These are some of the things you should be evaluating when interviewing candidates!
Hiring is always, always a bit of a gamble. Someone might seem great on paper and present badly in person. Another candidate might be fabulous at the interview but end up losing steam quickly on the job. There are never any guarantees with hiring (unless you engage AGENTC: we guarantee our placements!) There are, however, traits and qualities that you can look for that will be good indicators as to whether or not the candidate you are interested in will be a successful employee.
Communication Style and Quality
A good quality of any candidate is her ability to communicate. Does she write coherent, clear and error-free emails and texts? Is she professional in her writing or does she use a ton of emojis? Does she speak clearly and professionally? How about her non-verbal communication, like eye contact and body language? Does she present well on all levels of communication? All of these points should be tested and evaluated. Clear communication is essential in real estate, as in most businesses, and it’s best if a candidate has a style that fits with your business.
Flexibility
A candidate who is inflexible might become a difficult employee. What do we mean by inflexible? Well, it has nothing to do with her ability to touch her toes! What we’re referring to is the ability of the candidate to change direction in the middle of the day, the week, or even in the job. She might be working on listings but an urgent request to meet the stagers at a house recently listed must be dealt with because the realtor is otherwise engaged. This will change her day dramatically. Is she good with that kind of upheaval or is that going to cause a lot of stress?
Is she open to changes and new things? Will a change of technology cause her to resist, or will she ‘go with the flow’ and embrace learning something new? The reality of business is that it is ever changing; employees need to be able to adapt along with it.
Able to Self-Motivate
Realtors, in particular, are always on the go. They don’t have time to hang around the office and make sure that the work is getting done so an employee who has a clear role and knows how to perform her duties should be able to get on with things, so to speak. Someone who sits around and waits to be told what to do at every turn, despite being asked to show some initiative, won’t work out in the long run. A lot of this has to do with confidence: someone who knows their job and is confident in their skills will run with the work. Someone who isn’t will hesitate. So while this is a more difficult trait to identify in interviews or on paper, other than asking about past roles, it’s an important one!
Positive, Can DO, Team Attitude
A real estate office, no matter how large, is still a well-oiled machine, when it runs properly. Getting houses listed and sold, properties bought and clients made happy is a team effort. The candidates you are looking for will have experience with and be willing to work in this kind of environment. Things go wrong, deals go sour and some days are harder than others, so a positive attitude will go a long way to making a happier work environment for all the team members!
Dependability is Key
Working as part of a team, being dependable is vital. If others can’t count on you, or you can’t count on them to get their work done, the whole process will break down pretty quickly. You can test a candidate on that by asking them to complete certain tasks or return certain information by a specified date and time. Do they do it on time and in an appropriate fashion? If life does take over and interrupt things, do they do what they can to mitigate that interruption? Knowing that you can count on someone usually comes with time and trust, but you can still ‘test’ for it. A candidate’s work ethic should come shining through in terms of their past roles and whether they see their potential job with you as a challenge worth striving for, or a paycheque and no more.
A candidate with strong computer or social media skills is easy to evaluate. Figuring out whether they have some of these other traits isn’t quite as simple, but they are vital soft skills and traits that will make all the difference. AGENTC has long experience in sussing out candidates to see if they have these traits in abundance. Trust us to get the job done.
