We highly discourage agents from switching teams under the LAER model. As well, we highly discourage team leaders from recruiting individual agents within LAER to their team, just like we highly discourage agents from leaving teams to join LAER as individual agents. When teams poach agents from one another, it can quickly cause a deteriorated culture and atmosphere and so we highly discourage any of this type of conduct within the company. We love, love, love our agents so much, and as such we must protect the integrity of our culture. Without culture we have nothing and so these guidelines are set up to put our culture first.
"But I Didn't Recruit Her" -
When an agent wants to leave one team to join another, or when an agent wants to join a team after being an individual agent, the team leader of the new team will often state that they "did not recruit that person."
In fact, oftentimes it is possible to recruit people without realizing you are recruiting them. Having conversations, meetings, training programs, lunch, or other types of get-togethers, should not take place without first having a courtesy call to the team that the agent already works on to let that team leader know. That way you avoid any appearance of recruiting an agent from another team within the company.
"But the Agent Is Not Getting...."
Sometimes team leaders say the current team leader of the agent is not giving the agent something that they need. That is a conversation that the team member should have directly with their current team leader, not the team leader of a different team. If you are a team leader and someone from another team comes to you because they are not getting something they need from their team leader, you should encourage them to talk to their team leader. If they don't want to talk to their team leader, you should then tell them to email HappyAgent@LAERRealty.com to discuss what their options are.
What Teamwork Means at LAER
What teamwork means at LAER, is that when an agent needs help or support from someone within the company, they get that help or support no matter what. In other words, the expectation is that it's your job to help every team within the company grow and thrive. If you choose to support a team member on another team, do so with no expectation of that agent joining your team. As well, do so by keeping the team leader of the team that the agent is on fully informed of everything. You can totally help other people in the company, but the expectation is that you help that person while they are on the other team, and that you encourage them to stay on that team, and that if you don't want to give assistance to people on other teams, just refer them back to their team leader or to the Happy Agent team for the support they need. There are systems in place to help every team member get support and we will help them by getting them enrolled into our formal coaching program. (www.LAERRealty.com/LAERCoaching)
Agents Who Want to Get To Get Off a Team to Be an Individual Agent
When an agent wants off a team in order to become an individual agent, LAER staff will encourage that agent to discuss options with their team leader before any dialogue is had about their options as an individual agent at LAER.
When Agents Do Move
In 2019, LAER Realty Partners set up a formalized system for addressing the issue of agent's who move from one team to another and agents who leave teams to become individual LAER agents and individual LAER agents who join teams. It is expensive to recruit, train, mentor, and coach agents, therefore, we have set up a pay structure where the original recruiter (either the original Team Leader or the Company) gets an override on that team member's business for 24 months in order to offset the investment they've made into that team member.
Where A Team Member Leaves One Team to Another Team within LAER
The first team leader will receive an override of 15% of the gross income of that team member for 2 years (calculated as 15% of 95% of the team member's gross commissions), capped at $12,500 per year paid to the original team leader. The start date for the calculation begins on the date on which the team leader changes teams, and will continue on all transactions that close within 24 months after this date as long as both agents are at LAER. The override is paid at the time of closing.
Where A Team Member Leaves One Team to join LAER as an Individual Agent
The team leader will receive an override of 15% of the gross income of that team member for 2 years (calculated as 15% of 95% of the team member's gross commissions), capped at $12,500 per year paid to the team leader. The start date for the calculation begins on the date on which the team leader changes teams, and will continue on all transactions that close within 24 months after this date as long as both agents are at LAER. The override is paid at the time of closing.
Where An Individual LAER Agent Joins a team at LAER
LAER will receive an override of 15% of the gross income of that team member for 2 years (calculated as 15% of 95% of the team member's gross commissions), capped at $12,500 per year paid to the original team leader. This is in addition to the split that firm receives for team members. The start date for the calculation begins on the date on which the team leader changes teams, and will continue on all transactions that close within 24 months after this date as long as both agents are at LAER. The override is paid at the time of closing.
Other Caveats of This Override Program:
- 60 Days - If the agent has been with the company/original team for less than 30 days, then the override program will not apply.
- Switch Back - If the agent decides to go back to the original team within the two years then no additional override is paid and the original contract terms will be put back into place. Likewise, if an agent decides to go back to becoming an individual agent where they were an individual agent at LAER prior to joining the team, then no additional override is due to the team leader when the agent reverts back to their original status.
- Switching to Additional Teams - If an agent joins as a team, then switches to another team, the first team leader is due the override for 24 months. If that team member switches to a 3rd team, the 3rd team leader must complete the original two-year override program with the 1st team leader. The 2nd team leader is not due an override is the agent is already tied to an override for their original team.
- If an agent leaves the company and joins another brokerage and then comes back at a later date, nobody is due an override as there has been a break in the contracts to all parties. As well, if the agent leaves the company with the intent to not sell real estate, and the agent leaves for more than 60 days, no override is due to the original team leader upon their return as there has been a break in contracts to all parties.
- If a team leader recruits an individual LAER agent and LAER is paying a recruiting override to one of our recruiters or ambassadors, then the team leader is responsible for taking on the expense of that recruiter.
- At no time should a team leader have their team made up of more than 25% of its team members obtained from other LAER teams or obtained from the individual agent pool at LAER.
- When a team member changes teams within LAER, or leaves a team to join LAER as an individual agent, or switches from an individual agent to a team member, no social media announcements shall be made. We do not want to condone this within the company so a quiet transfer will be made.
- If two team leaders get together and make an agreement that is different than the 15% override for two years mentioned above, that's fine by us. As long as the two team leaders both agree.
REALLY IMPORTANT TO NOTE:
There are many more agents outside of our walls than inside of our walls. That's where the opportunity is for all of us when it comes to recruiting new talent, outside of LAER. However, we understand that relationships are made and agents sometimes believe there is more opportunity or "better deals" on one team over another. Experience has proven that rarely does an agent's business change massively when they move from team to team or office to office. Many agents do not realize that changing scenery does not change their business, but rather the only way to change their business is by changing their minds, their belief systems about themselves, and their internal conversations.
Your team will thrive if they work in a culture that thrives. The only way to have a culture that thrives is to have systems in place so that the culture is placed first and foremost. It is for this reason that we have set up a system that encourages teams to help other teams grow and thrive.