TheMReport — News and strategies for the evolving mortgage marketplace.
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30 | Th e M Rep o RT Feature payoff in the form of improved staff retention and more efficient operations," added WGS's lending solutions practice director. Mortgaging the (Shared) Future A dkisson at Accenture maintains that one of the "most significant human resources challenges" in the mortgage industry is the consistent swings in demand versus the sup- ply of talent. How does a mortgage company have the vision, agility, and resources to adapt on the fly when demand goes sky high? During times of low interest rates and high loan volume, organizations will have to ad- dress high attrition in their labor force. "What is the 'secret sauce' that keeps the workforce engaged?" she asked. "There has been substantial advancement in tools used to select the right candidates for recruitment, but retention remains a challenge during peak vol- ume times. Employers often pay above market compensation to overcome capacity constraints, and then when volume drops again and they right-size, there is an overpaid workforce with limited job opportunity." Mortgage companies and their active HR departments must understand the cost of reten- tion programs relative to the expense of select- ing, attracting, hiring, and then retaining new employees. Blake broached an alternative for mortgage companies continuing to struggle with budget and location constraints. "It would be interesting to see whether more companies will hire remote mortgage profession- als to keep costs low," she said. "Many larger banks have allowed remote associates for many years now as a way to promote better work/life balance. Remote associates and their organiza- tions are also benefiting from no commute time, which does allow one to three hours of extra work time per day if applied well." Forward-thinking mortgage companies are taking it right to the top and asking what the lead- ership future of their organizations will look like when the tech-savvy generations ascend the execu- tive ladder and what approach is best to make that as smooth and effective a transition as possible. "In the mortgage industry, the pool of execu- tives with more than 20 years of experience is fairly small, and many of those executives are reaching retirement," Blake said. "This is prompting the industry to ask, 'What does the next-generation mortgage professional look like and who will be there to help us trans- form?' Mortgage companies are starting to pair Generation X or Y with tenured executives, and that combination could be exactly what is needed to catapult the industry forward."