As a real estate business, handling all of the issues of HR right from the beginning will ensure that your business can operate smoothly. There is so much that can go wrong in real estate and you need to focus on your sellers and buyers when handling home buying, but by facing these HR problems, you can make sure that your agents are ready to help their clients too. Some of the HR problems you may face in the real estate business include:
A real estate business is likely to have a relatively high employee turnover. IN fact, the average turnover for these companies falls near 28%. This can happen for many reasons including:
Attracting and re-training the best talent is a common problem in this industry. Without the right kinds of employee support programs, it is easy to lose some of the rising talent that the company needs. If you're in need of new hires, be sure to conduct gig economy background checks before offering them the job.
When you have employees who work for you, it is important to handle the payroll properly to keep everyone on the same page. Employees do not want to find that their paycheck was shorted too much or that the right pre-tax deductions were not taken out through the year, causing them to have a higher bill during tax time.
You will need to work with a tax professional to help with all of this and a payroll specialist is a great option. Real estate is a unique business that has a different payment structure than some other industries. You will need to be fully aware of how to handle all payroll issues. Learn how to do this on your own or consider hiring a professional to take on the payroll.
There are different workplace issues that are common in real estate. Some of the most common ones are lack of resources, an inhospitable work environment, and sometimes harassment.
While harassment is going to be an issue that should be regulated by the law, it is a common concern in real estate. If the real estate company has several harassment cases in the workplace, this shows that the corporate policy and compliance is off and something needs to change.
Outside of harassment, many agents claim that they were demotivated from a highly competitive atmosphere. When working in this industry, you must have thick skin to cope with the workload. But your business needs to make sure that the employees have equal opportunities to learn and prove themselves.
Many companies do not take the time to consider the safety of their agents and other employees. Most of these agents are going to work flexible hours, many at night, in order to make sure they can get their buyers into the home and get a seller’s home sold.
Real estate brokers and agents will need good insurance, just like other employees. For some companies who hire young workers without experience, insurance is something that you will have to weigh the benefits of. Providing employees with at least health insurance is required by law, but other insurance options is a good idea as well.
Remember that these agents are going to be exposed to a lot of stress. HR professionals need to realize that these professionals will experience burnout and they may need to talk with a mental health professional. The health and safety issues are going to involve a broad spectrum of problems and HR needs to work to tackle this to help their employees become more satisfied and to decrease the amount of turnover that they see from employees.
It all comes down to taking care of your employees. This is a highly competitive industry, one where the agents will have to work long hours and can be stressed out. Handling any complaints, offering insurance, and giving the agents some of the training and mentorship that they need are just the first steps that you need to help keep your real estate business running and to make sure that your employees feel valuable and like an integral part of the company.