The Great Resignation: Quiet quitting is loud in real estate

There was no fanfare, no major announcements; it was done quietly. Employers had no idea it was coming. Employees decided they didn’t want to work in “ok” jobs. They didn’t want to respond to “how’s your job” with “it’s fine” anymore.

Resigning used to be scary. It’s not the number one condition for keeping somebody in a job anymore.

This phenomenon is not US nor industry exclusive.

In Australia, it’s very loud in the real estate world.

According to the Australian Industry Group, 22,000 people quit their real estate jobs every year. That’s frightening.

In real estate, eight out of 10 principals are frustrated they can’t hold or recruit new staff. This means the principal has a gap in their business that needs to be filled fast; often a dangerous practice especially if it occurs in the property management division.

The 12 warning signs an agent is about to quit

According to The Small Agency Recruitment Playbook author and Hutton & Hutton chief executive officer Peter Hutton, there are standout warning signs every principal should be on the lookout for:

1. They spend less time at the office.
2. Their results are in decline.
3. They display a change in their energy and attitude.
4. They infrequently and increasingly miss office events.
5. They increasingly miss sales meetings.
6. They are increasingly absent from work.
7. They poorly communicate with their principal.
8. They make fewer prospecting phone calls.
9. They start missing training sessions.
10. They have a sudden and unusual reduction in listings.
11. They export contact list data.
12. They start following other agencies and principals on social media and start liking their posts.

Are there any alarm bells going off for you now? Some of your employees are exhibiting one or two of the above traits. A couple of your staff are showing 5+ signs?

You can call in your “quiet quitting” staff, confront them, and try to sort out their issues and keep them in your employ if they are worth saving. This would be the stem the bleeding approach.

The attraction brand

A better more proactive approach to keeping good staff and recruiting new staff is to be an attraction brand. Ask yourself these questions as to why people would want to join you:

• How do my staff or potential staff perceive my agency?
• Is my agency brand known in the marketplace?
• Does my personal and corporate brand have a good reputation?
• Does my brand have a good reputation in terms of customer experience?
• What do they think about my website?
• What do they think about my social media pages?
• What do they think about my property marketing?
• Can agents easily recognise the value my brand brings to their career growth?
• Does my agency exhibit a point of difference?
• Do I demonstrate how well I care for my staff?

Attracting top agents — 4 pillars of a great brand

Culture

To be considered by agents as the BEST AGENCY TO WORK FOR, it takes a strong, positive, distinctive agency culture that helps its employees feel and perform their best work.

Culture is created by your leadership, values, what you believe in, how you think, and what you make important. It’s created by the things you do all the time that make you, “you”.

Ecosystem

Imagine a fish tank.

Inside the tank is a complete ecosystem which contains absolutely everything necessary for the fish to thrive.

Similarly, your agency ecosystem should contain everything for your agents to thrive.

It should come as no surprise; a great work environment is a critical piece of your ecosystem and an important aspect of your brand’s value proposition.

It’s simple, attractive work environments that attract top talent. And it’s not just the physical environment that this attraction pillar refers to. Sometimes it’s not even a physical environment at all. It’s more about the support and infrastructure you provide your agents.

Compensation

Often, small agencies think their only avenue to recruit is to compete on commission splits.

That can be true if other aspects of your value proposition are not as substantive compared to competing agencies.

The point is, how you compensate agents (i.e. commission and bonuses) is only one pillar of your attraction brand.

Growth

I’ve always held a firm belief that real estate agents are people who have a large desire to grow personally.

It’s no wonder that agent growth is a significant aspect of the most successful real estate agency employer branding.

“You don’t build a business, you build people, then people build the business.” — Zig Ziglar

Slowing quiet quitting and recruit like crazy

You are never going to be able to pick all the quiet quitters. But if you do the following, you’ll slow the loss and boost your recruitment efforts on steroids.

• Demonstrate how you’ll eliminate rollercoaster results for an agent.
• Help them create a “career business plan”.
• Have a great office culture people will never want to leave or are dying to join.
• Have an awesome agency support.
• Have an abundance of leads.
• A clear vision and defined pathway to growth.
• Map out a “career progression plan” (e.g. management position, partnership, shareholding, own their own office etc.).
• Have a performance-based, generous compensation plan.
• Recognise top performance.
• Remove the GCI earning glass ceiling.
• Accountability, one-on-ones, mentoring, coaching and training.

Loud retention stems quiet quitting

Do the above well and staff will be less likely to quit.

Retention is an ongoing process. It must be at the forefront of a principal’s mind and worked on continuously.

Onboarding a new agent is just the beginning. If you thought recruiting a $1,000,000 GCI agent was the answer to all your problems; you’re wrong.

Agents, even top performers, need a plan. Better still, they need a roadmap. A step-by-step guide of what to do daily for their first 90 days to get their career off to their best start.

Peter Hutton, CEO of Hutton & Hutton explains.

“We provide our incoming agents with a daily action plan for the first 90 days when they join us.

“We want to remove uncertainty, eliminate the butterflies in their stomach and empower them to greatness. At the end of 90 days, they just simply rinse and repeat.

“From there, it’s about growth and stability. That’s the key to retention. And helping your agents build momentum through growing their pipeline is the key to both growth and stability.”

Conclusion

Quit quitting will always be part of the real estate industry. But you can lessen the surprise and stay ahead of the game

Recognise the signs of a quitter. Move quickly to stop the spillage. Talk to the potential quitter and try to fix the problem.

Better still, change your mindset around recruitment and retention of staff. Retain and recruit all the time.

Be the agency “everybody” wants to work for. Demonstrate an awesome culture, have a generous but fair compensation plan and give growth options for your team.

But don’t forget them once they are onboard. Give them a clear running path for the first 90 days that dramatically improves their chances of success.

Ultimately, build a brand you and your team can be proud of!

Do this and you’ll no longer be part of Australia’s eight out 10 frustrated principals trying to recruit the best talent; you’ll be among the minority of successful agencies with all the best agents.

Peter Hutton is the CEO of Hutton & Hutton and the author of “The Small Agency Recruitment Playbook”.