Everyone loves a quick recruiting hit.

You make a call, find someone who is on the verge of leaving their current brokerage, and you welcome them into your arms.

There are two problems with this strategy—it rarely happens, and you often regret hiring the agent whom you onboarded under these circumstances.

It’s better to hire slowly.

For new agents, connecting with someone deeper in the pipeline allows you to evaluate their performance before you make a hiring decision.

Do they follow-through on their commitments? Are they progressing through licensing school at a reasonable pace? Do they respond to your offers for help and support? Are they grateful?

The answers are clues to the likelihood of their success.

For experienced agents, high-potential individuals usually don’t make hasty decisions about their careers. They’re constantly asking:

What’s holding me back? How do I capture more opportunities? What changes do I need to make in the next year to reach my goals? Who’s leveraging new tech better than me, and what can I learn from them?

Answers to these questions don’t come quickly.

They emerge over time in partnership with the individuals whom they respect and trust.

The best recruiters and hiring managers know this is the most effective hiring cadence.

In response, they build large pipelines of high-quality prospects who are at various stages of moving towards thoughtful change.

So, from the outside, it can look like they’re hiring fast.

But in reality, they’ve created a system that is always hiring.