Kent Elliott

The fight for top talent has been a marker of this business cycle. It has disrupted the office market and changed the way that companies use space, and it has given way to new office niches, like co-working environments. Like all industries, commercial real estate companies are competing for top talent, and with historically low unemployment rates, attracting talent can be a challenge. We sat down with Kent Elliott of RETS Associates, to get a guide to hiring for commercial real estate companies.

“Today's commercial real estate companies understand that the right talent has the power to significantly increase profitability,” Elliott, a principal at RETS Associates, tells GlobeSt.com. “With U.S. employment holding steady at near 50-year lows, these companies also realize that demand for talent is outpacing supply in many regions. This creates an employees' market, where employers must act quickly to compete, not only to recruit the very best, but also to retain them.”

In the commercial real estate market, transaction volume and investment activity is driving the demand for strong talent that can support the workload. “Recent data from Ten-X revealed that 2018 was the second-largest year on record for U.S. transaction volume at an impressive $537 billion,” says Elliott. “Employment trends follow these transactional trends, as CRE companies with a full pipeline of projects seek out team members with the skills and experience to deliver the very best results for stakeholders.”