Are you satisfied with your retention statistics? Recruiting is widely regarded as ‘the name of the game’. And yet, we burn out agents and leadership when we experience massive turnover.
Whether you’re in leadership or not, it’s in your best interest to support a system that is proven to dramatically prevent turnover:
An awesome onboarding process.
Wonder how your onboarding system is working? Grab my survey for you to use at the end of the article.
Why Onboarding is So Important
Imagine you’re a new agent (or new to your office). What are you doing that first day? The first week? The first month? 60 days? 90 days? Write down exactly how your market center guides that agent through these time periods. Be sure to list managerial/coaching interactions with the agent, too (when you review the agent’s progress). Is your paper pretty blank? If so, you’re missing the opportunity to create loyalty in the new hire with these four actions:
- Culturize
- Familiarize
- Form relationships
- Create support
How People Feel with a Weak Onboarding Process
Heads up: In general, real estate companies are way behind the curve in creating exceptional onboarding procedures. (Note: Don’t leave it to a staff member to create the system. They’ll tend to focus on the minutia of lockboxes and operations only.)
I just read a very enlightening study from Baudville.com (the recognition products company). They talked with and studied onboarding procedures in companies and found:
- Companies that leave onboarding to chance experience a 50% higher failure to retain rates
- 89% of new hires say they do not have the optimum level of knowledge and tools necessary to do their job
- 61% of hires say they’ve found aspects of a new job different than expectations set during the interview process
- On day one of a new job, 67% of Millennials are already thinking about looking for another job
- New hires are 69% more likely to stay more than three years if they’ve experienced a well-structured onboarding program.
- 86% of new hires decide to stay or leave within the first six months
Those percentages should scare the you-know-what out of you!
The Operations You Need in Place
- Support: First day checklist with a check-in between the leadership and new hire
- Familiarize: Thorough operational checklists for the first 1-4 weeks—with a place for the administrator AND the new hire to check off to assure work has been completed; check-in weekly for support
- Culturize: A company workshop with all company leaders to explain the culture, the training, the materials/support (technology, opportunities) the company provides
- Form relationships: a mentor program
Higher Retention Rates with Mentors
Do you have a mentor program? Retention rates for hires who are mentored are 72% higher than those who aren’t. A caveat: Your mentor program must have clear focus, guidelines, and training for your mentors. Someone must manage the mentors. Otherwise, both mentor and new hire will be let down.
First Steps to Take
- Review your onboarding process as asked in this article.
- Get a task force together to review your process.
- Ask those who’ve joined you in the past 6 months to review and analyze their onboarding process and make suggestions.
- Create deadlines for portions of your onboarding process to be finished.
Taking Away the Fear of the Unknown is a Great Recruiting and Retention Tool
So often, the fear of change stops a good agent (or even a prospective agent), from joining a company. Having a thorough, friendly, supportive, culturizing onboarding process and showing it to your potential recruits will go a long way in alleviating their anxiety and helping them make the decision to join you—and stay with you.
Goal of a great onboarding program: Quick success for the agent with the mindset of a raving fan!
Grab my survey and see how well your onboarding process is working.
(The first time I used this I found out the manager who was leaving had not bothered to do adequate onboarding for my new-to-the-office agents! If I hadn’t done the survey I would’ve had no idea of how let down those agents were!)
