2023 Fall Issue of Urban Land - 27

MENTS
Urban Land: Tell us about the
success you've had with the
Junior Broker Development
Program.
Mitch Rudin: When I joined, I
felt that [given] the way we
work ... there needed to be
an improved way to onboard
junior professionals here, both
in terms of creating a broader
outreach, and also in terms of
lowering attrition. Particularly
on the sales side, attrition is
significant-[it's] very high. You
talk to different companies,
and the industry averages for
people who are onboarded
without any formal training
program could be an attrition
rate of more than 80 percent.
So, we did two things: we
established this program to
make sure we were getting a
broad enough outreach . . . to
diverse populations-people
of color, [as well as] looking at
gender, ethnicity, and sexual
orientation.
We've been quite successful
in terms of the program.
We're about to start our fourth
year, and retention is running
well over 70 percent, which is
candidly quite extraordinary,
particularly during the COVID
environment. We've identified
some outstanding professionals
who have moved to different
parts of the organization.
Today I just finished a meeting.
We're going through a
systems implementation, and
one of the members of the
first class is now part of that
systems team working with
our headquarters in London.
His words to me, as we ended
the meeting: " I'm really getting
to understand this entire
organization from the inside
out, " which has really created a
unique opportunity for him.
We have stood by the program,
notwithstanding the
financial ups and downs of
the last few years. In fact, we
doubled down on it during the
first COVID year. [We] actually
expanded the program [to a
total of seven U.S. offices] and
have continued at constant
levels throughout.
UL: As an industry, commercial
real estate lost so many good
people in the last financial
crisis .... That's great to hear
that the program is working
and young leaders with diverse
backgrounds are finding commercial
real estate as a
career path.
Rudin: We stand behind them
for 15 months, at least, to let
them get their footing. Counter
to the generalizations and
things you might read regarding
[members of] gen-Z, we
see great work ethic and great
culture carriers. When people
started to return to the office,
[program participants] were
the " first in, last to leave. " Even
Friday was an office day for
them.
I hear from many of them
on the weekends, and they
really have developed a passion
for the industry and a
passion for the company.
UL: Can you tell us about
Savills' Employee Resource
Groups?
Rudin: We have four. The
first two were easy to get
started, because there was
strong interest for them ....
[They were] BEU [Black Excellence
United] and then our
Women's Initiative Network
[WIN]. They've since been followed
by our Pride+ Group
and Young Savills Network
[YSN]. Our approach was [to]
help facilitate the first two, and
certainly the next two, but we
now look forward to seeing
what interest exists for others
within the company. We're on
the second generation of leadership
in all four of the groups,
just because they've developed
enough maturity and are into
succession planning. Sort of
like being a ULI trustee for a
few years, and then it's time
for the next group to come in.
Each group has developed
a level of maturity. They've
been very successful at what
they've done. Throughout
August, BEU led a back-toschool
supplies drive, just by
way of example.
Our ERGs have been very
effective, in many respects,
including recruiting. We've
FALL 2023
URBAN LAND
27
When people
started to
return to the
office [program
participants] were
the first in, last to
leave. Even Friday
was an office day
for them. "
-MITCH RUDEN,
SAVILLS
DEVELOPMENTS
2023 Fall Issue of Urban Land

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