TrueFocus in Housing Wire on “The Great Redeployment”

Our own Jimmy Lewis and Sridhar Loganathan had an opportunity to share their thoughts on the state of the title industry recently in Housing Wire. Specifically, they talked about a subject we believe will be a very important consideration for many title agents and business owners in the coming few years. And they’re referring to this trend as the “Great Redeployment.”

This, of course, springs from the “Great Resignation” movement that developed around the end of 2020. Some combination of the pandemic driving people to reconsider their employment as well as the aging and even early retirement of increasing numbers of Baby Boomers—a large percentage of the workforce—have had a massive impact on employers seeking labor. When we include the need for skilled labor in the title industry, just as a service-intensive purchase market arrives, we have a recipe for trouble for agents who aren’t prepared.

You won’t be too surprised to hear that Jimmy and Sridhar—in fact, all of us at TrueFocus—believe strongly that automation could be the answer. Our preference is for the use of RPA technology to allow greater budget flexibility for title agents, naturally!

Jimmy and Sridhar note that automation isn’t just a tool for building better margins and more efficiencies. In this day and age, it’s also a recipe for retention and engagement. Most title agencies are peppered with easily automated processes in their workflow which remain manual. Where those processes are automated, the people tasked with these repetitive, unchallenging tasks can be redeployed toward more complex, more fulfilling and, ultimately, more engaging work.

Of course, the need for the title industry to automate existed even before this labor crunch. The typical purchase market, replete with increased service and status inquiries as well as the higher service levels required by real estate agents and consumers, tends to strain an agency’s resources at typical staffing levels. So when we add in a shortage of staff, we may have the perfect storm that could push agents once reluctant to invest in production technology to at least review their processes to find the most easily (and cost-effectively) automated elements.

We welcome your feedback. Drop us a line at jimmy@truefocusnow.com or sridhar@truefocusnow.com.