Love Where We Work

Love&Co is renowned as an estate agency dedicated to exceeding client expectations without compromising on professionalism and innovation. This reputation for excellence hasn’t happened by accident. Each transaction – whether selling, leasing or owners corporation focused – is realised by a passionate real estate professional supported by a hardworking team behind the scenes. This latest Love&Co blog explores the practices and culture adopted by our people, and what new recruits can expect when beginning their career in our ecosystem.

I had the opportunity to speak with the head of Love&Co’s Talent & Learning Team, the first of its kind in the real estate industry. Daniel Dib is focused on empowering all staff members through an employee-centric philosophy to grow and flourish within the company. His team is purely dedicated to helping Love&Co’s employees grow, through learning & development, career mapping, succession planning and talent acquisition.

A talent team embedded with an estate agency environment is unique. What point of difference does this provide Love&Co as a brand, and how has it benefited employee experience?

DANIEL: Fundamentally we see ourselves as more than a talent team; in fact we perceive ourselves as a people and growth team. We’re very much driven by these factors.  Everything we do – and try to do – is centred around employee-centric behaviour. Our people are the pinnacle pieces, whether that is PM experience or sales experience. Even our brand’s decision making is centred around our people. It’s all a value-based mantra that we’ve adopted for employee experience, and that’s a fundamental difference between us and any other business.

Does Love&Co offer different onboarding and offboarding processes that sets them apart from other real estate agencies?

DANIEL: Our value-based strategy that we’ve adopted – I believe it has resonated through the conversations we’re having with potential employees and candidates. The feedback we’re receiving from them has been along the lines of contemporary interventions when it comes to candidate experience. It really highlights and articulates the company’s position on why someone would want to work for our business. First, we respond quickly to new applications. We’re focused on what the resume has to offer, but also the candidate’s aspirations and goals. From our experience, we believe in ‘hire-for-attitude,’ then drive skillset. And that’s a big difference setting us apart from other real estate businesses.

Is recruiting for sales different to recruiting for property management?

DANIEL: Indeed it is. Although both roles require strong soft skills, we’ve found property management is highly driven by process and relationship management, while sales is driven by performance, relationships and other commercial traits.

What are some of the innovations you’d like to see implemented in the company?

DANIEL: We’re implementing a number of contemporary changes in talent and learning. We’re hoping to roll out more video and social media content that tells the story of what it’s like to work in our business. Also we intend on prioritising content featuring hiring managers, line managers and other leaders, collaborating on projects, that future employees could be working on.

We’d like to also introduce critical role interventions. Rather than relying solely on conventional means of promoting opportunities with written ads, we’re considering vlogs. Our hiring managers will talk to the candidate directly about the role, especially focusing on what it takes to be a great property manager or sales consultant and the expectations and objectives of the role, through pre recorded video advertisements.

One of the main issues for property managers and estate agents is they work long hours. How does Love&Co incorporate family values into its culture? Are there specific family days or events?

DANIEL: We are launching a multitude of projects that will accentuate work life balance as well as employee engagement.  We’re considering wine nights,  breakfast sessions for the family. Initiatives where people can bring their partners and kids and pets. We’re implementing a social calendar which provides employees a snapshots of planned and future programs, in collaboration with the broader team.

Is there access to mental health services for staff?

DANIEL: Yes, we do have a number of support mechanism, currently it is a non formal process. We’re actively engaged with our team, whilst navigating these challenging times for our employees, working from home and via hybrid.  There are consistent ” reach-out” conversations around how they’re coping, if they have the right support and infrastructure at home and what more we can do to support our team’s wellbeing.

What employee growth have you observed during your time at Love&Co?

DANIEL:  As a new member of the team, I’ve seen technical growth; Rachel for example has moved from Reception to Property Management. She was promoted in the last 6 weeks. Other members have had the opportunity to transition into other divisions and learn new skills.  To that note, we are also working on a sales agent acceleration program. For individuals who join our business at entry level, we hope to see them grow – through learning and development in their role, in half the amount of time that is normally expected. It will consist of workshops, SME, coaching, external mentorships, access to learning technology,  and other learning and growth interventions.

Interested in a career you’ll love? Join our team of passionate local advocates dedicated to transforming the real estate industry. Email Daniel Dib for a confidential discussion: daniel.d@lovere.com.au