5 ways to promote employee happiness in the workplace in real estate
As the job market in real estate becomes increasingly competitive, there has been a shift in power from employer to employee. Unsurprisingly, developing strategies to retain and attract top talent has shot to the top of businesses’ agendas, as employee engagement becomes critical to promoting loyalty amongst teams. Not only does a positive work culture enable real estate firms to stay ahead of the competition, but a happy workforce also means increased performance and productivity.
According to Perkbox, it’s estimated that disengaged employees are costing the UK economy £340 billion every year in lost training and recruitment costs, sick days, productivity, creativity and innovation. Although the benefits of having high employee satisfaction rates are clear, it still feels like there is a long way to go before businesses finesse their approach. Admittedly, optimising your employee engagement cannot be achieved overnight, though leaders in real estate should consider taking the necessary steps towards creating happier teams so that they can achieve long-term success and scalability.
Benefits of a happy workplace environment
There has been lots of evidence to suggest that employee engagement is directly linked to business outcomes. According to Deloitte, organisations with an engaged workforce experienced a three-year revenue growth rate 2.3 times greater than average, and happy employees are:
- 57% more effective
- 87% less likely to leave
A lot of factors impact employee engagement, like how happy employees feel at work, how connected they are with their team and manager, as well as if they feel valued. When employees are truly engaged, real estate teams go from being good to being fantastic! Other benefits of maintaining an engaged workforce are that happy employees:
- Stay loyal
If your team are happy working for your real estate firm, why would they look elsewhere? Employee happiness is critical to retaining talent and will help boost your employer brand, as they are more likely to talk highly of their place of work.
- Help to attract new talent
Happy team members are more likely to refer other like-minded talent to real estate firms and help them stand out from the competition.
- Are collaborative
Happy employees are more likely to work better as a team and morale can be contagious. When team members are surrounded by driven and motivated individuals, they’re more likely to feel engaged in their own role.
- Form better customer relationships
According to The Temkin Group, 79% of companies with engaged employees had a significantly better customer experience than companies who didn’t. If your workforce are happy, your customers will also be satisfied as employee happiness will shine through.
- Are more productive
Highly-engaged employees are more productive as they are more invested in their role and the business. Satisfied employees want to do well and add value so they can continue to excel and thrive in their real estate career.
- Drive better results
As productivity levels increase, so does performance. If employees are happy and engaged with businesses, then they are more likely to strive to hit objectives and long-term goals.
5 employee engagement ideas
Your employee engagement strategy is part of how you manage your team and it doesn’t have to add to your workload. To drive employee satisfaction and maintain a happy workforce you can try:
- Showing that you care
As a leader, you play a huge part in how your employees feel. Make sure you manage your team with empathy, show that you care about their wellbeing, both in the office and at home. If individuals feel like the business they work for only cares about money, they will most likely move to a competitor.
- Being flexible and allowing your team a degree of autonomy
According to Deloitte, 67% of employees in real estate say they would be ‘more loyal’ to companies that provided them with a flexible work option. Make sure you allow your team autonomy and flexibility over where they work, whether that’s through adopting hybrid work models or remaining lenient with flexible working hours.
- Maintaining diverse and inclusive teams
According to Glassdoor, 67% of job seekers seriously consider diversity and inclusion when choosing their prospective employers. Promoting diversity and inclusion in your workforce will help maintain a positive work culture and lead to increased employee satisfaction.
- Providing development opportunities
According to LinkedIn, 93% of employees would stay at a company longer if it invested in their careers. If you want to scale your business your employees need to grow and develop as well and it’s important to give them the time and resources to learn.
- Reinforcing teamwork
Getting your team to work together to achieve the same goal will help boost employee engagement and positive relationships between peers. This will help boost your work culture and create a collaborative environment where everyone wants to see each other and the real estate firm do well.
Top 3 free employee feedback tools
In measuring work satisfaction, employee engagement tools are becoming one of the most useful indicators. Employee engagement changes every day and real estate firms should prepare to trial different methods and solutions to keep up to date with how they’re employees are feeling and react and adapt to any obstacles that arise. There are several free tools businesses can try, including:
- Hyphen
Hyphen is the open-source employee engagement software that helps in valuing the voice of team members to build stronger cultures. Using predictive AI, insights are gathered via surveys, employee voice, and pulse polls.
- Teamphoria
Teamphoria is an employee engagement app that builds and measures an engaged workforce and company culture. Providing real-time employee engagement metrics, real estate firms can enhance their work culture and drive productivity.
- Qualtrics Employee Experience
This employee engagement software allows businesses to evaluate and monitor employee engagement from onboarding through to individuals leaving the team. You can tailor your engagement program and help build strong, happy teams.
How Foundation Recruitment can help you attract, retain and nurture top talent!
At Foundation Recruitment, we are committed to delivering successful hiring outcomes, high-quality services and a positive candidate experience. By keeping up to date with the latest hiring trends, we ensure we have the appropriate practices in place to simplify and improve your resourcing experience and attract diverse talent.
If you’d like to discuss how to promote employee happiness in your team, how to attract and retain top talent, or how to provide a positive candidate experience during your hiring process, please get in touch with one of our expert consultants today – we’d love to hear from you!