It’s no secret that technology has changed the landscape of the real estate recruitment industry. From artificial intelligence to central data banks, it’s safe to say that real estate recruitment will never be the same as it was just a couple of decades back.
Of course, when it comes to technology, trends will come and go. This is quite evident in the realm of social media, where platforms and apps experience large bursts of popularity before fading into obscurity. At the same time, there are also technological developments that are more than just trends. Rather, they continue to be relevant and shape the status quo. Below are some examples in the real estate recruitment industry:
CRMs
A candidate relationship management system or simply CRM is a mainstay of modern recruitment, real estate or otherwise. A good example here is Brokerkit, which comes with multiple features like software integration, automated social media lookup, as well as lead capture and segmentation, just to name a few. Most real estate CRM software also come with templates for email drip campaigns, which is useful for corresponding with both active job seekers and passive candidates.
The best thing about CRMs, however, is that they can help you build a central database for all your applicants, whether past or present. This type of software also makes it easier for you to track high-performing agents in case you want to invite them to apply in the future. All in all, CRMs allow you to be more strategic in your hiring decisions, resulting in cost savings and higher-quality hires.
Remote Interviews
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, remote work arrangements (sometimes called WFH or work from home) became the norm. This also carried over to the recruitment industry, with remote interviewing of candidates. It’s expected that this development will continue, especially with remote work proving that employees can retain the same level of productivity or even exceed it.
What’s even better is that remote interviews greatly expand recruitment potential. If a candidate has children and couldn’t find a sitter for the day, for example, they can still be interviewed via a conferencing app. This simply means that real estate recruiters won’t miss out on talented agents who may simply be dealing with emergencies or other life matters.
Data Analytics
As a recruitment professional, you’re well aware of the fact that the process generates a lot of data. All these details can be processed in order to derive valuable insights that will help you improve different aspects of agent recruitment and even retention.
The key, of course, is to find a reliable source of data. In addition, you have to take a look at the ones that are the most relevant to your goals. Some metrics are more consequential than others, especially time to hire, cost per hire, and source of hire. This doesn’t mean that other key performance indicators aren’t important. Rather, if you want to improve your recruitment process, you need to take a look at the right data in order to arrive at the right conclusion.
Social Media Sourcing
The power of social media when it comes to finding top candidates can’t be underestimated. With millions of daily active users in the United States, platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn are ideal for sourcing. While job boards still remain relevant to this day, not allocating resources on social media sourcing will definitely result in lost opportunities.
What every recruiter should understand about social media is that one type of content will always perform better on one platform over the other. Even something as universally engaging as videos will have different interaction numbers on different sites; shorter ones will work better on Twitter and Instagram, slightly longer ones are more favored on Facebook. Study the platform before running ads and posting content to maximize the algorithm.
Automation
Last but not certainly not least, automation will always be relevant to the real estate recruitment industry. With the right tools, recruiters can find more talented real estate agents and screen candidates faster. Various manual, repetitive tasks like scheduling interviews also become easier and more straightforward to handle. Ultimately, recruiters will have more time on their hands for other responsibilities.
Another aspect of recruitment that can be easily automated is communication. Through the help of chat bots, recruiters can develop responses for frequently asked questions so that no inquiry goes unanswered. In addition, it becomes much easier to appraise candidates about the status of their application using pre-programmed replies. Of course, it goes without saying that these replies should be crafted carefully to avoid sounding too impersonal.
The above-mentioned technological developments are not going away any time soon. They may further evolve into something even more game-changing, but they definitely won’t lose their relevance. In such a fast-paced and demanding industry like real estate recruitment, learning how to use and maximize these technologies will surely give you an edge.
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