Broker recruitment: steal real estate’s model

Mr Alabakov cited broker recruitment as the “most important issue facing our industry” and he believes mimicking the real estate industry could be the solution.

He argued the real estate industry appeared to have no problems attracting swathes of new recruits due to its favourable image.

“I look at the real estate industry and I ask myself, ‘why do young people want to be a real estate agent, drive a flashy car, earn good money and see it as being sexy when you can be a broker and build a valuable business and enjoy a great life without working every Saturday and every night?,” he said.

Mr Alabakov recently hosted young broker forums in Sydney and Melbourne and bought in star realtor, John McGrath, to speak to delegates. On top of simply recruiting better, Mr Alabakov believes the real estate industry do far more to train, support and retain newcomers than the broking channel.

“The constant theme and feedback from the events were, ‘as a young broker we don’t have a good support group, we didn’t think there were so many young brokers out there’ and it got me thinking on two points. One, we’re clearly not doing enough to attract them in the first place and – the lessons learned from the real estate industry – there’s not enough support if and when young brokers do actually enter the industry.

“The broker channel can take a lot out of the real estate industry as they really are a step ahead of our industry in terms of sales skills and thinking ‘outside of the box’ and being a point of difference to their competitors,” he said.

And Jeremy Fisher, director at 1st Street Finance, agrees. He believes not enough is done to promote broking as a career.

“Mortgage broking offers a career with potentially high financial rewards as well as the possibility of creating a good work-life balance, both of which are often highly desirable employment prospects,” he said.

Mr Fisher also says the industry doesn’t necessarily understand the needs of its younger employees.

“The younger workforce grew up in a different social environment, they can have different values and different attitudes towards work,” he said.

“Younger generations have been more able to find and assert their individuality and may place a higher value on these aspects of their lives. It is important to create a sense of commitment, over and above creating loyalty; to keep the younger workforce engaged.

“By working with new talent and assisting them to set and manage their own goals within the company, they will feel motivated, committed and have a greater sense of ownership of their career direction. Managers should continue to work with employees to see if their goals are being reached and to get feedback regarding their perception of the working environment.”

[Related: Young blood needed to regenerate 'ancient' industry]