‘Is Your Employer a Match for You? '

  ‘How to Have & Control Healthy Employee Attrition & Satisfaction in the Mortgage Industry- By Christine Beckwith- National Vice President of Realtor & Sales Management- AnnieMac Home Mortgage

If the Mortgage Industry was a dating service it would have been out of business decades ago.  Neither employer or employee often get it right.  Imagine if both sides had to complete a “match survey”. What would it look like and would YOU be with the right employer when it was all done or would you have realized you belonged somewhere else? How many of you are out there unhappy where you are but thinking there is no solution?  

  Nobody has been looking for that ultimate long term match, not really. The match that could last a lifetime?  Most Mortgage Loan Originators may be looking to settle down, per say, but as it goes, they aren’t really in it for the long haul. They are in it for as long as they are making good & quick money.   That starts out of the gates with requests for lucrative sign on bonuses and upfront guarantees.  Yes, here comes the parade of semi productive originators with production reports in tow like a diary or photo album for their “profile” and anxious mortgage companies who don’t dig deep enough are more than happy to write checks from their CEO’s check books just to say they won the hiring bid. But only to realize 4-6 months later when the guarantee runs out, that they can’t sustain that originator income on their own sales platform.  Sound familiar?  I hope not but it’s an all too familiar story. 

Next year marks my 30th year since my first banking job as a Teller, shortly after I graduated high school.  The rest is history.  This is not my resume, but, to lend credibility to this article, I will say that I have only switched jobs 4 times. Which is quite incredible in an industry that sees 40% attrition annualized.   Yes, I’ve worked for companies that were purchased by other companies, mergers, acquisitions, take overs, bail outs etc.   But, as far as me resigning and seeking alternate employment that has only happened four times.  So, I consider myself somewhat an authority on this topic because you can check the mortgage employment stats for the past 3 decades and I assure you I line up quite impressively in this regard. Horn tooted.

Through that process of loyalty and longevity when I outlasted well past my peer’s tenure on average, what I discovered was a recipe for success and job advancement. I've written seminars on this topic. Not just my own success and how I came to get it “right” so often and for so long, but also in understanding why I stayed and then helping replicate an environment for my employers that would lead a sales force to emulate the same loyalty. I'm proud to say I've accomplished this on both sides of the fence for myself and for the companies whose sales force I have helped lead.  So let me share with you some success techniques on this topic that will put money directly back into your pockets. 

To be clear, this is not an article to convince you to stay where you are currently employed. This is an article about making sure that you are where you belong and if not, that you get it right this next time.

I will start by saying that I made a career mistake early on by having tunnel vision on my first job change.  My then national employer didn't have B paper mortgage product and I had a territory that was all B & C paper mainly.  So, I was not a “match” at all to my employer. This had come from a series of acquisitions that left me 7 years into this job and now a fish out of water. Pun intended. I realized this when after long sought after referral networks sent me business, that I consistently had to turn over to my competition, that I was miss matched with my employer.   So, I made a move, not a hasty one, it took me a year of dating potential suitors, but I realized in hind sight I spent all my interview time making sure that the place I would go would solve my biggest and current problem.  The only issue with this process and mentality is that as we all know mortgage lending is quite complex and as such, you must really examine and vet all applicable areas of your product, price and personal benefits.  So, end of story here is simply that I got my B & C paper lender for a price tag of horrible processing and service that I had to compensate for. So, the trade up for more applications was greater fall out after the point of sale. The net difference was a wash except in this scenario I had started to earn a reputation with my current referral partners for not having great service.  Thankfully I assessed by situation quickly and made another move under 2 years and would land at my next 13-year job.  Which I obviously got right through proper interviewing and consideration of all aspects of my new employment.  You get the morale of the story. 

Now, I don’t want this article to just be about the obvious, due diligence which of course is a no brainer.  I want to speak directly to each of you and say that so much more should go into your interviewing a potential employer and to all you doing the interviews, the same theory applies. I would advise against quick hiring to fill a quota or demand of head count. While we all have a business plan to meet, I would argue all day that to avoid attrition, which my company AnnieMac has done excellently and at 1/3 the national attrition rate, you must create an environment and culture that creates a working atmosphere of investment into your employees, family/life & work balance, recognition, on-boarding and orientation support and career succession with personal professional development.  You must also differentiate yourself and you must understand who you are, on both sides. For that “match” to occur you need to know what you want to represent, how you want to feel every day, what is in it for you but also what you bring to the table.  Last, you want to be looking for the ‘Happily Ever After” mortgage company.  If you think that’s a fairy tale, it’s not. I’ve lived a career of stability outside the scope of things I didn’t control, like mortgage market influx in either direction, guideline restrictions, company acquisition and mergers.  Yes, it’s been a rollercoaster, however, I’ve been at the same amusement park for most of my career.  

Mortgage Originators need to understand when seeking their “Happily Ever After Employer” that they need to fall in love. They also need to not expect perfection and they need to understand what they stand to lose by pond hopping.  We have become a society of quitters. There is a lot to be gained by sticking with your employer in tough times and vice versa I will add. Many times, I have seen the ranks of my peers fleeting over rate hikes or product restriction to the next company when it was an industry or market reaction and I always felt sad for them. I knew they were chasing a ghost.  They didn’t like the impending changes of their current employer. 

When I came to AnnieMac 11 years ago, I was seeking my “Happily Ever After Employer.” My prior company, who I would probably still be working for today, had closed its doors during the mortgage industry implosion.  When I sought that new employer, I did so with eyes wide open still.  I had opportunities to go to bigger companies but I had the foresight to realize those companies would have to shrink. Today my company is bigger than many of those companies I passed over.  I was leaving one place where I was literally the last man standing amongst hundreds of national sales associates. I both wanted and needed to get it right and I very happy to report that I obviously did.   I will go ahead and state the obvious, with me being female, looking for executive/senior level sales management jobs could be a bit difficult and disheartening.  But, as it goes, lightning does strike twice.    I found my way to a growing employer, who knew my value and whose culture was truly a match for me.  They were the new and improved lender to the dying breed of lenders who could not evolve quick enough.  They were innovative, classy and most of all fun and funny.  They were the new kid in the ghost town, that was here to rebuild.  They had and still have a value proposition that is a niche. They have differentiated, persevered, evolved and adjusted to some market speed bumps but grown, pragmatically at times and fast when there was market share to be easily gained.  They have stayed on the edge of technology while staying current and relative and human.   

In ending, I would give this advice:

If you are an employer seeking “Happily Ever After Mortgage Originators” then look for the guys and gals who match your culture. But you must understand who you truly are and you must represent yourself as that in truth. I will add you have more to win on a gut feeling than you do sometimes on vetted production.  What one guy does at his old shop will not guarantee success at your shop. Also, don’t write big checks unless you can sustain that originators income with product, price, support and business after their guarantee dries up.  They will not stay if they can’t sustain it with the normal sales platform offered. I see many large mortgage companies whose attrition rate is ridiculous at the 4-6-month mark, I want to invite myself to one of their board meetings.  So, if you are a Mortgage Originator seeking employment, ask that question and beware of the upfront guarantee. A lot of times those blind dates are a killer. 

If you are a mortgage originator and you are seeking a “Happily Ever After Employer” then look for the company that is your match as well.  Who are you falling in love with?  Yes, they need to have product, price and differentiation, but most of all look around.  Are their current employees happy? What do you see on social media about that company?  Awards they’ve won for employment satisfaction? Are the employees a family?  Are they working as a team?  What is their reward program? Etc.

This business is a grind. Relationships are work. We all know it.  However, if you get your match right on either side, in hiring or being hired, everyone wins. There is a very large price tag for the turn over that is going un-analyzed.  

If you’re a mortgage originator and you get your match right your career will thrive, your referral partners will gain confidence in every passing year, trust me and your career succession will experience momentum that is greater than those peers that pond hop.  Loyalty and longevity are understated values.  

The very last thing I will say is that nobody should pond hop for reasons that are not substantial.  But what we all deem substantial varies.  I would put your happiness, stress level and work/life balance at the top.   

There are “Happily Ever After Employers” out here…just ask me!

This is not my opinion, this is a Fact.

#mysalestruth