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Since moving from the practice side of the real estate sector to the association side in 2017, I’ve often told rooms full of Realtors that I understand the challenge of engagement from their perspective. As part of a broader presentation, I’ll say to them, “For the ten years that I was a broker, I didn’t care what the board or provincial association were doing. As long as the MLS System turned on in the morning and my agents could go to work, I was good.”
In a 2024 article for REM, I wrote that Realtors’ fees support around 70 different strategic plans across the country, and almost all of them will talk about improving member engagement. Yet, there doesn’t seem to be clarity on why we want engagement or what can be achieved from it.
We see it all the time at the director level of the various boards and associations across Canada — a new director will join the board without knowing the full scope of what the organization does (or any scope, in some cases), and then find themselves saying, “Every member should know what we are doing.”
Misconceptions about engagement and success
It could be argued that a Realtor’s success in business does not have a direct correlation to their engagement with the local board or provincial organization. Sure, we hear stories from folks who sought board positions as having built a strong referral network and perhaps garnered some additional business from the role, but there are plenty of successful agents out there who do not invest an ounce of time into following the most recent decision of the board.
Therein lies the challenge. The frustration of the decision-makers boils over when members first hear about an organizational change only after it’s implemented, despite a lengthy communications campaign in the lead-up.
The communication conundrum
There were two unsurprising results from a survey of B.C. Realtors that the BC Real Estate Association conducted last year. First, many said they have a hard time keeping up with all the emails they get from the various organizations trying to communicate with them, but their preferred method of communication continues to be email. Second, many have no idea what BCREA does and what the value is for their small monthly fee, but they also don’t read any of the emails we send them.
These challenges and realities are nothing new. New directors will join the board and, before they get the requisite governance training, will confidently suggest that what is needed is video content. That is the missing medium.
The thinking goes, if you add video to the existing member portal, newsletters, direct emails, social media posts, MLS System pop-ups, and townhalls, then suddenly those who were oblivious will now be enlightened. Only if you make that change, you find that the videos’ open rates correlate to the board’s exact number of board members, staff, and already engaged keeners.
Rethinking engagement metrics
So, then, if this is nothing new and there’s no silver engagement bullet, why does every strategic plan call for more engagement, and for engagement to continue to be measured in likes and email opens?
My theory is that it’s because we’re built on metrics. Our directors, who are mostly Realtors and are running their own engagement campaigns for their businesses, and staff have become wired to equate engagement with measurable intel. The feedback loop has become the confirmation of success.
Accountability over engagement
In my role with the BCREA, I’ve recently said that having over 26,000 Realtors engaged in everything we do sounds like a recipe for disaster. The board of directors and the organization require a certain amount of autonomy to conduct the affairs of the corporation as they have been elected or appointed to do.
That said, this is not an open license for leadership to go rogue or to stop communicating. Just because stakeholders aren’t reading the emails does not mean they won’t care about the outcome of a decision that is made.
To balance this autonomy with the multi-generational status quo of complacency, the focus needs to shift from engagement to accountability. Rather than a board of directors or leadership team confusing complacency by the members with indifference, they need to make every decision based on an assumed over-consequence. That is to say, regardless of the engagement a team is getting from members, the decision-making process needs to be weighted significantly more heavily on the side of due diligence and justification than it does on communication. In turn, the engagement becomes focused on what is needed to make the decision rather than communicating the decision.
Redefining what engagement really means
One way we often hear from membership is when they’re caught off guard with a change: “I’m not necessarily against the change—I’m frustrated with the process used to get there.” On the other hand, I’ve also seen and been involved with many significant changes in the sector that were implemented smoothly based on targeted pre-emptive engagement and a comprehensive communication plan for both before and after implementation, which collectively becomes part of a broader change-management strategy.
So, what does this mean for the sector? I suggest that if your organization embraces the term “engagement,” you first define what that actually means and the reasons you are pursuing it. Be able to explain why you want engagement and what purpose it will ultimately serve.
Continue to communicate, but move away from engagement as a source of affirmation that people are paying attention to what you’re doing and instead make it a measure of the confidence you have in your decisions.
Realtors will engage when it’s meaningful for them to do so. If you’re ready when they are, they’ll not only support the decisions being made—they might even become advocates.
As a former managing broker and realtor, Trevor Koot’s nearly two decades in organized real estate gives him hands-on expertise in understanding the profession’s needs. Before stepping in as CEO at the BC Real Estate Association, he served as CEO of Kamloops and District Real Estate Association for four years and Kootenay Association of Realtors for three before successfully merging the two into the Association of Interior Realtors. Trevor’s leadership in the real estate sector began long before his CEO career when he was Chair of the Saskatchewan Real Estate Commission for five years. He played a key role in redrafting provincial real estate regulations during his tenure. Trevor also served two years as Chair of the Governance Committee at the Association of Real Estate License Law Officials.
He holds multiple degrees, from a Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology and a minor in Mathematics through the University of Saskatchewan to a Master of Business Administration degree through Royal Roads University. Trevor is adding to his extensive education through his current pursuit of completing a Master of Laws degree at York University. His daughter, Abby, attends the University of Victoria while he and his wife, Jill, live in Vancouver’s Chinatown.