Build a company culture that leads to retention and growth

Building a strong culture is key to keeping your staff engaged and your company thriving. By offering intangible benefits and experiences, you will not only drive retention, but also maintain the success of your brand.

Cultivating an enriching and positive company culture moves beyond the monetary, and provides agents with both knowledge and experience that they ultimately carry with them throughout their professional career. Here, I’ve outlined four ways company culture helps guide retention and growth.

What are your founding principles?

First and foremost, take a look at the founding principles that make up your company’s culture. We founded The Agency on a core philosophy of collaboration.

Today, I believe our deeply rooted culture is key to our success. We’ve been able to maintain it for over a decade, even as we’ve expanded in markets across the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean. Aligning your business practices with core values will drive your business forward.

Find ways to maintain your company’s culture, even as difficult as that may seem during COVID. One way we’ve aimed to maintain our collaborative culture through the pandemic is by hosting global meetings to share valuable market information and best practices.

This has not only helped lift morale, but also provides the necessary support and connection for agents and staff to continue to thrive. If you are able to maintain this passion, your company will grow with like-minded individuals in a very organic way.

Offer valuable solutions

In order to retain your existing talent, it is crucial to provide valuable solutions that allow for a clear path for advancement, continued growth and development.

In today’s competitive industry, offering leading technology and marketing solutions is a must. To keep the best of the best, we’ve invested significant time and resources into our leading proprietary technology.

It is crucial to stay up to date and offer all the latest technologies and marketing tools for agents to use to their advantage. Find new ways to educate and train your team.

One way we do this at The Agency is by hosting monthly one-on-one training sessions related to new technology, marketing solutions and other tools for agents. Even after the session, the series of classes are all available through The Agency’s digital learning platform for agents to use as a resource at any given time.

These sessions include the latest tools and tips on utilizing social media for streaming live tours of listings, public relations support, marketing, CRM tutorials, digital and social advertising, and much more.

Provide incentives

While building on your existing business culture, promoting agent and employee engagement is of the utmost importance. While it may seem simple, these types of incentives recognize success and can help keep top talent at your firm. Consider introducing supplemental awards or even contests.

At The Agency, we believe in agent recognition. We aim to celebrate all agent milestones in our company-wide meetings, on our public platforms, and through our awards such as our Chairman and Rookie of the Year award. Accolades such as these remind your agents that they work for a company that cares about them.

Be strategic in your growth

Your growth strategy should build on the incredible culture and company you’ve built to be where it is today. Your future vision should lead to an enhanced way forward while maintaining your commitment to your existing team of real estate professionals.

Continue to seek out like-minded individuals as you expand into new markets. At The Agency, we believe in partnering with the very best in each of our markets.

We also believe in quality over quantity — quality in character, professionalism and culture. Once you’ve identified and vetted the right partner, you’ll be able to maintain your core principles while expanding into new territories.

Don’t forget to communicate growth goals and plans to your entire company to ensure existing members feel they are also part of an exciting growth period.

Culture should align with achieving the vision and goals of the company. If you can combine finding the right partners in new markets who share similar cultural beliefs with effective training and cutting-edge tools, you will see winning results. Be sure to maintain your core principles and make them the driving force of your firm’s growth.