Every firm needs the right talent in place to achieve their goals. However, a key obstacle in achieving those goals is that many advisors don't spend time on recruiting and training their employees and realize too late that the lack of talent has become an impediment.
Last year, we conducted focus groups with successful young advisors for our Future Leaders Study and identified the four things they want from their firm: financial freedom, independence, gratification and flexibility.
These priorities make it evident that while compensation is clearly important, it's only one component of job satisfaction. Based on our conversations with young advisors, here are a few things for firm leaders to consider in order to keep their top talent:
In order to facilitate those discussions, firm management should know which financial opportunities are available at competing firms to help ensure they have a competitive offering for the young advisors they want to further develop.
One business that recognized this is Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors. The firm involves staff in all aspects of the business, including the annual strategic planning process and ongoing reviews of company performance. Halbert Hargrove also pays for advisors to receive executive education and professional certifications, matches 529 plan contributions and daycare costs, and has a profit-sharing plan. This combination of benefits has resulted in an increasingly engaged workforce.
Technology can also be a draw for retaining the best young advisors. We heard from this demographic that they view technology as integral to their job, and expect their firm to adopt and use the latest technologies. In particular, young advisors emphasized the importance of a strong CRM system. They said keeping up-to-date client records made their jobs significantly easier—and made them more productive when segmenting and targeting clients and prospects.
One way to help young advisors engage with this demographic is to pair them with already established advisors to work with the children and heirs of current clients. This strategy can pay dividends for the firm as well by helping set up a smooth eventual transfer of wealth that will keep the estate's assets where they are.
Some young advisors do switch firms for no better reason than a bigger paycheck, but there's a lot more to job satisfaction than simply take-home pay. Offering autonomy, ownership opportunities, access to the latest technology and continuing education are what can make young advisors eager to stay where they are. If you aren't willing to invest in your top talent, a competitor likely will.
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