Your agents are the most valuable assets of your real estate agency. When you lose top-performing agents, we aren’t just talking about the cost to hire, train, and equip new agents to replace them. You’re also losing irreplaceable experience and expertise, such as insider knowledge of the area, a network of partners, and a Rolodex of valuable contacts.

Bottom line: investing in retaining top agents is worth many times the cost of hiring new ones. Here are some key strategies to keep your most valuable players:

Assess Your Workplace Culture

Positive workplace culture is key to attracting and retaining the best talents. Consider these questions:

• Do your agents feel that their ideas are taken into consideration when they speak up?

• Are you fostering a culture of appreciation by recognizing and rewarding agents’ achievements?

• Do you promote respect and collaboration in the workplace?

Solicit candid feedback from your agents — especially those who recently left or are planning to leave, to see how you can improve your team culture. Then, invest in making changes to build an enjoyable and supportive work environment.

Provide Ongoing Support

Helping your agents do their work more effectively improves job satisfaction, which is critical to employee retention. For example, you can provide marketing support to help them promote their listings with email campaigns and online ads.

Don’t make the mistake of assuming that your experienced agents are fine on their own. Check-in with them often. Take the opportunity to recognize jobs well done and see if they need help navigating challenging situations, both personally and professionally.

Invest in the Right Technology

Real estate agencies are undergoing intense digital transformation, and laggers could risk losing top performers. You should incorporate digital tools to help agents connect with prospects and promote their listings, such as live chat, optimized website, video marketing tools, document management software, and customer relationship management (CRM) system.

Offer the right IT support to help your agents set up the tools correctly and become productive quickly. You should also monitor adoption and usage data to ensure that agents are fully utilizing the technology to improve their outcomes.

Leverage Automation Software

Agents stuck with doing tedious and manual tasks are less productive and demonstrate lower job satisfaction, which could cause them to leave your brokerage. Thankfully, the latest automation technologies can take a lot of redundant work off your agents’ plates.

For example, LeadHax provides a self-service solution that allows agents to set up their own online advertising. The automatic location targeting and data gathering features help agents streamline marketing workflows, so they can focus on servicing clients. You should also invest in a CRM platform that enables agents to automate email campaigns and send personalized content at scale to support their marketing efforts.

Offer Training and Education

Technologies are only as good as how well your agents are using them. If they can’t leverage the tools to increase productivity, they may get frustrated and leave their jobs. 

Design an onboarding process to help agents become productive right away when they join your team. Also, provide training to every agent when you implement a new platform. Offer refresher courses regularly to show agents how to use new features to implement the latest industry best practices. Some software providers offer online training that users can access at any time, so encourage your agents to use those resources.

Be Ready to Let Go

While retaining agents is important, you should recognize when it’s time for an employee to leave. For example, you may be better off letting go of an agent who makes a lot of sales but is corrosive to his colleagues because his behaviors impact the productivity and happiness of the entire team.

Hiring and nurturing the right talents is the key to achieving long-term success in the real estate industry. Don’t overlook the importance of team dynamics, which is the foundation of a positive and supportive work culture that will attract and retain the best talents. 

Conclusion

 

Retaining top performers can be challenging at times. However, it’s not impossible with the right mix of a positive work environment, supportive team culture, and cutting-edge technologies. By paying attention to your people and investing in the right tools, you can make your real estate agency the best place to work!