Setting Goals and Targets for Commercial Real Estate Trainees

In commercial real estate agency, the employment of a trainee is a good support strategy in the agency.  If you are to employ a ‘trainee’ in the sales agency area of your business, it is important that you set the right goals and tasks to get them off on the right foot to a successful career.  You should give them a ‘probation’ period and also an induction program.

Every trainee will have a high opinion of what they think they can do in the industry when first employed.  It is a fact that the ‘rising stars’ in the industry are very hard workers.  The ‘top agents’ status only goes to those that are prepared to learn and work hard for many years.

There are lots of things to ‘grow with’ when it comes to the personal performance and knowledge of a trainee in your agency.  To keep the new person on track you should set some controls to help them.  Here are some ideas to do that:

1. Give them a tour of the office to show them how things happen.
2. Introduce them to others in the business and explain what each person does.
3. Give them a set of job specifications across the agency so they can see how people are expected to contribute as part of a team.
4. Tell them about the hours that the business operates and what is expected of attendance in those hours.
5. Confidentiality is a big issue in our industry.  Get them to sign a confidentiality agreement as part of their employment arrangements.
6. Give the new person an induction manual for the business.  It should contain a complete summary of how things happen on a daily basis and what is expected of the team in response.
7. Communication skills should be controlled from the very start of a trainee’s employment.  They should include computer and internet protocols, client contact, telephone calls inbound and outbound, plus all written and verbal communication.  Professionalism is essential.
8. A trainee will be required to learn the function of the agency ‘from the bottom up’.  Some tasks will be mundane and ordinary but that is how a person learns.  Give them a schedule of ordinary things to do on a daily basis.  See how they commit to those things.

Allow the trainee to have a say in what they want to do with their job and career in commercial real estate.  Get them involved with personal goals and targets.  Give them the guidance to move up in the industry.  Assess their progress weekly and monthly.