Originators must earn the trust of their clients and provide sound advice beyond considering factors such as the interest rate or the loan term. Understanding clients’ finances and short- and long-term goals is critical for providing effective advice and ensuring affordability in the community where the borrower desires to live.

“Mortgage companies are recruiting the top-producing and most talented professionals, a fundamental reminder that relationships and service are still at the core of corporate success.”

Facing a highly competitive home purchase market, lenders and originators are diversifying their product mixes and updating their tech stacks to capture additional market share. Mortgage companies are recruiting the top-producing and most talented professionals, a fundamental reminder that relationships and service are still at the core of corporate success.

Lenders face a substantially different recruiting and retention landscape as the baby-boomer generation, a large segment of the mortgage labor pool, begins to reach retirement age. Even as talent is becoming more indispensable than ever before, current employees and potential recruits are seeking positions based on changing criteria.

The nationwide lockdowns fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted how many younger generations perceive employment and their careers. Specifically, their goals and standards for job satisfaction have changed.

Suddenly, commuting to a downtown office wasn’t simply a matter of fact but an option alongside remote or hybrid employment. This was a seismic shift of the workforce’s fundamental perception of job satisfaction. And it’s something that mortgage companies seeking to thrive through the remainder of the current market cycle — and into the eventual rebound — must account for in their business models.

Evolving management

Mortgage lenders still depend on qualified originators to act as front-line specialists and decisionmakers. Even as the industry discusses concepts like “automating everything possible” or advanced technology like natural language processing, the reality is that most borrowers still desire a trained, professional expert when the time comes to select and commit to a mortgage.

While technology is essential, its role is to assist and empower mortgage professionals, not replace them. This inherent demand, combined with the significant change in how the labor pool views potential employers, has started to mean a need for more flexibility in the workplace and greater empowerment for the employee.

“Highly recruited top producers will consider how well they’ll be able to perform their jobs with a new employer, especially if they fear they’ll be hamstrung by a lack of technology or poor tools.”

Performance management has long been a popular strategy for all types of employers. In essence, this requires the collection of measurable results to determine how efficiently and effectively a particular employee has been performing their role. The employee then receives performance-based feedback, meriting increased compensation and/or promotion for success (or accountability for mistakes or shortcomings).

Today, many executives and supervisors are moving past performance management and toward an enablement-based coaching and empowerment approach. With this method, the manager accommodates reasonable errors as employees perform their jobs and uses these mistakes as instructional examples.

Of course, this approach also requires that an employer cede more decisionmaking authority to front-line employees than they might have traditionally done in a performance management environment. Many studies show that today’s employees — and not just those in the mortgage industry — increasingly base job satisfaction not solely on compensation but on the pride they take in performing their roles.

In the mortgage industry, there is some disagreement over the effectiveness of the work-from-home approach. Its popularity is a strong indicator that employees value flexibility. This includes flexibility in where and when they perform their duties. Although the efficacy of a hybrid approach can vary dramatically based on what the business does and how it operates, it’s clear that the flexibility (and inherent trust) that comes with such an environment is often considered by current and potential employees.

Office culture

Management must provide the most effective tools for their teams to perform their duties — including practical, real-world training. Highly recruited top producers will consider how well they’ll be able to perform their jobs with a new employer, especially if they fear they’ll be hamstrung by a lack of technology or poor tools.

Finally, leadership and management are about much more than coaching or measuring metrics. The availability and presence of executives and decisionmakers at all levels is something that employees notice.

In office cultures where managers and leaders are willing to explain critical decisions or receive constructive feedback, employees tend to feel more empowered and ultimately more loyal. Trust is a powerful motivator for productivity and employee satisfaction.

Similarly, employees are aware of the communication styles of their leaders. Do they only hear from the CEO once a year via an all-hands teleconference? Do interactions between executives and front-line employees tend to be one-way communications, or do decisionmakers legitimately accept and interact via two-way conversations? Again, the most robust cultures and desirable employers tend to feel like comprehensive, collaborative teams that pull in the same direction.

Like many industries, the mortgage business is undergoing massive change in many ways. As a result, the most successful mortgage companies will build upon a team mentality that fosters empowerment, coaching, adaptability and effective communication. These companies will attract the top talent and, even more importantly, retain it. ●

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