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Recent research has revealed real estate agencies are losing hundreds of thousands of dollars annually by hiring the wrong talent.
Over 90 per cent of the 250 real estate, property and construction business owners interviewed by Gough Recruitment conceded they had made the wrong hiring decision at least once, and in many cases multiple times.
The research highlighted that every time an employer recruits the wrong person for a position, the cost to the business is approximately 60 per cent of the person’s wage value.
This figure incorporates lost productivity when an employee resigns, onboarding (inducting) new staff, management’s time involved in training the replacement, advertising for the position and recruitment fees.
Joel Barbuto, managing director of Gough Recruitment, said business owners are failing in many areas when recruiting and it is costing them thousands annually.
“I think real estate principals are failing to understand or be realistic around people – I think they have extremely high expectations of people in general, both property managers and sales agents, but I think they are failing to go through the process thoroughly,” he told Residential Property Manager.
“Quite often with real estate principals, both property management and sales, they sit down, don’t know the resume, are not prepared, they talk about the weather, and then they offer them the role.
“It is going back and being prepared and understanding what you are looking for,” he added.
Real Estate Career Developers general manager Daniel Gonsalves said he thinks it is really important that the person recruiting gives the candidate the "full picture" of exactly what the job looks like.
"Now by that there are a few sides. Firstly, what does the job entail - the actual tasks within the position - but also what the team culture is like – what is it going to be like when they come in on day one?" he said.
"A lot of candidates come back to us and say ‘well it wasn’t what I had pictured it would be’ because perhaps it was oversold during the interview process.
"So it is about being realistic of what is happening in your business and explaining that and giving that person the clear picture of the overall situation," he added.
Mr Barbuto also said another mistake principals are making is overselling the job.
“A lot of principals oversell the job, and say ‘We do this and are fantastic at that’, and the candidate gets in there and is like ‘Did I interview for the same spot?’" he said.
“Then the whole recruitment is failing and the candidate leaves within three months.
“The principal is saying it is the property manager’s fault for being crap, and the candidate is saying ‘You guys oversold the job – it was completely different to what I thought’.
“They say quite often the property management rent roll is in really clean order and has been well managed and then they get in there and it is an absolute mess,” he added.
Mr Barbuto said getting the recruitment process right from day one should be a high priority for any business owner.
“All businesses revolve around people. Ensuring the hiring process is right will help facilitate long-term business growth,” he said.
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