Building Careers President Carly Glova said companies seeking executives or leadership positions have been much more willing to get creative with compensation structure, allowing candidates to get larger pieces of deals. Historically limited to C-suite positions, more performance-based compensation, such as giving restricted shares, has filtered down to vice presidents and others to entice them to make a move. These shifts come after decades where compensation structures had slowly been shifting toward a great reliance on annual salaries; between 2005 and 2020, CREW found that base salaries for men and women in CRE have increased, while commissions and profit-sharing have decreased by roughly the same amount.
What should commercial real estate brokers and execs think about as the uncertain COVID situation continues to evolve and impact the search for top talent? A Deloitte research paper suggests that firms take this moment to broaden their talent searches and modernize technology to attract younger workers: For every Gen Z hire, CRE companies recruited three baby boomers.
Glova has seen surging demand for anybody with life sciences experience, and comp packages are market-agnostic, meaning those with experience in established markets such as San Francisco and the Bay Area can look at relocating to rising markets like Denver and enjoy a big cost-of-living benefit.
“There’s still a small pool of companies doing this, and folks with this kind of specialty are few and far between,” she said.