RISMEDIA, November 15, 2010—ERA Franchise Systems LLC, a franchising leader in the residential real estate industry, has launched ERA TopRecruiter, a unique and innovative new recruiting system designed to help ERA franchisees attract and retain productive sales associates while also addressing the obstacles that prevent many brokers from recruiting. ERA Real Estate launched the proprietary program at its 2010 President’s Circle Business Forum in late October, following a four-month broker pilot program used to fine-tune and test components of the system.
“Finding qualified agents is always a challenge, but it has become a critical issue for brokers in the current real estate market,” said Charlie Young, president and chief executive officer of ERA Franchise Systems LLC. “At ERA Real Estate, we are keenly attuned to the needs of our brokers. We heard loud and clear that recruiting top talent is a priority. ERA TopRecruiter is a one-of-kind system that addresses the needs of large and small brokers alike. Our four-month pilot program exceeded expectations in every category, from the number of leads received and appointments made to actual agents hired.”
According to the company, ERA TopRecruiter provides a comprehensive approach to recruiting tools for brokers seeking new agents ranging from novices to seasoned veterans. In addition to the ERA TopRecruiter tools for analyzing recruiting needs, planning and tracking recruiting progress and learning successful recruiting practices, ERA Real Estate offers a customized recruiting website, SmarterCareer.com, for brokers to use as their home base in recruiting sales associates. The SmarterCareer.com site includes a number of components for agents such as a Confidential Business Assessment (CBA), an interactive business plan generator, an online marketing audio course and other business-building resources. The success of the SmarterCareer.com portion of the ERA TopRecruiter program was measured during the pilot phase, which included 18 franchisees from across the ERA network. This tool generated a six fold increase in leads for participating brokers and more than doubled the number of total agents hired.
“The brokers participating in the pilot saw an immediate impact and we are now rolling ERA TopRecruiter out to our entire franchise system,” says Debbie McGriff, vice president, Business Development, ERA Franchise Systems LLC. “We support our brokers with personal coaching, peer-to-peer sharing and virtual training. With ERA TopRecruiter, we address the hurdles brokers face in regard to recruiting as well as providing effective and proven tools to help in the recruiting process.”
Four-Component Process: Analyze, Plan, Develop, Track
ERA TopRecruiter provides a flexible process with four key components designed to enable brokers to target their recruiting based on existing skill sets. Through the system, ERA franchisees have access to the ERA Resource Center, which provides scripts, templates, forms, job descriptions and more, and to the ERA Learning Exchange, which offers coaching and virtual classes designed to hone broker recruiting and retention skills.
The four key components to the ERA TopRecruiter program are as follows:
-Analyze Your Office: The program provides brokers with specialized, online tools to help them see the positive business impact of recruiting.
-Create Your Plan: ERA TopRecruiter offers actionable planning tools for hiring prospects and growing a real estate agency. The Planning/Tracking Tool creates goals for brokers to work toward. It breaks down specific actions in the recruiting cycle and allows brokers to reach their goals step-by-step. This information is then archived in the system for reference later.
-Develop Your Skills: ERA TopRecruiter provides all the tools and training franchises need to sharpen their recruiting skills, including tips for interviewing and selling the advantages of their brokerages.
-Track Your Growth: The ERA TopRecruiter enables brokers to keep active records of recruiting activities.
Longtime ERA broker, Eddie Wilder, president of ERA Wilder Realty, Chapin S.C., is a successful user of this system. “Meeting the needs of real estate agents today is critical to the growth and relevance of our company,” said Wilder. “The ERA TopRecruiter Program has shown us that in this shifting economy, we also needed to shift our thinking about how we communicate our value and how we listen to what is important to the agents we recruit. This system will allow us to continue to increase our market share and help develop the strongest team of professionals anywhere.”
For more information, visit www.ERA.com.
