{"id":1004100228,"date":"2014-07-09T11:54:37","date_gmt":"2014-07-09T19:54:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/?p=1004100228"},"modified":"2022-12-08T05:27:10","modified_gmt":"2022-12-08T13:27:10","slug":"guest-column-harnessing-young-talent-in-todays-real-estate-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/guest-column-harnessing-young-talent-in-todays-real-estate-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Guest Column: Harnessing Young Talent in Today\u2019s Real Estate World"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"JenniferMcLean-HiRes_cropped\"<\/a>By Jennifer McLean<\/p>\n

As most industry veterans will admit, the roots of the real estate profession are profoundly \u201cold school,\u201d characterized by a reliance on longstanding networks and relationships, an aversion to new technologies and a marked deference to industry veterans. But as Baby Boomers begin to retire en masse and new technological solutions become seemingly unavoidable, real estate professionals are in for several major paradigm shifts. Remember, old habits die hard.<\/p>\n

Perhaps one of the most significant challenges facing the industry is the inability to attract and secure young talent on a long-term basis. This, of course, isn’t a recent trend. With the abundance of firmly established lifelong real estate veterans with 20, 30 or even 40 years of experience under their belt, fresh-out-of-school employees are often left with the proverbial scraps, forced to jump from opportunity to opportunity in hopes of grasping the next rung on the career ladder.<\/p>\n

In years past, there may have been some macroeconomic explanations for the transience of our youngest real estate professionals. The market downturn in 2008 dragged hiring to a screeching halt, and low-level employees might have been considered superfluous or unaffordable. Plus, Millennials\u2019 reported typical abandonment of company loyalty in favor of personal aggrandizement didn\u2019t help their cause.<\/p>\n

However, such a cynical justification is unlikely to spur change (let alone grow one’s practice), and in fact, the data does not back it up. In the past year \u2014 as the real estate market has rebounded in earnest \u2014 employee retention in the profession has sunk to an alarming level. According to Nobscot Corp., a global HR technology company that specializes in retention management and development, the turnover in the real estate industry was 40.6 percent. For context, the rate throughout all professions in the Northeast was a much lower 32.4 percent.<\/p>\n

Clearly, it’s past time that real estate executives reassess their strategies for internal talent development. If there’s a widely held notion that the next generation of professionals has a diminished sense of loyalty, perhaps we should ask why.<\/p>\n

After decades of success with the Old Guard, so to speak, many traditional real estate firms simply do not have the mechanisms in place to effectively harness junior-level talent. Without a clear company-wide objective for promoting from within, it’s far too easy to lean heavily on longstanding employees without an effective internal growth plan.<\/p>\n

At GFI, we have enacted a variety of initiatives to actively promote growth from the ground up while attracting educated and driven young professionals, based on several core business principles:<\/p>\n