Falling Back to Old Ways May Leaf You Behind

You may be familiar with the old adage, “I’ll do it my way, it’s the way I’ve always done it!” Likely, you are also familiar with the sometimes-negative connotation that approach conjures. For many, when faced with a new or persistent challenge, doing it the “old” way is the default way. In business, sticking to only the status quo way of thinking can sometimes raise questions about a company's level of innovation, adaptability, and/or its potentially stagnant culture.

On the plus side, sticking to the status quo is also easy…and comfortable! However, as a default mode of operating, some organizations truly want to do more than is required to simply exist. They are essentially innovators. These groups set the curve and force others to adapt to their methods and their transformative ways. Frankly, this mindset is of the utmost importance for your recruiting strategy to help maintain a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Discussed briefly below are a few trends and strategies we are seeing innovators employ in the real world.

Remote/Virtual Offices
As we have all surely learned recently, adding Remote capabilities can be a major selling point for many candidates. Even with occasional travel to the office, a remote setup (amongst many other positives) can help alleviate punishing commutes for an improved quality of life. More importantly for you, by opening up the remote possibility, you are drastically expanding your potential candidate pool from which to recruit. This is especially important for regional or national Title, Appraisal and Settlement firms that enjoy access to a higher percentage of quality candidates. Of course, a face-to-face office setting is not easily replicated. Nonetheless, with applications like like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, GoToMeeting, FaceTime etc., along with the good old-fashioned conference call, there are multiple ways to stay in close communication with your remote team. Is there a cookie-cutter template that works for everyone and every company? Not in the slightest. And working from home is certainly not for everyone. That said, more companies are making the switch to a partially remote based team to capitalize on key talent that may not otherwise be available without remote capabilities. There are many examples of our clients looking to us for help in landing established talent in other parts of the country. Trust us...assuming the right systems are in place to facilitate and monitor a remote program, the talent is out there.

Focusing on Wants and Needs
From a cultural perspective, many companies have a recruiting mindset that boils down to “we’re the best around, the candidate should want to work with us!” And this may be true. Your company culture may be great, though likely not enough alone to move the recruiting needle. These days, it seems that most everyone puts an emphasis on culture. Arguably, building a strong one is now considered the norm, not the exception. When inviting a potential recruit to make a move, listen to what is truly important to them. Short of one being independently wealthy, most folks ultimately work to provide for themselves and their families. The factors that most directly correlate typically tend to be the very basics: compensation, healthcare, work/life flexibility and PTO. Fringe benefits are nice…though just that, fringe! Sure, that gaming table and health club membership may be neat things to reinforce your ‘work hard, play hard’ culture. Who doesn’t enjoy a good game of foosball? Despite this, people aren’t necessarily fighting rush hour traffic and coming to the office to play Ping-Pong! They are most likely showing up to get a job done in an environment where they are adequately paid, respected, trusted, and challenged.

In principle, good recruiting can start in your own conference room. Maybe pull aside a mix of established and newer team members and have a chat. If you listen to what’s important to your current team and then target new recruits accordingly, you may be better suited to stay competitive from a recruiting standpoint. If you want the best talent, it may mean reevaluating your organization’s overall compensation structure. If that means instituting a fair and employee friendly benefits package, creating a flexible working schedule/location, or installing a stellar training program, so be it!

Training and Coaching
So, what about that training program? In the Title Insurance, Settlement Services and Appraisal space, establishing a strong training program cannot be overemphasized. To stay competitive, there really does need to be a nice mix of recruiting experienced talent and organic building. To grow organically, you must train new blood. You might say, “what if we pay to train them and they leave?” Followed of course with the common response of “what if you don’t train, and they stay?” Bringing new, competent talent into the industry is imperative to keep the train (see what we did there?) chugging down the tracks. Whether it is entry level or coaching up a current team member for a bigger role, it is imperative to continually teach and mentor the next generation. Millennials and Centennials are here to stay. Despite their bad rap, most of them are actually pretty darn talented. Proportionally, these generations will inherently serve in key roles with your group so you might as well train them the right way! Have open conversations with your leadership team on how your training program can be improved. Most people have a natural drive to better themselves, and empowering your current team to grow can actually help retain and attract top talent.

In summary, from a recruiting perspective, it can be a healthy exercise to at least consider looking to adaptation and innovation to help gain an upper hand on your competition. From tweaking traditional methodology to installing a totally new philosophy, it is the innovators that tend to be differentiators. And when you’re trying to attract top talent to join your team, don’t be afraid to be the one setting the pace.

Should you have any questions, please feel free to visit our website www.andersonbiro.com and one of our team members will be happy to hear your thoughts.