Termed “The Great Resignation” by the media, more than 47 million Americans left their jobs in 2021. This phenomenon reflects the increasing desire of many employees to achieve a better work/life balance and continue working from home or remotely.
In real estate, your licensees have likely always enjoyed the freedom to work at home, but your employees may not have. To retain your key team members, real estate brokers still need to keep both employees and independent contractors happy – so they won’t consider moving on to another brokerage. ,
There are considerable risks of losing valuable team members. And there are concrete ways you can help ensure both your licensees and your paid staff want to stay with you. .
The Risks of Losing Key Real Estate Staff
A broker is only as good as your team. Losing key staff can result in considerable negative impacts within your brokerage:
Extra Pressure on Staff Remaining
The loss of skilled and experienced paid staff can have immediate negative effects among the remaining team. . Fewer experienced resources on the team puts pressure and stress on those left behind, and it can change the effectiveness of the team. If licensees feel a lack of support because of the resignations, this can lead to even more resignations or transfers to other brokerages. And losing licensees will have a direct impact on client relationships and your brokerage’s bottom line.
Loss of Critical Corporate Knowledge
When team members leave, they take their wealth of knowledge of processes, your internal procedures, and market specifics with them. And if they move to another brokerage, the handover of information to another team member will likely be limited. This knowledge drain can lead to disruption to your business model, inefficiencies, lost clients, and more.
Loss of Clients
Depending on your agreement between your licensees and your brokerage, and the terms of your listing agreements, existing listings may or may not transfer with a licensee to a new brokerage. But clearly, when a licensee is moving, he or she will have contacted all past and current clients to let them know of the change in brokerage and contact information. You will also contact those clients in the hopes of having them continue to work with your brokerage, and introduce a new licensee you’ve assigned to work with those clients. But clients may choose to follow the original licensee.
Managing the Risks of the Great Resignation
Set Up Systems for Remote Working that are Win/Win
Fortunately, in real estate, licensees are used to being out on the road, having their office in their cars and getting the job done well before COVID-19 raised its ugly head.
Ensure your remote working arrangements can work for you and your team.
Consider their wants and needs (even better — ask them!) and your wants, needs, and business goals. Strive for alignment and mutual respect, as well as compromise, on both sides.
Regularly Review the Legalities of Remote Work
The legalities of managing your remote team will depend on whether your licensees are employed staff or independent contractors.. From an insurance perspective, make sure your team members are clear on what is considered “covered” as a valid work activity versus being off the clock. You don’t want a lawsuit coming from left field due to a miscommunication. Brokers are encouraged to seek legal advice from a qualified real estate attorney to be 100% certain where they stand to ensure full compliance.
Remind Your Team of Email and Flash Drives’ Best Practices for Security Increasingly sophisticated phishing methods mean brokers need to maintain awareness of new scams and system vulnerabilities.
Remote working has brought with it some additional cybersecurity risks. A licensee could insert a seemingly innocent USB into their laptop, connect to your system, and load a damaging virus that could steal data, impersonate your office emails, or shut down your entire system.Less office and in-person time also means licensees and brokers need to be careful when sharing confidential information remotely.
Brokers must have systems in place to safeguard their corporate systems and to protect sensitive client information. You should also train your team so they know how to be an active safeguard of your system too. That means complex passwords (and changing them regularly), locking their screen when their computer is unattended, and having documented procedures for the collection and management of confidential client info.
Offer Your Licensees Reasons to Stay with Your Brokerage
Include Seller’s Protection Plan in your Company E&O plan
Seller’s E&O Protection Plan will help your team win more listings. Team members can advertise and offer this protection to potential sellers. This is the only plan that offers $25,000 to cover both damages AND defense costs should sellers have a disgruntled buyer during the 6 months after their home sale. This protection is free for your sellers when you include it in your Company Errors and Omissions plan from CRES.
Get Business Permit History Reports in your CRES E&O plan
Business Permit History Reports will help your team dazzle buyers by showing permits on a property. A minimum of 25 free Reports are included each policy year.
Ensure Your Real Estate Brokerage Is Protected
CRES is part of one of the largest insurance brokers in the world, so we have more E&O choices – and more ways to help you retain and attract licensees – than just about anyone.
Let us find you the best protection at the best price.
Contact the CRES team at 800-880-2747 to find out more today. We can customize a policy specifically to suit your real estate business.
