Talent Bench

What do you do when someone leaves your business? Are you prepared, or do you rehire in a desperate hurry? In this month’s Growth, Leadership and Management Tip my focus is on hiring the best people for your organisation, not just filling a vacancy.

Your success depends on hiring and cultivating the best talent for your business, and you do that by recruiting constantly. No one you hire is going to stay with you forever, but to keep them long-term you must offer excitement, value, and a clear path of progression to base their career upon. Here’s an example:

Sales Team
• Junior salesperson
• Sales manager
• Lead director

Administration
• Receptionist
• Office manager
• CEO

Property Management
• Junior leasing clerk
• Head of portfolio
• Head of property management

Having a career progression in place is crucial for having enough people in the right places to step up when that time comes. But you must also be looking for new people you’d like to have inside your business someday. That is your talent bench.

Building your talent bench requires knowing the kind of people you want to hire and where to find them. One of your best sources consists of all the people you already know because they may be candidates, or they may know someone who meets your criteria. Another source is the real estate industry — including your competition. Building and maintaining sound relationships will help you here.

An often-overlooked resource for talent is in industries outside of real estate. You may hire a recruiter to locate people with the strengths and skills you need, who can be trained in areas of real estate where their abilities will shine. You may also incentivise your existing people who know your organizational culture and requirements to refer fresh talent into the business. Creating an organization that people want to work for will increase your ability to attract your best prospects.

You can’t know who is going to leave and when, so it’s important for you to maintain a talent bench so you always have sound hiring resources in place to draw upon whenever you need them.

We’re launching a new business class for estate agents soon. If you’re in a principal, director, or sales management role and want to learn more we would love to hear from you.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this month’s Growth, Leadership and Management Tip, and I look forward to seeing you here again next month.