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Real Estate Hiring Trends For The Year Ahead

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2020 was a challenging year for virtually all industries, but for real estate, it was a particularly bumpy road. Offices were left vacant, retail shops shuttered, hotels and restaurants faced unprecedented hardships, and 2020 left many real estate professionals working from home, scheduling virtual tours and pivoting their business models the best they could to face the road ahead. But now, it’s a new year.

Real Estate Hiring Trends Going Forward

As we enter 2021, real estate professionals are cautiously optimistic about their roles and hiring across the industry as a whole. While many are excited about the prospect of a pandemic-ending vaccine and a return to normalcy, most recognize the road to recovery will be long and filled with hurdles, especially for the hardest-hit asset classes like retail and hospitality. Despite that, 45.8% of respondents said their compensation actually increased in 2020, and 59% believe their compensation will increase in 2021.

The pandemic was not the only major event of 2020. Protests across the country sparked discussions about race, and while some in the industry believe these rallies will have little impact on the way the real estate world approaches hiring, others think that they could be a major turning point that will cause the industry to re-examine some of its hiring practices and place a greater emphasis on hiring diverse talent.

And while many things changed, some remained the same. The vast majority of survey respondents said they are still employed at the same job they had prior to the pandemic and a majority also said they would consider relocating or making a career move — just as the bulk of respondents replied in 2019.

So what are the major challenges the real estate industry is facing in 2021? Where do industry professionals see the year heading?

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How to Inspire Higher Employee Retention

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In trying times like these, employee retention is a huge concern for employers. This is especially true in challenged markets like commercial real estate. As workplace culture changes and the economy becomes more unpredictable, building a loyal employee culture is simultaneously more vital and more difficult.

But it doesn’t have to be impossible. Understanding the factors that lead to higher employee retention in the CRE workplace will give you the competitive edge to build and maintain a dynamic workforce intensely loyal to your company and goals.

Employee Retention Starts at the Beginning

The first and greatest way to reduce employee turnover is to hire the right people, according to the Wall Street Journal. A poor or shallow hiring process will produce a high turnover rate. People don’t tend to hang around when they are not closely aligned with the company culture, values, projects, or skill set requirements.

There are numerous costs associated with a bad hire, and a high turnover rate is one of the least talked about. Yet your company stands to lose a ton of revenue, productiveness, and even morale. To protect your bottom line, keep your employee retention high by hiring the right people for the right job. Your employee retention program should begin all the way at the beginning with a highly effective and thorough hiring process.

The onboarding process is also crucial to ensuring low turnover. Starting on Day One, give your new hire the right first impression. 54% of new hires report a mishap on the first day of a new job! To start on the right foot:

Prepare their workstation in advance with the supplies and equipment they need (this may look different in a virtual environment, but remains important).
Have a clear list of expectations and responsibilities ready and waiting for them.
Immediately introduce them to the team in a sociable way, giving them a chance to start lasting relationships. This is especially relevant in a virtual work environment. The team needs to be able to understand who the new hire is and what capabilities they have to ensure the right training, management direction, and workload is provided.

Invest in Company Culture

While a competitive compensation package is important for employee retention, even more integral is workplace culture. Inspire your employees with a culture of inclusion and diversity. Clearly communicate to them the company mission and values and gather their buy-in as well. When your employees believe in your company, they won’t jump ship at the first opportunity to make an extra buck. Position your organization as more than just a workplace. Foster an atmosphere of family and cooperation.

Stephen Covey once called trust “the one thing that changes everything.” And building workforce relationships on trust can be the difference maker for employee retention. Here are a few secret ingredients for infusing trust into your company culture:

Establish Competence: If your employees believe they work for the best company in your field, this will build trust and loyalty.
Demonstrate Integrity: It goes without saying that honesty is the absolute best policy for building trust in the workplace.
Be Consistent: If your division or company is always swinging from one extreme to the other in response to market changes, employees won’t be able to trust in your stability and longevity.
Decide with Transparency: Your employees are your stakeholders; don’t leave them in the dark.

Become Your Employees’ Career Coach

It sounds counterintuitive, but taking an interest in furthering the career goals of your employees will result in higher employee retention. Employees must feel fulfilled and engaged in their work. Therefore, your job as a manager is to help them find their purpose and then align it with their contributions to the company. When they are thoroughly engaged and appreciated, they will be far less likely to roam.

Ask these key questions to help them connect with that sense of appreciation and fulfillment:

What are you good at?
What tasks do you enjoy?
What are the most useful things you do here?
What are you learning that will prepare you for future goals?
How do you relate to others?

These questions will help employees better understand their role and unique offering to the company. In turn, they will better integrate with their teams, they will contribute more to the mission, and they will become more productive and skilled in their jobs.

Help your employees find meaning at work, closely align new hires with their strengths and pay attention to the role needed now and how that will grow, and create a vibrant and diverse culture they can believe in. Increasing employee retention – even in trying and difficult times – is really just a matter of inspiring them to achieve great things as an invested part of your team.

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Life Science Building Demand and Pumped Up Pocketbooks

Business-Friendly Market? San Diego is the Place to Be!

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In its latest report the Business of Cities, JLL has selected San Diego as the most business-friendly market in the state of California. As an organization in the San Diego area, we were thrilled to learn this news! The report analyzes the decisions of real estate investors, developers and occupiers. San Diego has fostered policies that help to attract these stakeholders and drive economic growth.

“It’s about fostering redevelopment to revitalize the city in a positive way through generating investor interest in development that makes economic sense and benefits the citizens with thoughtful community development,” Bob Hunt, managing director of public institutions at JLL, tells GlobeSt.com.

Civic San Diego, a city-run non-profit, is at the center of these policies. The non-profit was launched after the state dissolved redevelopment agencies. The organization helps real estate players with crucial aspects of the deal and development process to ease the burden of transacting in the market.

Civic San Diego has continued to expand, forming Civic San Diego Economic Growth and Neighborhood Investment Fund. These organizations certified the organization as a Community Development Entity.

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How CRE Is Assessing Salaries During COVID-19

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Building Careers President Carly Glova said companies seeking executives or leadership positions have been much more willing to get creative with compensation structure, allowing candidates to get larger pieces of deals. Historically limited to C-suite positions, more performance-based compensation, such as giving restricted shares, has filtered down to vice presidents and others to entice them to make a move. These shifts come after decades where compensation structures had slowly been shifting toward a great reliance on annual salaries; between 2005 and 2020, CREW found that base salaries for men and women in CRE have increased, while commissions and profit-sharing have decreased by roughly the same amount.

What should commercial real estate brokers and execs think about as the uncertain COVID situation continues to evolve and impact the search for top talent? A Deloitte research paper suggests that firms take this moment to broaden their talent searches and modernize technology to attract younger workers: For every Gen Z hire, CRE companies recruited three baby boomers.

Glova has seen surging demand for anybody with life sciences experience, and comp packages are market-agnostic, meaning those with experience in established markets such as San Francisco and the Bay Area can look at relocating to rising markets like Denver and enjoy a big cost-of-living benefit.

“There’s still a small pool of companies doing this, and folks with this kind of specialty are few and far between,” she said.

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Not Getting Hired? Here is Why and How to Change That

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An inevitable aspect of the job search is not getting hired for the job you hoped for. It’s not always clear why you weren’t able to secure a position you felt fit your experience and skills perfectly. Knowing the reasons why you weren’t hired will help you better prepare for the remainder of your job search and obtain an exceptional position. In this article, we explain why knowing the reasons you didn’t get the job is important for your future job search success, the most common reasons why and what to do to fix them.

You’re Not Being Proactive

Having a proactive personality is directly correlated with career success. If you are applying to jobs without following up or simply applying to too few jobs, you are missing a key piece of the job search.

Work on strengthening your proactive approach to job searching by applying to more jobs a week, actively pursuing any possible leads by reaching out after interviews and strategizing your search. Strategies include knowing what type of job you’re looking for and what areas you are willing to adjust, such as salary, benefits, location and duties. It also entails knowing your strengths and weaknesses, setting time aside daily to search and apply and refining your resume. To get in front of a hiring manager, your resume needs to be written specifically to the job you are applying for.

Another way to be proactive is by connecting with our team. With years of direct commercial real estate experience in-hand, Building Careers, LLC is focused on making a difference in other’s careers utilizing passion for and knowledge of the industry along with a robust personal network in commercial real estate. We are here to help you succeed!

You’re Not Showing Passion for the Position

Employers can sense if excitement for a position isn’t quite there. Skills can be taught, but employers desire to see passion and enthusiasm when considering applicants.

Convey how excited you are for a position in your cover letter and during your initial interview. When you apply for a job, read through the description and research the company thoroughly. From there, you can generate a list of questions to ask the interviewer. This will show you are genuinely interested in learning more about the organization and your passion through the position can shine through.

You will also want to make a list of all the details that make you eager to work for that company and be sure to explain why you love your work and how you can be beneficial to the company’s mission and objectives

You’re Underrating Your Skills

Job searching is one of the most important times to show confidence and pride in your skills, knowledge and education. If you don’t demonstrate your greatest strengths and accomplishments, you may be overlooked for a role you are otherwise well-suited for.

Improve your ability to sell yourself by first understanding what your greatest strengths and accomplishments are and how they relate to the job you’re applying to. Then, carefully choose the traits and achievements that show the value you bring to a company and detail them in your resume and cover letter. Echo these in your interview with a balance of pride and humility.

To read more, click this link. If you would like to learn more about Building Careers, contact us or email Carly Glova directly!

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CREW Network Study Calls Industry for Greater Diversity in Commercial Real Estate

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Lawrence, Kansas – The 2020 CREW Network Benchmark Study: Gender and Diversity in Commercial Real Estate, is a wakeup call—and a call to action for the commercial real estate industry. Study results indicate that our collective efforts to achieve parity in the industry are far from complete—in fact, very little progress has been made in the last five years.

The study, conducted in partnership with the MIT Center for Real Estate, measures progress for women over the last 15 years, capturing critical industry-wide data and benchmarking diversity in commercial real estate. It is the fourth comprehensive study by Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW) Network, the leading producer of research on gender and diversity in the industry, since 2005.

“We are calling on executives who can affect change to take this study seriously and take action in their company and in the industry,” said CREW Network CEO Wendy Mann. “CREW Network remains committed to creating a more diverse, equal and inclusive industry—but we can’t do it alone. Industry leaders must address these issues as a business imperative—and take action now to make this important investment in our companies, our employees, and the future of our industry to remain a competitive and attractive employer.”

“As an industry, commercial real estate clearly has a lot of work ahead in order to create a level playing field for women and minorities,” said Sadhvi Subramanian, a Capital One senior vice president and Mid-Atlantic Market Manager who helped facilitate the bank’s support of the research. “CREW Network’s work in shining a light on these disparities is crucial. Capital One is happy to serve as CREW Network Industry Research Program Partner and underwriter of this year’s study. Change can only happen when we work together as an industry.”

Key findings from the study:

Women occupy 36.7% of the commercial real estate industry. This percentage has remained between 35-37% over the last 15 years.
The study saw a 5.4% increase in women respondents 39 years old and younger, indicating a growing generation of young and emerging women professionals in the industry.
More women occupy brokerage than ever before (29%), a 6% increase from 2015.

Contact Carly Glova: CGlova@BuildingRECareers.com

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Want to Become a Successful Commercial Real Estate Broker? Here’s How!

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Are you looking to make the switch to becoming a commercial real estate broker? It’s not hard to see why. Being a successful commercial real estate broker usually means making a lot more money. After all, the price for a commercial property typically dwarfs that of your average home.

Successful Commercial Real Estate Broker

However, this isn’t an easy field. Those rewards attract swarms of people, so becoming a successful commercial real estate agent requires that you understand what’s required and then waste no time putting in the work.

The majority of your success will rely on one thing: persistence. There is no well-worn path toward becoming a commercial real estate agent, so expect yours to wind back and forth a bit.

That said, if you remain persistent and do your best to implement the following steps, you’ll find success a lot sooner than most.

Use Your Time Wisely

Just because you’re in the midst of a commercial real estate deal – even a big deal – that doesn’t mean you should kick back and take it easy. Do everything necessary to ensure its completion, but you should still have plenty of time during the rest of your week to look for new opportunities.

Aside from having another skill on your resume, one way to stand out from the crowd will be simply knowing more than any of your fellow agents.

Whatever you do, don’t call it a day before you’ve put in eight hours. You should never work fewer than 40 hours a week. In fact, many commercial real estate brokers would advise against that for your first year or two.

If you find you haven’t reached at least 40 hours by the end of the week, either work on refining your speciality or invest more time in networking, the two priorities we’re going to cover next.

Networking is Key

In many ways, commercial real estate is still a very traditional profession. If you want to get ahead – in terms of knowing where opportunities lie and turning leads into client – you need to know how to network. Just like with filling your workweek, this is something you’ll always need to do. The moment you decide your network is sufficient, you risk losing it.

Keep in mind, too, networking isn’t just a game of numbers. Connecting with people has become easier than ever thanks to the opportunities provided by LinkedIn and other social media platforms, but sending out requests isn’t enough.

You need to develop your network. Check in with people regularly, even socialize with them at events that have nothing to do with work. The goal is to ensure you stay top-of-mind with them so when a deal presents itself, you’re at the front of the line.

Don’t forget about your fellow commercial real estate agents, either. Just like asking those above you in your firm for tips, try to get some free advice from other agents who are doing well. You should even connect with agents from other firms over LinkedIn and introduce yourself when the opportunity presents itself.

Contact Carly Glova: CGlova@BuildingRECareers.com

Want to Become a Successful Commercial Real Estate Broker? Here’s How! Read More »

4 Solid Reasons Your Company Should Partner with a Recruitment Firm

Leave a Comment / Blog, Building Careers, Employers, Industry Insights

Search firms oftentimes get a bad rap. For some companies, they’re just a necessary evil. But successful firms in commercial real estate know that throwing a failed job opening at a recruiter once in a while isn’t the path to hiring success. Instead, they partner with a recruitment firm to achieve long-term results and so much more than an occasional hire.

A Good Hire

Employee turnover is a huge concern in the different fields of CRE. In property management, for example, companies have to overcome a staggering 33% employee turnover rate. Across most industries, the national average is nearly 25%.

Why?

The reason so many employees are walking is they simply weren’t a good fit for their position. They weren’t a good hire. Sure, they looked good on paper, or maybe they interviewed well. But somehow, they weren’t the right fit.

Unfortunately, the cost of a bad hire is rather high. Estimates vary from half their annual salary to over two years annual salary when all factors are considered. But the point is that the recruitment process correlates directly to the bottom line. Efforts after the fact to improve employee retention can only go so far if your employees aren’t the right hire to begin with.

Partner with a Recruitment Firm for Lasting Results

Hiring whichever contingency recruiter comes in as the lowest bidder whenever a role opens up shows a misunderstanding for the value and strategic importance the recruiter has in your overall business strategy.

Companies who partner with a recruitment firm for the long term, means moving beyond transactional decision making to a more trusted advisory role. In this position, a recruiting agency can develop a sense of your company’s culture, dynamic, business model, and hiring needs. They ask questions a one-off recruiter might not think to ask. They can see beyond the immediate need of your current opening to needs that might develop in the future.

A trusted recruiting partner can explore alternatives in a way that mutually benefits the hiring company as well as the eventual hires, growing both in the process. Considering the organizational relationship, managerial styles, and unstated values, a recruiting partner can better find the candidates you truly need vs. what you think you need.

Key Partnership Benefits

Below are four solid benefits your company can count on when you partner with a recruitment firm as a hiring advisor.

1. Company Advocacy and Confidentiality

Partnering with a recruiting firm that shares your company’s values will allow them to evangelize what you do and keep your best interests at heart. A recruitment firm that appreciates how you value the relationship with them will be able to paint your company in the best light to potential new hires.

And sure, even a one-off contingency headhunter will sign a confidentiality agreement, but a trusted recruitment partner will truly respect that confidentiality beyond the terms on paper. Searches often involve contact with competitors. A long-term partner will value their relationship with you and go the extra mile for your confidentiality.

2. Overlooked Roles

Often, people try to replace people. A job description may be a description of the person who left, when what is truly needed is a position the hiring company hasn’t even thought of. A tried-and-true relationship with a recruitment firm means a healthier dialogue in creating the role you truly need to fill based on what your industry has to offer.

3. A Better Talent Pool

A recruitment firm maintains and grows an immense pool of qualified talent that you may not need right this moment. But you’ll know about them should the need arise. Additionally, some of the best candidates aren’t actively in the market, but may have reached out to the recruitment firm to let them know when the right role for them comes up. Your role could be the right one fore the long-term, but you won’t know it unless you tap your recruitment firm’s relationship for these “off-market” candidates. With a strong relationship in place, your “right hire” won’t slip under your nose unnoticed. And you’ll enjoy a diverse set of options.

4. Future Success

Your company relies on long-term success plans and strategies. Your best employees have likely been with you for years. Likewise, working with a recruitment firm for years is a key factor in future success. You don’t know what hiring needs you’ll have down the road. But with a trusted recruiter partnership in place, the right hire when you need it is just a call away.

Contact Carly Glova: CGlova@BuildingRECareers.com

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Coming Soon to Manchester Pacific Gateway for $1.5B: Waterfront Life Science Campus

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Real estate firm IQHQ is taking over five city blocks along the bay for what it’s calling the San Diego Research and Development District.

(Courtesy of IQHQ)

Hoping to make a splash in downtown’s real estate market, a celebrated biotech office developer has purchased more than 8 acres of waterfront land to create a waterfront life science campus along San Diego’s Bay.

Friday, the newly formed IQHQ real estate investment group, started by storied life science builder Alan Gold, completed its acquisition of around two-thirds — or five city blocks — of the development site known as Manchester Pacific Gateway. The transaction paves the way for what IQHQ is calling the San Diego Research and Development District, or RaDD, as a massive lab-filled campus where ground-floor retail and unrivaled bay views work to recruit the biggest names in the pharmaceutical industry.

“What we’re seeing in San Diego as life science thrives and matures here, and the capital is flooding it, is that the central markets are constricted,” said Tracy Murphy, president of IQHQ, in an interview with the Union-Tribune. “So through our relationship with Doug Manchester, in an off-market transaction, we were able to come to terms right after COVID hit to acquire this site. Our vision for it was not that of a conference center or hotel, but really a dynamic, waterfront urban life science city.”

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The purchase is subject to various local and federal agreements. IQHQ plans to begin construction on site infrastructure immediately with a stated goal of completing the first phase of the district by the summer of 2023. The overall project includes a series of mid-rise structures and one 17-story tower, as well as a museum, and 3 acres of green space and rooftop decks. Development costs are expected to exceed $1.5 billion, the company said.

Manchester Financial Group, meanwhile, will retain two of the site’s eight blocks for a hotel and 1.9-acre plaza, although the firm did not share a timeline for construction.

San Diego Research and Development District

“This incredible development will be the catalyst for biotech to relocate to downtown San Diego and will be the driving force for life sciences growth and expansion,” Doug Manchester, chairman of Manchester Financial Group, said in a statement. “With the entrepreneurism and leadership of IQHQ, and Alan Gold, San Diego will be one of the largest biotech clusters in the world.”

Contact Carly Glova: CGlova@BuildingRECareers.com

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