Page 41 - Investment Advisor - October 2021

THE FAST TRACK
Why Hiring People Is an Art Form
Advisors might believe that adding administrative help is the answer
to growth. It’s not.
If a firm gets [hiring]
practices right, they
are way ahead of
many advisory firms
operating today and
likely on the path
to more growth in
the future.
By Angie Herbers
t’s not surprising that professional hiring practices. And, it might surprise
financial advisory firms are about you that it doesn’t involve a job descrip-
Ipeople. The better your employees, tion, some personality test or special-
the better your service to a client. While ized interviewing process.
many people believe building an advi- First, successful firms hire by design
sory practice is mostly about investment rather than wants. In other words, they
returns, operational processes and pro- don’t hire when they run out of time to
cedures, the best technology, rainmak- do a particular task. They look at the firm
ing, marketing, etc., the truth is no firm globally and ask themselves what type of
would exist without great employees, person would make the greatest impact on
including the owner. their firm growth today and in the future.
Building a firm, whether an owner It might not help them individually as
chooses to make it a small specialist owners of the firm in the short-term, but
boutique firm or a large national domi- it helps the business continue to grow.
nator, it is still mostly about the people Many of these owners will hire advisors
employed and retained that expands the over support staff and trained business
managers over admin assistants.
growth. If owners get these practices
right, they are way ahead of many advi- Second, they think about others first.
sory firms operating today and likely on When owners get stressed and over-
whelmed with work, it’s natural to think
the path to more growth in the future.
But most advisory firms aren’t built about themselves first. This means they
with much in the way of hiring, retention make a list of everything they need to
get off their plate and then seek to hire a
and/or training programs to enhance and
build their people. Instead, many firm person who can do all that work.
But, what if, when you got stressed
owners add an employee when it’s nec-
essary or as they run out of time to do and overextended you thought globally
it themselves. At some point, many firm about the others in the firm. What would
owners will realize that they’re growing
be the best hire(s) to expand everyone’s
a business and that the humans they hire ability to work with more clients, not
into the business are the most important just yours? And, if you’re stressed in the
factor to making the business great. work you’re doing, are others stressed in
There are three components to suc- the work they are doing too?
cessful human capital programs that The most successful firms seek to
attract and retain great people: hiring, remove the stress, rather than seek to
training and retention practices. Hiring is hire another person as a bandage to
the first step to get right, so let’s talk about the stress problem, whatever it may be.
best practices that help you build better In other words, they don’t solve stress
people programs to benefit your growth. problems by hiring more people.
They solve the stress associated with
TWO TRUTHS ABOUT HIRING growth by using their brains, not their
The most successful firms think about pocketbooks. The easiest and fastest
their hiring differently than the average way to use your brain is to look directly
business. They follow two truths in their at your organization and find the stress
OCTOBER 2021 INVESTMENT ADVISOR 39