Jeff Hicks, MAI President  Dohring Group RealWired!

My MAI wife and I recently gave an eight hour commercial appraisal productivity seminar for the local Appraisal Institute chapter in Chicago.  As part of our seminar, we asked attendees what issues are most pressing in their business. Surprisingly, finding and retaining good quality appraisers and support staff came up often.

A friend of mine Doug Van Dyke is a leadership coach who addresses this very topic. Doug's contention is that the key to employee recruitment and long-term happiness is tied to keeping employees engaged. If employees feel that they are truly engaged they will go above and beyond showing pride in their work. 

Doug presents five bullet points (with my added commentary) identifying what drives employee engagement, as follows:

• Communicate values- communicate what you expect of your appraisers and support staff relative to your company culture.  For example, in my firm we consistently talk about customer "high touch", returning all phone calls quickly, communicating clearly, having a professional attitude with a strong emphasis on technology.
• Share a meaningful vision - the owner of the firm needs to communicate where you're going. Tell them what your plans are for the future. Do you plan on keeping the same number of staff for years, are you planning to grow or downsize?  It's best not to leave your people in the dark.
• Recognition and Meaningful Feedback - don't spend your time just criticizing your employee's mistakes.  Take a few moments to notice when they do a good job. When you review a well-written appraisal, consider writing a smiley face or "good job" on the report, small things do matter.  Buying your employees a few drinks after work AND communicating that you're noticing their hard work is very impactful.
• Coaching and Development - Doug is talking about creating a personal bond which will engage your team members and hopefully create future leaders of your firm.  That being said, as the owner you should spend most of your time coaching your A Players and not your C Players. In reality, you should jettison the C players if they can't improve to at least B Player status.   
• Inform and Involve - this concept deals with open book management such as sharing financial data, appraisers' production numbers, operation costs like data services, accounts receivable figures/issues, etc. This exercise is not meant to freak out employees as to the typically tenuous realities of cash flow but rather better inform how the owner makes decisions which in turn will keep them more engaged and increase operational awareness.

Doug cites a study that indicates a reduction in force reduces employee engagement by 33.9%. Wow. That's a big deal. We mentioned in our productivity seminar that squeezing the company's expenses is prudent but only to a point. It's much more productive to grow your revenue line. Let's face it, you can only cut so many costs and still be productive. You could fire all your appraisers and support staff, turn off your lights and AC and huddle in the dark with a candle typing your appraisals. Does that make any sense at all? 

I think you should actually spend more money (even if you think you can't afford it) to reinvest in yourself, your office infrastructure and create repeatable systems that allow you to be much more competitive. The talent is out there but they are hard to find.  It's even harder if you don't keep them.