Real Estate Recruiting Trends: 3 Things Hiring Managers Need to Know

The real estate industry has experienced an ever-evolving landscape, with continued challenges as we round the corner into spring 2024. From high interest rates to tight inventories to vacant office buildings, real estate professionals face significant transitions in response to changing consumer demands and market dynamics.

With hybrid work here to stay, McKinsey reports that office attendance has held steady at 30 percent below pre-pandemic numbers. Additionally, hybrid work models have impacted urban cores, with New York City losing 5 percent and San Francisco losing 7 percent of their urban cores between mid-2020 to mid-2022, impacting vacancy rates and foot traffic. 

Today, hiring managers in the real estate industry must remain up-to-date with these ongoing challenges, demands, and opportunities as they recruit executives, ensuring they attract top talent.

Keep reading to learn about three things real estate hiring managers can do to help their organizations recruit the right candidates in today’s competitive labor market. 

1. Emphasize a Flexible Workplace.

Remote work spiked to more than 50% during the global pandemic in the spring of 2020 and has decreased since then, holding steady around 28% since early 2023. 

However, even though remote work has leveled out post-pandemic, according to a recent study of senior executives at approximately 500 U.S. businesses, respondents expect that fully remote and hybrid work will continue to grow through 2028.  

Harvard Business Review.

Because of this, employers should prioritize geographic flexibility with real estate candidates, giving the green light to hiring managers to highlight the remote-first workplace. With remote and hybrid work becoming more common across the real estate industry, hiring managers can tap into different talent pools, embracing more agile candidates.

2. Pinpoint Candidates with Niche Expertise.

Hiring managers are also searching for candidates with niche expertise related to real estate as the industry becomes more complex. With construction management, sustainability, or finance backgrounds, for example, these executive candidates can bring a unique perspective to real estate organizations.

As the demand for talent with industry-specific expertise rises, hiring managers must stay on top of current real estate trends, helping them to recruit the best executive talent for sophisticated roles.

3. Start Recruiting Early.

There’s no time to start like the present – and this is especially true in recruiting. With a historically tight labor market and more candidate demands, hiring managers must move quickly when identifying the right candidate. 

With candidates, a significant amount of upfront work must occur before a candidate receives an offer. The days of ambiguous placement processes are over. Hiring managers must align stakeholders, understand the business case of the position, and iron out compensation parameters early in the process.

Understanding the role and how it plays against current industry trends is critical to finding the right person for the job. This is more important than ever in an industry experiencing ongoing transformational shifts.

The real estate industry is changing. Hiring managers are the very people who will help commercial real estate organizations find the right candidate to drive this evolution now and in the future.

With Professional Search Advisors, we can not only help you identify and hire the perfect candidates; but we can help ensure the salary, benefits, and total compensation package align with the industry and the specific role.