Barry Plant Group Partner, Tony Larkin believes that providing young people with a clear path in the industry and supporting them to achieve their goals through constant training and mentoring, has seen a far greater retention rate in the business.

Barry Plant has invested in a designated training department and purpose-built facility that continues to educate and develop new, existing and seasoned campaigners in the group. The company has worked closely with Victoria University in the past two years to map-out training material that supports their courses, as well as creating more qualifications around continued learning. Barry Plant is serious about providing benchmarks in the industry, which it believes will ultimately retain quality young people in the industry.

“A lot of our new recruits begin as personal assistants, which we find is the best way to start in the industry. It gives them the opportunity to grow into the system and develop a passion and hunger to become a salesperson or property manager,” Tony said. He said that employing young people with no experience in real estate made the perfect candidates for Barry Plant because they are ‘easier to train and develop’.

Some young people opt for a career in real estate because they have a genuine interest in the industry; however, the large majority development a passion for it (real estate) when they progress through the different phases of the industry.

“Attitude is the number one attribute on real estate. If they are personable, happy to keep smiling, genuinely like being around people, keen to listen, learn and have a high level of energy, the chances are they can look forward to a long career in real estate. It is also important that young people work in an environment that supports their development, growth and goals. Whilst it’s important to have team goals, it’s also important to help young people achieve their personal goals. We live in an era where young people are technologically a lot more advanced, while new and exciting forms of communication are also available. We all must embrace this and work with young people in our office to ensure they are engaged,” Tony said.

Whilst development and retention of staff is the key to any business, it is always a challenge to recruit the right people.

“We tend to rely heavily on career nights that we conduct throughout the year, where we will take anywhere between 10-30 interested people and showcase real estate, the opportunities and what Barry Plant has to offer. Our group has been enjoying very good growth in recent years and this comes from team members developing relationships. This comes as a result of retaining and developing good team members” Tony concluded.