Page 42 - Investment Advisor - October 2021

points. These points might begin with
a broken client experience, operational
process, lacking technology or a per-
son who is causing stress who doesn’t
belong in the organization.
Prior to hiring, they figure out where
the real problem is and solve it first.
Then, they hire for the benefit of the
whole team, not simply for the benefit of
removing the stress and overwork that is
on their plate only.

CREATING A WELL-DESIGNED
HIRING PLAN
A well-designed hiring plan will increase
revenues and profits together — which is
the goal, of course. In a professional servic- If you hire another advisor and keep doing
es firm, allocating your human capital in
the right way helps you achieve the great- the support work yourself, you’ve expanded
est results. To do that, you’ll need to do capacity by 125. Which is a better return
some prep work. To help you get started,
here are the first two steps you can take to on investment, expanding capacity by 30
make your hiring practices more effective.
Seek experts before you seek sup- clients or 125 clients with one hire?
port. It is not uncommon that an adviso-
ry firm owner gets loaded up with clients It’s almost always better to hire there for your people. When hiring, your
and overwhelmed. Her marketing efforts the experts. ability to be present, available for train-
worked and now she is facing a capacity Reduce the management function. ing, open to honest feedback and trust is
issue. As a result, she decides to hire a What is easier to manage, five or 10 peo- ensuring you make time for your people.
client service manager and/or admin ple? No matter how many people you On average, advisory firm owners who
assistant. Hiring support staff isn’t a bad are managing, it is far better to lead your have the best people (and retain them)
idea, but, if she is loaded up on clients people rather than manage them. Doing spend over 20 hours per month working
and those clients are taking up most of so will allow you to work together with with them.
her time, what does she really need? many more people than you can dream Holding people to some metrics is
Perhaps another professional advisor? of managing. asking them to manage by your num-
Many firm owners make the critical Many advisory firm owners believe bers. Even the greatest employees will
mistake of hiring support staff when that “leading” people involves making eventually need you to help them, train
they are filled with clients. Their idea is, key metrics, goals and protocols advisors them and hear them. Leading them is
they take the lower-level, non-advisory and support staff must hit or accomplish. far more effective than managing them,
work off their plates. In turn, this frees In other words, owner-advisors will make and when management gets too high,
up time for that owner-advisor to serve protocols that require their advisors to you automatically attract more people to
more clients. talk to their clients five times a year, and/ your organization that need managing.
Remember these ratios: An aver- or the support staff must work 8 am to 5 Do yourself a favor; before you ever
age financial advisor can serve roughly pm and answer 30 service requests a day. start hiring more people, free your time
125 clients per advisor. If you hire one Making protocols and metrics is not to be with them, help them and guide
client support staff for that advisor, it leading. It is clearly a management strat- them based on what they need, not what
expands capacity to 155 clients, gain- egy to get all people hitting the metric you need in a metric.
ing an additional 30 clients. But, if you you desire to hit for profitability, reten- As you do that, you’ll attract and hire
hire another advisor and keep doing the tion, growth or some other ratio. If hit- the best people.
support work yourself, you’ve expanded ting ratios is your primary goal, you’re
capacity by 125. Which is a better return managing people. Angie Herbers is an independent consultant to
on investment, expanding capacity by 30 Leading, on the other hand, is great the advisory industry. She can be reached at Adobe Stock
clients or 125 clients with one hire? communication and willingness to be [email protected].

40 INVESTMENT ADVISOR OCTOBER 2021 | ThinkAdvisor.com