Diversity and inclusion (D&I) practices are pivotal in developing a real estate team or agency in Vietnam due to the high turnover rate in the sector. Talentnet survey shows that the turnover rate was the second highest after the retail sector, at 18.8 per cent in 2017 and 12.7 per cent in 2022, respectively, even when the property market was growing. It was abnormally high at 70 per cent in 2023 when the market fell off, another survey reports.
Retaining salespeople in a real estate company itself is a vital mission, and it would be more challenging when the market is downtrending. Real estate companies are recruiting salespeople all year. You can see their recruitment ads very often on social media channels, especially when a new project is open for sale or a new year begins.
Salespeople in a realty agency usually leave their jobs for two main reasons: no sales and no momentum. They are disqualified from not satisfying sales KPIs or making no sales in a given time, like two or three months, for the first reason.
Unfair commission shares, bad support and personnel inclusion policies may cause salespeople to leave their jobs, even some of whom made a few sales for the latter one. In some cases, the “no momentum” working environment of the latter may result in “no sales” of the former.
Therefore, a tailor-made diversity and inclusion strategy can help improve the turnover rate and sales in real estate agencies or teams.
Realising D&I practices in real estate agency
Diversity and inclusion generally mean realising differences and recognising the achievement of personnel to maximise their capabilities toward business growth goals. The practice is useful for companies in all sectors, but it is extremely needed in real estate.
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Most personnel in a property agency are salespeople. Unless they are dynamic, proactive and knowledgeable, sales or commission can not come. They must prove their capabilities, which always differ from others, so that they may succeed in acquiring customers and winning deals. So gender differences, generation gap, religion and region variety, etc., play an important role in a real estate company. If you respect the difference, you will find best sellers.
Meanwhile, the achievement of different personnel should be assessed and rewarded in the proper way, which improves the quality of the working environment in property companies. Inclusion activities such as welcoming, training, outings and encouragement should be carried out thoroughly in the company.
As far as I have experienced from the real estate sector or my own business, gender balance, regional and age differences or generation gaps create a dynamic working environment rather than a lagged one. Benefits from gender balance can be found when staff help each other.
The old generation staff can quickly learn new tools, channels, even new slang from social media, and new digital marketing strategies or tools to acquire new customers from the young generation, while young staff can get help and learn selling experience of real estate projects and properties, especially skills to win deals with customers from the old generation.
In regards to inclusion practices, training is one of the vital practices that help our business build a powerful and stable sales force. There are often double-tiered training activities for salespeople, corporate training and property specialised training.
The human resource department delivers or hires experts to offer the first training, while the sales department or team leaders provide the latter training. This inclusion indicates that all staff are equally equipped with knowledge and skills to develop their career.
It appears important for a professional diversity and inclusion strategy to be applied to real estate agencies to make stable and financially effective growth.
How should the D&I strategy be applied in real estate agencies in Vietnam?
Provided that D&I strategies are properly applied to real estate agencies, they would develop more effectively and sustainably in the long run.
The majority of small and medium realty companies in Vietnam appear to manage their sales teams with hands-on experience. The business owners often originate from successful agencies or have experience in developing and managing sales teams. Now, they set up and run their own real estate business, so they tend to apply hands-on personnel management experience from their previous employer and other agencies with some typical achievements to their business.
As usual, to build up the sales teams, they often hire a multi-tasking personnel executive who will take care of all tasks from recruitment and personnel management to training and development. This may save cost, but it works effectively within a short time and in small business sizes.
I did the same thing a few years ago when I was managing a real estate agency with approximately 200 salespeople with a focus on middle to high-end property trading. Although we had developed the business with our own advantages, we still looked for practices and achievements of other agencies to apply to our current operations.
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Instead of a paid recruitment campaign, like other agencies, we focused on seeking experienced sales managers who always have their own following staff. As long as we had the managers onboard, we would have their following staff join our teams.
Moreover, in witnessing other companies successfully retain salespeople by offering rewarding programs for best sellers and frequently organising outing activities, we did the same and got good results because these activities could connect and build momentum for sales staff and managers in our company. It is clear that the practical personnel experience was really helpful case by case, but in the end, I found that all the activities should be implemented in a strategic way to make the business work effectively in the long run.
My understanding of the D&I strategy has greatly facilitated my management tasks in my new model real estate business. We are a complete real estate trade platform where we build core sales experts to help members win deals while developing networks of sales affiliates and partners. So, the D&I practices are really helpful.
The real estate salespeople are young and dynamic, so I consider their creativity in marketing and sales, as well as their diversity in ages and genders. I suggest they bring new ideas and input to the marketing work, such as building YouTube or TikTok channels with their own style to acquire customers.
Even though I prefer hiring Gen Z staff, I still invite older staff to join our team to diversify the working environment and key results. Moreover, in order to connect and activate affiliates and partners, we have carried out different inclusion practices like direction training, skill training, outing activities, rewarding programs and compensation packages.
These practices are implemented by both back office departments and front office managers to help sales affiliates and partners feel fairly inclusive when working with us. This way can enable us to expand our networks of members with ease.
Generally speaking, to build a successful real estate agency in Vietnam, we not only focus on sourcing quality property inventories of a great variety, but we also understand the importance of D&I strategies and apply them to the business in the right way. This helps us recruit, retain, and activate the best sellers so as to keep the business growing effectively and sustainably.
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