Creating business value and boosting revenue with Workplace

Within 10 months of launching Workplace from Facebook, more than 5,000 Compass real estate agents reported Workplace had helped them grow their business and make more money. Compass’ Workplace network has shown immediate value in its ability to create instant, revenue-generating connections across the family of Compass agents.

Compass is a United States-based real estate technology company building the industry’s first end-to-end platform supporting the entire home buying and selling process. Its mission is to help everyone find their place in the world.

Compass needed a communication solution that would help it receive its customers' (real estate agents) feedback in real time and curate an agent and employee community that felt heard and cared for.

With its focus on innovation, growth and maintaining its startup-like culture, the Compass leadership team, headed by founder and CEO Robert Reffkin, launched Workplace as a way to communicate and collaborate to preserve the company culture as it scales, in addition to creating a national agent referral network that helps agents grow their business.

Elena Ermishina, Compass Community Manager.

Elena Ermishina, Compass’ Community Manager, says Compass’ Workplace network is a place where everyone can stay connected whenever and wherever they work, to learn from each other and celebrate as a collective team.

Connecting agents and employees

Compass launched Workplace in late February 2018. More than 2,400 Compass employees and 13,000 real estate agents are now active on the network.

The network was deliberately designed to create open groups to support collaborative and transparent communication, secret groups for private collaboration and a mix of multi-company groups where agents and employees work together across locations and time zones.“

Workplace has given us the flexibility to architect the experience we needed to serve two very diverse populations - from employees who need to brainstorm, collaborate, learn, and feel connected to each other, our leadership, and our customers; to agents who need support, networking, tools, and resources to grow their business on a daily basis,” said Elena.

“The energy in our Workplace community is unstoppable, it’s the real-time heartbeat of Compass.

“There are daily examples of agents and employees helping each other succeed, cheering each other on, and overall collaborating to help build Compass, together.”

Elena said it has been rewarding to support two different audiences, helping agents build their business and create content and programming that informs, inspires and engages more than 15,000 people.

“Workplace helps our communications function affect the bottom line and preserve our thriving culture as we grow,” she said.

Leadership connection = employee engagement

Once a week, Compass leaders host a live Q&A on Workplace, which is viewed by 70 per cent of employees each week.

Elena says during times of rapid growth, communication between leaders and employees is critical to keep everyone connected to the company’s mission.

There is a national Workplace group led by Compass leaders that is used for announcements, questions, idea generation and recognition, along with hundreds of groups created and led by employees.

A blueprint for business growth

Compass agents are dispersed across the US, constantly on the go and looking for opportunities to grow their business.

Elena said Workplace has delivered immediate value in its ability to create instant, revenue-generating connections across the network of Compass agents. The network has facilitated this business growth in a variety of ways.

First, there’s a national referral network for agents. Real estate is inherently a collaborative industry in the US. Almost always there are at least two different agents working on the same deal, one representing the buyer and another representing the seller.

Compass is making this collaboration and referral process easier by bringing the entire network of agents together in one place. Within 10 months of launching, more than 5,000 Compass agents reported that Workplace helped them grow their businesses and make more money. Elena said that number continues to grow month after month.

Agents gain access to the Global Referrals and Recommendations group on Compass’ Workplace network to receive and solicit agent referrals and vendor recommendations.

“It’s another competitive differentiator,” Elena said.

Compass also has “Agent as CEO” and “Agent Mastermind” groups on Workplace, reflecting its belief that agents are the CEOs of their own businesses.

The “Agent as CEO” group hosts a program to create a continuous learning cycle, online discussions and Workplace live events. The “Agent Mastermind” group is where agents share best practices and solve business challenges. Seasoned professionals and newcomers come together to provide thought-provoking insights on how to elevate the profession and co-create the future of real estate in real-time.

Framing the Future

During the next phase of growth, Elena said Workplace is poised to be an even stronger competitive differentiator for agents who join Compass.

“As the company’s footprint grows in the real estate tech industry, Workplace will be an integral part of connecting and welcoming new agents and employees into the Compass family,” she said.

Compass was one of the top performers in SWOOP's 2019 Benchmarking report of Workplace networks. To learn more about Compass' best practices, download the benchmarking report.