There has been an ever present inverse relationship in our commercial real estate investment space relating to the robust development & investment economy in relationship to available, qualified, talent. Simply put, “when the market is strong, there are not enough people to do the work and when the market is weak, there are plenty of people looking for employment.”
Note that I said “qualified” talent. In today’s hyper-return driven economy fuelled by global private equity and the most fastidious institutional investors – there is little to no need for talent that can wreak havoc on projects and assets, let alone cause harm to a company reputation and ability to garner future investment capital. And in the current cycle I see the importance of quality talent from acquisitions and asset management execs all the way to project superintendents.
Recognizing this paradox, what can a rapidly growing real estate firm do? Through my relationships with large insurance, pension and corporate investors – I’ve had the fortunate benefit to be exposed to what some of America’s largest Fortune 500 firms have helped them during similar scenarios. A few examples (but not limited to);
  • Recruit when you don’t need to; entertain professionals for “informational interviews,” scout your competitors, press the flesh for talent while at industry conferences - in my experience it takes months and more likely years to develop a solid recruit. You might even need to meet a dozen or more people to find the right candidate to hire. Start now!
  • Develop a “bench”; if you cannot immediately begin hiring entry-level talent and grooming them, at least create a phantom bench of stars that you’ve identified at competitors, vendors or elsewhere. Create your own “dream team” and begin to slowly court them with a goal or timeline that might center around a new investment strategy or economic upswing.
  • College campus recruiting; When’s the last time you saw a prominent real estate developer on-campus? Enough said.
  • Everyone’s a recruiter; Encourage employees at all levels to be constantly engaging their peers to consider the firm. At least, have them speak highly of the company so as to generate curiosity and eventual interest.
  • Address internal idiosyncrasies or long-held notions that prohibit openness to new or different candidate profiles; this topic could be an entire post in and of itself. However, do you commonly have unspoken filters in your recruiting practices that lean toward “certain schools,” certain States or parts of the country or avoid candidates for “guilt by association” because of a particular company they may have once worked for? I suggest demolishing those stereotypes and opening up to a true wealth of opportunity. Of course, trust by verify in your evaluation process – just to be sure.
  • Embrace candidates from outside, yet complementary industries; the real estate industry is very leery of professionals from outside industries such as retail chains, consumer products, technology and service companies in general. This may be true for some positions, but face it, Target Corp, Proctor & Gamble and Google are phenomenal companies and just might allow you to find someone who could set your firm on a path that differentiates you in the rather homogenized space of real estate
  • Use multiple recruiting channels; in house HR/recruiting staff, outside recruiters (both retained & contingent), web-board postings, social media
  • Engage in Social Media tactics; not so much for recruiting directly, but to allow often inaccessible corporate executives in your firm a chance to “get a voice” with an audience that might not usually be available to speak with them. This is a form of indirect recruiting.
  • Consult with your competitors and/or other corporations; many of your financial partners may be large institutions and have very sophisticated HR/talent management functions. Ask for guidance – they want to see you succeed more than anyone. Also, you should feel confident in engaging your competitors in their best practices for hiring. It only helps improve the overall breed of the industry thereby attracting more capital and greater awareness and ultimately the success will cause more grads to come out of school wanting to join the commercial real estate space.
This offers but a glimpse into a number of tactics that can open new doors to a wide range of candidates for your real estate company. I’d be pleased to offer more examples of to expand upon any of the concepts above in further detail.
With regards, Wes