Safety TIPS for BROKERS....

Real estate companies are often in the best position to help keep practitioners out of harm’s way.  Try to keep safety first in the minds of your salespeople.

These techniques are simple recommendations gathered from dozens of AOR, police and other sources, which you might want to consider to help you make safety a prime concern for your employees and practitioners.

Create an office safety plan.

Require everyone in your firm to know and understand the safety policies and procedures.  Put safety policies in writing and make sure everyone follows them.  Make it a top priority.  Appoint a “safety coordinator” to oversee, maintain and enforce it.

Know where your salespeople are.

Assign an office safety contact and several alternates. Ensure that someone is responsible for being aware of your agents’ whereabouts.  Appoint employees who are typically in the office, and not attending meetings or showing listings.  Have salespeople sign out of the office and indicate where they’ll be.  Require salespeople to report their whereabouts to your safety contact, and establish a call-in system, requiring salespeople to call the office at specific times.  If your office is closed on weekends, arrange for salespeople to call one another.

Create and communicate “panic codes,” making sure that all employees and agents not only know what they are, but exactly what to do when they hear them.

Use a secret word or phrase that is not commonly used but can be worked into any conversation so that salespeople can indicate if there’s a problem.

Establish a dedicated office safety phone line, a “safety hotline.” Office safety contacts should ensure constant coverage during business hours.  Don’t let the line go into voicemail while the office is open-make sure you always have someone there who will answer the ring.  Consider having the line automatically transfer to another number when the office is closed, and appoint individuals to cover the line during those weekend and evening hours when agents are often most vulnerable.

Mandate the use of the buddy system.

Consider having salespeople partner at open houses.  Be especially concerned about female agents and assistants being alone at a property.  Although neither gender is safe, statistics show that more female than male agents are assaulted.  Make periodic checks. Consider personally visiting or calling the open houses where your practitioners are working.

Don’t forget workplace safety procedures for the office.

Have a registration book for office visitors.  In large offices, issue an in-house ID tag or access card to salespeople and staffers that can be worn at all times.

Establish a secure location in your office where staffers can go in case of a threatening situation.  Make sure private offices and work areas aren’t accessible to visitors.  The less outsiders know about the inner workings of your office—where salespeople sit, nooks and crannies, and back doors—the better chance you and the salespeople have to escape in an emergency.

Make it standard procedure to use Safety Forms.