all owners, hiring managers, and recruiters to remember the value you bring to your recruiting prospects and those you employ.

You’re offering something every human needs—an opportunity to engage in meaningful work and earn a living.

So this Labor Day, take a minute to pat yourself on the back. You’re making the world a brighter place.

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by Ben Hess, Managing Director, ThirdPool Recruiting

The resume is, by far, the most popular way to respond to a job posting.

Many online job boards and career sites make it easy for job seekers to submit resumes.

Maybe too easy.

After registering and uploading a resume, a job seeker can quickly apply to multiple jobs without reading or digesting the information in the job postings.

As a recruiter, this often results in a flood of resumes from unqualified candidates (I applied to what?).

While job boards are responsible for creating this problem, they’re now working to limit its effect on frustrated hiring managers.

Many ideas are being tested to fix this problem (some quite expensive such as career event management services and English pubs for recruiting), but the solution for most real estate companies is much simpler.

Develop an application process that pushes the recruiting prospect outside the job board environment before applying.

Only allow a prospect to move forward in the hiring process once they’ve demonstrated they understand the nature of the opportunity.  

By doing this, your click-to-apply rate will decrease, but those who do apply will be higher quality.

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by Ben Hess, Managing Director, ThirdPool Recruiting

A few months ago, I wrote a short Insight series on technology solutions for recruiters.

This series broadly covered the topic, but didn’t really answer the question:

What are the essential tools every recruiter needs to be effective?

Here’s a quick list:

Phone: You’ll never recruit anyone without having a live conversation via phone or face-to-face. If you’re not talking to people, you’re not recruiting.

Email: Email is in decline, but it’s still a tool professionals use every day. Personal, one-on-one messages will always beat broadcast/drip messages. Your recruiting prospects can tell the difference.

Texting: If you’re not texting your recruiting prospects, you’re missing opportunities. If you can’t afford recruitment texting tools, use iMessage and your personal mobile phone.

Calendly: It should be easy for a recruiting prospect to get on your calendar. Calendly removes much of the friction that keeps connections from happening. For recruiters, it’s worth much more than it costs ($15/month).

Zoom: Live, face-to-face conversations have never been easier. Recruiters who use Zoom make more connections, conduct more interviews and get more hires. It’s worth the cost to easily and instantly connect with those in your recruiting funnel ($15/month).

Recruiting is hard enough. Don’t make it harder by showing up to the job site without the basic tools needed to get the job done.

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by Ben Hess, Managing Director, ThirdPool Recruiting

Anthony Green runs an impressive consulting business.

He charges $1,500/hour to help students improve their SAT scores. His results are so impressive, there is a four-year waiting list to enroll in his one-on-one services.

What’s his secret of success? He shared some of what he teaches his students in a recent interview.

Document all your mistakes. If you want to get better at something, you need to relish your failures. You need to understand exactly where you’re screwing up, highlight those weaknesses, document them, and then pummel them into the ground.

Use time blocks. Instead of using to-do lists, block out time for your studies and your tasks. When you “slot” them into a time frame, you have to actually imagine the time that they’ll require.

Schedule study breaks in advance. The human brain can’t really focus on anything for more than roughly 90 minutes at a time. Schedule breaks in advance, make sure they’re at least 15 minutes long.

Ditch the distractions. Put your phone out of reach. Turn off your computer. Eliminate media. Clean your desk. Hide everything but the textbooks and notepads that are relevant to the task at hand.

You might think these ideas just apply to preparing for tests. Anthony would disagree.

Educational principles, neuroscience, motivation techniques, and psychology don’t just apply to the realm of formal education. They’re useful no matter what you’re trying to accomplish—especially recruiting.

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by Ben Hess, Managing Director, ThirdPool Recruiting

In a recent podcast, Steve Murray quickly dissects the most recent Real Trends Up and Comers data to demonstrate how the most successful companies reliably grow.

Of the 1,750 firms on the list, 1,150 have been on the list for at least five years (i.e. they’re not start-ups)

Of the 1,150, 730 firms grew their transactions every year over that period.

Of the 730, 80% of these companies grew organically without the help of merger and acquisition activity.

How do you grow organically?  

Increase agent count through recruiting and/or increase per agent productivity by investing in agent development.

Jim Collins’ flywheel analogy explains how this works.

Small and consistent investments in recruiting and development start to create organic growth momentum. But, the results come slowly at first.

By reinvesting some of the profits, the momentum builds and the flywheel seems to take on a life of its own.

But, don’t be fooled. It’s not a perpetual motion machine. Continued investment in agent recruiting and development (especially during difficult times) are necessary to reap the benefit of the momentum.

Steve summarizes:

[In a time where unit sales are flat to declining], we’re going to start to see the pendulum swing further into the direction of companies who practice the right habits of recruiting and developing people and investing in those people.

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by Ben Hess, Managing Director, ThirdPool Recruiting

What’s a job seeker? A person who is actively looking or willing to discuss a new opportunity.

Although unemployment is at near historic lows, millions of people are still searching for jobs.

Most of these individuals search while they’re employed. 

This includes people who are working in other industries as well as real estate agents who are currently working for your competitors.

What does a job seeker want? According to a recent study completed by iCIMS, here are the factors job-seekers report as most important.*

Compensation—90%

Stability—88%

Benefits—86%

Work-Life Balance—85%

Location—76%

Growth Opportunities—72%

*% of job seekers who think this factor is very or extremely important

When marketing to these recruiting prospects, these are the issues most likely to spark interest.

When interviewing these recruiting prospects, be ready to discuss these areas of interest.

When onboarding these agents, demonstrate how your organization is going to meet these expectations.

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by Ben Hess, Managing Director, ThirdPool Recruiting

You’ve probably heard the old saying: People don’t leave jobs, they leave managers.

It’s true. More than 50% of employees report leaving a job to get away from their managers.

Why? Because individuals are attracted and loyal to effective leaders, and they are repelled by ineffective ones.

According to recent research published by LinkedIn, effective leaders have the following characteristics: delegate effectively, manage their time well, listen carefully, focus on solutions, and share the credit.

Ineffective leaders tend to micromanage, constantly multitask, control the conversation, jump to blame, and criticize before they praise.

When prospecting and screening for new recruiting leads, look for situations where ineffective leadership is on display. These are the prospects who are most likely to leave their companies.

Stay away from the organizations who have great leaders. Your chances of dislodging someone in one of these companies is low.

When interviewing, always ask your candidates about their current manager. Focus your effort on those who express the most pain and frustration.

Remember, doctors are most effective when they’re around sick people.

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by Ben Hess, Managing Director, ThirdPool Recruiting

We’ll wrap up our short series on making choices today. If you’re just joining us, you may want to catch up by reading the previous Insights on this topic (1,2,3,4).

Researchers believe that choices are made along a continuum from automatic to reflective.

From a Star-Trek perspective, the automatic is Captain Kirk. His choices are based on intuition, emotion, and a gut-level feeling of what to do.

The reflective is Spock. His choices are based on the hyper-logical use of information and data.

Sheena Iyengar advises us that the best choices are made with informed intuition (a healthy mixture of Kirk and Spock).

When a recruiting prospect is in the middle of making a choice between your offer and a competitor’s offer, try to get them to reveal where they are on this spectrum.

To make your choice between our offer and the other offers you’re considering, what factors are most important to you?

Do you tend to make decisions with your gut, or do you need more information to make a good choice?

Based on their answers, you can steer the rest of the conversation in a direction that best supports your offer.

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by Ben Hess, Managing Director, ThirdPool Recruiting

Just because someone is free to choose, doesn’t mean they’ll later be happy with their choices—especially when choosing a job.

Sheena Iyengar discovered this when studying graduating seniors who were searching for their first jobs.

Some of the students were very meticulous about identifying their preferences. They were also persistent and resilient in finding a job that matched their criteria.

Other students were less careful in their job search. They spent less time and energy identifying their preferences and frequently took jobs that seemed good enough.

Which group turned out to be happier and more satisfied in their jobs?  The group that was less careful.

Why?

The first group had very specific expectations. When those expectations were not met (and they never are), they often became dissatisfied in their jobs.

Here’s the takeaway: The recruiting prospects who come to you with a long list of expectations and are painstakingly comparing your benefits to your competitor’s benefits will probably be your worst hires.

Instead, focus your efforts on the prospects who are less concerned about the specifics.

They’ll not only be happier, but they will also be more willing to focus on the work necessary to be successful.

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by Ben Hess, Managing Director, ThirdPool Recruiting

In the late ‘90s, Sheena Iyengar conducted her now famous “jam study” at the Draeger’s Supermarket in San Francisco.

In the first part of the study, customers were given an opportunity to taste a sample from an array of 30 different jams. 

In the second part to the study (different day), customers were given the same opportunity but only had 6 jams from which to choose.

The display with 30 options drew many more tasters than the display with 6 options. Customers seem to enjoy the idea of sampling so many different flavors.

Surprisingly, more jam tasting didn’t convert into more jam buying–the opposite happened.

The 6 jam tasters bought jam at 10 times the rate of 30 jam tasters.

Why? Because too many choices overwhelmed and paralyzed the customers.

There are lots of applications for this principle in the recruiting process.

Are there places where you’re offering too many choices to recruiting prospects (ex. commission plans)?

During an interview, do you present too many options for features such as a marketing strategy or business plan (“…there are lots of ways we can do this”)?

When discussing options for moving forward in the hiring process, do you boil things down to just a few reasonable choices.

Recruiting prospects want to maintain the capacity to make choices, but need a good recruiter to keep those choices from causing paralysis.

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by Ben Hess, Managing Director, ThirdPool Recruiting

A few months ago, I had the privilege of hearing Sheena Iyengar deliver a keynote address at a recruiting conference.

Sheena is a professor at Columbia University’s Business School and is regarded as an expert on how humans make choices.

From a prospect’s perspective, recruiting is about considering options, making trade-offs, and finding the best career path.

From a recruiter or hiring manager’s perspective, recruiting is about discovering motivations, presenting options, and helping people make good choices.

It sounds simple.

But, the psychology of how people make choices muddies the water.

Shenna’s research has revealed:

The ability to choose well is arguably the most powerful tool for controlling our environments.

But, the desire to choose is so strong that it can interfere with the pursuit of the very benefits a person is pursuing.

Over the next few Insights, we’ll tap into some of Sheena’s insight to help you better understand the science of making choices.

With this knowledge, you’ll help more recruiting prospects choose you.

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by Ben Hess, Managing Director, ThirdPool Recruiting

I was recently on the phone with my mobile phone provider regarding a billing issue.

The customer service representative did a great job and ended the call by asking a simple question.

Based on our interaction today, would you be willing to refer our company to your friends and family?

I said, Of course, I would! I thought you did a great job of handling my issue.

Compared to other industries, a phone company’s customers do not typically offer positive referrals (as measured by a metric called net promoter score).

It was refreshing to hear a customer service representative address this issue so directly. Apparently, they want to change this image.

From a recruiting perspective, real estate companies have the same problem – agents are reluctant to refer other agents to their companies.

To change this reality, take a page out of this phone company’s playbook.  

When you have a positive interaction with an agent in your office, end the conversation with a similar question.

Based on your interaction today, would you be willing to refer our company to other agents you know?

Perhaps you’ll start increasing your office’s net promoter score, and you might get a few more referals too.

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by Ben Hess, Managing Director, ThirdPool Recruiting

I’ve often made the point that a real estate office is like a small business community.

Some communities thrive and grow while others stagnate and barely stay alive.

Online community expert Rich Millington estimates that 90% of communities are in the second category.

How do you fix a community (or a real estate office) that’s profoundly struggling?

Rich offers this advice:

It’s tempting to keep trying to generate ever-bigger, temporary, spikes on the community EGK chart. You might believe that if you can just get a big enough spike the community will magically come to life.

Alas, it’s not going to happen (and nor will a technology change fix the problem).

Your problem isn’t technological, it’s perceived value.

Members don’t see the value of joining and participating in the community. You need to revamp the concept and try again.

That means tweaking the target audience, the purpose of the community and what happens within the community.

You haven’t failed, you just tested an idea that didn’t work. Now it’s time to move on to the next idea.

The real failure would be to stick with a failing idea.

For many leaders, this is difficult advice to receive, digest, and act upon. It’s why most real estate offices maintain the status quo and hope for the best.

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by Ben Hess, Managing Director, ThirdPool Recruiting

A person transitioning into real estate often has two basic questions:

Can I earn a living in this role?

Is the work going to take over my life?

The recent Redfin agent study gives you some important benchmarks to answer these questions for your prospects.

Most agents earn between $25K and $75K. You’ll only earn more if you’re in the top 30%, and it will take some time to get to the higher income brackets.

It usually takes 6 to 12 months to earn a consistent monthly income.

64% of agents report their work-life balance is manageable.

Agents completing 10 or more transactions per year tend to work 40 – 50 hours per week.

Glenn Kelman summarized this topic by saying,

Real estate gives the best agents a path to significant wealth.

But, the profession is also one of the last career fields where reasonably high earnings can be obtained for a broad set of people, with a very wide range of skills, education levels, and backgrounds.

The [real estate career] is one of the last broad platforms [for creating] middle-class and upper-middle-class level prosperity.

These are positive and realistic messages to provide your recruiting prospects.

Tell them the truth, but don’t short-sell the dream.

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by Ben Hess, Managing Director, ThirdPool Recruiting

Charles Dickens starts his most famous novel with: It was the best of times, it was worst of times.

Most established agents tend to look at their careers the same way—they have aspects of the job they relish and parts they wish were different.

What do agents tend to enjoy?

Relationships with customers

Entrepreneurial independence

Helping people whose lives are in transition

What do agents tend to dislike?

Unpredictability of income

The difficulty of finding customers

As a recruiter or hiring manager, it’s helpful to reveal this information to your prospects early in the hiring process.

It’s a balanced way to share the pros and cons  of becoming a real estate agent.

When they struggle as agents (and they’ll all struggle), remembering your predictions will help them push past the obstacles and focus on the positive aspects of their new career choice.

The future doesn’t seem so scary or overwhelming when a trusted advisor predicts what’s going to happen.

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