Long-term integration beats speed in training new agents

In my experience, getting advisors acclimated to a firm quickly is attractive, but is less beneficial than ensuring they're fully integrated for the long term.

The best way to accomplish this is to do what is already being done, but with a new outlook; have the advisor work alongside more seasoned advisors. Not only does this prevent the advisor from being underprepared, but it also reduces the chances of him or her "going rogue" and either upsetting the firm's process and culture, or leaving altogether, making all training useless in the end. To put it another way, I've seen the slow-is-fast, fast-is-slow approach to be the most effective, long-term.

Unfortunately, training advisors slowly is much more cost-intensive in the short-term. Profitability takes longer to achieve, and patience is required, but the long-term payoff is substantially higher when the advisor actually sticks around to be part of the team rather than take their training elsewhere.