Between a skeptical millennial workforce and a widening talent gap, mortgage companies don’t have it easy when it comes to attracting and retaining top mortgage talent.
For starters, 21% of millennials avoid the financial industry altogether due to rising levels of mistrust in financial institutions. And with millennials now accounting for over half of the workforce, you can bet that many won’t even consider careers in the mortgage sector. This is then followed up with the fact that 73% of financial services leaders have reported major skills shortages. To summarize: Not only are candidates rare to come across, but finding a skilled candidate is like finding a needle in a haystack.
How can your mortgage company go about regaining a candidate’s trust and attract only qualified candidates?
As a mortgage staffing agency with over 50 years of experience, top job seekers have told us a thing or two about what they’re looking for in a mortgage company. The secret is to create a company culture that mortgage professionals want to be a part of. Below, we go through exactly how you can do that. Check it out.
Be Flexible
Part of the stigma mortgage companies need to break is their rigid structure. Given the intricate processes and procedures homeowners need to follow, and checks they need to pass, it’s no wonder people believe mortgage professionals have strict routines and daily work lives. This also isn’t helped by the fact that banks have detailed rules, regulations, and guidelines that they need to follow.
Help your mortgage company break the rigid structure by introducing flexibility into your company culture. For example, you can try being more liberal with your company’s working hours and vacation time, or offer more flexible roles that allow your team to exercise additional skills. Any policy that introduces a new level of freedom to your employees will help you break the mold and stand out from the competition. This helps communicate to potential candidates that they have freedoms in their job and that not everything is so structured.
Foster Teamwork
The general public oftentimes doesn’t understand the level of teamwork that goes into preparing a mortgage. Homeowners typically only interact with their loan officer, meaning they don’t meet or communicate with the credit investigator or other members of your company’s mortgage team. This creates a misconception to the public, as well as potential candidates, that there isn’t a big opportunity for collaboration at your mortgage company.
Set potential candidates straight by cultivating and promoting good teamwork at your company. You can do this by emphasizing the camaraderie at your company over social media or on your job listings to give candidates a taste of what to expect at your company. In addition, highlight the many mortgage professional teams on your website to let the team and potential candidates know that you value their hard work.
Offer Training and Development Opportunities
According to Deloitte’s Millennial Survey 2017, 69% of millennials expect to leave their current companies by 2022. What is happening in their roles to make them want to jump companies, or even careers? The survey found that being overlooked for leadership roles and a lack of leadership skill development were top concerns.
To encourage your mortgage professionals to stick around and further their careers, offer frequent training and professional development opportunities. This might include sponsoring special certifications, attending seminars, or participating in industry events. The bottom line is that you are offering activities to your team that promotes their career and helps them move up the ladder at your company.
Stabilize Upper Management
Stability is another reason why mortgage professionals may look elsewhere when searching for jobs. If your company has a lot of upper management shake ups, it can leave your team members feeling uneasy about their own future. If leadership starts leaving, your team may wonder if they should do the same to protect their career.
Make sure your upper management team is solid and stable by enabling clear lines of communication. To prevent your company’s leaders from jumping ship, sit down with them frequently to have honest conversations around their job satisfaction and hopes for the future. If they come to you with an action they want to take or problem they want to solve, give them the freedom and the ability to do so. By contributing to the health of the company, your team’s leaders will feel more incentivized and motivated to stay.
Stay Credible and Transparent
Why is there so much distrust in the financial industry today? Well, a lot of it has to do with the fraudulent banking practices that contributed to the 2008 financial crisis and housing market collapse. This careless behavior and cover-up efforts by some banking institutions led many millennials and other individuals to be skeptical of the industry as a whole. Fast forward to today, we continue to have financial institutions looking to cover their tracks. Just take a look at the recent Equifax hack that jeopardized millions of American consumers.
How can you regain their trust and re-establish your credibility? It’s quite simple, really: be honest and transparent with both your customers and your team. Commit your company culture to honest and trustworthy values by keeping open and clear lines of communication. This can be done in the form of regular updates or allowing your team and customers to participate in forums, surveys, meetings, and other methods that show you care and that you’re listening to their opinions.
Hang On to Your Top Mortgage Talent
The secret to retaining top mortgage professionals is in creating a culture that cultivates talent and values team members. For more ideas on how to attract and retain the best mortgage talent, stay on top of these five financial services workplace trends and millennial recruiting statistics.
