On Friday, new data came out regarding staffing and recruiting challenges seen by by C-level executives in a recent survey on mortgage leaders. The survey, conducted by recruiting expert Rick Glass of Rick Glass Executive Search based in California, was intended to determine the most important concerns and challenges for this year and beyond.
“It is too simplistic to say they are concerned about loan volume,” said Glass. “Of course they are. But to achieve and sustain growth, profitability and market share, executives are all-too aware that they must have the right people in place to lead their origination and operating teams. This is where the most meaningful challenges are to be found,” he said.
Senior leadership ranked their top four priorities to meet the needs of a rising rate environment:
- Talent acquisition
- Leadership development
- Employee retention
- Mergers and acquisitions leadership experience
Among the primary concerns will be finding top field sales agents and developing the leaders to manage them while ensuring optimal integration with acquirers, along with retaining those team members most valued.
“It is a tricky time. Companies will be competing for the best origination talent and that means they must be able to merchandise and deliver a meaningful value proposition while finding the right leadership to attract, manage and retain those high performers,” Glass said.
The most surprising trait executives indicated was missing from their leadership teams, according to Glass, was “performance accountability.” Seventy-eight percent of respondents had concerns over the way their leaders accepted and embraced responsibility for the results of their teams’ performance.
Sixty percent of respondents indicated that millennial talent acquisition was among their highest priorities of investments over the course of the year. “I found this both surprising and expected,” Glass said, who has published articles on the challenges of recruiting millennials. “This young group has a somewhat different set of priorities and a global view that differs from previous generations. To recruit them effectively, C-level executives need leaders who can identify the top millennial prospects and relate to them in a way that brings out their best,” he said. “Recruiting and leading them are not necessarily as intuitive as in the past. They require a careful approach and new thinking on the part of management.”
For more information on this survey, click here [1].