Real estate professionals are fantastic at welcoming customers to new homes. But what about welcoming new agents and staff to their teams? Effective onboarding has tangible benefits that include increased retention, increased productivity, and higher team engagement. And it's not just an HR function. A Harvard Business Review study shows an increase in marketing and executive/leadership positions engaging in the onboarding process to elevate their companies' brand image as employers. This helps in attracting and retaining the best team members.

This is especially true in the ultra-competitive landscape of real estate, as agents look to align themselves with companies that will help them achieve their goals, both in business and in life. Enter the agent onboarding kit.

While company culture, resources and processes take time to learn, and have deep impact, nothing beats the impact of a great first impression on someone’s first day (or minute) with a new team. A well thought-out new hire or agent onboarding kit is a fantastic opportunity to communicate to a new team member that they are valued, and that you are committed to equipping them for success.

"The New Hire / Onboarding kits from House of Magnets have been a tremendous time saver for us. They are a great way to create a positive experience for our agents and equip them with the resources they need."
- Paul Boone, RE/MAX Signature, Daytona Beach, FL

What Goes Into A Kit?

While we’re happy to help customize any kit (and we do that all the time), we tend to approach our kits intentionally with each of our customers. That has led us to think about kits that include four different categories of items:

Practical. When joining a new company, an agent wants to be able to jump in on day one and be able to sell or list a house, see a client or farm a neighborhood. So we’ve designed kits that include some of the basics for them to head out right away, including: business cards, name badges, thank you cards, door hangers, postcards.

Fun / Visible. People often think of the fun things purely as swag and include the latest fad imprinted with a logo. But how many fidget spinners are there under your couch cushions or kids’ beds? We look at items that can travel with agents and make sense as they are out in public, visiting with people and in their communities. Some of our most popular items for this are: Polo shirts, Jackets, Vests, Hats/Headwear, Backpacks/messenger bags/tote bags, Travel mugs (use for refills at your favorite coffee shop).

Signs. For sale signs, open house signs, sign riders, frames, etc. Agents invest a lot in signs, and so having even a few to start with will let them know that you’ve considered their needs and have their backs.

Vouchers. We’ve seen great success with bundling a voucher for employees to use to select other items from a branded company store (we call them Market Centers). This provides agents with a chance to select from a variety of items and choose something that they believe will be of value to their work.

“We used a local vendor for our business cards, we would get our name riders from a sign vendor, and then name badges would come from somewhere else. The cost of doing all three of those things a la carte was hard to justify when House of Magnets is presenting these great opportunities to reduce cost and be more efficient.”
- Michael Johnston, Berkshire Hathaway Home Services, Anderson Properties

Whether it’s another 500 business cards, sign riders, or an embroidered piece of apparel, an agent choosing items for themselves deepens their connection to the brand, and gives them an opportunity to see how easy you’ve made it for them to get the resources they need to succeed.

One look at the popularity of unboxing videos attests to the impact that a well thought out welcome to a company in a single box. We’re happy to help you build an onboarding kit that achieves your goals. Call, email or visit us online today.