The key to loan officer retention is to make sure they know what is required of them. A manager needs to set the right expectations and the right time to do that is right up front. You must sit down with them and arrive at an agreement about what the job entails and what the expectations are on both sides. This is your building block to determine some very important information:
- What support will they need in order to fulfill their responsibilities? Are you ready to commit to that level of support?
- What benchmarks are going to be used to evaluate their performance? It is important to note that goals must be broader than “how many loans and when.” What actions are they committing in order to produce these loans? What are the standards for the quality of loan applications, including meeting the company’s objectives?
- How can this job be accomplished in such a way that it will facilitate the achievement of the company’s objectives? We must align our objectives with the goals of the company.
Misunderstandings may occur if a loan officer is not in agreement with your expectations. Here are some important topics to make sure both sides are clear about:
- Attendance at staff meetings and other functions
- Support for their processor and other operations staff
- Level of customer service given to their clients
- Completeness of loan applications
- Quantity versis quality of pipeline
- Types of products supported
The responsibility agreement does not have to be as formal as a job description. What we are doing here is creating the correct expectations on both sides. We are not just telling them what to accomplish, we are also aligning priorities so that one critical area is not neglected because the employee feels that another is more important. Without this discussion, a manager has no basis to know in what areas the person will need support in order to achieve their job objectives. If they don’t achieve a certain objective, is it because of a lack of support or their own shortcomings?
Why not just hand them a job description? Because two-way communication is very important. If you do not have an absolute agreement upon the scope of the job and all of the details, then you leave the door open for conflict when you feel that functions are not being performed. An agreement is for specific measurable performance goals, not general guidelines as would be contained within a job description.
An agreement is critical to the hiring process. Why bring someone on board who does not agree to all aspects of job functions? If an originator feels that one loan monthly is adequate, will he/she help you reach your goals of an office populated by top producers?
Dave Hershman is Senior VP of Sales of Weichert Financial and the top author in the mortgage industry. Dave has published seven books, as well as hundreds of articles and is the founder of the OriginationPro Marketing System and Mortgage School – the online choice for expert mortgage learning and marketing content. His site is www.OriginationPro.com and he can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
