Page 48 - Investment Advisor July/August 2021

THE NEW SCHOOL

By Caleb Brown

How to Avoid Staff Turnover Headaches

Hiring the wrong person for an undefined job can only lead to failure,
for both employee and employers.

irtually every firm owner has Firms must be clear on what they are
experienced the challenging hiring for; the default is a catch-all can-
V financial and non-financial didate for a catch-all position (who may
impacts of staff turnover. not be especially good at any key tasks
The estimated financial cost, the firm really needs done!).
depending on the source, can range Every candidate must adapt and
anywhere from one to three times a adjust as the workflow in the firm does,
departing team member’s compensa- but these aberrations should be peri-
tion. However, this is not the most odic and temporary — not constant. This
detrimental cost though. Even worse is why regularly scheduled employee
is the psychological impact of frequent reviews are vital to a new planner’s
turnover and how it causes the exist- career and the success of the organiza-
ing team members to lose confidence tion overall.
in their leader(s), increases the dif- Suggestion: Firms also should be
ficulty to recruit good new talent (due tively manage. Instinctively, firm own- cognizant that a laundry list of vari-
to perceived impaired culture and ers may know a position is more than ous duties sometimes spread across
employee-unfriendly reputation) and one person can do, but they plunge multiple departments is not compel-
can lead to an overall downward spiral ahead regardless to keep human capital ling to the next generation job seeker.
of morale. costs low. Instead, focus on the challenges of the
Most turnover stems from these four Suggestion: If the list of responsi- position, and why what they get to do
actions: 1) unclear role and respon- bilities is more than a page long, it’s at your firm will help them develop
sibility, 2) insufficient screening for time to break it up into multiple roles. the skills they need to succeed in the
skill and cultural fit, 3) lack of clear Because of the uncertainty in how financial planning profession.
expectations, and 4) poor overall man- to create a clear and compelling job Team members need to be placed in
agement/mentoring. description, some firms swing to the stimulating positions and pushed, so
Indeed, unclear roles and responsi- opposite extreme and adopt a “we’ll- they have a better chance at recogniz-
bilities can set up a new hire for failure create-it-as-we-go” route. But in tight ing their full potential. However, there
before they even start. talent markets, hiring the right fit is is a fine balance to ensure that they stay
The typical approach to establish daunting enough when clarity around somewhere between challenged and
the expected roles and responsibilities the role and responsibilities exists, and overextended.
of a new team member is creating a it is simply impossible to attract and Suggestion: If after you break every-
job description, where the workload is screen the right candidates in a com- thing out, and there is not enough
determined by having each current team petitive job environment for a position work for two additional team mem-
member submit a list of things they that is not clearly defined. bers, consider outsourcing to a vir-
do not want to do or otherwise wish In addition, if a new hire is brought tual assistant, or even your interns (if
to handoff, now or in the future. This on to create financial plans at a high you have an intern program), before
list gets compiled, and then someone is level and volume, it is going to be a recruiting and integrating an addi-
hired to do all of those things. challenge for them to switch between tional hire.
The problem with this approach is this role and the client service,
at best it may not mean a particularly admin, ops role that new planners Caleb Brown is co-founder and CEO of
exciting position, and at worst, it may sometimes are expected to perform New Planner Recruiting and hosts The
mean one that is overwhelming and on top of their financial planning New Planner Podcast which you find at Adobe Stock
much more than a new hire can effec- responsibilities. newplannerrecruiting.com/category/podcast

46 INVESTMENT ADVISOR JULY/AUGUST 2021 | ThinkAdvisor.com