Should industry re-focus its recruiting methods?

A new broker recruitment initiative established in Australia could be easily adapted for Canada’s market, according to one broker, who is already applying a similar approach to his own recruitment efforts.

A new broker recruitment initiative established in Australia could be easily adapted for Canada’s market, according to one broker, who is already applying a similar approach to his own recruitment efforts.

“I’ve been … putting on career evenings so people that may be interested in exploring what’s involved in becoming a mortgage broker and what we do on a day-to-day basis,” James Shinners of MMB Mortgage Managers told MortgageBrokerNews.ca. “It’s probably a two or three hour evening presentation and some of those people have decided to join us as a result of that career event and go through our training programs and get their licensing after the fact.”

Mortgage Professional Australia reported that a training provider in the country has taken aim at recruiting young potential brokers to ensure the industry is handed off to the best candidates for generations to come.

“Training provider Intellitrain recently rebranded itself as Australis College, and with the rebrand it has launched a new pilot program that aims to attract new brokers to the aging profession,” the leading Australian mortgage publication wrote. “Australis CEO Paul Eldridge said the college had actively been out in Australian communities running career nights and information booths in local shopping centres to promote brokering as a career path.”

Shinners has had success reaching out to and recruiting young prospects but there is still one market he has yet to reach.

“We’ve tried doing recruiting at the local universities with no success, basically,” Shinners said. “I think people that are in university have their minds set, typically, on going to work for a corporation versus being self-employed and I think their education is geared toward that.”

However, he has an idea about how the industry could go about tapping into this highly sought-after market.

“You’d have to do some preliminary work and do some marketing throughout the year directed at university students; putting articles in alumni magazines, in student newspapers, so students can have a chance to learn there is an industry out there and maybe take a closer look at it,” Shinners said. “But if you just show up at the career fair I think most of the students tend to be focusing on the larger corporations and the banks, for that matter.”