According to the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®' 2004 Profile of Real Estate Firms, 16 percent of all brokerages report at least one sales staff member left the company during 2003. In larger firms with more than 50 employees, the turnover rate was much higher; 86% of those companies report at least one salesperson left.

Tips for Reducing Turnover

Although some turnover is inevitable given the demanding nature of the real estate business, each salesperson who leaves represents dollars lost to the company in customer contacts and productivity. Try these tips to help you keep your top performers.

TIP: According to the 2003 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® Member Profile, the typical salesperson has been with his or her present company for three years. The Profile shows that since 1999, the proportion of salespeople at their firm for a year or less has grown to 29 percent from 24 percent.

• Don’t paint an overly rosy picture of real estate sales or your company. Associates will find out about any problems soon enough and may feel betrayed. —T. L. Wright, Century 21 T.L. Wright Realty, Cobleskill, N.Y.

• Look for workers who are good matches for your corporate culture as well as skilled at their jobs. For example, if your company has a fairly rigid hierarchy, associates who have problems with authority may not be happy there, no matter what their sales skills.
  

TIP: Use the following techniques to assess the health of your company’s corporate culture. Consider when assessing your corporate culture: leadership roles, conflict resolution, communication between workers, and business policies and methods. —Courtenay Culp, “Shaping Your Corporate Culture,” Association Management, August 1988

• Ask all associates and employees to complete a twice yearly questionnaire on ways to improve the company’s operations and what they would like to see changed at the company. And act on those suggestions, or don’t bother with the questionnaire.

TIP: Seventeen percent of employees say they would stay at a company if there were a change in management, according to a 2000 study by New York University’s Management Institute and Nierenberg & Associates.

• Watch for signs of burnout, such as lateness and increased irritability. If burnout can be avoided, you may retain a productive worker.

• Remember that the most skilled workers are the ones who will find it easiest to leave. Work doubly hard to be sure that they’re satisfied.

• Look for patterns of turnover. Ask employees why they are leaving and keep track of responses.

• Train yourself and your sales managers to manage for retention. If turnover is severe, base a portion of the manager’s compensation on improved retention.

• Don’t adopt a “sink or swim” philosophy. Instead, make an investment in training to help your associates succeed.

• Offer competitive compensation and benefits.