From
Success Story: A Whole Different Mindset Suzanne Fernandez
I was initially enthusiastic when upper management hired
a recruiting consultant. After the first meeting, however,
my excitement turned to
apprehension. The required time commitment was extensive-one more thing to
fit into my busy schedule-yet I knew I needed to improve my
recruiting skills
Now, after eight months in the Recruiting Performance
Plus program, we've hired twice as many agents during
the same time period as last year - without giving away
the shop.
We learned how to:
- re-prioritize our time
- get prepared for recruiting
by studying the market place and developing and effective
interview process,
and,
- be more consistent - for example, when farming
for listings, one must prospect, prospect,
prospect to keep the applicant pipeline filled.
First we studies our target market to determine where
our market penetration was and where we had "holes".
We identifies our agents' strengths and those of our
competitors' agents. We then developed a strategy to
fill these holes. We also learned how to prepare
for an interview before meeting the candidate. We prepared a
portfolio of materials about the company, our office, and ourselves. The
portfolio and a company video are delivered to the candidate before the first
meeting. We developed an interview track for staying in control
of the interview.
We learned how to:
- set a mood
- explain the process to the candidate
- discern what
the expectations of the candidate are, and
- graciously
terminate an interview when we determined that a
candidate's goals are not compatible with
ours.
We also developed a two step interview process.
Before the recruitment consultant was hired, we would extend an offer of affiliation
at the first interview because we feared we'd loose good candidates to the
competition. Now, however, we have at least two interviews before extending
an offer. We've become more selective, and extend offers only to people with
compatible values and goals similar to
those of the company.
The first meeting is about compatibility; compensation
is not discussed at this time. We talk about the portfolio,
answer the candidates questions,
and decide if he or she is a good fit for our company. We don't sell the
company-or ourselves - the candidate must sell themselves.
The second meeting is a business planning session. We
become career
counselors to the candidate. Our two closest competitors are locally owned
and operated, so we offer size and strength, better benefits and sales tools,
and the training and guidance to be successful.
The results have been great, in both numbers and in
the quality of the applicants. We've also found the strength
and confidence to analyze our present staff, as well
as the courage to make adjustments if necessary. It's
a whole different mindset, a philosophy that's proving
to be very effective. ^ top
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